davyboy

So I have set up the knighthead and have glued all the bracing in place. Not my best work but it is now straight and stable. 


So I now have to trim everything flush with the bulkheads. Time to check all the plank runs to find where I need to fine tune the shape. 
Also, I can get all the measurements of the below deck, main, for castle and aft decks. 

Hi ☺️
 
 

As always, thanks for the likes.  I do appreciate you all following along.  After all the metal work of making the chain plates, backstay plates, eye bolts, and deadeye strops, I decided I'd work on a relatively straight forward sub assembly.  I went ahead and installed the rudder, and gudgeons and pintels (I had shaped the rudder itself a couple of months ago).  I used Chuck's mini kit for those.  You have a choice in the mini kit of .010" thick paperboard material or .028" thick plywood.  I opted for the thicker plywood and sanded it down to .018" thick.  By my eye that's a good compromise.  I used .020" diameter styrene rod for the bolts.  Yes, yes, I know it's probably sacrilege among purists to use plastic on a wooden ship build.  Haha.  But since the bolt heads are covered in paint I chose the easier to cut and work with styrene rather than metal wire.  Everything was painted with black paint and then once mounted I taped the simulated metal straps off and applied rust brown weathering powder. I haven't glued the rudder on yet.  I'll do that at a later date after I drill the final hole to mount the tiller (I did drill a small pilot/locator hole though).  That said, the rudder sits correctly straight and true with the pintels snugged down into the gudgeons.
 
On a related note, I received the last few packages of blocks I'll need for the build, and a serving machine, from Chuck this week.  If I'm inventorying correctly, I think that may be the last stuff I need to complete the build.
 
Erik

In general I have completed work on the small boat. On the drawing it comes without metal fastenings for the mast, after some thought I decided to do it as on the drawing. What is left to do is to cover it with oil, make two slipways and install it inside the  longboat.

It was so great to see everyone at the New London show yesterday.  There were some fantastic models on display.  I hope everyone has a safe trip back to their workshops.
 
And talking about a safe journey back to the workshop.  Many of you may recall that 4 and maybe even 5 years ago, Someone swiped my mini-me off the Winnie model under construction at the show.  
 
I am happy to report that after several years as hostage…and with no ransom paid,  someone anonymously released mini-me and placed him in the depths of the speedwell model at this years show.  I was happy to find him below deck upon my return to the shop.  No harm was apparent on “mini-me” and he is in good health.  Thank you goes out to person for having a change of heart and I am sure that both of you will sleep a bit  more soundly this evening!!   Since I have lost 30 pounds this year so far...mini-me will now undertake the same dietary and exercise regime that I am now unfortunately tolerating.
 
You cant make this stuff up!!!
 

Doreltomin, you're probably right. But I'm not going to carve another figure - the mistake will just have to remain for eagle-eyed people like you to spot and comment on 
 
Tartane, thank you for your input, but despite your belief that the halyards in this configuration would foul the sails, that nonetheless seems to be the way they did it. Note the position of the halyards on these two 2-masted ships  - they lead to the black triangle at the top of each mast and around the white dot (the sheave) and back down again.

Zibaldone da Canale  early 14th century
 
And the same applies with these ones
                  
Bestiary Morgan Library ms4 59 fol 18r North Italy c. 1290          1232 - 1261 Bohemund: William of Tyre's Histoire d'Outremer, BL Yates Thompson 12 f.58v
And these 
  
1332 Italy, KBR ms. 9404-05 - Liber secretorum Fidelium Crucis       St Ursula, Church de San Francisco de Palma de Mallorca 1st quarter 14th century
 
And as confirmation that this is not just artistic invention,  multi-masted lateeners and setee-rigged vessels in the 20th century continued to do so:
   

I am quite prepared to believe your contention that chebecs did it differently, but there  is sufficient evidence that this was the way it was done in mediaeval times, and has continued to be done this way in many vessels for centuries in between.
 
Steven
 

Hello, and thanks to everyone for the comments and likes, the work is progressing, everything needs to be finished and nailed:

Knee of the head Mk. II.  I messed up the first one when I was sanding the backside to fit the stem.  I learned my lesson and made up a sanding block with the same profile of the stem to sand back the second version.  This time I used brown artists pigment mixed into the Titebond glue.  The lines are hardly visible, but show up nicely when the wood is damp.  I will stick to that approach for the rest of the build. The stem, keel, and knee of the head are just on the bench for show and not glued up yet.
 
