H.M.S. HOOD.... A 1/400 JSC Card Model

[spanner570]

I swore I would never again build a ship out of card, but I came across this for £6.00. incl. p/p

As I've always wanted a 1/350 'Hood', but not prepared to pay the daft prices for a plastic one, the temptation to buy this was too great.

I know what I've let myself in for, and what the build will do to my sanity, so that's not so bad, and I've also prepared the swear box too!

...at £6 it can end up in the re-cycling without any tears.










Cheers.
Ron

[Jim R]

.... but I came across this for £6.00. incl. p/p

Where else can you get so much frustration and aggravation so cheaply. A real bargain.
I'll watch to see how long it takes for your swear box to reach overflowing.
Jim

[peterairfix]

I will be looking forward to this build it may inspire me to crack on with the Bismarck.

[Guest]

Look on the bright side. If this is as bad as you're expecting, your swear box might soon contain enough pennies for the plastic one...

[Gern]

Look on the bright side. If this is as bad as you're expecting, your swear box might soon contain enough pennies for the plastic one...

Yeah! The 1/200 Trumpeter version with all the added goodies!

Was it the Bute ferry you did in card? I seem to remember that came out OK - although I do appreciate there's a lot more involved in this one.

[scottie3158]

Ron,
Count me in mate. It looks interesting. Not sure I could handle cutting out all those pieces.

[spanner570]

Thanks for the encouraging posts, chaps. Strange to tell, but I know exactly what I'm in for, yet I'm still going to attempt another. Crazy!

Was it the Bute ferry you did in card? I seem to remember that came out OK - although I do appreciate there's a lot more involved in this one.

It certainly was, Dave, and yes, it did come out o.k.. a ball ache none the less.
Hood is roughly the same construction method, but nearly four times the aggravation.

[Dave Ward]

Ron,
The gun barrels are the most difficult part! You're supposed to roll them, from card/thin paper. I tried loads of times & they still looked like Rizla rollies! I made quite a few JSC models & I always substituted plastic rod/tube for the barrels suitably painted ( more paint at the breech end, to simulate taper! )
One thing to really watch is the construction of the longitudinal boxes that make up the basis of the hull - if you don't make them all the same height, the deck will not sit flat! & everything else will follow on................
Dave

[spanner570]

Thanks for the tips Dave. Much appreciated.

I totally agree with you regarding the paper gun barrels, or anything else needing to be cylindrical for that matter!

I use sprue off-cuts for gun barrels. I find them fairly easy to produce a reasonable taper to the barrels, and to scribe. Then just drill the ends out a bit.

In my build for the 'Bute' ferry I rather banged on a bit about the very point you raise about the need for dead on accuracy with the initial box sections for the hull. Get this bit even slightly out and nothing that follows will fit properly.

Thank again for the input - and the reminder!

Ron

[boatman]

HI Ron well i'll be followin this build as its nice to see another warship bein built like im doin an you will get all the frustration and aggravation so cheaply. But for me its costin me an arm an a leg but still enjoyable an all the challanges to come to your moddelerling abilty an if it dont work out you can always bin it lol
chris

[Dave Ward]

Ron,
The Hood is a long ship, so any errors will be magnified compare with a shorter model. I ( tried ) made the JSC 1/250 HMS Lion - either I did something stupid ( likely ), or the instructions were wrong - I couldn't get anything to line up. Problem with the card is that once you commit to glue, that's it. Make a mistake - almost impossible to repair!
You can scan the sheets, and print out replacement parts, but that is not as simple as you may think. To scan at the high resolution needed produces huge files. Scanners rarely produce 100% dimensionally exact copies ( you may get 95% accurate in the x direction & 101% in the Y direction ). You then have to ensure that the printer will print to the exact size. Colour matching is difficult! It can be done, but it's a real slog! In the end you bin it & buy another!
Dave

[spanner570]

Thanks boys, and thanks for well meaning scanning advise Dave. Way, way over my head, I'm afraid.

I've made a start and here's the tools I'm using.

I rarely use the scalpel. My main cutting tool is the scissors. To score the folds in the card, I use the cutter on the left, it's like a small Stanley knife. As the blade gets blunt, simply snap off the small blunt end. Trust me, card blunts blades for fun, so use the scalpel sparingly. The tweezers are for squeezing the internal tabs together to help the glue stick. The old screwdriver is to push the joints into line. The cocktail stick is to get glue into awkward corners. The steel rule for assisting with cutting long straight lines and the pencil for marking parts in case I forget what is what...... :upside:

Any card, or general purpose glue can be used. I use UHU in the yellow tube.



Here's progress thus far.

Jumping ahead a tad....The pieces are printed on reasonably thick card, but I like to reinforce large areas with extra card. I've used a cereal packet for the hull underside.



The pieces for the hull longitudinal stiffeners and cross frames.


The three base pieces glued together.


...everything nicely marked out.


The stages of a long box stiffener construction.
One end cut out.


Scoured, folded and ready for gluing.
Worth a mention here about scouring. Use the slightest of touches with your knife. Not deep enough, and the fold won't fold! Too deep and you will have two pieces of card in your fingers. The difference in the two cut depth can't be measured, so be very, very careful.


All glued up.


....and glued in place, making sure it is smack on the guide lines.


All the rest fitted and ready for the hull cross frames.
You will have observed this is a waterline model, as are most of the J.S.C. range. I know I would find it impossible to build a full hull straight and true. Leading to frustration and me binning it at the first hurdle.
So I'm playing it reasonable safely.


Thanks for looking in.

Ron

[boatman]

HI RON youre makin wonderfull progress on this model as i must admit i could not build this keep up the nice work an it all looks very complicataited
chris

[peterairfix]

I was going to ask if it was full hull but my question has been answered looks like your off to a great start.

[Guest]

The Hood. Unquestionably the most attractive war ship produced.

She was used as a British advert visiting ports through out the world before WW11.

Darned Bismark brought that all to an end. But at the age of 3 I brought to bare influence & she got her come u pence.

Got your work cut out there Ron (perhaps cut it out more appropriate). Next one perhaps the Bismark.