Geheimrat Heinrich Gerlach

The Geheimrat Heinrich Gerlach was built in 1944 as part of a small series of new constructed motor lifeboats, each about 14 meters in length and equipped with a flying bridge to grant the crew better protection and a better view. Initially named Hindenburg the boat was soon renamend Geheimrat Heinrich Gerlach III and in 1950 the name changed again, this time into Rickmer Bock. After a long and eventful Service she was placed out of commission in 1981 and now lies as a museum boat in Büsum harbour.

A few weeks ago I obtained the kit of the Rickmer Bock from Modellbau Sievers and after a bit of research decided to built the Geheimrat Heinrich Gerlach as she was right after the end of the last great war.
The kit contains a Beautiful hull out of grp, lasercut deck and superstructure and a lot of brass and resin fittings. Built in the scale of 1/20 the boat will be about 70 cm long and will have a displacement of about 4,3 kg.
































Motor, servo etc have already been ordered and hopefully should arrive within the next days.

cheers, Max

Interesting kit, looking forward to your build!

The plan included in the kit shows some detail and is fine if you want to build out of the box.
Over the last decade I collected a few dozens books about the german lifeboats and also got hold of the official model plan that's sadly no longer available.
That's more than enough material to add a ton of detail to the kit - from the additional rudders up to the rivets on the flying bridge.











The boat was built with three parallel rudders, but this Arrangement was prone to getting clogged by small ice floes. Therefore after a few years the two outer rudders were removed.
I bought two additional rudder sets and after carefully aligning them glued them into place. Tomorrow I'm gonna add the rudder servo and head to the lake for a short test.



cheers, Max

great progress, i really like the build stand where did you get it?

The build stand is from Teil-Q, I got it as a present when subscribing to the Modellwerft magazine. The vario-stand is available in different sizes and fits all types of boats.

With the rudder servo in place it was time for the first sea trials. As the motor got a bit hot I decided to head back home and change the motor.
Now she is equipped with an reliable bühler motor and achieves a decent speed.











She rides the waves like a duck and I sailed her until the battery of the remote ran out.
For now this was the last time I was able to enjoy sailing my boats.
Today our prime minister ordered a statewide curfew, beginning at midnight.


stay safe guys

I built a new motor mount and glued the deck supports into place. The deck itself will be glued once the preparations for the coaming are made.




The top of the tower needed to be trimmed with a japanese saw and some sandpaper.









The superstructure ist coming together nicely.















cheers, Max

Roadrunner wrote:

great progress, i really like the build stand where did you get it?

Agree, He did amazing job.

stafen wrote:

Agree, He did amazing job.

Thank you very much   

To simulate the rivets on the tower I used a syringe to apply small dots of waterproof wood glue.
A rather quick and easy method to add this small detail.






The boat finally got its first layers of paint and now looks almost as she did right after the end of the last great war.
Serving under the protection of the Red Cross, during wartime the german lifeboats had a white superstructure with big red crosses on the front, sides and sometimes even back.
Right after the war the signs on the side of the superstructure were removed, but the red cross on the front of the tower remainded for a few years until it was replaced by the traditional emblem of the DGzRS.

Unfortunately the waterline is far from perfect and will be redone once the motor has been replaced with a stronger one. 


 



On a warm sunday I was luckily able to head for the lake and and conduct some sea trials.
Despite the high superstructure she is no object to excessive rolling.
But with with only 1.500 rpm the motor is on the slow side. Therefore I'm gonna replace it - again 













cheers, Max

Very realistic 'seas' on your lake

Barrie

Navigation and deck lights are already done and working fine. A searchlight and morse lamp are gonna follow.







cheers, Max

Hi Max , is she now finished ? and what type of power train , Speed controller , battery set up did you end up installing please , great model but a bit light on tech details please 

Can you forward us details of the adjustable work benches[ as we are all very jealous of them and wish to obtain one each ] contact details / price , etc would all be much appreciated .

Kind Regards Ivor .

Hello Ivor,

the adjuastable workbech is called Vario-M and produced bei Teil-Q.
It can be bought directly from the company or via some german model shops.
Mine was a subscription bonus from the german model magazine "Modellwerft".
I really like the workbench. It's very sturdy and adapts to almost every hull shape.

Well the technical setup of the lifeboat was changed several times.
One motor got very hot, one was too slow and another one too hungry.
I wanted a strong motor for decent speed, but none seemed to fit.
The solution was to switch the prop for a smaller one with lesser pitch.

So the final setup is a 600 "Kraftprotz" (english: powerhouse) from Modellbauregler
with a QuicRun WP 1060 speed controller and 12 V 4200 mAh (8 cell) battery pack.




Currently she's only missing the railings, searchlights and some small parts.
Because of another project I halted construction. I dont't like stopping work so close to the finish line.
But after five long years and thanks to the RNLI and some friends I finally got hold of the plans for a 47ft Watson.
Beautiful boats and the Solomon Browne is my all-time favorite. This year is the 40th anniversary of this tragic and stormy night
and building a scale model seems to be an appropriate way of commemorating the galant crew.

I expect to resume work this winter, once the Solomon Browne has been finished.

Cheers, Max