HMS HOOD by Salty Dog - Trumpeter - 1/200 - PLASTIC - w/Pontos PE

[Salty Dog]

Update: Not a lot of progress but a very important discovery.  I have been really bothered by the CA glue "frost". Especially on black.  VERY unsightly. Even if you don't show any glue marks, that outgassing of the glue does. I started doing some touch up but had an idea. Here is a picture of the results and they are great! I sprayed some clear semi-gloss lacquer in some of the areas and it worked! The picture is of a really bad area and the most dramatic result.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I should explain something. The first thing I did with the Pontos set, was wash it, de-grease it, and then spray it with clear lacquer, so spraying more on top of the "frost" must allow the coat underneath to kind of "swallow" the frost?  I have no idea, but it makes a huge difference.  I might just end up spraying a clear coat over most of the ship as I'm working.

Also tonight, I worked and finished the "starfish".

Edited June 16, 2019 by Salty Dog

[Salty Dog]

Hello All,

I did quite a bit today for father's day. Spent most of the day in my man cave.

The only model kit that I can remember growing taller after each sub-assembly was a model of the Apollo Saturn V. This thing just gets taller and taller! It looks imposing. The pictures don't do it justice. Also, please forgive the lighting. Obviously I will get better pictures later on.  Hope you like.

[Salty Dog]

Another hair pulling night. Pontos doesn't help. Their directions on folding the PE is really bad and confusing.  On every page, at the bottom, they have this note? instruction?

I just couldn't figure out what they were talking about. I kept looking for the vent.  Was there a vent in every assembly? Then I realized they meant to say BENT!!! From looking at the picture, the bends are either dashed green lines, or red ones:

Here you can see that they want you to "vend" this part up at the green dotted line.  This is a PDF image captured at 400%. I marked the TINY hole in part 47 with red arrows. You would NEVER see it on the paper PDF, and I didn't see it because I wasn't zoomed at 400%. But I bent the part according to how the indicate.  MUCH later one, you can see what this little hole is for:

That hole would have been in line with the rod for support, but because the instructions are a mess, it ended up on the other side. Not only that, but the first hole that the rod actually goes through before getting to the hole wasn't nearly as large enough for the rod to slide through.  I had to cut the tab with the hole in it for it to reach the back of part 47, where there was no hole and I just glued it. It really sucks to have to spend so much time trying to decipher where things go and then have to rework things later, and oftentimes, reworking just either mangles or destroys your work.  Not fun.

I eventually was able to put together the cables that this whole mess was for:

 

Edited June 18, 2019 by Salty Dog

[RGL]

Those instructions are very obvious when you’ve destroyed that piece of PE and finally figure out what they meant 

[Salty Dog]

15 minutes ago, RGL said:

Those instructions are very obvious when you’ve destroyed that piece of PE and finally figure out what they meant 

Hey, just make sure they're "vent" right.

[Salty Dog]

Update.

This fidgety small crap really takes a long time!  Tonight I worked on these little goodies:

Parts number 594 had a missing post, on both parts:

At first I thought I had cut the first one off by accident.  But then I looked at the other (there are 2) and saw that it too was missing the center post.  It might seem like something really minimal, but this is the result of that missing post on the completed assembly:

I also worked on some of the break water. Turns out there's one complete one and one in 2 sections further aft that I have to build yet:

That's all folks!

 

[CDW]

Using some scrap pieces of PE, I'll bet you can quickly make a couple of replacement posts for those. Lots of times, there are "sprue" pieces left over that are the correct/close to correct width you need.

And on the bright side, can you imagine having to do all this photo etch from scratch? There are actually unicorn modelers who do this.

 

I should add...what you've done tonight looks great!

Edited June 19, 2019 by CDW

[cog]

Those are hughe. Try them at 1/350, maybe that will eas your sight, and cramped fingers ...  

 

It is really odd you are missing stanchions, as normally such an omission wouldn't be made. Shouldn't there be a different part (maybe even plastic) which must be added in place of the stanchion?

[CDW]

4 minutes ago, cog said:

Those are hughe. Try them at 1/350, maybe that will eas your sight, and cramped fingers ...  

