Mike French Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share #31 Posted July 16, 2015 Here is an update. I altered the base for the rear windows again and will leave it at that I have cleaned up the transom. Next was the cats head . Corel said the size was 7x5 mm but I only had 5x5. so I laminated two 5x1 pieces. The only thing is if you scale it up the cats heads are about 600 wide in real terms .Is this too much? Next was the Bow sprit a bit fiddley but as luck happened the plank I left on the front proved to be the correct angle and will use this as part of the base for the Bowsprit support as shown by Chapman. I then had to make some cathead supports as the Corel ones (well). These were made out of Huon Pine . This is Molly a 9 month old British Blue who oversees every thing I do on the ship. I have now started on the Head Timbers and after studying Chapman's drawing I am going to follow his lines as much as I can Because of the position of the unicorn. I studied Danny's work on the Vulture (magnificent) for the head works to give me more of an idea of how it works> I haven't the skill of Danny or the equipment for a finer scale but I will try. Here are the lower cheeks . the second cheeks and hair brackets All these will be fitted shortly. Not sure I will get much done in the next few weeks as I am heading across the Nullabor Desert to Perth for 5 weeks. See yu when I get back. Mike ianmajor, Griffon, Sasha131 and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.Coleman Posted July 16, 2015 Share #32 Posted July 16, 2015 I like the stern windows. Came up nice. I hope those head timbers fit without too much trouble. The whole thing looks great. Quote Regards, Scott Current build: 1:75 Friesland, Mamoli Completed builds: 1:64 Rattlesnake, Mamoli - 1:64 HMS Bounty, Mamoli - 1:54 Adventure, Amati - 1:80 King of the Mississippi, AL 1:64 Blue Shadow, Mamoli - 1:64 Leida Dutch pleasure boat, Corel - 1:60 HMS President Mantra, Sergal Awaiting construction: 1:89 Hermione La Fayette AL - 1:48 Perserverance, Modelers shipyard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianmajor Posted July 18, 2015 Share #33 Posted July 18, 2015 Mike, It is looking very good. I do like your cathead supports - a big improvement. Quote Ian M. Current build: HMS Unicorn (1748) - Corel Kit Advice from my Grandfather to me. The only people who don't make mistakes are those who stand back and watch. The trick is not to repeat the error. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomJonas Posted September 11, 2015 Share #34 Posted September 11, 2015 I once built Unicorn, or rather almost built it. Just a few finishing details of the rigging was all that was left, when I suddenly stopped. Mostly because we moved to an other house, and I was fed up with the ship. But this was perhaps 15-20 years ago. Now I am retired and have som plans. Taking up oil-painting again, join the bridge club, take part in guided tours in nature, take a course with my Stratocaster. And build ship models. I have studied Model Ship World for a couple of weeks now, and seen most of what the market has to offer. But I must say Unicorn will probably be my choice once again. It was fairly easy to build and will not take five years to finish. So I follow all Unicorn-logs with great interest. Many of you make interesting re-designs, mostly regarding the decks. So...keep on rocking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike French Posted September 23, 2015 Author Share #35 Posted September 23, 2015 Welcome Tom I have been away for a while and will be commencing building again . If you start a new model I will follow it with interest. