Update: Model Ship World is Back

Good news for the ship modeling community: Model Ship World is back online.

As many of you know, MSW was taken down on May 2nd following a devastating cyberattack that destroyed the forum’s data — including all backups. Ships in Scale published the NRG’s original statement shortly after the attack, and we promised to share updates as they came. Here is the latest, directly from NRG Chairman Toni Levine:

As many of you know, Model Ship World (MSW) was the victim of a massive cyber-attack on May 2nd. A group of hackers found a way around server security and broke into many servers, destroying data. The attackers not only deleted the files from our primary server housing MSW but also deleted the three backups we had on a secondary, separate server.

Tragically, we were in the process of moving MSW to a different host, one with more robust security, including the ways the backups were held. If the attack had occurred one week later, we would have already migrated and therefore been unaffected by it. Moving forward, we will also maintain a local hard drive backup of the site, under the control of the Nautical Research Guild office.

If you were a member of MSW before, welcome back. The look and feel is very similar to what it was before the attack. Since all data was lost, you will need to rejoin, not just sign in. A legitimate email address is required to join but that information is not searchable by the members. You will then be known by your screen name, just like before. Keep your old one and be instantly recognized by your fellow modelers or use this as an opportunity to rename yourself.

If anyone has saved build logs, either your own or other members’, send one of the Administrators or Moderators a PM.

Remember, MSW is owned by the NRG. There are significant expenses associated with maintaining the site. Consider donating to help defray the additional cost of running MSW. Or better yet, join the Guild. Not only would you help support MSW, but you would receive our quarterly Journal and have access to every online workshop we have presented over the last few years.

— Toni Levine, Chairman, Nautical Research Guild

Welcome back, MSW. We’re glad you’re still sailing.

On the Water: Taking a Tour of a Coast Guard 40 Boat

By TR Mayer

We publish six issues of Ships in Scale a year, full of build logs, techniques, history, and reviews. Every so often we take one article out from behind the subscription and share it in full – so you can see exactly the kind of work that fills every issue. Here is TR Mayer’s tour of his scratch-built Coast Guard utility boat, reprinted complete from the May/June 2026 issue. If you enjoy it, there is a subscription link at the end.

I’m sure a few old-timers looking at this Coast Guard boat will ask, “Where’s the racing stripe?” One or two may even question the hull number. The first question is fair – I built this boat to represent what I knew in 1963. The diagonal red stripe didn’t appear until April 1967, so this version predates it. (You’ll also notice the “gumball” on the mast is still red rather than the current blue.) As for the hull number: there was a CG 40534 and a CG 40536, but CG 40535 was never built – so I thought I’d fill in the gap. The rest of this build is as accurate as I know how to make it.

Continue reading “On the Water: Taking a Tour of a Coast Guard 40 Boat” →

Inside the May/June 2026 Issue of Ships in Scale

Three issues into the relaunch, Ships in Scale is starting to feel less like a magazine and more like a crew. The May/June 2026 issue didn’t come together because we went looking for content – it came together because modelers reached out, wanting to share their work, their hard-won knowledge, and their corner of the hobby. Here is a guided tour of what is inside.

The cover story: warships at the limit of the hands

Linus Spjutsberg opens a new series, “At the Limit of the Hands,” on building Age of Sail warships in 1/700 scale. This is modeling at the edge of what human hands can manage: resin hulls the length of a large thumb, brass rigging wire roughly twice the thickness of a human hair, and research drawn straight from the Admiralty draughts at the National Maritime Museum. Part One covers scale, materials, and preparation – and it will have you rethinking what is possible at miniature scales.

Builds for every bench

Four build articles span the experience range. George Athanasiou begins a beginner-friendly build of HMS Beagle – the ship that carried Charles Darwin around the world – walking newer modelers through keel assembly, planking, fairing, and copper plating with unusual clarity. Thomas Koehl continues his 1/35 scale scratch build of a WWII Harbor Defense Motor Launch, taking the deckhouse and bridge from bare deck to fully detailed. Scott Himowitz wrestles with paint matching, a photoetched degaussing line, and the first frustrating RC water trials on his 1/200 scale HMS Hood. And Ron Neilson returns with Part 3 of his 3D printing series, asking the practical question every modeler eventually faces: make or buy?

History and research

Two articles reward the modeler who likes to dig. Ian McLaughlan, Chairman of the Society of Model Shipwrights, continues “Don’t Forget Us, We Also Served” with a close look at the sail plans, sweeps, and gun arrangements of the minor warships – the sloops and advice boats that history overlooked, and that offer the builder a wide-open field for original work. Scott Bradner tackles an unusual subject: the livestock pens and chicken coops that fed crew and passengers aboard clipper ships, researched from period letters and surviving museum models.

Reviews, departments, and one free read

Robert Hunt – who has built six HMS Victory kits over 35 years – delivers a frank, multi-part review of the $1,600 Artesania Latina Anatomy HMS Victory: what works, what doesn’t, and what to watch for. In Scuttlebutt, we sit down with fourteen-year-old modeler Caelan McCormick. Greg Baumgartner walks through his coppering method in Shipwright’s Apprentice, Soundings rounds up new kits, and Around the Horn covers the 43rd Annual Northeast Ship Model Conference. The issue also includes the Reader’s Showcase and our 2026 Kit Manufacturer Survey.

And from the On the Water department, we have published TR Mayer’s tour of his scratch-built Coast Guard 40 boat in full, free, right here on the site – a complete article from the issue, so you can see exactly the kind of work that fills every page.

Subscribe to Ships in Scale

Ships in Scale publishes six times a year, written by modelers for modelers. A print + digital subscription is $44.95/year in the US ($54.95 Canada, $64.95 international); a single copy is $15. Subscribe at https://simplecirc.com/subscribe/ships-in-scale – and keep building.