This reminds me of a joke I once heard about moth balls and mosquito eyelashes. 

[Salty Dog]

28 minutes ago, cog said:

Those are hughe. Try them at 1/350, maybe that will eas your sight, and cramped fingers ...  

 

It is really odd you are missing stanchions, as normally such an omission wouldn't be made. Shouldn't there be a different part (maybe even plastic) which must be added in place of the stanchion?

I've worked on 1/700, so I know small, but at 1/200, it's possible to include some very fine, and small pieces, such as rails, that could not be done in smaller scales. Just look at the amount of parts that are included in a 200 PE set, vs a 700. Wait till I have to tackle the artillery!

[Salty Dog]

31 minutes ago, CDW said:

Using some scrap pieces of PE, I'll bet you can quickly make a couple of replacement posts for those. Lots of times, there are "sprue" pieces left over that are the correct/close to correct width you need.

And on the bright side, can you imagine having to do all this photo etch from scratch? There are actually unicorn modelers who do this.

 

I should add...what you've done tonight looks great!

Thank you again! I'm going to fix it with some "sprue"  There is plenty, even stuff left from the Mikasa.

[cog]

31 minutes ago, Salty Dog said:

I've worked on 1/700, so I know small, but at 1/200, it's possible to include some very fine, and small pieces, such as rails, that could not be done in smaller scales. Just look at the amount of parts that are included in a 200 PE set, vs a 700. Wait till I have to tackle the artillery!

Yes, artillery, please don't start on that, still gives me headaches, and nightmares!

[popeye the sailor]

look'in super good  

[Salty Dog]

Not a lot to report. I finished the break water.  Lots of parts:

I decided to take a break from the tiny stuff and move up to some of the bigger stuff.  The largest structure require some very serious surgery. LOTS of modifying and cutting off.  Unfortunately, the pictures and directions do very little to instruct you where. So you have go through every single illustration and "notice" where the parts look different from the original.  A real pain in the butt, and I'm afraid I cut off something I shouldn't have. Pontos skipped around with what they used brass on, and what they didn't.  I don't know if it's because of the actual ship design, or just cuz.  Very intimidating.

So I did a lot of cutting and priming, and hoping I can see things better once it's dry.  Here's the progress:

Lots to clean up. All the details you see on the sides of the main structure are wiped out. Replaced by PE.

 

[Salty Dog]

Primer dried. Painting all edges that are going to show up black:

[Salty Dog]

This is how tough it is to roll the brass!  Even Pontos can't get it right!  This is a capture straight from their instructions.

[cog]

How did you do on the rollin'?

[Salty Dog]

4 hours ago, cog said:

How did you do on the rollin'?

Actually, I did pretty darn good. At least better than Pontos:

As you can see, I added a lot of brass and stainless steel.  The deck looks amazing, with wood, stainless and brass. It's pretty flashy.

Again, a LOT of modifying. When I went to place the brass side piece with all the portholes, I panicked because non of them lined up with what's on the plastic.  I thought I had the wrong part. Then I realized, Ponto's probably corrected the Trumpeter design.  I had to drill all new holes for the ports to line up with. I had never worked with stainless, and it looks amazing. But even though it's "stainless", it gets marked up very easily.  Going to have to give it a good cleaning once I'm done handling it.  Also, it's like working with a sharp knife! Watch your fingers!

Hope you all approve.

Edited June 22, 2019 by Salty Dog

[Salty Dog]

Today was the kind of day that you have to keep telling yourself that you're having fun.  No really. This is fun! The most tedious stuff ever!  I must have glued about 3 million tiny triangles.  At least it felt like it!  These are some of the pics of what I have been doing for the past 2 days.

This work is extremely trying. But it wouldn't be half as bad if Pontos would put a little more effort into their docs. You spend half the time trying to decipher their directions. Oftentimes screwing up after looking at another picture several pages down. VERY annoying and I know I've mentioned it before, but it's just that bad and hopefully they get the message. The quality of this stuff is fantastic to say the least, but if you aren't used to their tricks and techniques, it will seem like a very bad waste of money.

I'm working my way towards the actual hull. These assemblies are "barriers" that go along the side of the hull between decks. Pretty soon I'll have to get into the dreaded armament, but my least favorite, those damn lifeboats!

