Thanks mate!
It was a good idea to give this fine ships an own topic.
I knew the drawings from Naval-Technology and have the plan available at E-Bay in smaller scale (1/192) but it looks as I have to go for that book. I saw it before but didn't purchase it so far.
Nevertheless I bought a MOD supported one dealing with the whole Royal Navy which is quite nice and the current issue of "Weyer Flottetaschenbuch / Warships of the world" is also of some help and on hand.
If you have the plans one method to try for the hull would be to cast a resin blank - a rectangular pice the length and width of the hull. Or you could use wood or balsa if those are more readily available. (I prefer resin and I'll be using a similar method to attempt one of the US Maritime Pre-position Force ships in 1/2400 scale)
Using the plan drawings you shoul be able to get the shape of the maindeck, shape of the loading bay etc. Mark these off on the blank and then router/dremel/carve to fit.
After roughing in the shape this way you can make reference jigs from the hull lines on the plan drawings to work out the hull lines on your model. I know it sounds easier than it probably is but it should give you a fairly close approximation of the hull when you're done.
After that its just a matter of building up the superstructure level by level.
The reason I recommend resin casting ( I use Alumilite) is that its easy, readily available (at least here in the states), if you screw something up you can mix up another batch and fill in the hole and its very sturdy so it will take a lot of abuse.
Paul
“It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.â€
― George Orwell, 1984
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
- George Orwell
Thanks mate!