# HMS Unicorn



## glojoh

This is a scale model of the 19th century frigate HMS Unicorn. It was built from a kit, but my idea of a kit is definitely NOT the same as the producers of this 'kit'. The instructions were a straight translation from Italian into English but it might just as well have been in Chinese for all the good they were 

In the box are numerous length of wood in various thickness's and diameters plus a good length of brown thread which has to be 'converted' into the rope ladders. The good news was that at least the gun barrels were moulded as were the wooden blocks.

I built this model just after I came out of hospital and although bed bound my good lady wife bought me a small 12v lathe which enabled me to at least shape both the spars and the masts, although rumour has it she was not impressed with the mess I continually made.

This was my first attempt at model building and boy was it a challenge.


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## Derek Roger

Nice job you made of her . Derek


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## ninabaker

The first wooden kit I ever made, was a Billings one of a large danish ship, forgotten the name now. My dad and I did it together the year I was 15. The kit was much as you describe but I am fairly sure there were no written instrucitons in any language, just some large drawings.

We fumbled some aspects so in some ways it is a rather uneven model, shall we say, but I learnt a lot and I later made a wood model of the Mayflower from scratch, no kit, based on what I had learnt doing the Billings kit.

No lathe, so we sanded every thing down to shape, in front of the TV each evening.


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## glojoh

ninabaker said:


> No lathe, so we sanded every thing down to shape, in front of the TV each evening.


 Just call me lazy but no dad to offer the no doubt MUCH appreciated advice. 

TOTALLY agree about this type of 'kit' gives you a great foundation to scratch building. I had my wife scour our local library for ANY reference books she could find and no way would I have made those rope ladders or sails without the books AND help from some GREAT forums. All the ropes going through pulleys would raise or lower spars plus pull out the cannons, but to avoid 'brewers droop' I super glued everything to keep the ropes taunt. 

I have been tempted to buy a quality kit like this one  but just need a boot up the backside.

I am now slightly more mobile and from my reclining wheelchair I started to scratch build a model of HMS Carysfort after her last major refit but I have hit a motivation wall!!


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## makko

Glojoh,
An excellent model and hard to believe it was your first attempt! Here is a good BOOT! up the backside!
Regards and continue with your recuperation.
Dave


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## glojoh

makko said:


> Glojoh,
> An excellent model and hard to believe it was your first attempt! Here is a good BOOT! up the backside!
> Regards and continue with your recuperation.
> Dave


 Ouch!!

My problem is the standards I demand of myself exceed the abilities of the skills I have regarding this task. I purchased a fibre glass hull of an emergency class destroyer and then purchased a copy of the ships drawings. These were then copied and reduced to the scale of the model. I've had several attempts at building the superstructure but I am still not happy with what I have done.

The Gun Director is made from the cork of a wine bottle and don't tell my wife you know where the missing buttons are for her cardigan.

The frustrating thing is that the holes I drilled to replicate the port holes (scuttles) are not perfectly in line which will mean I have to fill them in somehow and have another go.


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## makko

Glojoh,
You have found the path! Practice makes perfect! If you have to fill and redrill the scuttles, so be it! But, think of how you will remake them and get them in line first! 
Regards,
Dave


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## 6639

glojoh said:


> Ouch!!
> 
> My problem is the standards I demand of myself exceed the abilities of the skills I have regarding this task. I purchased a fibre glass hull of an emergency class destroyer and then purchased a copy of the ships drawings. These were then copied and reduced to the scale of the model. I've had several attempts at building the superstructure but I am still not happy with what I have done.
> 
> The Gun Director is made from the cork of a wine bottle and don't tell my wife you know where the missing buttons are for her cardigan.
> 
> The frustrating thing is that the holes I drilled to replicate the port holes (scuttles) are not perfectly in line which will mean I have to fill them in somehow and have another go.


to fill in the offending scuttles place some masking tape on the outside of the hull, and then take a jolly down to halfords or other car accessory shop in your area and buy a small tin of fibreglass repair bonding material.......the normal p38 type filler won't do for this, as it will just pop off .....the stuff you need has small chopped strand matting impregnated into the polyester mix to hold it all together.
put a layer on from the inside and then take the tape off..you'll find a reasonable finish on which to fill with body filler .
when you come to re drill the holes.............place a strip of wide masking tape over the area to be drilled and mark the line on which the centres of your scuttles need to be placed......this will stop the drill bit from skidding across the grp surface, and drill with a smaller hole than needed............Either use round needle files or abrasive paper rolled into a tube to sand( ream ) out the holes in a perfectly marked and straight line.
neil.


