HMS Hood by Old Collingwood - Flyhawk - 1/700 - PLASTIC - After her explosion.

[RogerF]

Great stuff Alan, my Hood came from Hobbyeasy in HK and it took a while but arrived safely and undamaged too. That's a great combination - Hood and POW. Of course you'll have to start the Hood first so I can learn from your progress; Shouldn't be difficult at the rate I work. Did you order wood decks and paint masks too? Authentic Admiralty dark grey 507A for the upper hull and superstructure is available from Lifecolor in the RN WWII, set 1 (Eastern approach "early war") if you're interested. I intend to use Tamiya XF-63 for the grey antifouling below the boot line as it is darker than 507A which should make a good contrast against the black boot line. I'll also use Tamiya XF-64 as indicated in FL's suggested colour scheme for the steel, upper decks.

Now it's just a question of research, reading and re-reading the instructions, deciding on build and painting sequences and which PE parts to use and which to ignore and before you know it, you'll have the model finished while I'm still fiddling with fitting the decks!

Edited September 25, 2021 by RogerF

[king derelict]

16 hours ago, RogerF said:

Great stuff Alan, my Hood came from Hobbyeasy in HK and it took a while but arrived safely and undamaged too. That's a great combination - Hood and POW. Of course you'll have to start the Hood first so I can learn from your progress; Shouldn't be difficult at the rate I work. Did you order wood decks and paint masks too? Authentic Admiralty dark grey 507A for the upper hull and superstructure is available from Lifecolor in the RN WWII, set 1 (Eastern approach "early war") if you're interested. I intend to use Tamiya XF-63 for the grey antifouling below the boot line as it is darker than 507A which should make a good contrast against the black boot line. I'll also use Tamiya XF-64 as indicated in FL's suggested colour scheme for the steel, upper decks.

Now it's just a question of research, reading and re-reading the instructions, deciding on build and painting sequences and which PE parts to use and which to ignore and before you know it, you'll have the model finished while I'm still fiddling with fitting the decks!

Thanks for the info Roger

I have the Lifecolor set and like the paints so I will definitely be using them. I think I have the Tamiya options too. I think I will be a bit behind everyone with the Hood. I want to get some progress in assembling the basic structure of the corvette before starting another big project and based on what I learnt with Geisenau it will be quite an adventure for me making a good job of either POW or Hood. For me they are too big and complex to try to work them in parallel with something else. I lose my place in the flow of building.

Thanks for the reminder about the wooden decks. I did get them for the Prince of Wales but I have forgotten them for the Hood. I'll get them ordered tomorrow.

Thanks for the note

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

My start on this will be Way off  I feel  - as my Dio is taking all my time  as its going to be my focal point  - even some hostorians  interested in it.

 

So for now  - no physical imput here yet.

 

OC.

[RogerF]

8 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

My start on this will be Way off  I feel  - as my Dio is taking all my time  as its going to be my focal point  - even some hostorians  interested in it.

 

So for now  - no physical imput here yet.

 

OC.

 

Darn.... with both you and Alan not due to start your Hood builds for sometime yet, it looks as though I'm on my own for now. 🙁  Still, I am actually starting to gain confidence with this scale - even with the PE - it'll still be a slow job, but that's ok.

Good luck to you both with your other builds.

[RogerF]

9 hours ago, king derelict said:

Thanks for the reminder about the wooden decks. I did get them for the Prince of Wales but I have forgotten them for the Hood. I'll get them ordered tomorrow.

Thanks for the note

Alan

 

I also ordered the paint masks because when I come to glue the decks in place I want them to stick to the bare plastic deck below rather than be sticking to a couple of layers of paint which might perhaps peel in places allowing the wood to lift.

I'll mask the wood-deck areas and airbrush the detail that will protrude through the wood leaving the deck surfaces plain plastic. It will also keep paint spray off those areas when painting the upper deck areas which are either grey steel or brown (cortecine) linoleum.

