HMS Hood was the last battlecruiser built for the Royal Navy, commissioned in 1920 and
served with distinction until her destruction in 1941 whilst engaging the Bismark.
Join me in this video as I build and review the Works 1:2000 scale plastic model kit of
this historic vessel.
Hello, and welcome to Model Minutes, this video features a build and review of the HMS
Hood in 1:2000 scale.
For those of you who may not know, The Works is a discount books and arts and crafts shop
here in the UK, which is well known for its low cost books, stationary, art supplies
and pocket money toys. I have known them to retail the odd airfix or Revell kit in the
past, and was surprised when I found a new selection
of scale model ship kits, in their pocket money toys section.
It would appear from the packaging, that this is a product that is being retailed under
their own brand. I would imagine however, that this is a model kit that
has been sold in different countries or under different brands, as there is a manufacturer's
mark on the base of the model which I don't recognise, and a copyright
date of 2003, which implies that these models may have been available elsewhere for quite
some time.
Currently, the range consists of 4 kits, which are advertised on the packaging. These consist
of the Tirpitz, The New Jersey and the Missouri.
I'll add the link to the website under the video so you can take a look at them for yourselves.
On the rear of the box is the assembly instructions. These are very vague, only conisting of three
images, which are very difficult to understand. Glue is required
but it is not indicated the nature of this glue. I have heard of people using super glue
to build these kits, but being a plastic modeller, i instead will opt for
polycement.
Let's take a look at the contents of the kit.
In a small plastic bag you get three small sprues. Two are molded in dark grey plastic,
and one in red.
There was a reasonable amount of small detail on these parts, which I was surprised to see,
and also not much flash which helped with construction as I didn't have
to take time to clean up these small parts.
The plastic was much harder than the kits that I normally Build, probably because it's
a cheap kit, and also so that the small parts don't break when removed from the
sprues.
Before I start building, As always, remember that adult supervision may be required due
to the use of sharp tools and toxic paints and chemicals! The Works
recommends this kit for those aged 8 years old and over.
The first step is to remove the hull of the ship from the sprue using a sharp knife, and
clean up any rough areas with a file. I struggled to understand the pictures
as to how these parts were assembled, but with some trial and error I was eventually
successful. These parts have to be held together until the cement dries,
as they were warped and would spring apart if let go.
The deck of the ship is then glued to the top of the hull, which aligned quite well,
but once again had to be held in place.
Next, all the big guns of the ship were added to the deck using a small blob of cement.
Some of these parts are really tiny, so tweezers were used at times to hold them.
The assembly of the model follows the pictures on the rear of the packaging as best as I
could understand them, but at times I found that I put things in the wrong
places and had to relocate them.
Whilst you watch me finish up the construction of this model, I'll tell you a little more
about the actual HMS Hood.
HMS Hood was an Admiral Class battlecruiser, and its main armament consisted of eight 42-calibre
BL 15-inch Mk I guns in hydraulically powered twin gun turrets.
She had an array of secondary weapons including a dozen 50-calibre BL 5.5-inch Mk I guns,
six torpedo tubes, various heavy anti-aircraft cannons and a number of
machine gun positions.
The size, armour and armament of this vessel gained it the nickname "The Mighty Hood".
It was a severe blow to British morale when the Hood was sunk in 1941 when it engaged
the Bismark and Prinz Eugen in an attempt to prevent them from entering the
Atlantic. An enemy shell managed to ignite a magazine store on the Hood, which exploded
and she sank within 3 minutes. Nearly one and a half thousand men were lost
with only three of the crew surviving.
It's a shame that this model kit comes with no information about the actual HMS Hood,
as I feel that if this was included, it would be a fitting tribute to
all those who ultimately gave their lives whilst serving on her.
It's at this stage now, that i've completed the assembly. The instructions give no painting
information at all, and as a result I've not gone any further
So here's the finished model:
It's not a bad kit, if you've got some experience already under your belt, but because it has
poor instructions I feel that it might not be suitable
for a beginner. That being said, the lack of painting would help give you more experience
of construction.
The kit retails for £3 each, and I think that's a reasonable price for this kit, bearing
in mind that it's aimed at the pocket money toys section of the shop.
I'm glad that other retailers are getting involved in the plastic model kit scene, but
feel that brand new people to the hobby might be put off by this kind of kit,
due to the reasons I previously stated.
Improvements i'd consider making, would be to research the correct paint scheme and apply
that as appropriate, and as it's a small kit, i imagine it could make quite
a good diorama with the other ships in the range.
So, ultimately I've had fun building this, and i think it looks ok, but it's not one
of the best kits out there.
That being said, I don't think it would put me off buying the other kits, and at the moment
they are not currently available on the works website, but they may
still be available in shops. I'll have to keep an eye out for them!
As always, let me know what you think of my build, techniques and finished model in the
comments below.
I'm also keen to hear your suggestions as to other kits that you'd like to see me build
on my channel, so feel free to post that too!
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