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.
Let that sink in for a moment. MSW has been one of the internet’s most important gathering places for ship modelers since 2006 — two decades of techniques, research, build logs, and hard-won wisdom shared by modelers from every corner of the world. Beginners found their footing there. Master craftsmen documented their finest work there. Friendships were built there. That archive cannot be reconstructed. This is a genuine loss for our hobby, and it deserves to be acknowledged as such.
The attack appears consistent with a wave of destructive malware activity flagged by cybersecurity researchers in late April 2026. A ransomware variant known as VECT 2.0 — described by Check Point Research as functioning more like a data wiper than traditional ransomware — has been targeting servers worldwide, irreversibly destroying files rather than simply encrypting them for ransom. Whether MSW was struck by this specific variant has not been confirmed, but the pattern of destruction matches.
The NRG has confirmed MSW will be rebuilt from scratch. The forum will return, but without its historical content. Those who maintained personal build logs on MSW are encouraged to check whether they have local copies of their work.
Ships in Scale extends our deepest sympathies to the NRG Board, the MSW admin team, and the thousands of modelers who contributed to that archive over the years. When the NRG is ready to share how the community can help, we’ll amplify that call here. In the meantime, stay connected through your local clubs, the NRG, and right here at shipsinscale.com.