The Admiral-class battlecruisers were designed in response to the German Mackensen-class battlecruisers, which were reported to be more heavily armed and armoured than the latest British battlecruisers of the Renown and the Courageous classes. The design was revised after the Battle of Jutland to incorporate heavier armour and all four ships were laid down. Only Hood was completed, because the ships were very expensive and required labour and material that could be put to better use building merchant ships needed to replace those lost to the German U-boat campaign.

Hood was significantly larger than her predecessors of the Renown class. As completed she had an overall length of 860 feet 7 inches (262.3 m), a maximum beam of 104 feet 2 inches (31.8 m), and a draught of 32 feet (9.8 m) at deep load. This was 110 feet (33.5 m) longer and 14 feet (4.3 m) wider than the older ships. She displaced 42,670 long tons (43,350 t) at load and 46,680 long tons (47,430 t) at deep load, over 13,000 long tons (13,210 t) more than the older ships. The ship had a complete double bottom. Hood had a metacentric height of 4.2 feet (1.3 m) at deep load, which minimised her roll and made her a steady gun platform. The additional armour added during construction increased her draught by about 4 feet (1.2 m) at deep load, which reduced her freeboard and made her very wet. At full speed, or in heavy seas, water would flow over the ship's quarterdeck and often entered the messdecks and living quarters through ventilation shafts. This characteristic earned her the nickname of "the largest submarine in the Navy". The persistent dampness, coupled with the ship's poor ventilation, was blamed for the high incidence of tuberculosis aboard. The ship's complement varied widely over her career; in 1919 she was authorised 1433 men as a squadron flagship; in 1934, she had 81 officers and 1244 men aboard.

This is the first of Aoshima's somewhat considerable number of 1/2000 ship kits. . All of the detail is raised (what there is of it), and this leads me to believe it is not a new tool kit. As you might suspect, there is not much to this one. Molded in three sprues, one of which is dark red, the molding is fairly clean and flash free. There is quite a bit of detail molded into the main deck such as ship's boats and A-A guns.

The kit looks like it could be built as a waterline if you so wish. The two dark red pieces are the lower hull. There is little detail on these pieces aside from molded on rudder and prop bits. All of the primary and secondary armament are separate bits. Funnels are a single mold and you build up the fore and aft mast. A stand is included to allow the model to be displayed.

The assembly instructions are on the back of the box and there is no painting information aside from what is shown on the box top, which doesn't help when it comes to flight deck colors! For those who wonder how much shelf space it will require, it is a tad over 5 inches long.

This one has to be developed for wargamers as much as anyone else, though most wargaming ships I've seen are 1/2400. It would be appropriate for the beginning modeler, despite some rather small parts. Other will build it for a true weekend construction project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hood_%2851%29

September 2014

Thanks to www.dragonmodelsusa.com  for the preview kit. You can find this one at your favorite hobby shop or on-line retailer.

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