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## glojoh

makko said:


> Glojoh,
> You have found the path! Practice makes perfect! If you have to fill and redrill the scuttles, so be it! But, think of how you will remake them and get them in line first!
> Regards,
> Dave


Totally agree and as that famous engineers saying goes, 

Measure twice, cut\drill once (EEK)

Or in my case measure thrice and still get it wrong (Ouch)

Having said that have we noticed that on modern warships scuttles are so eighteenth century (MAD) and are noticeable by their absence. 

I am making all the superstructure from plastic sheeting so it is just a case of cutting out the old and installing the new.

I will however have to buy the turrets as replicating them is way beyond my skill level.

Has anyone got any recommendations for buying 1:96 scale bits and pieces especially the weaponry?

Hi Neil,
Thank you VERY much for that tip and it will be a case of either buying it on-line, or getting 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' to go and get some. I must confess to not thinking about using fibre glass sheeting


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## caledonia2006

Love the HMS Unicorn, an unbelievable first attempt, as you know with period ships and unpainted wood you cannot hide your mistakes.

A cleaner way to fill holes in plasticard etc is use the smal tubes of Squadron Filler Putty, google it and you will find plenty of suppliers, if you have a Modelzone near by they stock it. I use it all the time in my model aircraft.

http://www.wonderlandmodels.com/products/squadron-white-putty-65g-23oz/

As for fittings, I tend to search this website, they usually have everything, but can take some time to find it.

http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/billing_boats_static_display_models.html

When I did my Trawler I added all the rivets on the Hull and superstructure, if you are planning to do the same, this company, who are excellent do 1/48 and 1/87 scale rivet decals. For the 1/87 ones you need the HO scale. Derek

http://www.micromark.com/SearchResult.aspx?deptIdFilter=0&searchPhrase=rivet+decals


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## glojoh

caledonia2006 said:


> Love the HMS Unicorn, an unbelievable first attempt, as you know with period ships and unpainted wood you cannot hide your mistakes.
> 
> A cleaner way to fill holes in plasticard etc is use the smal tubes of Squadron Filler Putty, google it and you will find plenty of suppliers, if you have a Modelzone near by they stock it. I use it all the time in my model aircraft.
> 
> http://www.wonderlandmodels.com/products/squadron-white-putty-65g-23oz/
> 
> As for fittings, I tend to search this website, they usually have everything, but can take some time to find it.
> 
> http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/billing_boats_static_display_models.html
> 
> When I did my Trawler I added all the rivets on the Hull and superstructure, if you are planning to do the same, this company, who are excellent do 1/48 and 1/87 scale rivet decals. For the 1/87 ones you need the HO scale. Derek
> 
> http://www.micromark.com/SearchResult.aspx?deptIdFilter=0&searchPhrase=rivet+decals


Thank you VERY MUCH for the mu7ch appreciated advice and of course the links. I purchased Unicorn from that shop in Cornwall but so far have not found any 1:96 scale fittingsbut I will work on it.

Apologies if I am rambling on a bit but I have not had any sleep for 
over 36hrs and my brain is even more ga ga than usual.

Totally agree about bare wood showing all the faults and the planking for the hull definitely highlights my horrible efforts  

Shaping those planks whilst laying flat out on my bed with a full plaster cast from neck to knee-cap was an 'interesting' challenge and certainly something I will not forget. Especially getting the tiny slivers of wood dropping into the large 'port-hole' around my belly button 
By crikey that was annoying.

My nephew very kindly made me a glass cabinet for this ship and it is something I never tire of looking at. 

Thank goodness I am more mobile now but this new challenge is over a metre long and it will have to rest on my bed whilst I work on it so the size is a bit of a problem.

Just been reading the Micro-Mark link.. Thanks and that 'Rat-Line' jig would have made my ladder building so much easier


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## caledonia2006

Bear in mind not all suppliers quote scale on their fittings including cornwallmodelboats, when building my Trawler I had to guess some purchases by dividing the sizes of the object by the ships scale and comparing it with any sizes quoted for that fitting. You may have to do the same. I don't know if you have come across these websites. Glad to hear you are on the mend. Derek

http://www.loyalhannadockyard.com/APPENDIX.htm

http://www.wmunderway.8m.com/haynes/haynesfittings.html


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## caledonia2006

Sorry to bother you again, but have added a link below for a range of chemicals you may find useful in your model making, there are many stockists of these.

http://www.wonderlandmodels.com/search/products/?q=microscale&submit=Search

The 'kristal kleer' is very handy if you want to add glazing to all those port holes on your ships, and the set and sol are very good for settling decals, and eliminating 'silvering'.

