Hi all! At last, I've got around to doing a build. I just got the plans for the Hood from strike models this morning and am now impatiently waiting for the end of the month to buy the wood!
Why don't you buy the fiberglass Hood hull from Strike? The price is easily worth the time you'll spend building a wooden hull from scratch and you'll have more usable space in a fiberglass versus wodden hull, let alone how much longer a fiberglass hull will last. I made the Hood mould and had very accurate plans for it. I built my 1921 version of Hood (now owned by Larry Dingle) using the 'Anatomy of the Ship' series book on Hood - best plans available for all versions in my opinion.
Hi Bob, pleased to meet you I wanted to buy a fibreglass hull, but the problem is the shipping. I live just outside of paris and packages of 184cm are expensive to post. I believe its possible to make a wooden hull, slightly smaller and the use it as a mould. This also sounds like a cool idea. I've just put my HMS Erin next to the plan and discovered how large this beast is going to be! I'm thouroughly bluffed! The Hood is not only a beautiful ship but a giant! A question I wanted to ask is that on the plan there are 13 ribs thus approx 14cm apart. This seems to be a little wide in my opinion. Do you think I would have to put some more inbetween them? And also for the thickness of the ribs, what should I use? Taking into consideration that here in France we are metric and therefore my choice would be 5mm, 8mm(rare), 10mm and 15mm.
Hi Nick! I will second Bob's high opinion of the Anatomy of the Ship books... the HMS Hood book is full of drawings that will make your life easier! It's like 25 Euros or somesuch on Amazon.fr... Linky: Amazon.fr - The Battlecruiser Hood - John Roberts - Livres More to the point, I love wooden ships, and the AotS:HMS Hood has like 21 ribs in it's drawing, if I remember correctly.
Nick, did you ask Stephen (at Strike Models) for a shipping quote? As a business, we have access to some better shipping rates than just what is posted online.
Thanks Keri, it's a bit late now, as I've got my plans from stephen. I've decided to do it the traditional way. However there are a million bits I want from Strike models so I'm going to surely be a repeat customer, and, with some interest from some of my french friends. Especially for the CO2 bits and the cannons, and the plans etc. I'm having a hard time getting french modelers to get into the idea of building a battleship with the sole idea of potentially getting it sunk. They dont have the same sense of humour as us! lol On my french site I've had thousands of visits and got only 16 members. Half of them battlers from other countries which at least gets the few french members a little more interested and feeling less "alone". Thanks Tugboat. I'll look at that too. When I did the Erin, Plans alone were not enough, and any info is always useful.
Today I found some 5mm ply I'm building the hull in 3 parts in order to have a channel in the middle. The rear ribs are in place, and I'll put a couple of extras maybe later as the largest have 11 and 15 cm between each one. Tommorow the front!
I think this is a first! Burglars at the house... I'll start again, It takes more than that to keep me down!
Why not just go with the Fiberglass hull and deck kit and go with that build first. Then after you have it built start a wooden version of it. You could probably learn a lot from it and have the best of both worlds.
Hi Nick, Have you looked over some of the other build threads for ideas? McSpuds is doing an USS Idaho wood hull that may help you with planning: USS Idaho BB-24 - IRCWCC | R/C Warship Combat
I recovered 7 unbroken ribs, now the Hood will rise up like a pheonix! I fortunately glued the ribs with a minimum of wood glue so I could put epoxy resin on all the joint when its finished. ( I dont believe that wood glue is very good against either time, temperature change or water. In fact, all the wooden bits will get a coat of epoxy just before the glassing is done. Thanks for the ideas McSpuds! I'll be watching your build with much interest. I like your work very much.
yup!, Like I said, it's probably a first. I'm kinda proud to have some bits left over to start again. It takes more than a couple of ar**holes to sink the mighty Hood
Don't skip too much on the wood glue. Use Titebond III Titebond - Product This is a waterproof wood glue available in most stores. Wood glue is designed to penetrate the wood grains and when dry, is normally harder than the wood you glued together, and the wood will break before the joint. With wood, if I have the time to let glue set, I will always prefer to use wood glue over anything, even resins.. I seal my wood with fiberglass resin, and use West System epoxy on the top decks because it looks good after cured.
aye. i have broken apart 3-4 ships that i used wood glue and the plywood would de-laminate before the tightbond would.
you are abseloutly right! I prefer to put a good coat of epoxy on all the wood, it seals the wood and all imperfections in the joints. The fotos will come eventually when Ive finished the wooden bits
