Jim Lad

Continues to impress, Paul. John

Your speedster is coming together very well, mate! John

Me too, Steven. I'm thinking of using silkspan for the sails on the 'Duchess'. John

Great stories, Phil! John

Good to see her still progressing. John

Thay look like vent pipes from tanks, Keith. John

You've done a very neat job of that carving! John

That's a wonderfully complex piece of work, Richard. As for doing all the framing up - you could equally ask why people building period warships go to the trouble of all the faming detail that will be hidden! 😀 John

Always a delight to see your posts, Keith. I'm interested to see what your cunning plan is for the prop. John

Delightful, precise work, Gary! John

That planking has gone on very nicely. John

very neat looking plating, mate! john

If you weren't so far away, I'd get you to come over and re-finish some furniture for me. 😀 John

I think I'd be inclined to add the whelps. They were to help with rope slippage around the drum. John

At least give it a try, Keith. You may well find that it's not as difficult as you think. John

Hello, and a warm welcome to MSW from 'Down Under'. John

Hello Highlander, and a warm welcome to the forum from 'Down Under'. John

Carved in my favourite timber - privet! Any good, close grained timber would serve, Keith. The scrolls were carved in relief on a thin piece of wood, which is the backing you can see behind the carvings. I drew the scrolls onto tracing paper and the put the tracing paper over the wood and drawing side down and drew over the lines from the other side. This transfers the original drawing onto the wood and also gives you a drawing on the opposite side of the paper so you can draw a mirror image for the scrolls on the other side of the ship. John

Keith, you could always just take a deep breath and try carving. Many years ago I did the gingerbread on my model of the 'Leon' (1:96) using very small chisels ground from large needles, which is not as difficult as it might sound. It might at least be worth a try. John

Just catching up, Paul. She really is looking the 'ant's pants'. John

Pat, I think that's all part of the same anchor - the one that wasn't on the forecastle when she was wrecked. If you look at Karel's photo you can see another anchor behind the two crew members and extending off the starboard - that's the one that was on board when she struck. John

Great to see you back to building, Ilhan. John

I'm sorry I haven't caught up with your model before. She looks really first class. John

She's coming along very nicely. John

Karel, Thank you very much for that image. This ship never ceases to amaze me with the range of strange bits and pieces that were fitted. I wouldn't have believed that a railing like that would be fitted to a ship in the mid 1930's if I hadn't seen the image. It looks like Gustaf was looking for the cheapest way to repair the ship and found some old railing in his shipyard. You obviously have access to an archive of photos that I've never seen before. You may be able to help me with some other fittings that I'm still trying to work out and can't find details. What I still need are: details of the pipes running to the water tanks on the starboard side of the donkey boiler house information concerning a lightly built yard on the spanker topmast - it shows in Villier's photos from 1927 and was still there when the ship was wrecked. I suspect that it may have been fitted as a signal yard - that would be unusual, but I can't think of any other practical use at the moment. photos of the hot bulb engine powered winch at No. 4 hatch. I have photos of a similar hot bulb winch fitted on the 'Pommern', but would love to have details of the actual winch fitted on the 'Duchess' photos of the gangway (accommodation ladder) at the ship's side. She must have had one, and a gangway davit is clearly visible in many photos, but I'd love to see an actual image of it clear photos of the underside of the lower yards as I suspect that the sheet lead block were individual single sheave blocks and not the more usual three sided spectacle blocks. I know that sound a lot, but if you were able to assist us with any of this, it would be extremely helpful. John