H.M.S. Hood, 1/200 Trumpeter kit + Pontos etc.

[europapete]

Well Pete, thanks. You are now responsable for a serious future deletion of my bank account. Am going through the kit and Pontos instructions, EJ's build, Your build, and the Hood associations' website to determine all that I will need from Micromaster. Also my Wife passes on her heartfelt regards too. I hope you are happy.

[greenglade]

Well Pete, thanks. You are now responsable for a serious future deletion of my bank account. Am going through the kit and Pontos instructions, EJ's build, Your build, and the Hood associations' website to determine all that I will need from Micromaster. Also my Wife passes on her heartfelt regards too. I hope you are happy.

in my own defence.. they are very good...



Pete

[EJFoeth]

They do look good indeed! As does moest of Micromaster's work...

[greenglade]

They do look good indeed! As does moest of Micromaster's work...

They certainly do EJ, and dare I say that such detail is impossible to make by hand, we just don't have enough years in us to include every micro-sized rivet/nut and bolt to models of this size or even bigger. A fact that I realised some years ago in building live steam locos. There is a bad side to this technology though, for example, my old job of building models in film/tv is more or less nonexistent today, everything is 3D printed and then cleaned up for paint. This is what a model makers job has become and has been so over the last 10 years, this is bad as new talent to the trade since then learn nothing in the art of making finely detailed models, they basically learn how to clean up 3D parts, not a good thing for the future I say? Sad but true...

The advantage of 3D printing for my main hobby of live steam is making fine detailed lost wax patterns that are then cast in bronze. Below is such a part modeling a Wakefield No.7 Lubricator in 5" gauge, that's 1:11.3 scale to you guys, dimensions are approx 1 inch cube. You can't see the full details here but the casting includes all of the original manufacturer's wording on the lid, these will be fully working lubricators once I get around to building them, this is just the untouched casting.



Pete

[europapete]

Nice bit of engineering there Pete. No wonder your Hood is looking so good. Micromaster has some nice parts for the 1/72 Flower Class too.

[greenglade]

Nice bit of engineering there Pete. No wonder your Hood is looking so good. Micromaster has some nice parts for the 1/72 Flower Class too.

Thanks, Pete

Yes, I saw that, I've built a few corvettes in the past, all on commission. My own model was a John Piper kit 1/96, a very impressive kit, I wish that I had never sold that model.. Back then the way to go with the matchbox 1/72 corvette was with the Sirmar aftermarket parts to improve detail, however, they weren't a patch on the Micromaster stuff. To be fair we are talking pre 3D printers...

[europapete]

I remember the John Piper kits advertised in Scale Models magazine back in the late 70's. But being only a teenager then they were WAY out of my price range. On the Flower Class, I have the full set of David Parkins' Great Little Ships detail sets, all PE, white metal, and resin. Beautiful sets where only the kit hull and a few other bits of superstructure are used, the rest is in the detail sets. But even so, I think the Micromaster parts will lift the model even further.

[greenglade]

I remember the John Piper kits advertised in Scale Models magazine back in the late 70's. But being only a teenager then they were WAY out of my price range. On the Flower Class, I have the full set of David Parkins' Great Little Ships detail sets, all PE, white metal, and resin. Beautiful sets where only the kit hull and a few other bits of superstructure are used, the rest is in the detail sets. But even so, I think the Micromaster parts will lift the model even further.

I think I first saw the piper kit at the Wembley ME early 80's, yes it was very expensive, IIRC over �100 which was a lot of money back then. I'm not familiar with the David Parkins range but then I have been out of the marine side for some time, long before I started this 'Hood'.... the last 11 years I have been very busy on the loco and I still have a fair way to go. Getting there though, the picture below was taken approx 2 years ago, she's moved on a fair amount since, most of the motion work is now complete. If not for my health setback last October she would have been running on air by now. Anyway, my eyesight is slowly returning, I feel able to drive now although not at night, even though my eye test clears me for driving I'll leave nighttime driving until fully recovered.



Pete

[europapete]

WOW! did you build that from scratch?!? Impressive. Glad to hear your eyes are getting better.

[greenglade]

WOW! did you build that from scratch?!? Impressive. Glad to hear your eyes are getting better.

Yes sir....all from castings and bar stock plus making good use of modern tech such as 3D printing and laser cutting, copius hours of machining and hand filing/polishing. I'm currently machining the radius rods from gauge plate (all motionwork is either gauge plate or HRPO steel) and finalising an ashpan mockup from plasticard ready for laser cutting in 1.5mm stainless steel. Everything will be working as per full size except for carriage heating, well no point in heating empty coaches, the pressure gauge for the heating will be working though, as will all gauges on the backhead. She's getting heavy now, last weigh in read 244lbs for the engine alone, I expect engine and tender to exceed 300lbs when fully loaded with coal and water.

Pete

[mister me]

Nice baby ! Expected speed will be ?

[greenglade]

Nice baby ! Expected speed will be ?

Ah...speed?. Most tracks ( probably all) have speed limits, here in the UK that's usually 8 to 10 mph. I've been on some whose driver's likes speed and often hit 12 to 15 mph, trust me its not a pleasent experience and damn foolish if pulling half a dozen carriages loaded with 20 plus passengers.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a speed freak when it comes to cars which I have driven very fast but when travelling along two narrow rails only 5 inches apart, no thanks...

Pete

[europapete]

YEOWCH, only 5"?!?! Yep, got to agree with you there Pete. That is an awesome project, needing skills I know take many years to develop.

[greenglade]

YEOWCH, only 5"?!?! Yep, got to agree with you there Pete. That is an awesome project, needing skills I know take many years to develop.

