Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[Hmshood]

I have embarked, on my retirement at last, on what now appears to be a major build project of a 1:192 scale model of HMS Hood. The plan I have chosen is supplied by Nexas and the designer is C. Bingham. Let me state before I get too far is that I have already built 2 other warships from scratch plans from the Model Boats magazines but these are small in comparison. I have decided to take the initial design and include some significant upgrades including revolving gun turrets (main armament only), Smoke unit for both funnels, Navigation lighting and revolving radar. This decision has had some major impacts specifically space even on a model of 55" in length and a 6" beam. I will be taking photos as I progress and comment on my various modifications..
The first and probably the most major change was to move away from a Bread & Butter construction to a planked hull as I encountered a significant problem in obtaining the 1" thick, 55" long and 5" wide Obeche planks that were illustrated on the plan. This meant taking the profile of the hull and developing 13 formers of which half would need to be hollowed out for the electronics etc.
Of course some initial planning and thought was given to the implications of this however the most significant challenge came when I completed the planking and then thought, how the heck do I get the propeller shafts in without wrecking the hull  . Many hours later and some butchery has got me there so I will tidy up some of the surgery and then take the 1st photos and the next steps on this site for those interested.
The only comments at this stage are:
1. Why did I start this
2. There seem to be various configurations and the plan seems to be a hash of some of them
3. This will take some time
Hope this will be interesting to some
Rgrds
Vic 
 
 
 
 

[dreadnought72]

1. Why did I start this

Aye, I know that one. 

Looking forward to it, Vic. Have you got the Anatomy of the Ship book "HMS Hood"? And have you checked out the HMS Hood website for additional info? (Bioth are goldmines).

Andy

[Hmshood]

Hi Andy,
 
All I have is the Illustrated Biography (1916 - 1941) by Bruce Taylor plus a host of pictures from another Mayhemer of a model in a Glasgow museum (150 + pics in all) however every time I obtain information I find significant variances which must be the result of upgrades etc and now I a faced with deciding which variant mine should be or just go with the flow. I have visited the website and was somewhat disappointed that most of my questions were still outstanding. Still this is the challenge us modellers face when tying to get an accurate model and I will say I should have done more research upfront.
 
Regards
Vic
 

[Allnightin]

The Hachette 1/200th partworks version by Amati in 140 parts is at about part 110 and you can see a lot of how the ship looked like when she was sunk if you go to http://www.partworkmodels.co.uk/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=93&sid=3e6d5591ed69a3adf71701dbe03ed509

[Pondweed]

Vic
Re: No2: Look at that as a positive as the author has shown you her appearance during a few eras. Your task is simply to disregard the fixtures &  fittings that are outside the date you've chose to depict.

Your outstanding questions? Just post them here ... I've a few books on Hood and am happy to look things up. I also have a few bits you may be interested in ... photos, articles and the like. PM me if interested.

Hope the build goes well

p.s. is your Captaincy of sufficient seniority to command the RNs premier flagship?   

[TailUK]

I have some reference books in PDF format that i'd be happy to e-mail you, including the Conway's Anatomy book.  PM me if you're interested.

[Pondweed]

Vic
FYI, email sent.

Good Luck

[joppyuk1]

It always intrigues me, but how much research is 'enough'?  It could take years between getting a plan and starting a build. Having said that, I look forward to following the build.

[Hmshood]

This my attempt to link updates with the original topic (as suggested by a fellow member)....

Regards

Vic

[Hmshood]

I think I have now cracked the revolving turrets problem for HMS Hood. I took a standard servo arm and filed down the arms until I had just the splined boss left then, using some plastic tube glued this on the splined boss so that it allowed me to pull off and push on as required. This tube was then glued into the actual turret. I can now remove the turret including the pillar and boss (with splined shaft ) from the servo easily and its a very firm fixing so no wobbling about. With the Servomorphs I should also get 180 degree rotation as well. This has saved me a lot of money photos attached.

