The Sun and Daily Mail Newpapers

Well it didn't take long before 2 of the worst rags in the UK have written a story about the final cost of this model, 

LET PEOPLE MAKE THERE OWN MINDS UP

The Sun  (Toilet paper) and Daily Mail (when the toilet paper runs out use this)
Yes it's expensive, if you want a large wooden model then this is the one to choose, if you want to kit bash and/or scratch build, then this is the model, if you can't afford the cost straight away, then this is the way to do it.
I sincerely hope Hachette continue this part-works, I will, along with many other will continue buying knowing the full cost. And also if you had relative who either died or served the Mighty Hood in her lifetime and want to build this a memorial to them...nuff said.
RANT OVER!!!!

Spithead & other Royal Navy Fleet Reviews 1914 - 1939 DVD

I only found this a few weeks back and knew it was going to be a good DVD, I wasn't wrong. A total runing time of 77mins, this includes some bonus features (more of that later), here is the brief run down of the DVD -

Bear witness to the enormity of the British Naval fleet in the dying days of the British Empire and in preparedness for the Second World War in the showcase events of the 'Royal Navy Reviews' at Spithead, Southend, Torbay and Portland! Events included :-

1914 - Spithead and HMS Iron Duke, World War I Mobilisation

Some really nice on board shots of HMS Iron Duke

H.M.S. 'IRON DUKE' & OTHER WARSHIP

NAVY AT SEA video newsreel film

H.M.S. IRON DUKE IN ACTION

Hood Build - Week 1 - Part 2

So following on from the first post this is just going through the first basic steps on building the frames, along the way maybe a few deviations to make things easier as the ship grows is size (as it will grow in size).

Hood Build - The Plans

I have taken a few shots of the plan I have had enlarged from 1:400 to 1:200, I know this is not exact, but to be honest I wanted a very close plan for my own needs during this build, after the bloke bought me over the enlarged scan I had to ask if he got it right and asked for a tap measure (serious I did ask him) judge for yourself, my hand is there just to give you a sense of scale.

Full view of the scaled up plans

Hood Build - Week 1 - Part 1

Ive just cut the parts from the frets and just to point out the larger piece, what they call the keel, is a little warped, no really a problem, almost expected really, this is a good moment to point out to get a build board.

If you dont your gonna get a banana boat, I'll be getting this either over the weekend or next week, the wood is 4mm thick and with all the parts its gonna be pretty heavy.
For a good board my measurements will be 1380mm long by 210mm wide by 12mm thick, dont go for any soft wood like pine this sort of size will be awkward to move around once the hull grows but I'm sure we will find away.

Some of the crew being sorted, I dont think the lady's will do onboard.

HMS Hood Association Member

Finally I have paid a years subs for membership to the HMS Hood Association, not sure if I get anything in the post, like a badge or sticker but in the mean time let me proudly show off the badge.

I'll be adding this to the top banner at some point in the near future.

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.

British Pathe Footage - Leaving the River Clyde January 1920

Following the launch of HMS Hood in 22nd August 1918 this footage follows her leaving the Clyde, information is from British Pathe.
British Pathe
CLICK TO VIEW>>> Title Reads: £6M BATTLESHIP 'THE HOOD' (aka SIX MILLION POUND BATTLESHIP "HOOD")
HMS Hood the Royal Navy's new battleship leaves the river Clyde in Scotland for sea trials. L/S An impressive opening shot of the Hood (presumably still on the Clyde) looking towards her bow. Visible are an array of menacing looking gun turrets and masts. Smoke belches from her funnels. A number of Tugboats have lines attached, compared to these the Hood is truly enormous. M/S from the stern. A closer look at the ship from the starboard side reveals a hive of activity on the deck, sailors and other naval crew can be seen scurrying around, making sure the ship is in tiptop condition.
L/S On the dock side we can see a large crowd of people watching this spectacular occasion, nearby is a dry dock containing the large hull of another ship under construction.
Good L/S The Tugboats are now towing the ship from the bow and appear to be heading down river.
We also see a variety of C/U's, M/S's and L/S's showing the Gun turrets, life boats, the decks, the ladders, and the two huge funnels. This helps you to appreciate the true scale of the vessel in an era when the British Navy was still the envy of the world.
Note: There are no titles to the film

Date:12/01/1920 | Time: 5min 53sec | Sound: No | Canister: G632 |Film ID: 201.16

HMS Hood Association information - 09 January: Hood departs Clydebank under her own power. Trials commenced afterwards. Steam trials were conducted off the Isle of Arran that same day. Hood was possibly based at Greenock for her trials.

Another version of this film exists but runs for only 1min, I'll add that to this post soon.