Adam
 
 

Now it's time to build magazines and all sorts of decks and beams. For that phase an accurate depth gauge is essential, so I've let my brain overthink yet another tool 
 
The requirements are:
1) Soft plastic or wood to avoid scratching the model
2) Nice looking and pleasure to use, that tool would be in active service for at least a decade.
3) Ideally it should have a thumbwheel or a knob for fine adjustment. 
 
I have a cheap plastic vernier calliper that satisfies the first requirement, but it does not have an knob / thumbwheel.

Could not find any plastic callipers with a knob, unfortunately. The plastic ones are already rare enough, let alone with a wheel adjuster.
 
Then I spotted a Lego set with a container loader ("reach stacker", to be more precise) that has a worm gear and tried to make an abomination out of it. It is surprisingly challenging to build a compact functional tool out of random lego parts, a whole puzzle of its own. Respect to people who do it on a regular basis!

It kind of works, but the play and precision is not good enough for my needs. 
So I gave up on the wheel adjuster requirement and went back to the simple "calliper on a gantry" setup.
It was a nice warmup to recover some skills that I've lost over years of inactivity.
 

This time I even got help from my little helper! She enjoyed cranking the mill  

 
The resulting design has two parts - sliding gantry (no t-tracks, it is stable enough on its own) and a "calliper holder" that slides sideways on the gantry to allow the gantry keep contact with both sides of the baseboard.
The bottom edge of the caliper is trimmed to a flatter profile to avoid hitting the keelson. Both ends of the calliper can be used for a markup to allow for a comfortable pencil positioning.
The setup relies on three clamps to fix everything in position. These plastic clamps are a bit of an eyesore, maybe I will sidetrack again to build a nicer ones  


 
 

Filling transoms.

Thanks to all.
Knee of the head.
With Le Gros Ventre, I installed the knee of the head only on the already completely finished hull, which caused me a bit of a problem (the gap between the stem and the knee of the head). That's why I decided to make and attach the knee of the head already at this stage of the construction. In this case, the installation went without any problems.        

I modified my lathe to clamp long sections of masts..🔥


Production of topmasts has started..
 







Add some details and I can start assembling..💥

 
 

After a lively and instructive  debate on rigging, back to build progress, .
 
I've now had the opportunity to add some more of my carved figures, plus the knights are now in place and rigged for the fore and middle masts. I have yet to finalise the halyards, but the tackle at the lower end is sorted.


For the mizzen mast, there is not enough structure below decks to hold a knight, so I've made a block to be fixed to the deck beams instead.




Halyards temporarily threaded through the sheaves of the fore and middle calcets. I made the halyard double - I couldn't figure out how there'd be two sheaves in the calcet otherwise. Happy to be corrected, but now that I've committed myself I'm not going to change it - not on this model, at any rate, but maybe for future ones.

I think the grab-rings on the hatch covers are still a bit too  shiny, so I'm planning to weather them a bit more.
And just for something cute (and for people inspecting the model to spot and comment on), two crewmen tightening up a shroud - one pulling down on the shroud, the other pulling the lanyard tight. I had to drill tiny holes for the ropes to go through.
  
  

I don't think I mentioned earlier the upper fixing for the shrouds. Based on this carving

and a very instructive picture kindly sent by Woodrat when I was doing my dromon, I've fixed them like this:
  

That's about it for the time being. More to come when I've done a bit more.
 
Steven
 
 

This build thread is incredibly fun to read.  I can tell that there have been some differences in opinion in within the last page, but I hope that everyone continues to post their thoughts, even if they think they might contradict the information someone else is providing.  I think it's better to have a number of dissenting opinions about something, than NO opinions.  That's the difference between a fun and thought-provoking log, versus a single builder just talking to him or herself.
 
It's also fantastic to see the reference material that people are providing, as that's a gold mine for other builders who follow.   
 
Thank you for sharing your build with everyone Steven; it's one of the most interesting logs on the site right now.
 
