Updated Preview: 72nd scale HMS Hood turret B boxart from Takom...

Takom has published boxart for two of their newest kits. Amongst these is the new 1/72nd scale HMS Hood Mk.I 15" /42 Gun Turret B kit. We look at the real thing & what we learnt from the boxart in our preview...

Updated Preview: 72nd scale HMS Hood turret B boxart from Takom...

HMS Hood Mk.I 15" /42 Gun Turret B

From Takom

Kit No: 5020

1/72nd scale

32cm in length

Photo etch included

The HMS Hood's Mk.I 15" /42 Gun Turret B

The Admiral-class ships' main battery was made up of eight BL 15-inch (381 mm) Mk I cannons mounted in twin gun turrets with hydraulic propulsion. From bow to stern, the turrets were given the letters 'A', 'B', 'X', and 'Y'.

An aerial view of Hood in 1924: The two forward gun turrets (A & B) are visible with their prominent rangefinders projecting from the rear of the turret. 

The main guns on the Hood were of 15-inch calibre and are thought to be the greatest naval cannons ever mounted on a battleship. Each and every crew member, as well as each and every system on board HMS Hood, was there to service the firing of these guns. With turret face armour that was 15 inches thick, they were the area of HMS Hood that was most heavily protected. The turrets were perched atop the vertical cylinders known as barbettes, which were covered in armour up to 12 inches thick to safeguard the supply line for shells. 

HMS Hood's forward 15" turrets, with a 4" gun's crew under training in the foreground.

The ornamentation on Hood's two front naval gun turrets, A and B, is likewise quite distinctive. At this time, B turret was marked with her Spanish Civil War marking (the blue/white/red stripes), and A turret had a red circular flagship marking.  Each gun turret has a local control range finder near the back of it. As a general rule, the broader the range finder, the better because it tended to boost target accuracy.

The battle cruiser HMS Hood during a dockyard refit. She served in World War II before she was sunk by the Bismarck on May 24, 1941. The shipwreck was located in 2001 — the 60th anniversary of the battle between the Hood and Bismarck.

The Kit from Takom:

Designed with the help of Snowman - who most of you know through ship models, this allows the modeller to have not only the top German, Japanese, and now British guns to be brought to bear on your workbench. 

These 1/72nd scale turrets from Takom have been a bit of a revelation and a crossover market for Takom. The rivets and slabbed sides are big enough to transfer your armour or even U-Boat builder's skills over to, while the scale and size of these (32.9cm in length of this one) give enough scope to go to town. If it is anything like the Yamato turret we built here on TMN, this will be great.

This kit contains:

- Two marking choices

-A large base for the turret

Photoetched parts to replicate the thinner parts of the gun's turret & equipment.

That is all we have on this kit for now - keep tuned for more info on the kit on TMN. You can see more about Takom's kits on their website or on their Facebook page