In Memory of Grant Walker

It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that Grant Walker passed away on May 6, 2025, after a battle with cancer. He was 73 years old.

Grant was, in every sense, a man who found his calling. A West Point graduate, Army Ranger, and veteran Foreign Area Officer, he retired from the Army in 1993 after a final posting as an instructor of history at the United States Naval Academy — and it was there, walking the halls of the Museum in Preble Hall, that he encountered the Rogers Collection of dockyard ship models. What began as a spark of curiosity grew into more than thirty years of devoted scholarship. Grant didn’t just study these models — he came to know them with an intimacy that few people in the world could claim. He could walk you through a room of centuries-old objects and make each one come alive with history, context, and quiet wonder. I was fortunate enough to receive a personal tour of the collection from Grant on more than one occasion, and I can tell you that his love for those models — and for the Naval Academy Museum and its team — was unmistakable in every word he spoke.

The result of that lifelong devotion is the four-volume series The Rogers Collection of Dockyard Models at the U.S. Naval Academy, published by SeaWatch Books. It is a monumental work — one of the most authoritative and beautifully produced maritime reference series we have ever had the privilege to publish.  Volume IV — the final installment in the series — was completed by Grant before his passing and will be published soon as a tribute to his life’s work. We are committed to seeing it into print with all the care it deserves.

Grant is survived by his beloved wife Annick, who was his constant champion and, in his own words, the person without whom none of this would have been possible. Our deepest sympathies go to her.

Working with Grant over these past several years was one of the genuine privileges of running SeaWatch Books. He was gracious, meticulous, and deeply generous with his knowledge. The maritime community has lost one of its finest scholars — and I have lost a friend.

A Message from the NRG Board and MSW Administrator Jim Hatch

Editor’s note: Ships in Scale received the following message directly from the NRG Board of Directors, who asked us to help spread the word to the broader ship modeling community.

In the last three days, there has been a global issue regarding the software that operates computer servers. This has impacted websites and servers around the world. An unscrupulous group of hackers had found a way around server security and had broken into many servers, destroying data.

Unfortunately for us, Model Ship World’s server was one of countless to be affected.

Over the last 36hrs, our host had taken our server offline to apply software patches which would secure our server, but by the time they did this, it was too late.

The attackers not only deleted the files from our primary disc, housing MSW, but also deleted the three backups we had on a secondary, separate drive.

Model Ship World doesn’t exist in any form. All files, photos, structure, posts, and data have gone.

This was out of our control, and there will many sites around the world, including corporate/business sites, which will also be destroyed.

All we can do from this point is to move on. It will take us some time to recreate the site as members knew it. However, it will NOT have the posts, topics and photos etc. It will be a fresh start.

Please bear with us while we look at this task, as our staff also have other regular jobs and need to fit this into their schedules.

We will be back though. Please bear with us at this time and give as much support as you can.

NRG Board of Directors and MSW Administrators

Model Ship World Suffers Catastrophic Data Loss in Cyberattack

Model Ship World (MSW), the Nautical Research Guild’s flagship online forum and one of the largest ship modeling communities in the world, has been taken offline following a devastating cyberattack that destroyed the site’s data — including all backups.

According to a statement from the NRG Board and MSW administration, attackers exploited a vulnerability in the forum’s server software, deleting both the primary data storage and three separate backup copies housed on a secondary drive. The result: hundreds of thousands of posts, tens of thousands of build logs, photos, and years of accumulated community knowledge are gone. Simply gone.

Continue reading “Model Ship World Suffers Catastrophic Data Loss in Cyberattack” →

43rd Annual Northeast Ship Model Conference — April 25, 2026

The Northeast Ship Model Conference is one of the longest-running regional gatherings for ship modelers in the country, bringing together builders of all skill levels for a day of models, demonstrations, and camaraderie. This year’s 43rd edition returned to its longtime home at the Port ‘n Starboard in New London on April 25, with the USS Constitution Model Shipwright Guild serving as host club. (The host club rotates annually, but the venue remains the same — and for good reason.)

The turnout was strong: over 100 registered attendees plus walk-in visitors, with nearly 100 models on display spanning sail, power, and everything in between.

Continue reading “43rd Annual Northeast Ship Model Conference — April 25, 2026” →

Start a Ship Model Club in Tennessee!

Are there any scale ship modelers in the Memphis area? One of your fellow hobbyists is looking to find out.

A reader in Eads, Tennessee, is interested in connecting with other ship modelers in the greater Memphis region with an eye toward forming a local club — a place to share research, swap techniques, and enjoy the kind of bench talk that only happens when modelers get together in person.

If you’re in the area and interested, reach out to the editor at editor@shipsinscale.com and we’ll put you in touch.

Ship modeling clubs are one of the best things that can happen to this hobby. They’re where skills get passed down, friendships get built, and projects that seemed impossible suddenly become approachable. If you’ve ever thought about having a local community to build alongside, this might be the spark you’ve been waiting for.

Good Kits. Bad Kits. We Want the Truth.

The 2026 Ships in Scale Kit Manufacturer Survey is here — and we need your help.

You’ve been there. You open a new kit, spread the parts across the workbench, and unfold the plans. Sometimes what you find is a thing of beauty — crisp laser-cut frames, quality timber, fittings that actually fit, and instructions that walk you through every step. Other times… not so much. Warped planking stock. Plans that raise more questions than they answer. Parts that belong in a different kit entirely.

Every modeler has opinions about the manufacturers behind the kits we build. Strong opinions. We want to hear yours.

Continue reading “Good Kits. Bad Kits. We Want the Truth.” →