Derek


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## glojoh

caledonia2006 said:


> Sorry to bother you again, but have added a link below for a range of chemicals you may find useful in your model making, there are many stockists of these.
> 
> http://www.wonderlandmodels.com/search/products/?q=microscale&submit=Search
> 
> The 'kristal kleer' is very handy if you want to add glazing to all those port holes on your ships, and the set and sol are very good for settling decals, and eliminating 'silvering'.
> 
> Derek


Hi Derek,
Absolutely NO need to apologise, the more knowledge you kindly pass on then the better I get educated.

On the Unicorn the rear 'windows' have been enhanced with the good old Quality Street wrappers. Twas a hard life getting the right colours and if there were not correct then I had to obviously replace them


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## oldman 80

glojoh said:


> This is a scale model of the 19th century frigate HMS Unicorn. It was built from a kit, but my idea of a kit is definitely NOT the same as the producers of this 'kit'. The instructions were a straight translation from Italian into English but it might just as well have been in Chinese for all the good they were
> 
> In the box are numerous length of wood in various thickness's and diameters plus a good length of brown thread which has to be 'converted' into the rope ladders. The good news was that at least the gun barrels were moulded as were the wooden blocks.
> 
> I built this model just after I came out of hospital and although bed bound my good lady wife bought me a small 12v lathe which enabled me to at least shape both the spars and the masts, although rumour has it she was not impressed with the mess I continually made.
> 
> This was my first attempt at model building and boy was it a challenge.


Well challenge or not - it is clear you overcame it O.K.
Congratulations - it looks just brilliant to me, and it has a nostaligic element to it also - so far as I am concerned.
Believe it or not, I did my Merchant Navy Defence Course aboard the very same vessel in 1962 in the Camperdown Dock, Dundee, where I believe she still lies afloat to this day.
Well done - I wish I could do as well as you have - it's just fantastic.
Carry on with the magic, you clearly have a great gift.
(Thumb)


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## glojoh

(Thumb) Thank you very much indeed for the kind words.

I don't know if you are interested but the ship you carried out your Defence Course on was the replacement vessel for the one I built.

Unicorn was a popular name for ships in the Royal Navy, my model was based on the ship that was built in 1794 and broken up in 1815. 

The next Unicorn was launched in 1824 and ended up in 'sunny' Scotland where you eventually carried out your Merchant Navy Defence Course.

As a font of absolutely worthless information, the last Unicorn was a submarine which was sold to Canada in 2001.

Thanks again,

John (Thumb)


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## oldman 80

glojoh said:


> (Thumb) Thank you very much indeed for the kind words.
> 
> I don't know if you are interested but the ship you carried out your Defence Course on was the replacement vessel for the one I built.
> 
> Unicorn was a popular name for ships in the Royal Navy, my model was based on the ship that was built in 1794 and broken up in 1815.
> 
> The next Unicorn was launched in 1824 and ended up in 'sunny' Scotland where you eventually carried out your Merchant Navy Defence Course.
> 
> As a font of absolutely worthless information, the last Unicorn was a submarine which was sold to Canada in 2001.
> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> John (Thumb)


No problem - it's an acknowledgement you rightly deserve.
Now let me thank you for setting me straight on ensactly which _Unicorn_ was which.
I keep having that problem it seems, so I must be getting old.
The last one was a mix up with "Benattows" - one which I sailed in as my very first ship in 1963, she was scrapped shortly after and replaced by another (2nd hand) vessel carrying the same name.
Actually they looked quite similar - but they were not - one had five hatches (the one I served in), her replacement had six, and different style vents.
Somehow I missed it, initially at any rate, (an assumption made on scanty information, just a glance at the photograph, which I more than anyone really should not have suc***bed to as I used to preach about it in days gone by, perhaps to the point of ranting and raving about it - sometimes ) - but it was along time ago.
When it comes to things like your very first ship, as a "green" cadet, and subsequently your very first command - well the nostalgia involved becomes somewhat overpowering, to the extent it could potetially drive you to drink - not a good thing at my age, but perhaps not quite so bad as we might think. !!!
All this nostalgia - hell I'll be hallucinating next.
However it's not just the ships, it's the people who sailed them which counts as much as anything else - great days, - now gone, - which is of course a tragedy.
This is a great website, but it could have it's "down sides" - don't you think.
*"Wrong Unicorn" !!!!* - that should raise a few eyebrows, me thinks 
(EEK)
Keep up the good work - and the significant contribution you make to the ship enthusiast community.
(Pint)


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## glojoh

Hi Oldman,
I had to think before submitting my last post regarding the Unicorn as I do not want to appear either an anorak, or a smart 'posterior' (Smoke)

You have actually had the privilege of stepping aboard one of these iconic vessels (the eyes and ears of the fleets in the era of Nelson) Yes your Unicorn was built just after the days of this most famous of Admirals, but she was still the favoured class of warship for any dashing sailor who wanted both fame and fortune 

As a point of interest there was always a certain type of rivalry in the Royal Navy between what we call 'big ship' ratings and 'small ship' sailors. I guess I loved my small ships and was never a fan of that 'big ship' discipline.


