New Books

It was only be accident that I found out a new book was published by author Ian Johnston called 'Clydebank Battlecruiser - Forgotten Photographs from John Brown's Shipyard'

In a word a stunning book, it takes you on a journey in photographs and some informative text of the life of 5 great ships, they are as follows - Ship No 374 Inflexible, Ship No 402 Australia, Ship No 418 Tiger, Ship No 443 Repulse and Ship No 460 Hood.

The whole book is well worth the £20 I paid from Amazon.co.uk, loads of wonderful construction shots dating back to 1908, I bought this solely for the Hood, but  seeing all the other ship it really is a great early Christmas pressie for any historian or modeler.
The Hood section is just outstanding on its own, I'm really impressed with the quality of the photographs shown here, considering the size of the ship and the early life of photography at the time. The sheer size of Hood just needs to be seen in these pictures to be fully understood.

For example on page 167 there is an awesome shot showing the arrangements of the plating strakes at the bow and the thickness of the plates. A view I've never seen before and in such clarity and so close.

Model Magazine International #162

I've had this magazine for some time now (April 2009) when I was intending to make an Airfix kit of HMS Hood, I still intend to approach this project but for now its the larger model I'm working on.

Tamiya's Model Magazine International Issue 162 contains a great article written by Ted Bunn who build the Trumpeter's HMS Hood kit with all the WEM after-market parts. It has some great close up shots of his work, I've scanned a few pictures and linked the back issue below.

Go to shop on the Tamiya page and then back issues.

I noticed that he used some 1.350 crew, they have got to be be tiny, even my 1.200 is small, but looking at the pictures I think you'll agree it does add to the model.

One Day In 1922

A section from the book by Ernie Bradford 'The Mighty Hood', I like to think this is what my great-grandfather would of seen on that day in 1922. So take some time and just imagine for a moment life back in 1922 on board 'The Mighty Hood'. If your interested in this book then simple type in Google the title and author, there are plenty around in many different covers and re-prints and cheap.

Chapter VII (page 56)
Imagine a soft day in the September of 1922. The coast of Brazil lies ahead, the Carioca mountains lifting out of the morning haze. Seen from this distance, the three peaks round which Rio de Janeiro is built have the shape of a sleeping giant. Dividing the white houses and the skyscrapers rises the peak known as The Hunchback. At the entrance to the bay the conical Sugar Loaf mountain needles the sky. Six o'clock and the hands have just fallen in at their parts of ship. There is dew on the deck, for the humidity off this coast is high and the wind is drawing from the land bringing with it a heavy smell of damp earth and tropical flowers, of heat and the city. Soon the steady trade winds will pick up with the day and begin to blow from astern, lifting the sea that has been with us all night and sending flickers of spray high over the long sheer of the quarterdeck. The Hood sits easily in a sea like this and the Atlantic swell does not bother her as it does the smaller ships. "In the Hood," wrote one of her officers, "we don't feel the weather very much. She takes sixteen seconds in rolling her normal arc, whereas in the Atlantic and most oceans the period of roll is eleven seconds. The happy result is that our broadbeamed lady is little more than halfway through her roll when the next wave catches her and steadies her. I find all this very palatial after destroyers. . . . It's much the same when we have a head or a stem sea the period between the average Atlantic wave crest is about 400 feet, but the fact that the Hood is over 800 feet long means she is always on two waves, or sometimes on three. ... As you know," he went on, "we're on our way to Brazil for the centenary celebrations of their independence. We'll be there today well, within a few hours; the coast is already in sight.

Warship Pictorial #20 H.M.S Hood

I managed to get hold of a copy a few week back but was unable to get anything on the blog about it until now, all I can say is beg, borrow or steal a copy, the quality of the pictures are just superb, big enough to gain detail for reference to the model making. The information on the inside page shows it was printed in the USA in 2003, so I reckon if you search you still will be able to get a copy, maybe a bit pricey but well worth it.

Books

Over the years I have collected some really great books on HMS Hood, below is my collection, I also have one on the way from ebay, more of that later in the post. As I get closer to starting the model I think these along with the HMS Hood Association web site will be invaluable. Most of these books can still be purchased and as such I will link them accordingly.

The Battlecruiser HMS Hood - An Illustrated Biography by Bruce Taylor.

Just a superb book, about the best there is, an amazing source of information in words and pictures.
Technical details and the ship's fighting career are detailed, but a remarkable collection of largely unpublished photographs allows this book to concentrate on shipboard life for the crew of the most glamorous warship of her time.

By Bruce Taylor - Chatham Publ. (2005) - Hardback - 256 pages - ISBN 186176216X

Amazon.co.uk
Prices vary from new (£40) to second hand (£11)
If your building a model at any scale this book is a must.

The Mystery Photo

Ok, this will be interesting to see reactions, but when I saw it I gave my reaction to my wife (nuff said)
 As the title says - The Mystery Photo Until now I have only seen and am only aware of one photo, or should I say a still from  footage of the Hood blowing up in the distance, that footage is from the German ship Prinz Eugen, its shows moments after the explosion. Now this article I came across, some of you may of seen it, I haven't, so I'll assume most here have not either. Part of  Warships International Fleet Review dated July 2010, this is not a fake or someone trying to pull the other one but a serious discussion on the picture.

Below is 2 screen grabs of the pdf document that contains the fascinating story by author Iain Ballantyne.
You can download the full document here - Bismarck and Hood Talk

I would like to point out the images are copyrighted to the National Museum of the Royal Navy and as such permission has yet to be requested.


Iain's new book is called Killing the Bismarck published by Pen & Sword Maritime. (gotta put a copy on my list of books to buy)


Pick up your copy from Amazon.co.uk


Thanks Iain

Hood - Design & Construction

I received my winning ebay book today, well more of I made an offer and he accepted, Hood - Design and Construction by Maurice Northcott, the original publication from 1975 costing (then £2.70) I paid £20.

I'm really happy with this as there is quite a lot of information that is not in the other books.