[Old Collingwood]

As I was saying to Craig   - here is an idea  of how I could build  Hood  - 

 

The kits  hull  is broken down into Three sections  -  Lower hull, then  Boot line  and the Upper hull, I was thinking of starting by taping these together on the inside then cleaning up any seams or areas not sitting flush with each other,  then each section could be treated as a part on its own  starting with the lower  - boot section  - upper hull, each could be primed the painted   reducing the need to mask up.

Also  as it been  suggested  (thank you chaps)  to prime and paint the PE on the fret   - I would  build the  superstructure and paint it  the fit any sections of wood decking then PE railings  etc, It might also be possible to add some blocks inside the hull  inline with where the deck will sit, so gluing down could be done without  glue oozing out the full length of the hull  (thats been painted before hand)    then the wood deck could be fitted  and the  pre painted super structure  ontop of that.

 

Souds like a plan???

 

OC.

[king derelict]

19 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

As I was saying to Craig   - here is an idea  of how I could build  Hood  - 

 

The kits  hull  is broken down into Three sections  -  Lower hull, then  Boot line  and the Upper hull, I was thinking of starting by taping these together on the inside then cleaning up any seams or areas not sitting flush with each other,  then each section could be treated as a part on its own  starting with the lower  - boot section  - upper hull, each could be primed the painted   reducing the need to mask up.

Also  as it been  suggested  (thank you chaps)  to prime and paint the PE on the fret   - I would  build the  superstructure and paint it  the fit any sections of wood decking then PE railings  etc, It might also be possible to add some blocks inside the hull  inline with where the deck will sit, so gluing down could be done without  glue oozing out the full length of the hull  (thats been painted before hand)    then the wood deck could be fitted  and the  pre painted super structure  ontop of that.

 

Souds like a plan???

 

OC.

Based on the Geisenau build, my first big project. I found a couple of points to watch for in future big ship builds.

 

1 - Watch out for any complicated PE railings on the superstructure that might be difficult to bend and test fit at a later date. Solutions could be to fit it early before the superstructure gets crowded (that has its own problems), Or pre-bend the railings and set aside for later (in a very safe place). Make a cardboard template early before assembling the deck in question and use that to bend and test fit the railings.

 

2 - The fit of the wooden decks around the base of the superstructure can be very tight. If you have a fully detailed assembly to fit then you can't afford to get fierce with it to make it sit down on the plastic deck. I had one of the Geisenau structures pop off because it wasn't really sitting on the deck, just wedged in the wooden deck. Its a pain trying to trim the installed deck so anything you can do to confirm its going to allow the structures to drop in place is a good thing.

 

You probably know all this so apologies for clogging the thread if uneccessary

 

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

3 hours ago, king derelict said:

Based on the Geisenau build, my first big project. I found a couple of points to watch for in future big ship builds.

 

1 - Watch out for any complicated PE railings on the superstructure that might be difficult to bend and test fit at a later date. Solutions could be to fit it early before the superstructure gets crowded (that has its own problems), Or pre-bend the railings and set aside for later (in a very safe place). Make a cardboard template early before assembling the deck in question and use that to bend and test fit the railings.

 

2 - The fit of the wooden decks around the base of the superstructure can be very tight. If you have a fully detailed assembly to fit then you can't afford to get fierce with it to make it sit down on the plastic deck. I had one of the Geisenau structures pop off because it wasn't really sitting on the deck, just wedged in the wooden deck. Its a pain trying to trim the installed deck so anything you can do to confirm its going to allow the structures to drop in place is a good thing.

 

You probably know all this so apologies for clogging the thread if uneccessary

 

Alan

Its Ok Alan  - very sensible suggestions my friend   - I guess its a case of several dry fits before glueing anything down.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

I have a quiry  with the spraying  - the metal  container ontop of  my airbrush  does not hold a lot of paint, so when I come to spray  say the hull parts, is it ok having to do part till the paint has run out then re-fil and continue to  paint -  as there will not be enough paint in the metal cup on the airbrush  to paint in one go?

Probably a stupid question  but I don't know the answer having never airbrushed anything like this before  - and rattle cans are different.

 

OC.

[RogerF]

7 hours ago, king derelict said:

Based on the Geisenau build, my first big project. I found a couple of points to watch for in future big ship builds.

