Been doing some research and sussing out ways of "making things possible".
I've decided to model the ship as she was in 1914, round about the out-break of war.
During 1914, she was the flagship of the Cannel Fleet which was commanded by Vice-admiral Sir Cecil Burney (he was promoted to full Admiral in 1916). I've found a picture of her in 1914 wearing the flag of a Vice-admiral so it looks to be spot on.
An Admiral of the fleet would fly the union flag at the mast-head, a full Admiral, the cross of St George, a Vice-admiral, the cross of St George with a red spot in the top quarter adjacent to the mast and a Rear-admiral, the cross of St George with a red spot in both quarters adjacent to the mast. (thought you might like to know that).
Next job is to check for any historical errors in the kit. All the specs I can find tell me that she was fitted with twenty-four 12pdr guns, all mounted above the level of the main and secondary armament. The kit depicts her with all 24, plus one atop each of the main and secondary turrets. There does appear to be "something there" where a gun could be fitted but I can't find any evidence, either photographic or written that they were ever fitted. So I chopped 'em off.
There should also be two 3 pdr's, one on the quarter-deck, can't find where the other goes as yet, looks like a visit to the spares box.
The rigging for the top-masts is attached to the ends of some of the gussets that support the spotting tops (thanks for the loan of the book Martin). If I were to follow the instructions, this wouldn't happen so a bit of "re-engineering" was in order. The positioning had to be changed, some of the lengths altered and the three that do the business lengthened with some 0.4mm rod.
HB would have you paint all the decks above the main weather deck the same colour as the rest of the ship, it just don't look right. I tried something a bit darker, still didn't look right. I know it was custom and practice to cover some steel decks with linoleum. To me it looks a bit more interesting so that's what I'll live with (artistic licence), darker grey for the gun deck and linoleum above that.
That's it for now folks, more to come in the fullness of time.
Haddock.