Landlubber Mike

Hi Hamilton, just wanted to say you're doing a fantastic job on this build. It's very inspiring as for my next build (the Corel Unicorn), I plan to do a lot of similar kit bashing. Not sure if you finished your transom or not, but one thing you might consider is buying decorative pieces from Cornwall Model Boats - here is the link to decorative pieces offered by Corel that they sell (click on other manufacturers for the decorative pieces they sell): http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/corel-decorations.html The Unicorn kit's transom and stern gallery tops and bottoms are cast metal, bulky and not all that nice looking. I'm thinking of scratching the transom and galleries, and adding the decorative pieces separately.

Did you win the auction?

Wow, very nice build - are you adding sails? This ship probably looks amazing in full sails.

I bought mine on eBay a year ago for $110 or so. It was worth every penny as it made turning the masts on my Badger a breeze. It's the first lathe I ever worked with, so can't really compare it. Blue Ensign on his Pegasus log has a discussion about the DB250 - he seems to like it, and also bought a bed extension for it which I will probably buy down the road as well.

I glued the masts on my Badger for the same reason. The rake was predetermined by the slots in the keel, so it was just a matter of limiting the lateral motion. Is there a particular reason not to glue the masts?

Really nice work Brian - you're right, the Niagara has really nice lines. I'd love to see someone put sails on her - I think she'd look really fantastic

Wow Ian, very nice work! Authentic too - I know folks build these out of wood or paper then paint with metallic paint, but this is absolutely fantastic.

We're all friends here - show us the progress if you'd like Congrats on wrapping up the living room - I've had many similar orders from the Admiral in recent years that have interrupted my build Good question on the tie-offs. I don't have as much knowledge to rigging yet, as I'm just finishing the standing rigging on the Badger. I did get the Lees book too (a used copy off of Abebooks like I mentioned on the other thread for a relatively low amount). It's a fairly detailed tome of information if I remember correctly but seemed like it would be very useful.

Ha, I need to finish my Badger first but sure, why not!

Hi John, looking good. I recently got the Morgan kit, which will be my next build (alongside the Corel Unicorn). I was pretty impressed with the kit contents and instructions, though will plan to scratch or otherwise replace some of the fittings and possibly replace some of the kit wood. I also got a copy of the book from the Mystic Seaport book store, which has some interesting tidbits. Sorry if I missed this, but are you planning on double planking the hull? I read in the instructions that you can do so using thin strip wood. I don't know that I'm confident enough in my planking abilities to do a single planked hull yet. Glad that we are back on the build and not talking about eels

Hi Ian, hope you are doing well. I ended up getting the AOTS Pandora book as well as Gardiner's "The Sailing Frigate - A History in Ship Models" (both very nice books). Not to add more fuel to the fire, but I am firmly convinced that you are correct that the waist of the Corel kit is inaccurate. Looking at the Pandora and the comparable ships in the Gardiner book, the waist area is completely open. I have a feeling that I will build my Unicorn that way as well, in particular so that I can add small boats to the model which I think would be accurate (if I remember correctly from my quick read last night, the Pandora had four small boats stowed in the waist area). Interestingly, the Gardiner book devotes quite a bit of space to discussing the Unicorn and the Lyme although no models of those ships were shown in the book (the book uses NMM models as depictions). They were apparently somewhat transformative for sailing ship design, and I think Gardiner calls them the first true frigates or something to that effect.

Good luck to you!

In case anyone else is looking to join the Unicorn club, there is a recent listing on eBay that is currently at a low amount: http://www.ebay.com/itm/290937919810?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Interestingly, I've found that with Tung Oil, I've been able to use PVA but not CA.

Very nice work Andy! I have the Pegasus on my shelf, and your build is an inspiration. So is it weird of me to look at the third picture in Andy's post referenced above and say that the Pegasus has a lovely backside?

So the bench is now $159. I got the 20% off coupon so the net price is $127. Shipping is still only $6.99. I think I'll pull the trigger as that is a real hard price to beat.

