Model Ship World attacked by hackers

[mikegr]

I can confirm adminds were strict to some things. Maybe too strict. They also had negative opinion about SOS. I concentrated at my posts and avoid escalations.

 

[neilm]

This is why Our Ships of Scale attracts all hobbyists and in my opinion, the best.
No ship snobbery, everyone helping and encouraging each other.
From the total newcomer to the experienced ship builder, there is always someone to help and give advice.
Fantastic crew here, from admin to laymen.

 

[ubjs]

All lost?

Model Ship World™

Model Ship World is the largest and best online resource for modellers who want to build scale ships and boats.

web.archive.org

I could search build logs but only reach the first page.

 

[CLB]

The loss of MSW is a huge tragedy for the community as many other have said. I was a member of MSW since 2009 and of this forum more recently. Both forums have been incredibly valuable in my journey as a ship modeler. I believe its time to let bygone by byones and move forward and be inclusive of all members regardless of their skill levels.

We are a small community as a whole and stronger together.

 

[archjofo]

I can only speak for myself, of course, but I have been active on MSW since March 2013 and maintained my La Créole build log there for many years.

By 2025 it had grown to around 82 pages with more than 500,000 views. I have been a member of SOS only since May 2021.

Throughout all those years, I personally never experienced any disadvantage because of my SOS membership or my participation in other forums.

The loss we are facing now affects all of us very deeply, especially because so much knowledge, documentation, and shared work has disappeared.

I simply want to contribute my own experience here — without questioning anyone else’s.

 

[AllanKP69]

This is going to be an interesting ride in the upcoming days/weeks/months.
Allan

 

[Dematosdg]

Throughout all those years, I personally never experienced any disadvantage because of my SOS membership or my participation in other forums.

You never experienced any issue with MSW just because you never bought a Chinese kit. Or if you did it, never posted it at SOS.

I was a new member of SOS and MSW. I posted at SOS a "box opening" of a recent kit I got from ZHL MODELS (China). A few days later I received a very nasty email from the MSW administration that I was Banned , with absolutely any kind of access to the forum, saying that I was supporting Chinese model ships developers that they only copy models from others. I couldn't read any post at MSW after that email for years !!! Fully banned !!! They were following what their members where posting at SOS. And this happened to many others.

At the end, being banned from MSW was a real blessing, because i focused 100% at SOS and discovered that SOS members were fantastic. They always helped me and in return I try to help others too , when I can. SOS is FANTASTIC FAMILY of model ship builders.

Also if the "new MSW" decides to change their "unfriendly rules" I do not have any stimulus to return at all and i will never do. And I vet my name that I am not alone on this thought, because "many SOS members suffer the same from MSW" (just search the posting here and you will be surprised)

Best
Daniel

 

[Ken]

You never experienced any issue with MSW just because you never bought a Chinese kit. Or if you did it, never posted it at SOS.

I was a new member of SOS and MSW. I posted at SOS a "box opening" of a recent kit I got from ZHL MODELS (China). A few days later I received a very nasty email from the MSW administration that I was Banned , with absolutely any kind of access to the forum, saying that I was supporting Chinese model ships developers that they only copy models from others. I couldn't read any post at MSW after that email for years !!! Fully banned !!! They were following what their members where posting at SOS. And this happened to many others.

At the end, being banned from MSW was a real blessing, because i focused 100% at SOS and discovered that SOS members were fantastic. They always helped me and in return I try to help others too , when I can. SOS is FANTASTIC FAMILY of model ship builders.

Also if the "new MSW" decides to change their "unfriendly rules" I do not have any stimulus to return at all and i will never do. And I vet my name that I am not alone on this thought, because "many SOS members suffer the same from MSW" (just search the posting here and you will be surprised)

Best
Daniel

I to had issues with MSW. I was very rudely asked to leave, my crime was to say in a post that although I had no intention of buying a Chinese kit it was not because of their ruling but because I didn’t want any that were on offer at that time. I mentioned that I would put a build log ( Amerigo Vespucci ) on SOS to further my circle of model building friends. A post by admin was put on telling members that I was a member not to be trusted as I was only interested in myself and not other modellers and should not be included in any posts. After challenging the statement a sort of half hearted retraction was posted but with the same negative manner, needless to say I had no further interaction with that site.

