Very glad to read that you've taken the plunge with this model. You won't regret it, believe me, and on the water it is the most wonderful thing afloat.
I suggest right at the start you make a decision about which ship it is going to be, because all 9 of them (the largest class of battleships ever built) had subtle and not so subtle differences. I have seen models of
Caesar, Hannibal and
Majestic (and my own
Mars) based on the kit, so there's plenty of others to choose from if you fancy something different.
I've not been able to find a builder's model of any of these ships (If anyone knows of one, please advise!) but the model of
Russel in the imperial war museum has much detail in common. Surprisingly there are two surviving ships:
Mikasa in Japan is virtually a
Manificent and
Texas, in Houston, the last surviving
Dreadnought, answers many detail questions as well as being equipped with triple expansion engines.
The Burt book referred to would be a good idea and was not available when I built my model so I used instead a pair of articles by the same author that appeared in 'Warship' Vol VII (1983). This is possibly the same material that appears in 'British Battleships'. One of the illustrations shows the individual configurations of the ships, the main points being:
Main deck torpedo net shelf vs. upper deck
Striking (stepped) topmasts vs. concentric
Foremast through the bridge vs. behind it as in the kit
Turret shape different in the last ships
I decided to scratch build the bridge structure because I wanted the 'mast through bridge' configuration and also suspect that the deckhouses printed in the kit are a little overscale. Compare with Burt's elevation drawing. I also built the masts from K&S tube rather than the wood supplied and have not regretted the decision. I made the torpedo net booms from tube as well as I thought the supplied white metal castings would be vulnerable. (You will need to make these anyway if you are going to have an upper deck net shelf as in most of the ships.) I made the davits from brazing wire endlessly filed and emery'd to a taper section for the same reason.
One thing I would do differently is to add very substantial bilge keels because she is a snappy roller in a short sea of the kind you can get at Wicksteed. By substantial I mean strong, keyed right through the fibreglass hull and secured with P40 on the inside so that no leaks are possible. The same goes for the net shelves because this is where one's grip goes when handling what is quite a heavy model.
Apart from those details, I followed the kit and used virtually all of the supplied fittings. I used car heater motors because with 12 poles you can have to the props turning about 1 rev per second and gave her differential power, which I would say is essential.
This is a truly wonderful kit of a wonderful ship and a tribute to Ron and his team. In my case it spawned a fleet of Victorian warships, none of which would have happened if I had not walked into his showroom that day and out again with that gigantic cardboard box. Ron should be justly proud when he sees these models at the shows. Thanks, Ron.
Here's
Mars