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiseholidays1 Posted January 13, 2016 Share #36 Posted January 13, 2016 HI MIKE MY NAME IS CHUCK AND I RESIDE IN SOUTH FLORIDA. MY PROBLEM IS MY DOG EAT SOME OF MY PLANS FOR THE UNICORN COULD YOU BE KIND ENOUGH TO EITHER COPY A SET OF MY MISSING ITEMS FOR ME OR JUST TAKE PHOTOS OF THE PLANS AND EMAIL ME. I AM WILLING TO PAY FOR YOUR EFFORTS. I AM MISSING PLAN FIGURES 19 TO 46. YOUR HELP WOULD GREATLY BE APPRECIATED. NICE WORK ON YOUR MODEL. I THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR EFFORTS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianmajor Posted January 13, 2016 Share #37 Posted January 13, 2016 Mike hasn't been on line for few weeks so may not see your request straight away. I have the plans but mine are the original 1974 ones. The Diagrams you specify I don't think have changed. I can easily scan them in and get them to you. I will drop you a PM to compare notes and arrange - no charge, I am sure you would help me out. BTW - Did you know that in the UK one of the most frequently used excuses given by children for not having handed their homework in is "My dog ate it"! mtaylor and Landlubber Mike 2 Quote Ian M. Current build: HMS Unicorn (1748) - Corel Kit Advice from my Grandfather to me. The only people who don't make mistakes are those who stand back and watch. The trick is not to repeat the error. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiseholidays1 Posted August 3, 2016 Share #38 Posted August 3, 2016 I AM IN THE MIST OF BUILDING MY UNICORN. HOWEVER, I JUST REALIZED THAT I DO NOT HAVE PAGE 4 OF THE PLANS. CANNOT ANYONE HELP ME? I APPRECIATE YOUR HELP IN ADVANCE. THANKS CHUCK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobra1951 Posted August 3, 2016 Share #39 Posted August 3, 2016 (edited) I AM IN THE MIST OF BUILDING MY UNICORN. HOWEVER, I JUST REALIZED THAT I DO NOT HAVE PAGE 4 OF THE PLANS. CANNOT ANYONE HELP ME? I APPRECIATE YOUR HELP IN ADVANCE. THANKS CHUCK If it's any help you can buy the plans here just scroll down to the 20th one Edited August 3, 2016 by Cobr@ Landlubber Mike 1 Quote Bob Current Build HMB Endeavour - Occre 1:54 Completed Builds Section Deck Between Gun Bays - Panart 1:23 scale....x 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianmajor Posted August 3, 2016 Share #40 Posted August 3, 2016 (edited) Chuck, I have my plans scanned in on a share drive. If you drop me a PM with your email address I can give you access to them. One thing my instructions are version 1. A later version does exist but sheet 4 is unchanged I believe. Edited August 3, 2016 by ianmajor Landlubber Mike and cobra1951 2 Quote Ian M. Current build: HMS Unicorn (1748) - Corel Kit Advice from my Grandfather to me. The only people who don't make mistakes are those who stand back and watch. The trick is not to repeat the error. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Morrison Posted August 25, 2016 Share #41 Posted August 25, 2016 (edited) Greetings! I am considering purchasing the Corel HMS Unicorn but have been warned over on the Fine Scale Modeler site that this is a poor kit that does not represent any actual ship. To be fair, these types of kits are decried in general over there, which has not been my experience at all. I am currently working on HMS Pandora by Constructo, which I have enjoyed building. Can anyone speak about the Unicorn's accuracy? Thanks! Bill Edited August 25, 2016 by Bill Morrison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landlubber Mike Posted August 26, 2016 Share #42 Posted August 26, 2016 (edited) There actually was a Unicorn - it and its sister ship the Lyme were members of the Lyme class, and are considered to be the first true frigates. The ship's plans were in Chapman's "Architectura" book, which you can see here (scroll down to plate LV), or you can go to the National Maritime Museum's website and see the plans for the Lyme, which are also on my log. http://www.finemodelships.com/ship-plans/Chapman_Architectura_eng.htm http://www.sjohistoriska.se/ImageVaultFiles/id_2241/cf_1115/55.JPG (direct link to plans) Take a look at Ian's log and my log of the Lyme (based on the Corel Unicorn). Lots of inaccuracies in the kit which can generally be overcome though with a little forethought and preparation. Probably the biggest I would say is the closed waist and wrong slope to the deck levels, particularly at the stern. Those can be fixed early in the build. Other issues which are trickier to deal with are the inaccurate placement of the figurehead and how the stern comes together. Essentially, the stern galleries are incorrectly placed, there should be a stern post, and the angle of where the stern post should be is wrong. There are some other slight inaccuracies from the actual