British Pathe Footage - August 1935 'Navy Week'

Starting in no particular order I want to compile the footage I've seen on both TV, DVD & Web of the footage through the Hood's career. British Pathe seem to have quite a large amount and I'm always on there searching for any glimpse of her in the Hood's hey day.
British Pathe
CLICK TO VIEW >>> Titles read: 'JACK AHOY!'
Probably filmed at Portsmouth, Hampshire.Various shots of big warships in a harbour during Naval Week. Battleships and aircraft carriers are seen. Landlubbers are taken out to HMS Hood for a visit. Good shots of them waving to the sailors and coming aboard. Some ladies are shown around by a young sailors. Other people are shown the ship gun by another sailor. The group leave the ship and are taken back to shore on the launch.

Date:13/06/1935 | Time: 1min 32 sec | Sound: Yes | Canister: PSP 897 |Film ID: 1644.26

HMS Hood Association career timelime shows this entry for June 1935, Between 10th June and 11th July HMS Hood was at Portland. 

Navy Week in 1935 was held during August, I have found some footage [Portsmouth Navy Week] of the Duke Of York giving a speech aboard HMS Victory, the film is dated 8th August 1935, and clearly in the background is HMS Hood (see pictures below) 

HMS Hood Association show's Hood participated during 3rd - 10th August. So with this information I would hazard a safe guess the footage above is from early August 1935.

And finally this programme cover from that week in 1935 - Navy Days UK

HMS Hood Colour Film

Well it's simple, go to YouTube and find about 20sec of what to many  is only a short section of a far bigger chunk of Hood colour footage. In fact if you own the superb book by Bruce Taylor and turn to page 145 there are some amazing still's, 'War From The Hood'  filmed during summer 1939 and autumn 1940 this has to be the holy grail for all Hood fans, certainly it is for me, so lets savoir 20 secs.

I really don't know who owns the rights to this footage and the stills? but if the owner is looking at this then please comment below and I will add your name as copyright owner.

Royal Navy At War In Colour DVD

Precious pre-war film records the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla in Malta and on exercise in the autumn of 1939, and the ships of the First Battle Squadron and the First Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean that same year. From spring 1939 comes rare colour film of the warships of the China Station.
Among the warships captured here in colour are the carriers Illustrious, Indomitable, Furious and Glorious, the battleships Rodney, Warspite, Barham, Nelson and Queen Elizabeth, the cruiser Birmingham, the destroyers Eskimo, Ashante, Cossack and Hermione and the mine-laying submarine Grampus, also shown is HMS Revenge during 1941.
This is the first of Roland R Smith's films that I picked up some years ago and to be honest it's still the best, just amazing footage.

Filmed in Malta in late 1939, I can see the HMS Rodney but unsure of the other ship, maybe the HMS Barham? The narration (which I am now led to believe is Roland R Smith himself) mentioned other capital ships (not HMS Hood) that were present. HMS Hood was at Malta during 1939 but I am unsure if the 
censors have cut that from the original footage?
The images below are dated possible before 1939 as the narrative mentions, maybe late 1938.

First battle Squadron led by HMS Warspite

HMS Barham

HMS Ark Royal

HMS Iron Duke at Scapa Flow (1940?)

If you are unsure about this DVD just look at the screen shot's, amazing, and priceless. Costing about £6 as well, what you waiting for?

Pick this title up at Amazon.co.uk

Every effort has been made to make contact to gain permission to use these still's, if you are the copyright owners could you please contact me, or leave a comment below for me to contact you. Thank you.

Finally HMS Revenge from 1941, amazing.

King George V Class battleships 1941-42 DVD - 'Hood footage'

I have got hold of a new dvd called King George V Class battleships 1941-42, part of the Roland R Smith series of the Royal Navy At War collection, another superb 1 hour collection from the best series of Royal Navy dvd titles and footage. See below for a link to buy at Amazon.co.uk.
After about 15mins in there was some footage showing the Hood at anchor at Scapa Flow in 1941.

I would say about 30secs of this footage, then the narration moved onto May 1941 with some Bismarck footage and stock footage of the Hood, probably around the 1930's.

Then this little bit of footage appeared, I've not seen this one before, a very light bit of film, maybe Hood departing Scapa Flow?

Now this next section of footage got me a little surprised, this is the naration over the footage -
"Filmed from the Prinz Eugen the Hood is observed to blow up on the horizon."
I have contacted Frank Allen of the Hood Association and he has confirmed with me that this footage is NOT the Hood blowing up.

