Ray

Deck fittings
 
Now that all the main deck guns are in place I finished of the rest of the gun deck fittings. The stove looks very good as do the capstan and pumps in some ways its a pity most of these items will be hidden, when the top deck goes on,all the fitting made up well, the only tricky bit is the pump handles which I made up and fitted as the other components were fitted to the deck,these and the other parts had brass pins glued into the bottom of them and a .7mm hole drilled into the deck to receive them,and finally they were fixed in place with cyno.
 
Looking down the deck

 
Looking up the deck

 
 
looking down on the deck


 
view up the deck


 
down on the deck


 
 
 
 

Guns fully mounted
 
All the guns have now been fitted and the ones that can be seen have been fully rigged. Next job to finish the gun deck fittings.
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

Half of the main deck guns are now fitted and the ones that can be seen are fully rigged, I used my normal method for making the rope coils, and lightly rubbed the completed gun on sand paper to give a slight flat on the bottom of the wheels to give a larger gluing area, then fix them with a generous amount of thick cyno, the last thing you want is to later  knock one loose when the top deck is on.
 
Guns being made up

carriges, barrels and wheels

Rigged ready to fit

Being fitted

Next stage

Next stage

Starting second side

First side done



 
 
 
 
 
 

Deck FittingsAt the same time as making up the main deck guns and rigging them I also started making some of the deck fittings, hatches, bits, ladders and the stove the photos below show the progress.
 
The first hatch

 
The first hatch finished

 
Hatches and ladders

 
Hatches test fitted


 
Stove added

 
The fittings and the guns


 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hi Polo
          My Knee replacement was carried out 5 months ago and it is going ok vey very painful at first but improving all the time, I can play 9 holes of golf now. One good thing is it has given me a lot more building time, even though some of it is when I cannot sleep (due to the knee). I hope your hand heals well so you can get back to Pegasus.

The side rails
 I masked at the top of the waist side rail and at the bottom of the sheer rail and painted royal blue in-between I the added the rails, making sure to leave spaces for the channels and fenders, I decided to leave the rest of the rails until after the top deck goes on, and I have worked out the position quarterdeck bulwark at how high it will be.
 
Painted section


 
Sheer rail going on

 
Gap for channel

 
Both rails on

 
 
 

The Gun Deck
 
The guns
 I decided to try blackening the barrels rather than as in the previous builds painting them.
1st attempt I tried a blackening agent supplied by a well known model shop it was a complete failure after cleaning the test barrels I tried a 50/50 solution watched it and after 40 minutes nothing added the rest of the bottle and again after a further 30 nothing more than a slight discolouration.
2nd attempt this was with Birchwood Casey brass black, another failure, it did give a sort of blackening but it was very patchy and after washing it rubbed off.
At this point I gave up with the blackening, re-cleaned up the test barrels and went back to my previous method, I used a matt black aerosol spray and did 6 at a time giving them 5 or 6 very light coats and selected the very best ones for the guns that will be seen although there were no bad ones.
The carriages were made up using the jig as in the photo, painted and the rigging eyes, and rings added, I made them up in stages, and in-between working on them made up some of the deck fittings I find this a way of making the repetitious parts not tedious, I rigged the breech rope over the top to simulate it going through the cascable ring as shown in The Anatomy of Ships I fully rigged two guns and mounted them laying the breech rope as in the book, also this also allowed me to work out the position of the rope coils at the end of the tackle.
Now back to assembling and rigging the rest of the guns.
 
The axle jig

 
 

Ready for the wheels and barrels

 
 
 
Breech rope on

 
Fully rigged

 
 
Bulwark rings

 
 
Rigging as in book

 
 
Two guns mounted on the gun deck


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Rudder
 
Now the hull coppering is complete the only plating left to do is copper plate the rudder, but before that it needed sanding down, tapering it to about 3mm.
Coppering the rudder was probably the most fiddly part of all the coppering. When done the pintails were glued into position on the rudder I glued both parts on and then marked where they came on the keel post and then drilled it, then I added the straps to the rudder and cyano fix the rudder to the post and added the other straps to the hull, and to finish off painted the straps with copper paint.
.
First few plates on

 
A few more plates added

 
Plated and ready to fit

 
 
Rudder completed




 
 
 

Copper plating complete the second side has now been finished, only the rudder to do, to complete all the plating to sum up the plates went on very well were easy to cut dress to fit, there was loads left over, glad its completed and it was a good move to break it up by building the galleries at the same time.
I have also remove the protective tape of the gun deck.
 