ship in terms of the deck items, location of the masts, location of the first bulkhead, and the gammoning. All that being said, the ship does make for a very nice model, regardless of whether you tackle these inaccuracies. Edited August 26, 2016 by Landlubber Mike Quote Mike Current Wooden builds: Amati/Victory Pegasus MS Charles W. Morgan Euromodel La Renommèe Plastic builds: SB2U-1 Vindicator 1/48 Five Star Yaeyama 1/700 Pit Road Asashio and Akashi 1/700 diorama Walrus 1/48 and Albatross 1/700 Special Hobby Buffalo 1/32 Eduard Sikorsky JRS-1 1/72 IJN Notoro 1/700 Akitsu Maru 1/700 Completed builds : Caldercraft Brig Badger Amati Hannah - Ship in Bottle Pit Road Hatsuzakura 1/700 Hasegawa Shimakaze 1:350 F4B-4 and P-6E 1/72 Accurate Miniatures F3F-1/F3F-2 1/48 Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat built as FM-1 1/48 Special Hobby Buffalo 1/48 Citroen 2CV 1/24 - Airfix and Tamiya Entex Morgan 3-wheeler 1/16 Terminated build: HMS Lyme (based on Corel Unicorn) On the shelf: Euromodel Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pferde; Caldercraft Victory; too many plastic ship, plane and car kits Future potential scratch builds: HMS Lyme (from NMM plans); Le Gros Ventre (from Ancre monographs), Dutch ship from Ab Hoving book, HMS Sussex from McCardle book, Philadelphia gunboat (Smithsonian plans) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Morrison Posted August 26, 2016 Share #43 Posted August 26, 2016 Mike, Thank you for your reply. I do know that there were three frigates by the name HMS Unicorn, but sources seem to be conflicted about which one this kit represents. Anyway, I went ahead and ordered this kit. I am looking forward to this build! Bill Landlubber Mike 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landlubber Mike Posted August 26, 2016 Share #44 Posted August 26, 2016 (edited) This kit is definitely supposed to be the 1748 version - look at the Chapman plans and the NMM plans of the Lyme. The problem is the narrow waist is not consistent with frigates from that period, but frigates from later in the century. That's probably why people say they are not sure what ship the kit is supposed to represent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Unicorn_(1748) Make sure you start a build log here. We'd love to follow your progress. I ended up stopping my Unicorn build, as I liked its sister ship, the Lyme, a little better and will scratch build it in the future since the Corel keel is incorrect when it comes to the stern and quarter galleries. Edited August 26, 2016 by Landlubber Mike Quote Mike Current Wooden builds: Amati/Victory Pegasus MS Charles W. Morgan Euromodel La Renommèe Plastic builds: SB2U-1 Vindicator 1/48 Five Star Yaeyama 1/700 Pit Road Asashio and Akashi 1/700 diorama Walrus 1/48 and Albatross 1/700 Special Hobby Buffalo 1/32 Eduard Sikorsky JRS-1 1/72 IJN Notoro 1/700 Akitsu Maru 1/700 Completed builds : Caldercraft Brig Badger Amati Hannah - Ship in Bottle Pit Road Hatsuzakura 1/700 Hasegawa Shimakaze 1:350 F4B-4 and P-6E 1/72 Accurate Miniatures F3F-1/F3F-2 1/48 Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat built as FM-1 1/48 Special Hobby Buffalo 1/48 Citroen 2CV 1/24 - Airfix and Tamiya Entex Morgan 3-wheeler 1/16 Terminated build: HMS Lyme (based on Corel Unicorn) On the shelf: Euromodel Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pferde; Caldercraft Victory; too many plastic ship, plane and car kits Future potential scratch builds: HMS Lyme (from NMM plans); Le Gros Ventre (from Ancre monographs), Dutch ship from Ab Hoving book, HMS Sussex from McCardle book, Philadelphia gunboat (Smithsonian plans) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike French Posted July 2, 2019 Author Share #45 Posted July 2, 2019 Hi Fellas I am back at it .The saga of the Unicorn . After my last post I Had issues with my hands and lost confidence in doing the build.so it sat for quite a long time . Last winter I decided something had to be done and restarted very slowly. I had completely forgotten about my posts (age related I think ) and I will post some more photos once I catch up on everything . I only found this when looking up some references for standard rigging which I am