starting to build Fearless and Intrepid in 1/72nd scale
Hi Nige,
1/72 is quite colossal, but has the advantage of the availability of Airfix kits for the helicopters and vehicles and sailors. Seriously impressive though and I hope they are going to get everything to work on board. As you say the big picture can be very daunting - there is a lot of ship to work on. At the moment I'm concentrating on just a small area, the bridge with its complex mezzanine deck and foremast.
I'd say wheelhouse, but from what I remember the ship's wheel was a small thing in a windowless room in the bowels of the ship somewhere with a very hypnotic gyro-compass repeater in front of it. I remember getting yelled at down a brass voice tube by the officer of the watch for steering in the wrong direction!
As for build posts, I think with something where the structure is so complex such as these warships, one almost needs to see some detailed pictures to understand how the structure works. The plans can be very difficult to follow. I have trawled through books, the net and films to understand how the ship looks. I discovered the ability to print off still pictures from film via my computer - very useful to catch unusual angles and views.