2nd side well under way


 
Both sides completed





 
Protective tape removed from gun deck

 

Coppering tile plate applying guide 
Copper plating seems to scare some builders so here is the way I actually fix the plates/tiles to the hull THICK cyno is always used and I very rarely find the need to remove any excess, and if I do I use a wet/baby wipe. Cutting is done with a heavy duty Stanley type knife on a self-healing cutting mat, and any extra dressing to fit carried out with a sanding disc or needle file.
 
1st thick cyno going onto tiles max I do at one time is three

 
spreading glue on plates

 
Triming at plate

 
Fixing tiles/plates standerd fix and a cut in fix


 
Fixed ordinary and cut in tiles plates

 
 
 
 
 
 

The galleries have now been completed there is one more bit to add on the top but that will be done when the quarterdeck rails have been added, no real problems adding the trim and decoration and the photos show the stages, now back to the plating only a few more rows on the second side to go.
 
Decoration going on one side
 

That side done
 

Decoration going on the stern

 

Galleries finished

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A bit more work done on the galleries firstly they were painted royal blue, several coats applied to get the required finish, also the rail was painted black and the rest of the black paintwork touched up. Next the windows were fitted I added curtains by painting them on the clear glazing material supplied, and the first length of decoration trim was fixed and painted gold I will paint all the gallery decoration gold as it looks great with the royal blue.
 
Galleries being painted



 
Windows having curtians added

 
Windows in


 
 
 
 

John 
 The black line is a batten 1mm x 1mm in plastic painted black. The top and butt deck planking was a challenge but came out well and worth the extra effort, one thing I would recommend is to use maple if you try this you cannot use the timber supplied as you need several different widths. 
Copper plating                          I have now completed the plating on one side about 950 of them and I am pleased with the result, and how they went on, fitting the batten first made cutting in the plates at the water line much easier than on Pegasus when I added the batten after plating. My educated guess at where to put the gore line worked out ok, next a bit more work on the galleries and then another 950 ish plates.
 
One side plated


 
triming a plate

 
Plates cut into the batten


 
Side one finished


 
 
 
 
 

The Stern& Quarter Galleries being built at same time as coppering hull.
 
                     This proved to be quite tricky to build and even more so as I am going with the low quarterdeck sides. I lined up the transom so that the rail across the top of the stern gallery will line up and be the same height as the quarter deck sides, when they have the rail caps on them, this has meant the side windows are a bit to high by about 5mm and its to late to change the height, so I will have to live with it, I added a extra 3mm piece under the windows which brings the whole gallery down so it finishes in about the right place. Could I have tried to removed it all and lowered it, it is so well glued up it would have been a nightmare to do and could have ruined the whole stern, the good thing is the top stern gallery rail and the quarterdeck rail will line up and look right. Once the quarter galleries were made up the stern gallery was done and the rail across the top added a length of 1x4mm walnut was well soaked and then bent into shape and fixed whilst very damp with cyno. Back to a bit more coppering as I mentioned before I have been building this up whilst coppering.
 
Starting the stern gallery

 
Galleries building



 
 
Top rail added

 
ready to paint



 
curtains

painting




 

Copper plating the hull.
                                  Firstly I decided to go with the copper plates supplied with the kit although I much preferred the look of the ones used on Pegasus, the cost would have been over £100 to update them too much for me.  I started from the edge of the keel and fixed a row of tiles left over from Pegasus on the edge, I then came down 3 Rows before running a gore line, I did it by eye and feel and looking back at Pegasus to get the same sort of effect, as there does not seem to be a definitive way of doing this. One advantage I have found with these plates are they fix very well, maybe it is the dimples on the fixing side holding the cyno better than a plain flat surface, they also cut well and dress down fairly easily with a file or sanding wheel, when you need to make up the triangular stealers.
 
First few tiles on

 
Gore line marked out

 
Gore line tiled

 
About a quarter done


 
 
First side nearly done



 
 
 
 
 

Firstly thanks for the comments guys
 
I will now depart from the build instructions and copper plate the hull and build up the transom and stern gallery. Before I start the plating I have added the batten to where the copper plating will finish, I used 1mm square plastic and painted it black. I will do the copper plating next, as it requires the hull to be upside down or on its side most of the time whilst the plating is being added, so I my opinion now is the best time to do it, plus I want to get it out of the way, I will do a bit of tiling and a bit of transom building, my reasoning is doing both at the same time will break up the copper plating.
 
Batten on and painted
 




 
 
 
 

The main wale                       The main wale planking was done next; again the timber needed dressing before it could be used, as the edges were very rough. After all the planks were fixed I taped over the top thinner plank so as to protect it, and to maintain the difference when rubbing down the rest of the wale. The wale was rubbed down and filled and top plank uncovered and the whole wale painted black.
The whole of the hull including the wale was given a coat of 50/50 satin water based varnish and water, I use this as a sealer, I find both paint and the copper tiles adhere to it very well (I did a test strip to make sure).
 