about to start😲 . Mike Landlubber Mike 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landlubber Mike Posted July 2, 2019 Share #46 Posted July 2, 2019 Welcome back! Looking forward to seeing your progress. Quote Mike Current Wooden builds: Amati/Victory Pegasus MS Charles W. Morgan Euromodel La Renommèe Plastic builds: SB2U-1 Vindicator 1/48 Five Star Yaeyama 1/700 Pit Road Asashio and Akashi 1/700 diorama Walrus 1/48 and Albatross 1/700 Special Hobby Buffalo 1/32 Eduard Sikorsky JRS-1 1/72 IJN Notoro 1/700 Akitsu Maru 1/700 Completed builds : Caldercraft Brig Badger Amati Hannah - Ship in Bottle Pit Road Hatsuzakura 1/700 Hasegawa Shimakaze 1:350 F4B-4 and P-6E 1/72 Accurate Miniatures F3F-1/F3F-2 1/48 Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat built as FM-1 1/48 Special Hobby Buffalo 1/48 Citroen 2CV 1/24 - Airfix and Tamiya Entex Morgan 3-wheeler 1/16 Terminated build: HMS Lyme (based on Corel Unicorn) On the shelf: Euromodel Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pferde; Caldercraft Victory; too many plastic ship, plane and car kits Future potential scratch builds: HMS Lyme (from NMM plans); Le Gros Ventre (from Ancre monographs), Dutch ship from Ab Hoving book, HMS Sussex from McCardle book, Philadelphia gunboat (Smithsonian plans) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike French Posted July 3, 2019 Author Share #47 Posted July 3, 2019 Hi mike good to hear from you Here are a couple of picks from last year. JohnB40, Landlubber Mike and GrandpaPhil 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landlubber Mike Posted July 3, 2019 Share #48 Posted July 3, 2019 Really nice job Mike! JohnB40 1 Quote Mike Current Wooden builds: Amati/Victory Pegasus MS Charles W. Morgan Euromodel La Renommèe Plastic builds: SB2U-1 Vindicator 1/48 Five Star Yaeyama 1/700 Pit Road Asashio and Akashi 1/700 diorama Walrus 1/48 and Albatross 1/700 Special Hobby Buffalo 1/32 Eduard Sikorsky JRS-1 1/72 IJN Notoro 1/700 Akitsu Maru 1/700 Completed builds : Caldercraft Brig Badger Amati Hannah - Ship in Bottle Pit Road Hatsuzakura 1/700 Hasegawa Shimakaze 1:350 F4B-4 and P-6E 1/72 Accurate Miniatures F3F-1/F3F-2 1/48 Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat built as FM-1 1/48 Special Hobby Buffalo 1/48 Citroen 2CV 1/24 - Airfix and Tamiya Entex Morgan 3-wheeler 1/16 Terminated build: HMS Lyme (based on Corel Unicorn) On the shelf: Euromodel Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pferde; Caldercraft Victory; too many plastic ship, plane and car kits Future potential scratch builds: HMS Lyme (from NMM plans); Le Gros Ventre (from Ancre monographs), Dutch ship from Ab Hoving book, HMS Sussex from McCardle book, Philadelphia gunboat (Smithsonian plans) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike French Posted July 3, 2019 Author Share #49 Posted July 3, 2019 Thanks Mike I have the masts in now and most of the deck furniture. The head timbers when first done was pretty ordinary so I wrecked it and started again More to the design of Chapmans drawing I think it is a lot better now. I am about to put in the Bowsprit but will study the angle a bit more . The cross trees and mast tops pulled after I had glued them and have become slightly lopsided Not much I can do unless I wreck them and start again . But I thought that once all the rigging was in place you probably won't see it.🙄 Will post a couple more picks soon. Mike I went through the Unicorn builds today and noticed that most posts about these builds all stop at about the end of 2015. Did something happen to the site or is that just a coincidence? