Herzogin Cecilie 1902 by Jim Lad - Four Masted Barque

[KeithAug]

She is one of those ships where the longer you look the more detail you see. Excellent restoration work John.

[Jim Lad]

The 'Duchess' continues to edge ahead. I have now almost completed the new wooden cap railing around the poop. Only one small section at the stern remains to be fitted. I had hoped to complete that last monday, but ran out of time, so it will have to wait until next week.

 

John

 

[Keith Black]

 I went back to the photos of the model before you started the restoration work, John. What an impressive improvement.   

[Mark Pearse]

Following Keith's lead, I also went back to the first photos, & that cap railing looks very nice, & seems to be more in scale

[Jim Lad]

Thank you for the kind words, gents!

 

John

[FriedClams]

Very nice progress, John !

 

Gary

[Rick310]

Looks very sharp!!

Rick

[BANYAN]

That's quite some progress John, she's looking great.  

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Javelin]

Looks brilliant. Museum quality! 

[Jim Lad]

Thanks again, gents, for the very kind comments.

 

Roel; you said, "Museum quality". I hope so - she belongs to the museum!! 🙂

 

John

[Jim Lad]

I thought it was about time I updated my log for the 'Duchess'. Still working away on deck details and standing rigging. It seems to be taking an age to get anywhere with her, but there is a lot to do on  a model of a ship this big, plus I spend a lot of time talking to visitors (which is the whole point of the model being built in the museum galleries. Visitor interest has now reached the stage where one of the front desk staff came and asked me what my schedule is as visitors keep asking when the model will be worked on!

 

The photos below show some of the progress. The capping rail around the poop is now complete; I've replaced some of the gratings (which were wire mesh) with more appropriate looking ones; the donkey boiler house with feed tanks and supply pipes are now fitted and the foremast rigging has progressed to having the fore topmast rigging completed.

 

My plan is to continue rigging the foremast so that I can start experimenting with sail making - starting with the jibs, which should be a bit simpler than the square sails.

 

John

 

 

[BANYAN]

Great work on your restoration John, she is looking more and more complete.  Your 'sympathetic' approach is really maintaining her original look while the subtle improvements (a la the gratings) are making that visual difference.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Keith Black]

3 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Visitor interest has now reached the stage where one of the front desk staff came and asked me what my schedule is as visitors keep asking when the model will be worked on!

 That's so cool, John. Do you ever give em a show and pretend to break something? 

[Jim Lad]

Thanks for the positive feedback gents.

 

Keith - knowing me, if I pretended to brake something I'd probably do it for real! 😀

 

John

[Jim Lad]

Another small update. I finally got around to making the motor winch for No. 4 hatch and fitted it when I was in yesterday.

 

John

 

[Javelin]

Great job on those winches. What material did you use to make them? 

[FriedClams]

Looking very nice, John!

 

Gary

 

 

[Jim Lad]

Thanks for the comments, gents!

 

Roel, the steam winch was already on the model when it came to me. The motor winch is made from odd scraps of wood, brass wire, watch parts and copper shim. Just a case of trawling through the scrap box for appropriate looking items.

 

John

[Mark Pearse]

Looks like a massive single cylinder putt-putt engine....

[Jim Lad]

It's actually a hot bulb engine, Mark - otherwise known as a semi-diesel.  Pretty primitive and temperamental, but good enough for Gustaf Erikson to give specific instructions for its removal after the wreck.

 

John

[Mark Pearse]

is that a low compression diesel, & the hot bulb is like a permanent glow plug..?

[realworkingsailor]

8 hours ago, Mark Pearse said:

is that a low compression diesel, & the hot bulb is like a permanent glow plug..?

If you look up “Lanz Bulldog”, the Wikipedia article gives a good insight into how that type of engine works. Plus there’s a lot of interesting YouTube videos of people starting and running them too. Very distinctive sounding engine.

 

Andy

[KeithAug]

Your visitor sessions must be personally very rewarding. Excellent work.

[Jim Lad]

Great fun to talk to the visitors, Keith. I've actually been able to steer a few towards starter kits so they can start their own modelling adventure; and of course, I always mention a certain forum to anyone who confesses to being a model maker!

 

John

[Jim Lad]

Another small update. The standing rigging on the foremast is now complete, although still lacking a pair of spreaders. I'm not sure about the next update. I've been working on the main topmast shrouds, but I really need to get on and get the square sail halliard tackle blocks fixed in the deck along with a couple of other bits and pieces while I still have access to them, so there might not be much in the way of apparent progress for a little while. I'll see how it goes.

 

John

 

[Jim Lad]

Things have been moving ahead a little faster than I expected as most of the corrections on deck have now been made, so I've been able to concentrate more on the standing rigging.  I'm now back to the main mast and currently working on the royal rigging, so almost finished there. You can also see additional coils hanging over the side indicating that the lower halliard fittings are in and ready for the yards.

 

The fore spreaders are also now fitted. I always fit the spreaders after the rigging is done, as the very slightest alteration in angle of any of the upper backstays throws the spreader alignment off, so better to fit the spreader to the actual rigging than the other way around.

 

You will also see a clothes peg hanging on the main topmast stay near the deck. This is as a result of a self-inflicted disaster when I tried to trim a loose end down near the foremast base and slipped, slicing neatly through one leg of the stay! 🥵🥵🥵 I think it will be OK but will see tomorrow when I try to complete the repair.

 

John

 

[BANYAN]

A lot faster indeed   and it looks great John.  The spreaders have come up well.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Jim Lad]

Taks for all the 'likes' folks, and for that encouragement, Pat.

 

Just a small update. The repair to the main topmast stay is now complete and it's very hard to see where there was a problem; so that's a relief!

 

John