 

[Y.T.]

Many years ago I was banned on MSW and they wiped out all my HMS Victory build log. MSW did this savage act with no explanations. I think they did this as I a few times criticized the quality of kits that were manufactured by the owners of MSW. I registered at SoS and continued my HMS Victory build log here. I was lucky I was able to restore somehow the build log pictures wiped out by MSW. One of the followers of my MSW log was saving pictures I posted. He was also a member of SoS.

 

[Dubz Modelling World]

Terrible, but I have no regrets. No backup, no sympathy. During my time as an admin at MSW – before I was bullied out in the most despicable manner through the lies and intrigues of Chuck Passaro and James Hatch – I repeatedly emphasised the need for local backups; in fact, a hard drive was even purchased specifically for this purpose, on which I regularly made such backups. If you then fail to follow this up because you think you’re so clever, it only demonstrates the complete incompetence of the people involved there. And this wasn’t the first time.

 

[Jimsky]

You never experienced any issue with MSW just because you never bought a Chinese kit. Or if you did it, never posted it at SOS.

I was a new member of SOS and MSW. I posted at SOS a "box opening" of a recent kit I got from ZHL MODELS (China). A few days later I received a very nasty email from the MSW administration that I was Banned , with absolutely any kind of access to the forum, saying that I was supporting Chinese model ships developers that they only copy models from others. I couldn't read any post at MSW after that email for years !!! Fully banned !!! They were following what their members where posting at SOS. And this happened to many others.

At the end, being banned from MSW was a real blessing, because i focused 100% at SOS and discovered that SOS members were fantastic. They always helped me and in return I try to help others too , when I can. SOS is FANTASTIC FAMILY of model ship builders.

Also if the "new MSW" decides to change their "unfriendly rules" I do not have any stimulus to return at all and i will never do. And I vet my name that I am not alone on this thought, because "many SOS members suffer the same from MSW" (just search the posting here and you will be surprised)

Best
Daniel

Daniel, I hear you. A lot of us here have had the same/similar experiences, and I don’t dismiss that for a split second.
But today’s situation is different. This isn’t about past decisions by someone or how things were handled back then. What’s happened now affects the members, the builders, and the people who shared their work and knowledge over the years. In fact, many of those members are no longer with us, and their work was a way to remember their contributions.

When support was asked for, I don’t see it as something directed at an administration. It’s about the community of modelers, the same kind of people we have here and many other forums, perhaps. At the end of the day, this is our hobby, and it’s built on people helping each other and sharing what they know.

You’ve clearly found your place here at SoS, and that’s a good thing. Nothing changes that. But showing a bit of support in a moment like this is simply about standing with fellow hobbyists.

 

[paul ron]

after so many sites under attact by ai bots and hackers, it makes me wonder why we have depended so heavily on computers anyway?

yes they are an indispensable resource and powerful tool... but to have every aspect of our lives ruled by a few mega companies is insane. cloudflare is one that has the potential to shut down countries at will... open your eyes yet?

never put all your eggs in one basket, an age old saw that holds so much truth for all to see, yet we are so blind.

line up drones... bluetooth will be installed when your number is called.

resistance is futile!

 

[AllanKP69]

es they are an indispensable resource and powerful tool... but to have every aspect of our lives ruled by a few mega companies is insane.