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landlubber Mike Posted July 3, 2019 Share #50 Posted July 3, 2019 I don't want to speak for JohnB and Ian (Ian hasn't been on this site in a while, hope he is ok), but I ended up scrapping my build. After doing a lot of research, I decided that I wanted to do the Lyme, the sister ship to the Unicorn. I bought the NMM plans and tried working off them, but the dimensions of the Corel kit were totally off from it, making it really hard, if not impossible, to build the Lyme according to the NMM plans using the kit. I think I chronicled some of the issues on my log - the easy fixes would be with respect to the figurehead (as you have done), the lack of a stern post, the rear windows, and the open waist. The tougher fixes were with the deck angles, particularly at the stern, and the overall height of the hull which is taller than the NMM and Chapman plans. Because the hull was taller, it was almost impossible (at least at my skill level) to recalibrate the height and slope of the decks from the keel. After many hours of frustration, I decided that rather than spend an inordinate amount of time trying to make a more accurate representation of the Lyme using the kit (and probably couldn't get there anyway because of the hull dimensions), that I would eventually just scratch build it in the future. All that being said, the Corel kit makes for a very nice model as yours clearly shows. The wood and detail pieces are very nice, and the curves of the ship are beautiful. Just making the changes you made, one can improve the build considerably. I have to say that even though I scrapped my build, I learned a ton working through the issues with Ian and JohnB - which was almost as fun as building the model itself. I'll be following your build log with a lot of interest! JohnB40 1 Quote Mike Current Wooden builds: Amati/Victory Pegasus MS Charles W. Morgan Euromodel La Renommèe Plastic builds: SB2U-1 Vindicator 1/48 Five Star Yaeyama 1/700 Pit Road Asashio and Akashi 1/700 diorama Walrus 1/48 and Albatross 1/700 Special Hobby Buffalo 1/32 Eduard Sikorsky JRS-1 1/72 IJN Notoro 1/700 Akitsu Maru 1/700 Completed builds : Caldercraft Brig Badger Amati Hannah - Ship in Bottle Pit Road Hatsuzakura 1/700 Hasegawa Shimakaze 1:350 F4B-4 and P-6E 1/72 Accurate Miniatures F3F-1/F3F-2 1/48 Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat built as FM-1 1/48 Special Hobby Buffalo 1/48 Citroen 2CV 1/24 - Airfix and Tamiya Entex Morgan 3-wheeler 1/16 Terminated build: HMS Lyme (based on Corel Unicorn) On the shelf: Euromodel Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pferde; Caldercraft Victory; too many plastic ship, plane and car kits Future potential scratch builds: HMS Lyme (from NMM plans); Le Gros Ventre (from Ancre monographs), Dutch ship from Ab Hoving book, HMS Sussex from McCardle book, Philadelphia gunboat (Smithsonian plans) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landlubber Mike Posted July 3, 2019 Share #51 Posted July 3, 2019 Mike, I took a trip down memory lane and re-read from Unicorn log from a few years ago. Interesting stuff! Brought back fun memories working through the plans with Ian and JohnB. I think it was JohnB who said it best (paraphrasing): "We all might have been better off if we hadn't seen the Chapman plans." 😀 JohnB40 1 Quote Mike Current Wooden builds: Amati/Victory Pegasus MS Charles W. Morgan Euromodel La Renommèe Plastic builds: SB2U-1 Vindicator 1/48 Five Star Yaeyama 1/700 Pit Road Asashio and Akashi 1/700 diorama Walrus 1/48 and Albatross 1/700 Special Hobby Buffalo 1/32 Eduard Sikorsky JRS-1 1/72 IJN Notoro 1/700 Akitsu Maru 1/700 Completed builds : Caldercraft Brig Badger Amati Hannah - Ship in Bottle Pit Road Hatsuzakura 1/700 Hasegawa Shimakaze 1:350 F4B-4 and P-6E 1/72 Accurate Miniatures F3F-1/F3F-2 1/48 Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat built as FM-1 1/48 Special Hobby Buffalo 1/48 Citroen 2CV 1/24 - Airfix and Tamiya Entex Morgan 3-wheeler 1/16 Terminated build: HMS Lyme (based on Corel Unicorn) On the shelf: Euromodel Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pferde; Caldercraft Victory; too many plastic ship, plane and car kits Future potential scratch builds: HMS Lyme (from NMM plans); Le Gros Ventre (from Ancre monographs), Dutch ship from Ab Hoving book, HMS Sussex from McCardle book, Philadelphia gunboat (Smithsonian plans) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike French Posted July 24, 2019 Author Share #52 Posted July 24, 2019 Mike If you are interested there is a complete build of the Unicorn on YouTube Here is the linkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hTzsjrzMeM I think this works Mike Landlubber Mike 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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