The museum 1:10 model was conceived and built during the 1980's, in order to be ready for the new museum when it opened in 1990. As such, it represents a modelmaker's understanding of the ship based on the knowledge available 30 years ago, before the ship had been completely recorded in detail and before it had been re-rigged.
It contains a number of features which are now known to be errors. For example, the deadeyes were painted red on the model because of traces of red coating on a couple of the deadeyes found in the ship. This red coating turned out to be a corrosion product from nearby objects rather than paint.
The crossbars on the fore and main topsail sheet bitts have belaying pins in them, even though there is no trace of these in the ship itself. This is one of the features that crept into the model through the belief, at the time, that the ship was not finished when it sailed, and thus the modeller was free to add things thought to be there.
The model shows all the guns run out, except the last broadside ports on the lower gun deck, which are closed. This is strange, since those two ports are the only two that we can conclusively prove had guns in them, since they were still at their gun ports when the ship was relocated in 1956, and one of them was still on its carriage, poking out of the port.
Much of the rigging tackle does not agree with the actual finds - the martnets on the courses use the wrong size and shape of euphroe, leading to two few legs in the crowsfeet, for example. The model represents what was thought about the ship 30 years ago, before the ship itself had been re-rigged, combined with independent decisions made by the model maker for aesthetic and other reasons.
The museum model was updated a few years ago, but this only addressed the colours, none of the structure. - In short, the Museum Model is not always a reliable source about all aspects of the ship.
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