HMS Hood

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Martin H-K
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HMS Hood

Post by Martin H-K »

Hi guys
I am building a 1/35 SCALE MANNED MODEL OF HMS Hood. Can anyone tell me the average length of deck planking?
Cheers
Martin
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The_Ships_Cat
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Location: Nr. Aberystwyth, Cymru

Re: HMS Hood

Post by The_Ships_Cat »

Hi Martin. I've just looked in my anatomy of the hood and there is no mention in there about deck timber lengths.
Maybe someone on the Hood forum might know?
Good luck with your project.
regards,
Fiona
The ships cat
"We stand tall on the quarterdeck, son.
All of us."
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hammy
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Location: by the Norfolk Broads , England .

Re: HMS Hood

Post by hammy »

I think the best place to start looking would be in the Ship Plans Department of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich .
Before David Mearns did his TV sponsored expedition to Hood and Bismark I went down there to do some research ( basically I was going to reconoitre to see what they actually had , with a view to finding detailed plans that could aid recognition / identification of wreckage on remote viewing in difficult conditions in the deep sea ).
The ship plans section is not actually in Greenwich , but was at the old Arsenal buildings complex further down the river at Woolwich . ( Check ! This was a while ago now )
There is a whole big dossier on Hood , including a deck and side elevation plan that I remember as being about 20 feet long , which had been corrected down the years as she had been modified , and which showed the change from anti surface ship 5.5 inch secondary guns to the seven twin 4 inch AA , and the UP rocket mountings + ammo stowage .
I dont think deck planking was on that and I dont remember it being in the "Folder" , but then I wasnt looking for it .
Most of the " Prestige " ships of that era had decks of Burmese teak laid in very long lengths , but Hood began construction late in WW1 at the height of the German submarine problem so you would need to check . She also appears to have left her fitting out berth at John Browns in Glasgow early ( to make room for new merchant ship construction post WW1 ) , proceeding straight to Rosyth Dockyard for completion via some preliminary trials in the firth of Clyde .

The University of Glasgow have a Business Records Centre containing photographs from the archives of John Browns , the builders , showing Hood at various stages up to completion . Ive only seen a few in a general book on battleships , but they are high resolution pics , so you may find something there you can use . Realistically , you'd have to phone several times to get to talk to somebody sentient , and then get in there to look at the actual photos + documents .

I think I remember I needed to get a "Readers Ticket" for the National Maritime Museum Library ( which WAS in Greenwich ) to be able to get into the Ship plans section , all these are historic , often original , documents , on restricted access , so you do have to say " pretty please " !
And possibly provide a reference to say you are a genuine researcher , --- as with most of these places they are paranoid about some oik spilling coca-cola all over the documents , or light fingered gentry thieving the exhibits . ( wear a tie , and be nice , right ? )
( I got in by bribing them with an original copy of "the Kings Navy" , a recruiting info+publicity publication from the 1930s which my dad had kept ) .
Even if you dont find what you are looking for , the place is an absolute treasure house of stuff , both in the public bit of the museum and in the restricted collections , I was in and out for four days , and I wish it had been a month !

When I went , the Cutty Sark was still there in Greenwich , and Gypsy Moth alongside ( As a small boy I stood on Plymouth Hoe and saw Chichester come home -- we happened to be visiting my sister and my new niece co-incidentally in Plymouth that week ) Now both gone .

You can take an excursion boat from Greenwich pier up to Westminster pier and see all the river , so when I left I went that way ( well , a trip isn't a proper trip unless you can get afloat at some stage , is it ! )
" Relax ! No-one else is going to be fool enough to be sailing about in this fog ."
lwd
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Re: HMS Hood

Post by lwd »

Are there any photos that might be useable to obtain this? A good shot of her decks with something of known length included (turret perhpas?) should be enough if it shows the planking.
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RF
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Re: HMS Hood

Post by RF »

So how's the model going Martin?
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
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Karl Heidenreich
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Re: HMS Hood

Post by Karl Heidenreich »

Maybe some photos... :cool:
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
Sir Winston Churchill
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