First plank on

 
Ready to fill and paint


 
Narrow top wale plank

 
Wale in progress and lined gun ports

 
Masked up and painted

 
Wale completed and 50% water-varnish sealer on



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The second planking is completed sanded, filled, and sanded again and lastly finished off with wire wool, I have also lined the gun ports with lids, all the gun ports have been painted. One thing I did do was to add a 1mm strip to the bottom of the keel as to my eyes the distance between the planking and the keel bottom looked to narrow.
 
Bow planking

 
Stern post and stealers

 
second planking completed


 
First sanding

 
Filler aplied

 
Lined gun ports

 
Extra wood added to allow easier lining of bow gun port

 
After final sanding


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Second Planking 
I started planking from the top of the wale, this position was marked out as per the instructions measuring down from the main deck gun ports. I like to lay the second planks semi-wet to damp and fix with cyno gel; I find the cyno grabs damp timber much better than dry timber. One thing I will comment on is the quality of the planking the 1x4mm being the worst, it is nowhere as good as the planking supplied in the two Victory kits I have built, the edges are rough and splintery, and also show saw marks, four out of ten would be my best mark I could give the 1x5mm a little better, So before soaking I had to sand all the planking edges a bit of a pain. I went downwards with the 1x5mm for five rows,( the instruction say plank right down to the keel and plank upward last), I then went upwards with the 1x4mm only because I thought it was only a matter of time while working on the bottom I would break or damage the fore or quarter deck sides, this way their thickness would be doubled and be a lot less fragile. The planking as gone ok so far.
 
Jason
        At the end I have posted two pics with Diana along side Pegasus hope this gives you the size compassion.
 
Rough planking
 

 

 
First few planks on

 
Working upwards


 
 
Planked upwards to the top

 
Planking well under way
 


 
Diana and Pegasus
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Gun ports
Next job mark out the main gun deck gun ports, on the face of it a simple task, the top of the second plank down is marked and is the top of the gun ports, start 65mm in from the stern and mark along that line with the template supplied stern to bow. WRONG this gave me a big problem the last two gun ports at the bow line up with two frames, these would need to be cut away to open up the port, which in turn means you would have to remove the deck beam supports, (see photo) this is a very poor design fault, I moved the gun ports to just miss the frames this puts the ports in the position shown on the overhead deck plan!! I then remarked the ports going back to the stern with a 32mm space between ports not the 30mm space on the template. I can only think what a good job I noticed this before I started cutting out the ports!!!!
The ports were then all cut out small holes drilled and then cut out and trimmed square with a file, note I covered the deck with masking tape to protect it when filing out the ports, the ports without lids were then trimmed out with1x6 timber the inner bulwarks and the framed ports painted.
I did not check first but after warning from Christian I checked the channels, when fitted they will be ok and the spaces that need to clear over the gun ports will be.
 
AS marked out with supplied template

 
Ports as remarked


 
Cutting out the ports

 
Ports all cut out

 
Ports cut out and lined

 
All ports without lids done

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks for the comments guys just a bit more to do on the first planking as detailed below
 
With the first planking completed and sanded down I filled a few slight dips, and low planks and sanded again. I then made a template for the quarterdeck bulwark, for as built configuration of 1794 all 9 pounders cannon and a rail, when happy with the look I glued together two of the lime planks and made the two bulwarks and after cutting the tops off the frames glued them on, then a second filler and sanding was then done.
 
The card template and the timber quaterdeck sides

 
Quaterdeck sides fitted and filled

 
The quaterdeck sides finshed



 
Main deck gun ports next
 
 
 
 
 
 

First planking has been completed and sanded down. Next will add the quarterdeck planking for which I will make a template first as I am building her as lunched with an open rail and only 9 pounders on the quarterdeck
 
Last few planks to fit

 
last planks on

 
First planking completed

 

 
Sanded down

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Planking update just over two thirds done now, photos show a stealer being added
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

First planking continued
An update on the first planking no problems so far I am laying the planks damp to very damp, I soak the planks in an blanked off length of pvc pipe, and then bend and cut them damp, I fix with pins using PVA speed bond and after fixing the first two rows full width, I am tapering the rest at the bows I do it by eye and feel.
 
First few rows on

 
A few more rows on

 
A few more rows on shows balsa filler helping with pinning planks


 
Stern planking


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Gangways
 
The gangways have now also been planked and the 5x2mm beech has been used to make the rail which joins up the quarter and forecastle decks just the inner batten to add and varnish.
 
One side done

 

 
Both sides planked