Landlubber Mike

Same happened with me on my files. They took a beating on the Caldercraft plywood. The carbide set works much better. The Pegasus is a really nice kit. I give it an A+ all around in terms of quality of parts, fit, and plans. If I had to quibble about anything, it's that the walnut used is all over the place in terms of color, from a very dark brown to almost a blonde color. I will ultimately replace or stain the walnut which is fine, but I really wish kit manufacturers thought more about stocking kits with wood of a more consistent color.

For a first model, that's really nice work! Very well done! For files, I had the same problem when doing my Badger. I ended up buying larger carbide files which make bigger jobs like fairing bulkheads a lot easier: http://www.micromark.com/5-piece-carbide-needle-file-set-coarse-80-grit,7526.html I have an older variable speed Dremel. I rarely use it, as it takes material off very quickly. I tried it on my Pegasus bulkheads which were MDF, and I found you have to be very careful. I also used it to drill holes in my Badger for pedestal supports, but that's been about it. I do plan to try it out for carving more decorative items on my build.

Tom, no offense taken! I've learned so much from the folks on here that it's an honor to give back at least in a little way. So, no worries at all. Hope it helps lots of people, as I spent an inordinate amount of time researching and testing various methods.

Ron, I'm wondering if stains would be a better solution. Take a look at General Finishes Black Stain - it goes on very evenly to the point of looking identical across different types of woods. I would say that it is almost a hybrid between paint and stain marrying the best qualities of both. GF also does an Ebony Dye Stain, but it is more stain-like in effect. I tried Varathane black or ebony stain, and it was too thin to use across different types of woods. So far the GF stain is holding up very well. And thanks for the kind words, means a lot coming from someone of your skill level.

Great work Bruce, your Morgan is a real inspiration! Once I source some wood, I should be able to get back to mine. Love the furled sails, very nice touch!

Thanks Mark. I went through the various Swan class plans on the NMM site, and none really seem to show the projections for the quarterbadges. Interestingly, TFFM says that the Vulture's plans show a flat quarterbadge, but I'm not sure how they came to that conclusion. It's probably very well the case that I just don't know how to read the plans though. Scaling the TFFM plans down to 1:64, the quarterbadges are only going to extend 4.5-5mm from the hull at the stool (the widest point). So we're not talking about a very pronounced quarterbadge. If anything, TFFM cautions that many make the mistake of extending the quarterbadge too far from the hull. Below are the two sets of line plans for the Pegasus available at the NMM. The first, J5006, is what I'm basing my build on and the plans that Amati seems has based the kit on. The second, J5009, is a bit more bare of the various decorative elements on J5006, but has what I'd say is more of a traditional looking quarterbadge.

Hey, that's from my Badger log! Looks like I made it to the big time as someone cut my posts into a PDF!

Hey Martin, no worries my friend. I've been swamped with work as well and haven't had much time to visit on here, let alone work on my Pegasus. On the badges, that's interesting about the dolphin/dogfish motif. It almost looks asian inspired in some ways. I think I'm going to try to do the badges in more of a three dimensional way. I started cutting out some of the pieces using the TFFM approach, so we'll see how that goes. This is going to be a good test for how the painting with wood approach and my entry into carving goes. I'm planning on boxwood for the rails and the figures in the upper and lower finishing, blue for the background on the upper and lower finishing (GF blue on boxwood to match the blue frieze area), holly for the window frames, redheart for the upper segment of the lower finishing with boxwood accents, and other boxwood accents. We'll see if I can pull that off - if I can, then I can think about tackling the stern area. For the three rails on the hull, I'm going to use boxwood. Part of the reason I didn't use boxwood for the upper hull planking is that I like the contrast of boxwood rails against other colors. I think boxwood will set off nicely against the redheart, the blue frieze areas, the dark brown stained pear, and the black in the stern counter. Since most of my model is showcasing wood grain (either naturally or through stains), I'm going to test adding stains or washes to help bring out of the grain and deep areas (like in the ridges of the rails or low areas of carvings). Tough call on what to do with your Fly. If you're planning to carve the rails like in TFFM, then you might want to consider a tighter grained wood than walnut. Pear could work - would you be open to staining it? It takes stain very nicely (the brown on my upper hull is pear stained with GF Antique Oak). BE seems to have used boxwood for the upper hull planking and rails - but then again, he painted the frieze area blue and the upper part red (not sure if you're planning to go that route). I've seen others use black for the railings, so GF Black is a nice option too. I know Ron and others have used Fieblings dye, but Chris had mentioned that on his Confederacy, it was starting to fade or rub off (I forget which). One other thing to consider if you want to use black is to take a look at African Blackwood. It's a super nice wood and didn't seem all that bad to work with (though, i just cut a single test plank). I'm 99% sure that I'm going to use it for the black areas on my Charles Morgan once I can find a good source.

Hey Ron, thanks for looking in! Not sure if you remember, but I bought this kit from you a few years ago. Glad I did - it was a good step up in difficulty that has really pushed me to get better. Plus, with the TFFM books, NMM plans and all my fellow Swan class builders here, it's been a really fun project. One of these days I'll hopefully be half as good as you Hope all is well with you.

My approach on my last two builds is to start downward from the gunport patterns, and at least get a few rows in from the keel/garboard up, and then meet in the middle. I always wanted a clean line at the keel, so running a full garboard strake was preferable to me. In the end, it really doesn't matter as you're going to sand, fill and cover the first planking anyway. What's probably more critical is thinking now about how you want to do your second planking. You can use the first planking as a test run to figure out how your planks will lay on the hull, and where doing the garboard separately makes sense. Just make sure that you lay your planks naturally against the hull, and don't try to bend them laterally against their width. That's when you start getting gaps, clinking effects, etc. You can always use filler and stealers on the first planking, and can plan for how you want to approach the more difficult areas on the second planking.

