Hello folks – I’m another new boy to this model ship-building malarky. . . the so-called semi-scale seems the thing that grabs me at the moment . . . looks the part from a distance, ideal !  I like the free plans that appear in magazines and the type of stuff Glynn Guest comes up with. . . I helped a small yoof make an imaginary HMS PALADIN from Model Boats and it works a treat , so he tells me, and to remind myself of the little I knew at 14, which was the last time I made anything balsa ( a Vernon kit ? ) I had a go at HMS WINCHESTER from MMI magazine a year or so back . . . am I allowed to use thier name here ? I think my finished model looks great, and I made up a model of a sort of US navy guided missle destroyer to give to the son of a friend soon . . . and I have two hulls of semi-scale Leanders , from a very old BBC publication on model-making. . . .  thing is chaps, will I ever get these things into water or am I possessed of some incurable constructional disease . . . I say this because I am 60 years old and should know better !( Is the bath the only solution ? )

 Oh yes, the book . . . I need to know a bit about the various bits of ” gubbins ” that all my photos of Leanders show on the rear end – I know it is mainly the towed array sonar stuff, but even semi-scale has to look something like – or am I missing the point ? Anyone recommend a book that shows this sort of detail ?