Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Meng cartoon "Hood"

 

My dad is still working on his scale model or the warship Hood - but when looking through the Meng website after finishing my Santa Tank, I spotted a plastic kit version and wondered if I could finish this before he had his on the water. 

Spoiler: Yes I can. 

The kit is designed as a push-together model that should be reasonably idiot proof. In theory, the modeller doesn't even have to paint anything as the plastic is self-coloured. Of course, I don't approve of not painting, so quite a lot took place before removing any parts from the sprues. 

As you can see, there are decks to paint at the very least - the box suggests half a dozen different colours. I decided that the pale grey bits could be sprayed Humbrol 64 and then dry-brushed with a paler shade as the detail is very impressive. The hull bottom gets a coats of Halfords red oxide primer, my standard anti-fouling shade, and as easy a paint to spray as you are likely to find. 

Then, everything was left to dry. For several months as it turned out...

5 comments:

James Finister said...

Have you seen their steam punkish harbour kit?

Phil Parker said...

Oh yes. It wasn't just a Hood I bought...

James Finister said...

I have mixed feelings about these models. I've no problem with the aircraft ones, and then I get progressively less comfortable with the AFVs and particularly the ships. How do you model the Hood without thinking about how many people died on her, and is it disrespectful? Irrational I know, especially since I enjoy building COBI models.

Phil Parker said...

James - I ponder the same thing tomorrow.

Huw Griffiths said...

There could be a few ways of looking at kits / models of ships (well, lots of things, really) in which people perished:

* People who aren't aware of the "unfortunate history" might just see these as interesting models.

* Some people might also want the models because the prototype marked a particular stage in design evolution / engineering developments. (Potential examples of this sort of thing might include models of NASA Space Shuttles - 2 of which were destroyed in accidents, in which everyone on board perished. Some people are likely to build models of these now - and they're likely to be fully aware of what happened ... .)

* Other people might just use the kits / models as a means to build a model of something else.

* Some people might also might specifically want such a model - perhaps on a basis of "we don't want to forget".


In other words, I could potentially see a number of perfectly legitimate reasons why some people might want such models. How many of these reasons you might agree with - in fact, how many I might agree with - is likely to be a matter of personal opinion. I certainly wouldn't want to tell anyone what to think.