I get what you are saying Ron, and agree as it is purportedly getting crazier and crazier. By the same token, didn't people say the same kinds of things about Henry Ford, Walter Chrysler and motor cars and their founders in general as they were replacing the horse and buggy? Heck, go back further to what is possibly the first true mega company, the Dutch East India Company (started 1602) where people were upset because of its extreme power and sometimes brutal monopolistic tactics. It was seen as a ruthless, oppressive entity by local populations in Asia and as a corrupt, "terrible employer" by its own employees, with its immense size and power raising issues of violence and greed. So would you want to go back and live in the 1500's before there were megacompanies? If I could pick a generation I would go back to my parents generation. I wonder what others' pick would be.
Allan

​

 

[Heinrich]

I am very sorry for the loss of actual information and for SOS members who may have lost their build logs, but as to the MSW organisation, I have no sympathy either. I was the target of a personal vendetta by messrs. Passaro and Hatch when I introduced the YuanQing Bluenose. Who can forget the number of MSW members who were banned simply because they had bought the Bluenose kit. Ironically, the number of Bluenose kits sold was far higher than that listed on the owners' list - simply because numerous MSW members asked me not to reveal their identity. Some even went so far as to adopt pseudonyms for their builds on SOS.

Clearly the MSW admin should have spent less time policing other people's builds and more time on creating backups. And you are so right - this is also not the first time that they have lost their database. Some people never seem to learn.

 

[Dematosdg]

You’ve clearly found your place here at SoS, and that’s a good thing. Nothing changes that. But showing a bit of support in a moment like this is simply about standing with fellow hobbyists.

I do stand with my fellow modelers. And I am really deeply sorry for what happened to them.

My support to them is to say :

Guys , " at SOS you can find all what you had at MSW" and if you still have your build images, you are very welcome to reconstruct your log at SOS until MSW recovers. We all will be learning from your experience and there is a place here for a "Welcome".

Best
Daniel

 

[mberg]

I suspect they were attacked simply because their server was vulnerable. The hackers don't really care who they bring down. This is unfortunately the new reality with the new generations of AI that are so good at identifying weak spots in cyber security. It seems like the data is gone for good with no hope of recovery. A real tragedy.

I am new to the world of model ships, and found a real community and lots of information at Model Ship World. Hopefully I can find the same support here. I will soon be starting a build log on my current build, the Model Shipways Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack.

Maybe Ships of Scale should start a forum for old MSW members to commiserate and reconnect until MSW is started up again?

Hey Tom, glad to see a friendly face around. I'll keep an eye out for your new log. Jacques also has a log on his rescaled smack if you happen to have been following that one.

 

[mberg]

I just thought - the Internet Archive might have a recent copy of MSW that we could use to revive the site?

They have some, but it's spotty at best. Most pictures aren't saved. Many build logs aren't saved and the ones that are don't have anything past the first page on a lot of them.

 

[mberg]

As someone new to the hobby, I just joined the NRG. I di dnot know they were so commercial in their approach.



This is not very friendly ... I did not know this.



Are you suggesting that the error was more internal than external?


Label me as naive but I like to think we can all work together. Seems this has not been the case in the past, and if so I understand the bitterness!

Take all this with a grain of salt. To be open, this is one person's account of a dispute they were personally involved in, written in language to make it sound like an established finding. That doesn't mean everything in it is wrong, but it means you're getting one side of an old conflict, not a neutral history.

MSW has had real moderation controversies over the years, that part isn't fabricated. But 'vendor capture' and 'deliberately trying to destroy a competitor' are serious allegations presented as fact without documentation. The formal tone is doing a lot of work there.

The data loss is a genuine problem and the backup failure is a fair criticism. But using it as vindication for a years old grudge affects a lot of members who joined recently and had nothing to do with any of that history.

If you're new to NRG specifically, their journal and research programs have a solid reputation that's largely separate from whatever forum politics happened on MSW. I'd evaluate them on that basis rather than on one person's grievance post.

P.s. nothing against Bob and his past histories or current grudges, I'm sure they're warranted by whatever happened.

 

[Heinrich]

But 'vendor capture' and 'deliberately trying to destroy a competitor' are serious allegations presented as fact without documentation.

Believe you me Sir! I have a lot of written documentation of this.

 

[CLB]

I really hope this thread becomes about mourning all the loss of that wealth of information we just lost as a community and moving forward rather than airing past grudges and reopening old wounds.