 

1 - Watch out for any complicated PE railings on the superstructure that might be difficult to bend and test fit at a later date. Solutions could be to fit it early before the superstructure gets crowded (that has its own problems), Or pre-bend the railings and set aside for later (in a very safe place). Make a cardboard template early before assembling the deck in question and use that to bend and test fit the railings.

 

2 - The fit of the wooden decks around the base of the superstructure can be very tight. If you have a fully detailed assembly to fit then you can't afford to get fierce with it to make it sit down on the plastic deck. I had one of the Geisenau structures pop off because it wasn't really sitting on the deck, just wedged in the wooden deck. Its a pain trying to trim the installed deck so anything you can do to confirm its going to allow the structures to drop in place is a good thing.

 

You probably know all this so apologies for clogging the thread if uneccessary

 

Alan

This is exactly what I have come to love about this forum Alan. As I start to (slowly) come to grips with my Hood I realise how daunting a task it would have been without the help, advice and golden-tips to be found here online. I will add as much detail of my build as I can in the hope that someone will benefit from my mistakes.

[RogerF]

4 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

I have a quiry  with the spraying  - the metal  container ontop of  my airbrush  does not hold a lot of paint, so when I come to spray  say the hull parts, is it ok having to do part till the paint has run out then re-fil and continue to  paint -  as there will not be enough paint in the metal cup on the airbrush  to paint in one go?

Probably a stupid question  but I don't know the answer having never airbrushed anything like this before  - and rattle cans are different.

 

OC.

The hull of the U-Boot I built was a good bit bigger than the 1/700 Hood's and although the paint cup atop my airbrush is of a reasonable size I nevertheless needed to re-spray some areas for one reason or another and it was fine. For priming the entire hull, one solution in your situation might be to spray very thin layers which only really give full coverage when 3 or 4 (even 5) layers have been sprayed. Hood's hull above the waterline is not that big an area which with luck you'll be able to cover with one cup-full of paint. For the lower hull, it might be an idea to spray the sides of the lower hull first, gradually working towards the middle of the bottom - that part of the hull will probably not be visible when the model is finished and mounted on a stand. Also if there are any visible 'joins' in the paint they can be smoothed over with fine sandpaper and sprayed over, this is what I needed to do when a layer of gloss varnish went 'wrong' and had to be addressed - I'm assuming here that you'll be using acrylics. I don't even have a tank but even this disadvantage didn't prove a problem. Hope this helps, OC.

Roger

Edited September 29, 2021 by RogerF
typo

[Old Collingwood]

6 hours ago, RogerF said:

The hull of the U-Boot I built was a good bit bigger than the 1/700 Hood's and although the paint cup atop my airbrush is of a reasonable size I nevertheless needed to re-spray some areas for one reason or another and it was fine. For priming the entire hull, one solution in your situation might be to spray very thin layers which only really give full coverage when 3 or 4 (even 5) layers have been sprayed. Hood's hull above the waterline is not that big an area which with luck you'll be able to cover with one cup-full of paint. For the lower hull, it might be an idea to spray the sides of the lower hull first, gradually working towards the middle of the bottom - that part of the hull will probably not be visible when the model is finished and mounted on a stand. Also if there are any visible 'joins' in the paint they can be smoothed over with fine sandpaper and sprayed over, this is what I needed to do when a layer of gloss varnish went 'wrong' and had to be addressed - I'm assuming here that you'll be using acrylics. I don't even have a tank but even this disadvantage didn't prove a problem. Hope this helps, OC.

Roger

Thank you kindly Roger  - very much so.

 

OC.

[CDW]

Yes, just refill the airbrush cup as needed. No problem at all. Only time something special is needed is when you change colors, then you do a bit of a cursory cleaning so that your color stays pure.

[CDW]

You raised an earlier question about your build and painting sequence...I prefer to assemble the hull and then smooth out the join line before painting. This requires masking later on, but it's easy to do provided you use a good quality tape. Sometimes I assemble the deck and hull as well. Once you get the hang of the airbrush, it's not hard to paint the deck without spoiling the hull paint on the sides of the hull, but mask as required if you need to.

