My Shipyard: Frequently Asked Questions

What is My Shipyard?

My Shipyard is your personal workspace in the Ship Modelers Database. It follows the life of a model: kits waiting on the shelf, research and plans for what you'll build next, the build on your bench now, and the finished models in your fleet. It's for keeping your modeling life organized, not for social media. There are no followers, likes, or feeds.

What's in it?

There are five areas:

• The Stash holds the kits you own but haven't started. Each kit links back to its kit and ship pages in the database.
• The Drafting Table is the working file for a build: plans, scale decisions, and your own scans and notes, especially for scratch builds.
• On the Ways holds your active builds, each with a private build journal.
• The Fleet holds your completed models.
• The Chart Room is your personal research library, where you save ships, kits, plans, and sources you want to come back to.

What is the Chart Room?

It's where you keep what you find. Pin any ship, kit, plan set, resource, or forum build log in SMD, and organize your pins by ship or by project. Subscribers can also save sources straight from Nelson's answers with Save to My Research.

What's the difference between the Chart Room and the Drafting Table?

The Chart Room is what you collect. The Drafting Table is what you're building from. You might pin six Baltimore clipper kits and a dozen sources in the Chart Room while you decide what to build, and then the plans and scans for the build you choose go on the Drafting Table.

Does it cost anything?

No. Projects and journals are free and unlimited. A build can take years, and we don't think you should have to pay to keep working on one. Subscribers get extras like unlimited photos and full access to Nelson (see below), but the core of My Shipyard is free.

How do I start a project?

The quickest way is the Start a build button on any kit page. You can also start one from a kit in your Stash, or use the new-project button in My Shipyard, which asks "What are you building?" and gives you three choices: a kit, a scratch build, or a kit you can't find.

Do I have to add a kit to my Stash first?

No. If you start a build from the catalog, the kit goes straight to On the Ways. The Stash is for kits you own but haven't started.

My kit isn't a specific ship. It's a generic Baltimore clipper (or a longboat, or a pinnace). Can I still build it?

Yes. Many kits represent a type of vessel rather than one named ship. Those projects are linked to the vessel type, so a generic Baltimore clipper kit connects you to Baltimore clipper research and real examples of the type.

What about fictional ships?

Fictional subjects work too. We'll ask for the closest type of vessel so your project has a home.

I'm scratch building. Where do I start?

Choose "A scratch build" and link it to a ship or a vessel type. The Drafting Table is where you keep your plans and research.

My kit isn't in the database. What do I do?

Choose "A kit I can't find" and add it. It's submitted for review, but you can start building against it right away.

I own two copies of the same kit. Is that a problem?

No. Each copy is tracked separately. Start a build with one, and the other stays in your Stash.

What can I record in the journal?

Each entry can include a date, your notes, photos, hours worked (optional), and a stage tag such as framing, planking, deck furniture, masting, rigging, or finishing (also optional).

Who can see my journal?

Only you. Journals are private, with no public pages and no share links. That privacy is enforced in the database itself, and our site and admin tools are blocked from reading journal entries.

Will my journal ever be used for statistics or marketing?

No. Journal content is never used in analytics or aggregates. Only simple fields you set yourself, such as the kit, the ship, and the build status, may ever feed anonymous counts.

Why doesn't SMD host public build logs?

Because the forums already do that well. Model Ship World, Ships of Scale, and Drydock Modeler are where the community gathers around build logs, and we want to send people there rather than compete with them. Your journal is your private bench notebook. Your forum log is where you share.

Can I link my forum build log?

Yes. Paste the thread URL into your project, and we'll recognize the forum and show the log's title, last activity, and post count. We never copy or store the contents of forum posts. Your link appears on public ship and kit pages only if you choose to show it. If we can't read a thread's details automatically (some forums block this), you can enter the title yourself.

Can I post journal entries to a forum?

That's coming. You'll be able to send an entry to the forum of your choice.

How many photos can I upload?

Free accounts include 100 photos, resized and compressed for the web. That includes images you upload to the Drafting Table. Subscribers have unlimited photos.

What happens when I reach 100?

Your projects and journal keep working, and you can keep writing entries. To add more photos, subscribe or remove older ones.

What if my subscription lapses?

Nothing is deleted. Everything stays readable. If you're over 100 photos, you won't be able to add more until you subscribe again or make room.

Can I find plans in SMD?

Yes. SMD keeps a public catalog of plan sets showing the source, publisher, where to buy, and whether they're free or paid. We list plans; we never host or display published drawings. Scans you upload to your own Drafting Table stay private to you. SeaWatch plans are listed the same way as every other publisher's.

Who is Nelson?

Nelson is SMD's AI research assistant, available to subscribers. Coming soon: Nelson inside My Shipyard, and a monthly taste of Nelson for free accounts.

Can Nelson read my journal?

Only if you turn that on, and only to answer your own questions. Nelson never reads one member's private content for anyone else.

What else comes with a subscription?

Unlimited photos, Save to My Research from Nelson's answers, and full access to Nelson. Coming soon: Nelson inside My Shipyard, a printable build book (PDF) of your finished projects, and the option to submit models to the Ships in Scale reader showcase.

Is anything in My Shipyard public?

Almost nothing. Your Stash, projects, journal, Drafting Table, Fleet, and Chart Room are all private. There are two exceptions, and both are your choice: a forum build log you choose to show publicly, and a kit or ship you add to the database, which goes to public review like any other submission. If we add more sharing options later, they'll be off by default.