The Review:
The same height, but slightly wider than an A4 sheet of paper, the hardback "Battleship Warspite detailed in the original builders' plans" contains 144 pages of pure awesome.
![Thumbs up :-))](https://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/Smileys/Tug/thumbup.gif)
I suspect it'll slurp up more than a few hours of careful studying. Virtually every page has colour copies of the original builders' plans (where the Warspite's are no longer in existence, sister-ships are used). These are annotated throughout, and often cross-indexed to other pages where there's the opportunity to provide more detail. As a bonus, a double-page, fold-out elevation is present.
All plans appear to be scaleable - that is, you can measure off the four-foot frame spacing where shown, or use the deck height measurements that are present, to allow for re-drawing the ship at the scale (and period) of your choice. The additional text is pretty much exhaustive for the ship, her evolution and history: top marks to Robert Brown and Seaforth Publishing.
It's been many years since I was last impressed so much by a book on naval subjects (that was "HMS Dreadnought" in the Anatomy of the Ship series) and if this series continues in the same vein, I don't think readers will be disappointed.
Could I use Ross Watton's (slightly patchy) Anatomy of the Ship book on "Warspite" to make a decent model from scratch? Not quite, I think: it lacks in a few crucial areas. This Original Builders' Plans fills in all that missing info and more. That said, don't buy this thinking you'd be cutting a model Warspite's keel in five minutes. It's definitely a scratch-builder's book for someone who doesn't mind a lot of re-drawing/CAD work.
...Which is me!
Five stars, for sure.
Andy