HMS Hood Battleship

This is the best model of the Bismarck that I have had the the pleasure to build. The Tamiya model, while quite good, is still beaten by this kit. It is very highly detailed with very nice molds, leaving little flash or extra plastic. What really puts it over the top for me, however, is the inclusion of rails to the kit. Now, while they are not photo-etch rails like you would see in a third-party detail kit, they are still really nice plastic railings that add an extra level of detail and realism to the kit (even with the railings being slightly large for their scale). Now, if you are planning to buy a photo-etch kit for this model they are irrelevent, but the rest of the model is still very nice. I would recommend this kit to any modeler who wants a nice, while also challenging, kit to work on. I would recommend some experience, however.

Trumpeter products have a reputation of varying in quality, with some Trumpeter kits being better quality than others. However, Trumpeter have apparently put a lot of effort into the HMS Hood. Working with the HMS Hood Association, Trumpeter has created an accurate, easy to build model that depicts the HMS Hood as sunk on May 24, 1941. Parts fit is excellent, though there are a few small errors, but those are virtually unnoticeable to those who do not know the ship well. It is one of the best plastic 1:350 Hoods, but would still benefit from an aftermarket photoetch set.

I throughly enjoyed working on this model. There are a lot of small parts but manageable. So if you don't like working with small parts, I do not recommend this model. I only ran into a couple of parts not fitting. The instruction was confusing at times, so I strongly recommend reviewing the instruction throughly. This is a large model almost 30, so you need a stand or shelve capable of holding a model of this size.