Alan

Yes, most will not be seen, as I have to take into account the depth of the carronade carriages and the various openings down the centre of the deck. When I started this, my main thought was that I want to include a ships stove, and it kind of progressed from there.
 
However, as some build logs of Sphinx and Indy has shown, the modeller can choose how much of the upper deck is planked, and this one will be easier due to the sub deck being much less prominent, and the beams being flush with the upper surface of the ply deck.
 
I always think back to the excellent Tamiya kits I have, where they have details that are almost, sometimes completely covered up once fully built. 

Harpy also has 17 bulkheads with lots of bracing, so very structurally sound..
 
Yesterday I clamped and then glued the final iteration of the gun port patterns - as usual for this sort of kit, no gunports or oar ports need to be marked and cut out, these will be already done.
 

Had some time out from trimming the 'Box' hedges so made a ladder for the companionway with a bit of sanding and tidying up it should look the part.
 

 
 
Tim

They finished up with only one paying passenger plus the owners family (wife and two daughters) and two servants (this is from newspaper articles and the servants may actually have been the daughters). They were heading out for the Gold Rush so possibly had a full (free?) crew.
 
I don't actually have any info from my Great grandfather but again from newspaper reports (passing ships took mail and messages and reported sightings, whoever reached port first let them know who was coming and vaguely when to expect them) it was London to Cape Verde then probably Cape Town via the Brazilian coast, then on to Adelaide or Adelaide direct (I think Cape Town). Roughly 14,500 nautical miles in a boat that fits comfortably in my cousins front yard ( a 1 acre block, ~100' wide).

 
No idea but probably.
 
Supposedly Bramble just going in to Brisbane:

Hello everyone, I am embarking on this new project, my favorite period is 1800, after having built a French ship and an English frigate, I am trying my hand at building a corvette, Boudriot's plans do not include the framework , I therefore proceeded to the drawing myself, by hand, what I needed to build this corvette in frame, I must thank Gérard Delacroix for the advice he gave me and for the plans he provided me, he was very kind, and thanks also to Francis Jonet for making one of his available books, after spending twenty days drawing, I started the construction with the axial elements, let's see what comes out of it , any errors will be corrected during the construction phase. This time I'm building in 1:48, because the model allows me to have manageable dimensions for me:

UPDATE:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The windlass and stern davit was used for various tasks, one of thich was to help work the anchors with their parent ship, helping lifting the crown so that the anchor could free itself, and the the ships capstan did the work of raising it. The windlass was used to coil the buoy rope.

My mill doesn't go that fast so I go for thin cuts and slow movement of the cutting bit.   I do notice that sometimes some pieces do chip out but I suspect it's due to the grain usually at the end of the cut.

A  (very) long introduction to my latest project – the repair and completion of a model of the barque ‘Herzogin Cecilie’ for the Australian National Maritime Museum. I will be working on the ‘Duchess’, as she was known, in my time at the museum, while the ‘Meteor’ model will come home, to be worked on when I can.
The Story Of The Ship