I don't like painting the hull in separate pieces then assembling because it's more difficult to keep from showing where it was cemented together than it is to mask it. In the end, do whatever makes you feel the most comfortable in doing it. After all, everything is a learning experience anyway no matter who we are.

[Old Collingwood]

8 hours ago, CDW said:

You raised an earlier question about your build and painting sequence...I prefer to assemble the hull and then smooth out the join line before painting. This requires masking later on, but it's easy to do provided you use a good quality tape. Sometimes I assemble the deck and hull as well. Once you get the hang of the airbrush, it's not hard to paint the deck without spoiling the hull paint on the sides of the hull, but mask as required if you need to.

I don't like painting the hull in separate pieces then assembling because it's more difficult to keep from showing where it was cemented together than it is to mask it. In the end, do whatever makes you feel the most comfortable in doing it. After all, everything is a learning experience anyway no matter who we are.

Thank  you kindly Craig.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Right then folks  looking  for something different  - I have started this.

 

So  first thing I had to do was to remove the hull sections  from the wrapping  and found  some   warping   from the bow to stern, I  corrected this  with a hairdryer, then I dry fitted  what I thought was Three sections  -  but I  soon worked out the middle section is only a false bottom  to be used when the hull is set up as a waterline model.

Where the lower meets the upper hull  there are a series of lugs and sockets  - I put a smear of glue into these and offered up the Two sections, then a smear of glue along the inside  and pushed together - then my normal routine using the hair dryer, then it was put a side  for a bout 30 mins,  I then did a wee bit  of wet sanding to clean up a wee bit of glue seepage.

 

So this is the start.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

Great to see this started

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

13 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Great to see this started

Alan

I thought  Why Not,     Thank you kindly  Alan.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

Now you have me wanting to dust off the Illustrious kit and dive back into some PE

Alan

[GrandpaPhil]

Looking forward to seeing this!

[Old Collingwood]

52 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Now you have me wanting to dust off the Illustrious kit and dive back into some PE

Alan

Go for it mate.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

1 minute ago, GrandpaPhil said:

Looking forward to seeing this!

Thank you kindly Phil.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

So  I guess my next stage  is to fit the  prop shafts and A frames and the Rudder   - then I think the hull can be primed, Im going to use my Vallejo Black primer  as it seems to do the job, and will  be a good base for the anti fouling Grey, I might use Vallejo's  London Grey  for this (need to check how dark it is compared to upper hull colour)

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Evening all,    I got some good progress done this eve  - nothing really to explain  except the props and rudder  are now fitted  - quite straight forward,   this completes the hull it will  just need priming then putting a side.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Evening all,   I did abit more on my Hood  this eve -  firstly I drilled a few port holes  (not many)  as I want to portray here getting ready for action,   should have seen the size  of drill bit I needed tiny  .......

Then following the instructions  it calls for work on the underside of the roof of the main deck - these contain  some nice details that need  gluing in place.

Pic also shows the lovely moulded details on to top of the main deck.

 

OC.

 

[king derelict]

Flyhawk have made a beautiful kit. Its going to be great

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

14 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Flyhawk have made a beautiful kit. Its going to be great

Alan

Thank you Alan.

 

OC.

[Old Collingwood]

Evening all,   did a bit more  this evening  -  I put the rest of the inner roof  supports, then Two side pieces  were fitted  - very delicate work,   then I glued the  main section down onto the deck.

 

OC.

[CDW]

Glad to see you have started your Hood, looks great so far. Did you buy the deluxe kit with a wood deck? How do you intend to paint or use the wood deck application on the lower deck now that the upper deck is glued in place?

[Landlubber Mike]

Great start OC!

 

I recently picked up a few Flyhawk kits.  Can't tell if I like the instructions or hate them.  What's complicated is when you buy the "Deluxe" or similar upgraded sets, you get a set of instructions for the base kit and a separate set for the upgrades.  Would be nice if they were all in one.  I wonder if the Pontos sets are all in one?  I have their Soya, but haven't opened it.