And so it goes...

[cog]

Looks like the wall of a POW camp ... don't lock yourself in.

 

PER-SE-VE-RANCE. Well done!!!

[Salty Dog]

On 6/24/2019 at 12:24 AM, cog said:

Looks like the wall of a POW camp ... don't lock yourself in.

 

PER-SE-VE-RANCE. Well done!!!

Thanks Carl! I appreciate that!

[Salty Dog]

This thing is obscenely huge!  Eats up my entire worktable! I have no idea what I'm going to do, but I'm going to have to figure a way to figure out how to place it so I can work on the hull. VERY awkward:

By the way, see those brass "pedestals"? They are very similar to the Pontos kind, that cost about $75 bucks. But these are a toilet paper roll holder set, from Home Depot for about $10 bucks! haha

I did some work on one of the deck pieces. Successfully placed the "wood". This is a very delicate step and I was able to do it on the first shot. I worked on the hawse holes??? They are resin replacements, which brings me to resin. I very rarely find it useful. I know it can be much more detailed, but most of the time, there isn't that much of a difference, and with today's tech, the plastic pieces are very detailed. Also, the resin is extremely fragile and always need work prior to installing it, with all sorts of flashing and mold pieces still stuck to it. I'm really not crazy about it. I like the smell when sanding it, but that's about it.

 

Edited June 26, 2019 by Salty Dog

[yvesvidal]

Beautiful work. Great idea for the stands.

 

Yves

Edited June 26, 2019 by yvesvidal

[Ian B]

1 hour ago, yvesvidal said:

Beautiful work. Great idea for the stands.

 

Yves

yes I agree , what a great idea-- I shall steal -- sorry I mean be inspired by this idea  

[CDW]

7 hours ago, Salty Dog said:

By the way, see those brass "pedestals"? They are very similar to the Pontos kind, that cost about $75 bucks. But these are a toilet paper roll holder set, from Home Depot for about $10 bucks! haha

Wow...a stroke of genius.

Never let it be said that a 'crappy' idea cannot at the same time be a great idea. 🙂

Excuse me while I head over to Home Depot for some 'hardware'.

[Salty Dog]

Thanks guys.  This is what I got:

 

Then you cut the balls off and voila. I know, it sounds painful, but no animals were harmed in the making of this. But it's very hard metal. So have a sawzall with a new blade ready.

Edited June 26, 2019 by Salty Dog

[Salty Dog]

Hi all,

Tonight I worked several hours and hardly have anything to show for. That's what happens when you start doing the fiddly stuff such as this:

It's bad enough that they are so intricate and delicate, but when the Pontos instructions are inconsistent, it really screws things up. Notice I have 16 reals finished and parts for 2 more, but they only give you 16, although they call for 18 of the "reel 6":

Wish they'd get their act together.

I also worked on things that will never show because they are hidden by upper decks:

Lots of little details have to be installed before you place the deck on top, including the reels that I'm working on. Very little will show, unless you take a flashlight and get up close to look inside.  I have many more reels and gadgets to put together!

 

[RGL]

There is always so much work with nothing to show! But, I find when all these pre prepared pieces suddenly come togeather  and you find yourself mikes ahead of where you thought you were. 

 

Question; are you going to rig your ship?

[popeye the sailor]

you've made some great progress.......looks really good      I'm new to PE.....I don't know how you folks do it.....   I'm using Tom's.......nice stuff,  but like you,  the instructions could use some better directions.   I'm sure I'm  not correct about a few things......but they are what they are   

 

nice take on the toilet holder.......we have the same one in our bathroom.   it's in silver.    

[Salty Dog]

14 hours ago, RGL said:

There is always so much work with nothing to show! But, I find when all these pre prepared pieces suddenly come togeather  and you find yourself mikes ahead of where you thought you were. 

 

Question; are you going to rig your ship?

Hi Greg,

It just seem very counterproductive to do all that work and NOT rig it. I just recently rigged the Mikasa.  Although I KNOW I didn't rig it completely, it looks much nicer than before I started to rig it.  So yes, I plan on it, although I'm scared!