HMS Hood by Paul Jarman - Trumpeter - 1/200 Scale - PLASTIC

[Paul Jarman]

Working on the 4 inch guns. there are seven of these to make up. luckily there is one extra in the kit. Which is good as the first try was not very good. The problem was the PE walls. They touch the roof of the shield if not fitted exactly right. So I found it better to use the plastic walls that I've sanded down. This allows the gun barrels to be held in place correctly and they can be moved up and down. The PE walls are then installed and glued against them. there is quite a bit of PE I have not added simply because it is so tiny that it can not be seen once the gun is put together and painted. Cutting the plastic barrels off and adding the rolled metal ones was the most time consuming part. drilling the holes out in such a small piece requires a bit of patience because of how small and deep the holes need to be to except the rear of the barrels. 

The pictures show the gun as built out of the box, which does not have any PE to add to it. The others show the PE to be added and how the gun looks with the extra bits added. And the plastic parts cleaned prepared and ready to be made up with the added PE for the final six guns. And how the model is looking at present. I thought there was something on the TV screen and was trying to clean it up before realising the camera had picked up a tiny bit of fluff on the tip of the gun. As always the parts look way better when viewed normally. 

[king derelict]

The guns look quite a challenge. Great work 

alan

[Paul Jarman]

6 hours ago, king derelict said:

The guns look quite a challenge. Great work 

alan

Thanks alan,they certainly are. Should look better as I go. If Iadded all the PE there would be around 40 extra parts to add. After these are the 3 pompoms and they look even more challenging.

As I've mentioned before, the next few kits will be out of the box builds using the kit PE rather than buying an upgrade kit. Even though it does lmprove the look so much better. 

Paul

[Paul Jarman]

The 3 pompoms made up. To say they where frustrating to build is an understatement. There are 44 pieces of PE added to the guns. Working in a very cramped area was hell. Pictures 1 & 2 are how they would look built out of the box. There would just be the hand rails to add to them. The top of the ammo boxed are the shells for the gun. The final picture is how they where supposed to be built following the MK1 instructions. Once the boxes where put together there where 8 longer boxes that went into the back. I did make one up but it just did not look right. So I used the plastic guns and built the PE around them. 

They do look a lot better when viewed normally and although not perfect by any means they do look far better for all that PE. 

[Old Collingwood]

Those pom poms look excellent.

 

OC.

[Paul Jarman]

Thanks OC. They do look a lot better now they are on the model. 

[Paul Jarman]

Have got all my models displayed in one place rather than randomly displayed around the flat. The right hand side will eventually have the Hood, Bismarck, Prinz Eugen and Prince of Wales on display. 

Edited September 26 by Paul Jarman

[Old Collingwood]

What a Superb collection.

 

OC.

[Paul Jarman]

Double checking through the instructions and I had omitted one small detail. There are various ladders going down from the deck which I had fitted. For some reason I forgot to add the hand rails and have now added them. Luckily I managed to add them in the cramped space on the deck and only knocked one very small part off. I have also added the lumber to the funnel bases as suggested on the HMS Hood web site. Also have been adding various hand rails around the hull. All the guns and rocket launchers are in place. I am adding various details to the deck before starting on the ships boats then the bridge and masts. 

I will also have to make a decision on the ladders going down the hull. They where dismantled and stored when at sea. And I have to admit I don't like them as they take away the sleek lines of the hull when the model is displayed. I may add them on the side that will not be seen once displayed and decide if I like them or not. 

Edited September 29 by Paul Jarman

[Paul Jarman]

Woking on the ships boats. I am using some PE but mostly they look just fine built out of the box. 

The one colour I was finding hard to source was the Navy Blue. I came across this one from Follkart. This is excellent paint. It has a very good constituency and covers really well. Will be looking at using this in a lot of my painting in future. 

Edited October 17 by Paul Jarman

[Paul Jarman]

Ships boats completed and in place. These took far longer than they should have. The problem was every time I photographed them the paint job did not look perfect when viewed close up. So I kept repainting them. In the end I made the decision  that they look just fine and I am happy with the way they look.