by Marty Shay
1/600 HMS Zuikaku (Airfix)
This is the old Airfix 1/600th scale HMS Hood kit. Nicely designed kit for it’s day, I had to add some 3/16” shims at the aft superstructure to level the boat deck, putty some gaps and replace the forward tripod with stretched sprue. The rigging is stretched sprue. The blast bags are putty and cement. Lots of seams to dress but pretty much an OOB build.
The kit was purchased for $11. The fits are difficult but the finishes and engraving are good quality, for the price paid it’s a good value and a reasonable kit of her 1940 fit.
I’ve had a lot of negative comments on my painting and photography lately so I went for a very conservative flat three color camo design, heavily weathered.
It should be noted that there is no hard evidence that she ever carried a camo scheme, the ship is always
portrayed as being a flat blue-grey monocolor. Hood was for most of her career a showpiece of British
seapower and was maintained in pristine condition. However there are a few black and white shots
(see NH60419 c. 1932 in particular) which suggest a camo pattern at some point and definite evidence of
weathering. There are several references to her being “elderly and worn” at the time of the
Denmark Strait action. Contemporary ships did carry various camo patterns so I think it’s a
reasonable assumption that she had some form of camouflage even though I cannot document it.