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## DAVID ALCOCK

I dont know how you did that in bed its great ,i broke my ankle "proper job" in feb and spent 3 months in my recliner chair alongside my modeling bench but struggled to get the inclination to do ANYTHING but doze and watch daytime tv (loose women is good for putting me to sleap)"space for comments below"and search ebay and forums!
good luck with your next project and show us the results!


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## oldman 80

Oh well, with Unicorn such an obvious success, I suppose it just has to be "Victory" next.
I've been aboard her on two occassions in the past - just visiting though.
As for the great Admiral himself well I've spent a few hours on several occassions "meditating" at his final resting place - a pilgrimage I seldom failed to make whenever passing through London with time on my hands.
That too is somewhat nostalgic - it started after attending a Trafalgar Day Service in St. Pauls in 1965 - as a representative M.N. cadet.
He (Nelson) was very much my hero - in my school days, undoubtably the greatest Admiral of all times - a bit of a " lad " too, by all accounts.
I often ask, was he really a casualty of Trafalgar, or was his demise, in fact somewhat "pre-meditated" ?


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## PJG1412

Excellent model, and very interesting comments. I am about to start new thread on ARTESANIA LATINA HMS Surprise the manaul is 112 pages and is in 7 translations. I have bought a "loom a line" to make the rat lines etc.


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## glojoh

PJG1412 said:


> Excellent model, and very interesting comments. I am about to start new thread on ARTESANIA LATINA HMS Surprise the manaul is 112 pages and is in 7 translations. I have bought a "loom a line" to make the rat lines etc.


I look forward to reading about this construction and that 'loom line' sounds a great idea. My wife was not impressed with me when I dyed the brown cord to get it looking the right colour and then that dye got impregnated into my skin as I tied all the individual knots. How do we put a price on this type of model making? (I can't and would NEVER sell my model)

SN Supporter you make a very valid point about Lord Nelson and would he have survived a peace time Royal navy? By survive, I am referring to his onshore, off duty activities which quite clearly had annoyed more than just his peers. A truly great Admiral and sadly the likes of which are hard to find although I can think of one that might have been as bold but not in the same class as this warrior of the seas!!


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## McCloggie

John, this is not about any model but it does concern HMS Unicorn and you may be interested.

The 1824 frigate is based in the inner dock at Dundee which is normally closed from the river by a lock gate. The ship itself is used by various groups, one of which is a local Scottish Country Dancing club.

The club was recently onboard dancing away but the harbour authorities left the lock gate open - or did not close it properly - with the result that as the tide fell, the water drained out of the dock and the ship sat the bottom!

No damage seems to have been done and the only problem apparantly was that the dancers had to leave the ship from the upper deck and not from the ususal gun deck entrance.

McC


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## glojoh

McCloggie said:


> John, this is not about any model but it does concern HMS Unicorn and you may be interested.
> 
> The 1824 frigate is based in the inner dock at Dundee which is normally closed from the river by a lock gate. The ship itself is used by various groups, one of which is a local Scottish Country Dancing club.
> 
> The club was recently onboard dancing away but the harbour authorities left the lock gate open - or did not close it properly - with the result that as the tide fell, the water drained out of the dock and the ship sat the bottom!
> 
> No damage seems to have been done and the only problem apparantly was that the dancers had to leave the ship from the upper deck and not from the ususal gun deck entrance.
> 
> McC


THANK YOU fery much for taking the time to post that information and thank goodness the ship was still sturdy enough to withstand the stresses it no doubt had to endure. I am guessing there were a few red faces the next day when questions were being asked!


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## oldman 80

McCloggie said:


> John, this is not about any model but it does concern HMS Unicorn and you may be interested.
> 
> The 1824 frigate is based in the inner dock at Dundee which is normally closed from the river by a lock gate. The ship itself is used by various groups, one of which is a local Scottish Country Dancing club.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The club was recently onboard dancing away but the harbour authorities left the lock gate open - or did not close it properly - with the result that as the tide fell, the water drained out of the dock and the ship sat the bottom!
> 
> 
> 
> No damage seems to have been done and the only problem apparantly was that the dancers had to leave the ship from the upper deck and not from the ususal gun deck entrance.
> 
> McC
Click to expand...

Thanks for that info - its interesting, and to a large degree most entertaining.
Good old Scottish Country Dancing - Those dances would be good, no matter the location, be it far and wide.
By the end of a "good one", but a long long time ago now, - well let's just say:-
The words of "Cambeltown Loch" - "aye" I hear them clearly now, and in my eyes, I have the near perfect "vision" -- of the "Ball of Kirriemuir".
(@)


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