Yes you are cheating if you dont use sheet steel riveted together but remember your boiler tubes will have to be hypodermic needle size and welding at that micro size is a specialist job ! Martin you couldn`t do better than beg , borrow or buy a copy of HMS Hood , the Anatomy of a Ship. I did buy a plastic kit of Invincible just to get a 3D feel for the shapes but I relied mostly on photographs and Jecobin plans. Better than plastic kits or the VERY expensive bit part magazines are card models. They can be scaled up very easily in your local print-shop. They may quiz you on the copyright but since it is for non-commercial personal use they will do it for you. Just specify the scale you want. Marcle Models have a Hood listed at 1:400 scale for £15, a lot cheaper than bit-parts and you get the whole thing to start where and when you like.
www.marcle.co.uk Keep us posted. Have a look at
http://groups.msn.com/MannedModelShips. RO5 is mine,31ft, plenty of pics of the build. On second page of pictures.