Trumpeter 1/350 HMS Hood - Please Help!

Welcome to the world of ship building!!

First off you selected a great kit, and it will give you hours of enjoyment. First, see if you can get hold of Mike Asley's Book Building Model ships, published by Kalmbach, the ones who publish Fine scale Models. Well worth the money. With the Trumpeter Hood you first have to decide if you are going to build a full hull or a water line one. Your next step is to attached the upper hull to either rge lower hull or the waterline hull bottom. and fill and sand all seams smooth. That should keep you bustyfor a day or so. I would next glue the deck in place and fill the seam as needed. Then I would undertake painting the hull then the deck. It is best not to attach too much to the deck before painting, but to leave off as much as possible. This is how I approach building a ship. I hope this gets you in the right direction. There are several good ship modeling sites on the web. One is  Steelnavy.com, while the other is; modelwarships.com Don't forget take your time and have FUN

What color is the grey to be used on the hull, guns, structure?  I like to use Model Master, thinking Dark Ghost Grey?  The paint sheet in the kit refers to H305 Gunship Grey (pretty dark) and then H307 Dark Ghost Grey (I think).  I don't understand why they are showing to greys and it is hard to make out in the kit color picture what shade of grey goes where.  I have seen this kit on the web in galleries and eveything clearly looks like one shade of grey.

 Any advice would be much appreciated.

The Hood Association has a very helpful page to guide in the building of any Hood kit. You may need to scroll down the page to see it all.

http://www.hmshood.com/hoodtoday/models/index.htm

Hi once again:

 If you want really accurate colors for the Hood, I suggest that you go to white Ensigns Models home page, and look up the correct HMS colors. I have used them age they are the best. I woulds also suggest that you don't really follow the colors listed on Trumeperts color charts.

As suggested you really should go to the HMS Hood assocation web site, they have a wealth of information. Also on Modelwarships there is a great thread on the hood, and the head of the hood assocation posts there regularly.

 Are you planning on using Acrylics or enamels on the model?

 Dick Wood

Thanks.

 I would prefer to use enamels.  My local hobby shop carries Model Master.

I am also in the process of building up Trumpeter's HMS Hood and totally agree with checking out the Hood Association web page. Part of the enjoyment I get out of model building is the research involved and have been on their web page numerous times.  I ordered White Ensign paint - AP 507B - Royal Navy WW II Medium Grey - for the upper hull and superstructures. It arrived yesterday. I just finished painting one of the searchlights with it this morning and it appears to be a tad lighter than FS 36118.

I also got Tom's Modelworks photoetched set for the railings, etc., etc. I've been working on it for about two months and have the majority of the superstructures put together and ready for painting. I put down a coat of primer on the hull a couple of days ago and after some more gap filling and sanding plus attaching the degaussing photo eteched pieces, it will be ready for the Polly Scale D&RGW Freight Car Red for the hull bottom. I used this shade of red for my Tirpitz and really liked the way it turned out. 

Dick McC

Thanks I have checked out the site but I am still struggling with colors.  First ship I have ever built.  I have the hull together and I have been working away on the structures.  My hobby shop carries Model Master, Tamiya and Humbrol paints.  I prefer MM/Humbrol as if you have to do touch ups or brush paint I find Humbrol the best for coverage and brush strokes.  I am also not a accuracy freak as my models are not being put in any museum any time soon, ha!

 - What color to paint the hull...red of some sort I would assume?

 - What color of grey for the upper hull/structures....medium grey?

 - What color for the decking?

I would really appreciate any advice from anyone that uses Humbrol or Model Master paints.

Panther88:

First I would paint  below the water line polyscale Oxide red, or a simular color.

Second go to this page on the HMS web site it should give you too much information on painting her.

http://www.hmshood.com/hoodtoday/models/tips/hoodpaint.htm

It is almost to get a exact macth on the paints used on her except if you use White Ensign paints.

For the decks maybe you should try Tamiyas deck color? just a guess there.

 As a side note, you are moving pretty fast on this model, maybe too fast? How is the fit on the hull to the deck?

Dick Wood

Thanks for the info.  I use Humbrol paints and I am just having a hard time matching colors to those on this website.  I know the website said the hull below the water line is a dark red and not bright red like other ships.  I think I may go with Humber Medium Grey for the hull above the water line and for the structures as has a bit of blue tinge to it/

 The fit of the upper hull to the lower hull was okay, the upper is a bit longer then the lower and there is a couple mm overhang on each edge, filed and sanded and blended it in.  Join of the upper and lower hulls all around is pretty darn good, some wet sanding and that was about it.  The decks fit pretty good but there some spots that need some filling around the circumference of the hull.

I don't think I am moving to fast.  I put in 4/5 hours a night and keep in mind I have built models for over 20 years.  Ever see the amount of parts in the Dragon armor kits, large.  So I am very use to working with small parts, cleaning them all up, I am anal that way.

 My biggest struggle is this whole paint color thing.  Like I advised I can only get selected brands of model paint here in Canada Ontario and I am not use to trying so hard to match.  Aircraft goes by FS numbers and most paint manufacturers all carry those colors and pretty much the same for armor.  Guess this is something I will have to eye and match as well as I can.

I am noticing on ship models when you instal the decking there is a fine gap around the whole hull where the decking meets the side of hulls.  All the kits I have started are like this.  Is it required to putty and sand the whole seem around the whole circumfernece of the hull?

Panthe88:

 On real ships there is no gap....Sooooo I would guess it would be a good idea to fill the gap.!!!

As I suggested in a earlier post, in the book by Mike Ashley, he used super glue to fill the gap and then uses a razor as a scraper to plane down the rideg left by the superglue. One tip is that if you are using super glue, is to make sure that you sand it or scrape it down that same day. Otherwise, it gets hard as a rock and becomes very difficult to to level off.

 Another technique that in mention in Ashley's book is to put down tape after the super glue has set to protect the scribing for the deck and other surface features from sanding.

 P.S. have you seen the 4 part article on Roll Models on building the USS Arizona yet?

 I hope this helps

 Dick Wood

Yes I have reviewed the 4 part article and thanks so much for this reference.  I was just asking as in viewing completed kits on Modelwarship.com in some of the pictures I can still see the seems and in some I can not, so that is why I asked.  I was not sure if you buy PE railings maybe they were attached and sat in that seem around the hull.

Hi Panther,

 Since you prefer using Humbrol enamel paints like me, you might find this conversion chart handy - 

http://smmlonline.com/articles/royal_navy_paints.html

You will see that the Admiralty paint codes go something like AP507A, AP507B etc etc.

If you go to the HMS Hood.com website, you will see that they give Admiralty paint codes for Hood during the various years of her career.

The Trumpeter kit allows you to model her as she was when sunk in 1941, so you need to go to HMS Hood.com and read through the paint guide for 1941. Here, they give Hood as being painted Admiralty Royal Navy colour AP507B.

If you look at the smmlonline RN paint conversion charts, you will see that Admiralty colour AP507B is Humbrol colour H145 Medium Grey. 

 Hope this helps.

 BTW - The underside/below waterline should be Humbrol brick Red.