The four masted barque ‘Herzogin Cecilie’ was built in 1902 at Bremerhaven by Rickmers Schiffbau AG as a cadet ship for the prestigious German shipping company  Norddeutscher Lloyd. She was built to the very highest standards as she was designed to not only be a cadet ship for Germany’s most prestigious shipping company, but also a floating ambassadress and showpiece for the German Second Empire. She was met with great excitement and media acclaim wherever she went.
Her name, Herzogin Cecilie, is from the German – Duchess Cecilie – as she was named for Herzogin (Duchess) Cecilie Auguste Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who was later to become the fiancée and wife of Crown-Prince Wilhelm of Germany.
The ‘Duchess’ as she was affectionately known, engaged in the wheat and later nitrate trades to the Americas prior to World War I sometimes with salt, timber, or coke as the outward cargo. She found herself isolated in the port of Coquimbo, Chile, when war broke out. This put her in a difficult position as she would certainly have been taken as a prize of war if she had attempted to return to Europe from her neutral port.
She remained at Coquimbo until June 1920 when she loaded nitrate at Celata Colosa and sailed for home. As soon as the cargo was discharged at Ostend she was handed over to the French Government as part of war reparations. The French didn’t want the ship and decided to sell her. She was finally purchased by the well-known Åland Islands owner Gustaf Erikson on the advice of his most experienced captain – Reuben de Cloux.
Thus began the final, and probably most well recorded, era of the ship’s career. Erickson sent her to Australia looking for wheat cargos – cargos that could be loaded slowly and cheaply in the small Gulf ports of South Australia – cargos that could survive the long, slow voyage back to Europe without damage and without losing value. His Master of choice for the ‘Duchess’ was the same Captain de Cloux who had inspected the ship at Ostend, a man who sailed the ship hard (and somewhat expensively as he was prone to carrying canvas too long and losing sails in strong winds). She made twelve voyages to Australia in all, mostly to the South Australian Gulf ports, but also to Melbourne – usually with outward bound cargos of timber. In between her Australian voyages she also made several nitrate voyages to South America.
Reuben de Cloux stayed in command of the ‘Duchess’ until the middle of 1929, when he went into retirement as a Ship Master and handed over command to his First Mate, Sven Eriksson, a distant relation of the owner, Gustaf Erikson. Gustaf was evidently not too happy about offering command of the world’s most famous and best loved sailing ship to the inexperienced Sven, however the very tight-knit network of Åland Islands family connections is thought to have forced his hand.
During the period when Sven was in command the ‘Duchess’ continued to regularly win the so called ‘grain races’, with the fastest voyages home from Australia, but this may say more about the speed of the other ships involved than the ‘Duchess’ as there are several extant letters from Gustaf Erikson to his Captain reminding him to always take in sail early and not on any account to risk losing sails in strong winds!
As the 1930’s advanced, luck began to run out for the ‘Duchess’. In June 1935 her donkey boiler exploded while she was discharging grain in Belfast, killing two of her crew and injuring several other people including the Second Mate. Considerable damage was also caused to the ship’s structure and rigging. Only essential repairs were carried out at Belfast, the remainder being completed in Erikson’s own shipyard in Uusakaupunki, Finland, and the ‘Duchess’ sailed on her final voyage around the world on 29th September, 1935.
The bad luck continued as she sailed up the Kattegat on her way to the North Sea. She sailed straight into the stern of the German trawler ‘Rastede’, causing heavy damage to the trawler, which had to be towed into port. The ‘Duchess’ was held entirely responsible for this collision, and it later cost her owner dearly. After the collision, Sven simply continued his voyage to Australia.
She sailed from Port Lincoln, in South Australia on 28th January, 1936, arriving at Falmouth, for orders, on 23rd April and on the 24th she sailed for her discharge port of Ipswich on what was to be her final, very brief, voyage. At 0350 on the 25th April, in heavy fog, she struck the Ham Stone in Soar Mill Cove and, leaking badly forward, settled to the bottom with her poop still above water. Several attempts were made to get her off, but it was not until 19th June that she was finally refloated and towed to Starehole Bay near Salcombe, where she was once more allowed to settle on the bottom. On 19th July Sven Eriksson wrote to Gustaf Erikson that several seams had burst and a bulge in the plating was noted on both sides near the mainmast.

Her back was broken. The ‘Herzogin Cecilie’, the beautiful ship, was now a total loss! Her rusted remains can still be seen in the sand at Starhole Bay to this day.
 
The Story Of The Model
The model of the ‘Duchess’ has a long and complex history.
Back in 2007, one of the museum’s model makers, Col Gibson, was asked by two friends if he would be interested in seeing a model of the ‘Duchess’ that was owned by their neighbour. Of course, Col said, “Yes”, and in February 2008, while he was having lunch with his friends, they introduced him to their neighbour, Vera Grainger, and her model of the ‘Duchess’.
Vera’s husband Malcolm, the builder of the model, had passed away and Vera expressed an interest in donating the model to our museum however the model couldn’t be accepted into the National Collection unless complete, and thus the “Duchess” model’s long association with the Australian National Maritime Museum and the museum model makers began.
 Work on the model had commenced in South Africa prior to the Grainger family migrating to Australia in 1978 and had continued here up to the time of Malcolm’s retirement, however after he retired the model languished with the hull and most of the deck fittings completed, and some of the spars completed but quietly resting in a box. Vera expressed an interest in the model going to the National Maritime Museum, and wrote a letter and report to the museum concerning her gift.

