Build HMS Hood: Hood Build

Moving right into Issue 5, a great long shot on the front cover of the Hood taken around the mid 30's, see the plane at the stern of ship. Onto to the build a few problems encountered here but after a little bashing (adjusting what we have) the possible problems have been sorted out. Hopefully this will help you decide what you want to do on your build. R/C or not to R/C!!!

NOTE: Anything you read here is my personal thought's NOT an official build diary and as such you don't have to copy what I'm doing or even agree with me, just use this along with the many other Hood build's and make your own mind up. ta!

All the parts have been cut out, sanded and marked up (centre lines), you'll notice an 'Original Part' and 'New Part', this will be explained below. Only today have I releised what direction these parts are taking us on the ship...I thought it was the Bow...nope!!! it's the stern (rear) oh well, first cock-up for me, I'm sure there will be more to come..ha

So this is the offending part...16a, what makes it so offending?, see the red circle, unless you treat this with kid gloves your gonna break it, my opinion ...... Hachette have not thought about this at all and just decided this part needs a cut out for the R/C (Radio Controlled) motors, hence it's far too close for comfort, so if like me R/C is not your thing then we can adjust, add or remake, if you are doing R/C then your going to need this, maybe strengthen the area?

So what I've decided to do is remake this part from right below where it was attached on the original fret ply, as you can see Ive carefully taken part 16a from the fret and marked around just below, notice 'A' and 'B', cut these off as well. Bearing in mind these are not going to be seen, they are simply for the motors that will added 'IF' you are going to R/C you model.

The original part 16a is top of picture with 'A' and 'B' cut from the ply fret...these can be glued directly into the recess of part 16a..OR.. as I have done is to make a new part 16a from the ply fret (shown above). I am not overly worried how it looks, as long as it fits snug, and does the jobs it's supposed to do, if along the line I'm wrong and the original part is needed then I still have it.

As instructed by the magazine I've just laid the frames parts onto Keel part 15, marked and checked, all seems pretty simple so far.

A close up of parts 20 (Side Support Rails), as it says in the magazine instruction position these BELOW/UNDER side rails 13 from the previous issue, if you find your forcing it then you've probably got it wrong, so double check..dry fit!!!

Top view showing keel part 15 along with the frames and side supports, again all this so far is dry fitted.

Its seems the magazine tell's you to fix the side panels while the frames are glued to the keel, for me I decided not to follow that instruction, to much could go wrong, so fix the 17b panels away from the main hull as shown above, mark out and glue, again make sure you can remove part 17a (beams) after the small panels have been glued, if they are tight then sand those areas down until its just right.

Frame part 16 with the new remade 16a beam, I glued the 16b panels whilst the original 16a beam was in place, then replaced with the remade version. Just be careful with the original 16a beam.

A close shot of panel 17a sitting above side support rail 20. The panels were glued away from the main hull.

This view clearly show's the quarterdeck ..the stern (rear), the very low profile gives it away along with part 16 cut-outs..now where are we in comparison with the plans...