Regards

Vic

[Hmshood]

Also more detail of the hull construction for those interested

Vic

[Hmshood]

I have now, after some considerable time, finally completed the hull structure including the fibre glassing and preparation for painting and will post some pics later this week. I do have a dilemma however, there are 4 props for the Hood and I read somewhere that the correct rotation for forward motion is anti clockwise which all 4 of mine do however I have heard that in fact the port side pair and starboard side pair rotate in opposite directions which would indicate having two on one side rotating anti-clockwise and the two on the other side rotating clockwise. This would make some sense but all the documentation I have does not give any indication of the reality. Does anyone have any knowledge around 4 prop systems for WW2 battle cruisers that would clarify this.

Vic
 

[Rob47]

Vic I am building HMS Tiger which is a 4 prop layout with starboard anti clockwise and port clockwise, seems to work well.  HTH

Bob

[derekwarner]

Vic ...you will find this extract for HMS Hood in a Google link.........answers your question.......I will try & import an image.......Derek

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CEEQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hmshood.com%2Fship%2Fhoodspecs3.htm&ei=ysz6UrTRDKSziAfqhYGoDQ&usg=AFQjCNEOunEO18ocXzi3s5jrqM88X82tpg&sig2=z02eM3sl53qvU-ZXrhmtyw

Screws/Propellors & ShaftsHood screws

Screws: 4x three bladed Manganese Bronze screws
Screw Diameter: 15ft / 4.57m
Screw Weight: 20 tons apiece
Shaft Diameter: 28.5in / 72.4cm
Shell Bracket Weight: 35 tons each
Notes:
•Screws turned outwards when driving the ship ahead (clockwise on starboard, counter-clockwise on port)
•Designed screw revolutions per minute was 210 rpm at full speed. This permitted the adoption of propellors of higher efficiency.
•Originally designed 210 rpm. Achieved 206 rpm at full speed on trials in Feb/March 1920.

[Hmshood]

That's great this will ensure I have all the props going the right way and prevent me from going round in circles

Regards

Vic

[Hmshood]

Hi all,

Have at last some progress to report, delays due to extension planning at home amongst other things. I have finally settled on the variant of HMS Hood that I will be basing my model on, this could be dangerous as I am certain I will either miss one or get one part of the detail wrong in the eyes of the purists but that’s life. I have taken the date span to be after the refit of 8th November 1937 ( in Malta). This was a reasonably major re-jig of the superstructure where the torpedo control tower was removed and replaced by pom-pom ready-use magazine (mounted off-centre to starboard ........ as described in the Anatomy of the ship by John Roberts as this offered the minimum disruption to the beginnings of the superstructure which I had started.

The only real deviance from this (indeed from any of the detail) is the mounting of 2 air vents close to the front main armament which disguise some deck retaining screws. 

Moving on from part 1, I have now completed the fibre glassing of the hull and fixed the positions of the decking components to allow access to the Gun Turret servos, the rudder servo plus the other electronic components (smoke unit, motors and control stuff).

The majority of my last few months has been spent on building the main superstructure. This has been a challenge and a half as I kept finding additional detail I had omitted, the real story being that I rebuilt the main structure about 4 times. I think I should have thought more about this before I started (what do they say – measure twice cut once).

I have also reasoned that I need the Port screws to rotate one way and the starboard ones the other way as the HMS Hood site says this is the real operation. (two additional propellers needed).

Anyway I have made progress and will be starting the main deck planking as well as progressing the infrastructure build. I am hoping that this will accelerate a bit now however the extension build starts in mid April and this may curtail some access to my workshop.

 
Vic

[ballastanksian]

A wonder ful wonderful ship, and to think we were due four of them along with G3s soon after! Still, you have captured the shape of the beautiful hull well and she will be a gorgeous model on the water.

I would not worry about getting the fittings wrong as these capital vessels were a patchwork of modifications and repairs due to time, battle damage and improvements in armament, so do not fret if you have to modify or add the odd bit. The hulls is right and she will be brill whatever.

[Hmshood]

Many thanks for the great comments I hope the finished article will live up to this.

Regards Vic