The model as received by the museum
 
Nothing further happened for about two years, when Col had an unexpected visit to the model makers’ bench by then Senior Curator Dr. Stephen Gapps, who was enquiring about the fate of the model described in Vera’s letter and report. This visit finally resulted in the model being collected from Vera’s home and taken to the home workshop of another of the museum’s model makers, George Bambagiotti, as he had agreed to complete the model.

George Bambagiotti holding the stripped down model
 
Malcolm Grainger had commenced the model using plans for the ship as she was originally built, but many major and minor alterations had been made to her structure over the years, even when still under the ownership of Norddeutscher Lloyd. It was finally decided that the model should be altered and completed to show her as she was when she was engaged in the grain trade to Australia, as that was the most relevant period of her life for Australian maritime history, and the way most of the world remembered her.
George started cleaning and disassembling the model while Col started on the required research. Researching such a well-known ship sounds easy – there are literally hundreds of photos of her and many books; but the books usually don’t mention alterations to the ship, and almost all the photos are undated, so trying to find out exactly what the ship looked like in early 1936 was no joke.
Progress was much slower than anticipated due to many factors, sadly including George’s increasing bouts of ill health, but he was not easily put off. I remember sitting on his bed at a Rehabilitation Hospital together with Col as we tried to work out exactly how various parts of the ship actually looked at the time of her final departure from Port Lincoln.
As time started to drag on, Janos Nemeth and I were asked to contribute to the build. Janos, because of his well-known expertise with small carvings, was asked to make a new figurehead for the model, and I was asked to build a new suite of boats. I was also asked to consider rigging the model, with Janos asked to assist with this if needed.
The two final blows were the closure of the museum due to Covid in March of 2020 and, far worse for his colleagues and friends, the death of our dear friend George on 27th February, 2020. George’s death was a shock to all his friends at the museum, but most especially to the team working on the ‘Duchess’! While we coped with our grief at the loss of our friend, we also had to consider the future of the model, as the ever-worsening Covid pandemic with its threats of lockdowns made future actions uncertain. We also had to consider relieving Lyn Bambagiotti of the worry of having the model stored in her garage.
Fortunately, the museum was able to arrange to have the model moved to the museum prior to everything locking down, but we then lost track of our lovely ‘Duchess’. She had been sitting dreaming on one of the museum store shelves while Col and I wondered what had happened to her until a recent visit to the modelmakers’ desk by one of the museum curators. Not only was the safe ‘Duchess’ in the model store, but the museum wanted the model’s status to be resolved!
Things then started moving quicky. Several of the museum’s senior staff became involved, and the project was suddenly moving again. Our beautiful ‘Duchess’ is now on the upper gallery of the museum in her own secure display case and work table, and will be starting to sort our the mess on the model and the mass of possibly relevant bits and pieces that were collected from George’s home starting next Monday.
 
Sorry for it being such a long introduction, but it's been a pretty complex story!!
 
John

Hello everyone, thank you for the likes. The deck is finished with the planks, I don't want to add anything else to give a good view of the interior. Testing the various structures, anchor winch holder, etc. everything is in place and fits perfectly. Next up is the nails, two rows are already done.
 

 

 

 

Hi All
Thanks for the likes.
Onto fitting the bulkheads
 
A quick jig was made to keep the spine vertical whilst the bulkheads were fitted.  Bulkheads kept square using Lego and clamps
 

 
Once all bulkheads were fitted I added spacers to keep everything square, this is simply achieved by taking measurements of the gaps between the same bulkheads on either side of the spine and taking the average, two pieces of stock are then cut to that length and glued in place between the bulkheads
 

 
The 3mm ply spine is still flimsy at this point so bracing pieces are required.  These are cut from the templates provided and 3mm ply is used.   I cut the bracing pieces roughly 5mm less wide than the templates so that the edge of the bracing pieces were clear of the bulkhead edges..
Following shows a couple of the bracing pieces cut and installed clear of the bulkhead edges
 


 
Gaps in the bulkheads are plugged with some pine and sanded flush
 

 
The frame is now rock solid and straight
 

 
 
Thanks for dropping by
 
Mark