This is very different footage than that already seen on youtube, much closer (maybe it has been magnified?) but all the same I have no doubt that this is genuine as the writer and producer Roland R Smith is not one for making mistakes. But footage Ive never seen before, maybe someone could tell me otherwise.
Next came Able Seaman Tilburn telling the camera what he remembers on that day, I would guess this footage was from around the mid to late 60's

A superb dvd that delivers just what is needed, no long drawn out narration and to the point, in some cases just the footage and no talking, brilliant.

Pick this title up at Amazon.co.uk


Every effort has been made to make contact to gain permission to use these still's, if you are the copyright owners could you please contact me, or leave a comment below for me to contact you. Thank you.

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

Britannia Goes To War - DVD - 'Hood Footage'

Created by Royal Navy historian Roland R Smith. Approx 2h. Includes pre-WWII footage including the 1924 Spithead Review, the Home Fleet engaged in war games, the 1937 Coronation Review, with aerial views, and the Hood sailing with the Ark Royal and the Repulse. Comprehensive film reviews of the battleship fleet, aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers, etc, etc. Early engagements feathers include the Battle of the River Plate, and there is footage of the loss of HMS Barham. The film also looks at how the Royal Navy changed in response to war, with coverage of the training of new recruits, and the development of new tactics

Some screen shot's of footage that has appeared of a DVD called Britannia Goes To War, they speak for themselves really, most of these shot are from the 1923/24 world cruise. 106 minute film was produced and only a small amount of this showed many ship, including the Hood.

Fo'castle of Hood filmed in 1923

A lot of this footage does show HMS Repulse and can get a little confusing but a few things can tell them apart, the bow port holes, Hood only had one row where Repulse had two rows of port holes at the bow. There are many more things that can tell them apart but for me head on shots are the hardest and I have many times confused Repulse with Hood, side shots are a lot easier.

Here is HMS Repulse during the 1923/24 cruise, even I got them mixed up:)

Filmed on the Hood with the Repulse in the background, but look how low in the water the stern is, damn, did they have to know what they were doing. In fact during the time my great grandfather served in 1922 they did lose a young sailor, I'm not sure if it was due to the pitch and roll of the ship but you can see how it could happen.

Another top quality DVD that runs for 2 hours, in fact I could do at least double that, but this is what I love about the Navy, between wars, British pride in our Royal navy at its best.

Pick this title up at Amazon.co.uk

Every effort has been made to make contact to gain permission to use these still's, if you are the copyright owners could you please contact me, or leave a comment below for me to contact you. Thank you.

Getting Started - Hints & Tips

This from the Hachette web site -
http://www.buildabattleship.co.uk/gettingstarted.html

By looking at the last picture it is likely there will no mention of a build board, this is a must if you don't want your model to be a banana, simply take a length of fairly strong wood (something that is not going to warp) with the measurements of the ship plus add some extra (I will post a possible size for the board here soon)
By looking at the image above I would say screw the bottom section to the base board after making sure it is square and use plenty of set square to make sure all is straight.

Also what is interesting to see is the lack of any other part of the ship to go along with the hull frames, looking the Bismarck build they were supplying many other items from the word go, hopefully this doesn't turn out to be just the hull for the duration of the build up to that point.

**********************************************************************

If this is your first model ship then please take your time and find out as much as possible on the net on how to go about getting the best from this partworks, take your time, dry fit always, and abive all if your unsure please ask, email me, find a forum, shout..help, there are some talents around that can and will help.

Build Preview

Well after hoping for years and seeing 2 company's do the try out, one come up with the goods, Hachette, I've no idea how this company compare, I don't care, all I know is for the next 3 years the Mighty 'ood is returning to the British shore's..
Partwork starts on 24th, not sure after that date if they continue weekly.

I've taken a few screen shots of the TV advert found on the official web site and had a closer look, it seems the hull does not show much if any hull plating, to be honest this doesn't worry too much as I can add that with either very thin plasticard material or some litho plates, which I've seen done to great effect on a large scale model of HMS Iron Duke.

If there are many inaccuracies (which is probable)then the HMS Hood Association web site is available to maybe scratch or re build certain parts.

Also when the Bismarck was released the deck planking was done with a printed sheet, after look through loads of these builds over the last month I've seen quite a few modellers complain to hachette about them, there was too many pages/posts to search but most seemed ok with them, if they are printed on it maybe worth will avoiding staining them to prevent the print coming off. For me, well I want to have a look into planking the deck proper.
I know, I big undertaking BUT I feel I have some ideas and lots of good source material to pull from.

New TV advert for Hachette Hood

Just today Hachette has updated the web site that includes a TV advert, scroll to the bottom of the page, hopefully as the days get closer to 24th this will be seen on TV.

I have no doubt that certain areas will need to be scratch built, I cant imagine this to be 100% accurate but if you want, like me a starter and hopefully a great magazine then this is the way to go.