These things certainly aren't built quickly, in fact with all the models built over the years it's only when building something like this that you wonder if you have enough years left to complete it?...Anyway, I best not go on about trains on a ship forum...
For anyone who wishes to know more the full details are on my blog or currently being published in a series of articles in the Model Engineer magazine.

http://4472flyingscotsman.co.uk/

Kind regards


Pete

[greenglade]

evening all, a little more progress although there's actually a fair bit of work involved here. I have now fitted the aft superstructure, pompom bandstand, and various vents along the shelter deck. Not much of the original kit plastic parts were left once the Pontos PE had been fitted. The next job will probably be the copious amount of ready use lockers and skylights etc, mind you the 4" ready use lockers will be easy as I have the 3D printed items from Micromaster, all they need is paint...



Sorry about the lighting, I used an LED lamp as the flash changed the colours too much.

Pete

[greenglade]

work continues on the boat deck, as can be seen, its starting to fill up nicely even before the boats are fitted. A few things to point out, as mentioned before I'm still not convinced on the brown searchlight areas, therefore for now I have painted the rears in 507A to match the other decks, this can always be changed if needed at a later date.
The 3D printed parts are starting to take over, here we see the 4" ready lockers, 44 " searchlights, mushroom vents, and the 10x5ft Carley rafts, all by Micromaster. Other 3D printed parts awaiting painting/fitting are the 4" guns, Pompom's, quad MG's, UP mounts, 20" searchlights, all from Micromaster, to add to these are figures and winches from Northstar and figures with helmets from Shapeways. these will be used for the planned cameo roles. Currently, I plan on a 4" in training, perhaps an MG too, ammo davits loading, boat davits doing the same along with plenty of other crew around the ship.



I also have a Micromaster 16ft sailing dingy which looks superb, next week I plan to order the rest of their ship's boats suitable for Hood. I have spoken to Simon at Micromaster and am happy to see that part of his prototype updates over the last few weeks has been to include the 42ft motor launch which was missing from his range. The other boat missing is the 35ft admiral's barge which I understand is a bit more involved and thus will take more time.

The boats sitting in my shopping cart awaiting the company's re-opening on the 28th are:

42ft motor launch x 1
16ft sailing dingy x 1
16ft fast motorboat x 1
14 x 9ft Carley raft x 1 (6)
Balsa raft x 1
30ft gig x 1
45ft motor launch x 1
32ft cutter x 2
25ft fast motorboat x 3 ( I will order 3 even though some lists say only 2, I now have the Ensign 5 Hood book which only shows 2 where as some photos suggest 3?
35ft fast motorboats x 3 ( one of these should be the admiral's barge although I'm told that only when the admiral was on board, otherwise it would be a 35ft FMB, whether this is fact or not I don't know, however, it does make sense in my head. I may look into adapting one of the FMB into the admiral's barge, I haven't compared the two yet to see if this is even possible?)
27ft whaler x 2

Not a cheap list but then none of them have been so far although IMHO, well worth the extra expense....

Regards

Pete

[SG1]

Pete,
what an amazing work! I've been visiting your Flying Scotsman site and i got speechless: what an incredible work you've done so far. The boiler assembling in particular is an example of top notch craftsmanship and skills. Your work is very inspirational and I hope you gonna complete the project soon.

Your Hood? A spectacular build! Am following your thread with utmost interest.

Keep up the magnificent work!

SG

[greenglade]

Pete,
what an amazing work! I've been visiting your Flying Scotsman site and i got speechless: what an incredible work you've done so far. The boiler assembling in particular is an example of top notch craftsmanship and skills. Your work is very inspirational and I hope you gonna complete the project soon.

Your Hood? A spectacular build! Am following your thread with utmost interest.

Keep up the magnificent work!


SG

Hi SG

Thanks for your commenta on my loco and model of Hood.
The boiler is indeed a work of art but I shall hold my hand up and say that I had this built for me by perhaps the best boiler maker here in the UK, Paul Tompkins of Southern Boiler Works LTD. The boiler is mostly to his design plus following my wish for a scale backhead, the various fittings will be to scale. The only fittings that won't be fully to scale are the two water gauges. They will be to scale with the exception of the length of the gauge glass which will be extended to give a better view of the water level in the boiler, the actual gauge hardware will be to scale. The bushes in the boiler have been spaced to allow for this.

Cheers

Pete

[FW_Allen]

Looking excellent (though I still think you should be defiant and paint her bottom the proper grey LOL ).
I would include the 35ft admirals barge (painted blue & white)�unless you�re modelling her for the short space of time between the departure of Whitworth and arrival of Holland of course. It will add some colour to the area�unless you cover it with a tarp.

Speaking of life saving devices, please don�t forget the Denton Rafts. I can�t recall if these come in the Pontos detail set or not, but at 3x3ft they would definitely be most visible at this scale. Ted Briggs said there were oodles of them (my words) stashed all over the place (though we only see them in a few verified locations in contemporary photos). These are the tiny rafts that the 3 survivors used.

[greenglade]

Thanks Frank...nah, red it must be, the wife said so...

I will include the Admiral's barge..I have ordered all of the 3D printed ships boats which are in transit as we speak. The barge isn't available yet but I have ordered an extra 35ft FMB to see if that can be modified. I still haven't looked closely at the two hulls to see if this will work, alternatively I could use the kit parts plus pontos or scratch build.
The Denton rafts are covered in the pontos set although I already have 48 of them 3D printed. Not sure if there's room to fit that many on yet, I plan to have the decks pretty cluttered as a ship at war would be, and of course the crew, in fact tonight I have been seperating the 3D figures from their stands. I just need to be able to see them for painting now, oh how I wish I still had my eagle young eyes...

Cheers

Pete