Thanks for all the information guys. Just out of curiosity, if I have the Byrnes disc sander already, would the belt sander on the Rigid model come in handy at all?

Thanks Spy - RWS' and Alistair's quarter badges were two models that I had saved. I might have to play around with it a bit. I think in both RWS' and Alistair's quarter badges, the upper finishing extends past the dolphins (kinda like how the lower finishing is more of the classic tear drop), while the NMM plans suggest that the boundary of the upper finishing ends at the dolphins. I'm also trying to think ahead and plan for the sequencing of when the rails, headworks, and quarter badge should be installed. Ideally, I'd like to run the rails as a single piece the full line of the hull in order the get the proper line between segments that might be broken up by the gunports, headworks, quarter badge, etc. So, do I install the rails now, and either cut slots into the the quarter badge, etc. to sit on top of the rails? Or so I install the rails now and cut them off to fit the quarter badge, etc. flush to the hull? Or, I suppose I could take the alternative approach of doing the headworks and quarter badge now, and then install the rails in segments.

Thanks SpyGlass. I'm actually thinking of building the quarter badges to project from the side of the hull, and not be flat as per the kit pieces and instructions. The approach I'm taking is similar to what Alistair did on his Fly (picture of which is above). My posts above are probably not very clear, but I guess I was wondering if I take Alistair's approach, should the outer boundary of the upper finishing end at the dolphins, or be a bit wider as per Alistair's approach. The NMM plans suggest the former.

Thanks BE and Spyglass for looking in and your thoughts. I tend to agree with your assessment on how the upper finishing would be vulnerable if there was space. Here's another picture to show folks what I'm trying to figure out: The area of the red arrow I think needs to come out from the hull at least to where the top of the rounded window is (i.e., it couldn't be a blank space between the two dolphins). Otherwise, the top of the window would be exposed and likely subject to damage I would think. As you go up the hull towards the dolphin tails, that area likely slopes towards the hull giving more of the plan view D on p. 297 look. For the green area in between the dolphin's tail and its head, I think this area also shouldn't be a "blank space" but should come off the hull planking a bit, with the dolphin essentially raised a little off of it. The yellow area, which is the area just outside of the dolphin, is the trickiest. The kit's quarter badge piece is slightly bigger than the PE dolphin pieces, so you have sort of a quarter badge border around the dolphins. You can see this in Alistair's approach where his upper finishing extends outside of the dolphins. If you look at the NMM plans however, you can see the rails going right to the dolphins (particularly on the left side), which almost suggests that the outer edge of the dolphins marked the outer boundary of the upper finishing. Not saying that Alistair's approach was incorrect, just that there might be different interpretations on the quarter badges given the lack of clarity on the plans. I'm going to have to sleep on it a bit, but I think what I'm going to do is attempt to have the boundary of the upper finishing marked by the outer edge of the dolphins. I'll start by roughing out the upper finishing as per the TFFM instructions on p. 297, and essentially carve the dolphins in relief on that piece.

Hey Martin, really nice work. Not sure what I would do. Once you get a lot of the deck structures in place, would you notice this and would it be an issue? If it would continue to bother you, I'd say go ahead and do it over. Otherwise, if you can move on, then leave it in place. I know for me that if things are going to remain an eyesore for me in the future, it's just better for me to redo things.

Hey Mark, thanks for looking in. The drops below the windows definitely appear to be the typical, full drops with decorations carved in relief. Unfortunately, the stern view of the plans isn't much help as you can see below:

Unfortunately I haven't had much time lately with work being busy to go into the shipyard. I have been reading and planning for my quarter badges though. I'm planning to make them more three dimensional than flat badges as in the kit, but I'm a bit stuck on how to do the upper finishing. Here is a good picture from the NMM plans: The upper finishing is the part above the windows that consists of the two dolphins or dragons (hard for me to tell what they are). TFFM notes that the decorations are in relief, and that in some ships, the upper finishing design shows high relief figures with deep undercuts, and suggests that it's easier to carve the figures separately and then attach them to the upper finishing. What I can't figure out is whether the upper finishing is solely comprised of the two figures (and other decoration between their tails), or whether I should construct the upper finishing as a relatedly solid roof-like structure, with the figures on top. Alistair took the latter option as shown in the picture borrowed from his log below: Anyone have any idea what is more accurate? I'm thinking Alistair's approach makes more sense, even though the plans suggest that the figures themselves are all that make up the upper finishing. Thanks in advance!

Looks great. The weathering is really nice. I'm going to have to try that on my Morgan.

Some of the kits have tanganyika, which looks nice but is a bit splintery. I used tanganyika on my Caldercraft Badger. I'm using maple on my Pegasus. It's a really nice wood to work with. There are some amber waves in the otherwise light color, but I actually like it.

I got an email that the Woodcraft spindle sander is on sale. Is it any good? There have been a few times where a spindle sander would have been really handy on my builds. Of course I'd prefer buying one from Jim Byrnes if he decides to make one... Here is the link to the item and sale price: http://www.woodcraft.com/product/157889/woodriver-benchtop-spindle-sander.aspx

Great work Daniel. Better not sneeze when those cannons are around

Beautifully done Don, very nice job!

Really great work Igor! Glad you're posting here as well as the SIB site. I wish I could build as cleanly at 1/64 as you build at 1/300!

It's been a while since I did the jib traveler for my Badger, but here is a link to my post on how I constructed it (using the Lennarth Peterson book and TFFM Vol. 4): http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/604-brig-badger-by-landlubber-mike-caldercraft-164/?p=130687

Hey Frank, nice unique model to work on. Can't wait to see you work your magic on this one. Nice start!