Hi Geoff, Colin
Good to hear from you both on this subject, the more ideas the better. I won't be cutting the hull until I'm sure that it won't twist or deform.
The Scharnhorst hull is from Manfred Zinnicker of ModelbauZinnicker in Germany. Managed to get a hull paid for before the Pound crash so probably got a better deal than you would now but I paid 260EUROs but it came with prop shafts fully fitted, all portholes, all scuttles, gun emplacements and the deck/hull curvature. It came with a deck too. So its not too bad for the money but it took me a lot of emails and reminders to him to actually get the hull sent to me (took six months). I was actually worried at one point that I had been cheated but it arrived two weeks before I deployed so at least I've got it. He is a really nice chap to talk to and very apologetic but wouldn't give any details on why it took so long.