Hi Ian, thanks for this info. I ended up having to use the zoom function on the NMM site as well as the zoom function on my browser, and can more clearly see what you were saying. Having started looking into this, I think I now more fully understand what you are thinking of doing. You're a brave soul, not sure that I would undertake that major surgery - but, ultimately you need to end up with a build that you are fully satisfied with so I think modifying the build is the way to go. I'm going to order the Pandora book and see if there are any good ideas or suggestions in it. I'll be sure to pass along any tidbits I come across. This has been a very interesting and fun discussion with you and the other Unicorn builders, thanks to everyone for participating!

So I took another look at the Lyme plans in the Chapelle book. I'm not very good at reading plans, and it's hard for me to tell how wide the waist should be. Interestingly, if I'm reading it right, the main deck on the Lyme is really long, like almost up to half the ship in length. The quarterdeck and forecastle deck are fairly short. Looking at the plans, there is a line that says "break" near stair cases on either end, which is why I think the main deck on the Lyme is very long.

Well done! Now have a tall frosty adult beverage of your choice

Well I learned a bit of French today - didn't realize Licorne was french for Unicorn I haven't done as much research as Ian on the Corel kit, but I think he is right that the kit is based on the British 1748 vessel. For me, like Ian, I initially came into the hobby to just build nice kits, and not really get into all the research and accuracy stuff. After doing a little research on the Badger for sail plans and the like, I'm actually excited to research the Unicorn and modify the kit. I plan to order the AOTS Pandora book and will see if I can get any ideas from it. Right now, besides scratching the stern galleries and transom area, I'm thinking about making some modification to the number/type of guns, as well the waist area like Ian is planning to do. I'd also like to explore whether it's feasible to add a small boat or two. I'm not looking for perfect historical accuracy (which would probably be guesswork anyway), but get to what I would think would be a somewhat reasonable design of such a vessel. Ian, thanks for your thoughts on the portholes and line of the quarter deck. Very interesting stuff. I am including the Lyme plans from RMG below. Ian, I have the Chapelle book which has plans for the Lyme class. The plans are not very clear (or large), but it looked like the ladder placement to get to the waist area was fairly close to the center line of the ship. I don't know if that is evidence that the waist was indeed narrow as per the Corel plans, but just wanted to throw that out there. I didn't have much of a chance last night to study the plans, but will try to do so tonight and report back. I went back and added pictures to the various posts of this thread since this has turned into a compilation of resources for the Unicorn. Let's hope that MSW 2.0 doesn't crash

Really nice work! Soon you'll be able to start on a Unicorn

Here's another interesting resource - a fellow Corel Unicorn builder who not only created a build log/progression, but also researched the history of the ship. http://deeandpete.co.uk/MENU%20UNICORN.htm

To follow up on this, I recently received the Chapman book (which was on a super sale by Model Expo for something like $3 so I figured why not). The book has a draught of the Unicorn, and describes it as an English frigate, with 24 nine-pounders on deck and 10 four-pounders on the quarterdeck and forecastle for a total of 34 guns. Hmm... Looking at the draught itself, it shows 5 portholes per side, versus the 4 as per the Corel instructions. I actually found a reproduction of the draught online here (the lower of the two models presented) (hopefully ok to post). One thing I find interesting is that in the pictures of the various kit builds, the portholes are all following the same line and are full portholes in the side of the ship. In the Chapman draught, it's almost like the portholes are following a slightly different line, such that the fore most porthole is only the bottom half. http://www.sjohistoriska.se/en/Collections/Archives/ChapmanNet/ChapmanNet/Drawings/?pressimagepage=5 High resolution: http://www.sjohistoriska.se/ImageVaultFiles/id_3085/cf_1803/55.JPG

Very nice work Sherry. I'm planning on doing a lot of semi-scratch building with my next build(s), so your build log is very inspiring

So this thread has turned into a compilation of resources for the Corel Unicorn Here is another Unicorn I found, which looks very much like the Corel kit. The builder added sails too: http://www.historic-marine.com/english/our_modeles3.php