Landlubber Mike

I made a little progress today. I'm still studying the parts and instructions to try to determine the most sensible subassemblies to build and paint. Also the ways to minimise handling damage as the delicate stuff goes on - there is a lot of it. So time goes by without apparent progress.
It is still quite a daunting kit for me. There are so many parts that locating the piece I want is an exercise on its own. ONe sprue has 108 parts on it!
I started the bridge structure and then began the descent into madness as the PE is folded and added. 

 
Threading the PE inclined ladder down to the lower platform was somewhat of a challenge for me.

 
The first holes appear in the PE fret but there is another one of the same size as yet untouched. This is not going to be a quick build but its starting off as a very enjoyable project
Thanks for looking
Alan

The shipyard is finally open for business again, albeit on the kitchen table.  I have some workspace in the garage, but it is like an oven in there this summer.  Anyway, i got the vegetable bin constructed and am starting on the shelter/boat bearer. 

Nice work.  Coming along quickly!

Nice work.  Coming along quickly!

Nice work.  Coming along quickly!

Fantastic PE work Craig.  And glad you were able to find the lost barrel.  I've spent hours on the floor looking for parts like that as well.  My problem is I often times work on my kitchen island, and the floors in the kitchen are a medium brown oak, so brass doesn't show very well   
 
The apron is a great idea.  I've also heard some put a white sheet on the ground to make the dropped parts easier to spot (maybe you were the one to suggest the sheet).  

Nice work Craig!  Hope the rains weren't too bad down where you are.

Another masterpiece BE!  Congratulations on a fantastic build.  Looks incredible, great job!

Nice work.  Coming along quickly!

Another masterpiece BE!  Congratulations on a fantastic build.  Looks incredible, great job!

Thank you Matt, Bob, and Glenn.
 
@ Matt -  here's a photo of our last visit in 2019 before the world went mad.

 
Looking down on Staithes my favourite village, and anticipating the wonderful Fish and Chips and Ale we will enjoy when we get there.
 We will certainly be re-visiting Staithes if the weather is kind to us, as it was in 2019.
 
@ Glenn -  I think the Hobbits live in the Middle lands of England, based on where Tolkein lived for many years, I go to Yorkshire to escape them 😀
 
Cheers,
 
B.E.

Post Forty-eight
 
Completion
I decided I would keep the display simple using the keel support stands supplied in the kit.

2972(2)
These were glued to a strip of ⅛” Castello Boxwood 3” x 24” left over from my Cheerful Build.

2973(2)
This was dyed Jacobean Dark Oak. I normally baulk at dyeing Boxwood but the piece was handy and in its natural colour was too pale for the scheme.

3009(2)
For space saving I have gone with the oar racks arrangement and the whole model fits in a space of 5½” wide by 24” long by 10” high.
Not sure whether I will get an acrylic cover to fit over the model at this stage as it is relatively easy to dust.

3007

2975

2983(2)
 
I have re-visited the Oarsman and adjusted his dress.

3012
I recall that Jason (Beef Wellington) suggested:-
 Think if you can get a little more 'flounce' to the bottom of the jacket to differentiate from the breeches they'll look great.
I took his advice and I think the figure does indeed look better.
It was also necessary to tweak the arm/hands position to accommodate the loom of the oar.

3014(2)

3030(2)

3020
 

3021
Not sure I can face the making of another nine oarsmen, but I think I will keep the one with the display.

3003(2)

2995(2)

2998(2)
 
As always there are areas I feel I could have done better but overall I am pleased with the result and have something very nice to add to my collection.
 
Thoughts about the kit
This Royal Barge offering from Syren is a very fine thing indeed. An interesting and rather unique subject at a scale that allows for clear detail.
This is a kit with many pre spiled laser cut parts, but it doesn’t feel like a kit, and any thoughts of a simple assembly job should be dismissed.
Chuck has produced a design that allows the modeller to experience a futtock and frame assembly and offers an introduction to carving decoration.
Great care and thought is required throughout and the end result is a model that clearly echoes the splendid admiralty style models displayed partly in-frame.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this build and the challenges presented, and have no hesitation in commending this kit to the membership.
Thank you, Chuck, for five months of concentration, joy, and a little frustration.
 
 
B.E
26/07/21
 

Continuing the build..
Let’s go

I made an error and accidentally posted these on Vane's blog.
 
 
2 weeks later , finished the main gun deck

I used the self adhesive copper tape on the Charles Morgan 1/2X1/4 in. with overlaps on all 4 sides -with I think, good results and no need for "dimples". The tape can be purchased in variety widths and colours. I used copper plates on the Diane and Agamemnon, more difficult ,gluing and cutting, but felt the larger scale needed it. It requires careful cleaning up to avoid patchy "ageing" . The Dane I left  to age by itself, the Aggie ( after much research) I decided to treat with urine applied carefully by brush. After 3 years the result looks the same (ps luckily MY urine because once I forgot not to lick the brush)

Hi Will, 
Nice to see your progress, your Vic is looking super.  I wrestled with the tiling also, and here are a few tips.
 
I used CA Gel, which gives about 20 sec of time to locate the tiles exactly before it grabs. Just used 5 small drops/tile - 1 at each corner and one in the middle; glue placed on the hull not on the tile.  Careful not to use too much so that it oozes onto the surface. Started on the garboard plank, adjacent to the keel as it had a nice straight line to follow. Just apply them in a staggered pattern like laying bricks.
 

 
To do the keel, I used a Mission Models bending jig to get the 90 deg bends straight.  The plates are the right size to cover the bottom of the keel, plus one face. The other face of the keel can be done with trimmed plates.
 

 

 
Work up to the waterline.  When nearing it, I added a strip of copper tape used for stained glass work, letting it overlap the waterline.  This will hide any small missing corners of tiles if they appear.
 

 
After adding the tiles to cover the waterline, apply a piece of tape and mark the finished waterline on it, then, using a very sharp Xacto knife, trim the tiles to the marked waterline.  Although I didn't do this, you can try to represent the rivets on the exposed edges of the trimmed plates.
 

 

 

 
Keep up the good work!!

At last, I have managed to make a proper start on this project after a few distractions!

Construction: Main Frame
 Construction begins by checking the alignment of the Main Frame Boiler Ring, the Boiler Ring, the Coal Bin and the Boiler Cap Ring. The Boiler Cap Ring (upper left in the photo) is used as the reference for all other rings. It is important for these to be as round as possible as the boiler walls index from these. The parts were then scraped, filed, and sanded of all extraneous casting imperfections (there were many!).
 

 
The boiler walls are comprised of two sections, both formed from photo-etched stainless-steel sheets. The outer faced of these are first scrubbed in a horizontal direction with a Scotchbrite pad to simulate a brushed surface.
 

 
The sheets were then slowly formed into cylinders by bending by hand and using the mainframe / coal bin along with the boiler ring to get them to the right size. Once they were the right size, I held them temporarily with masking tape and miniature clamps while medium viscosity, gap filling CA was applied on the inside surface of the joints. Once that had set, the clamps and tape were removed, and more CA was applied under the overlapped edges on the outside face. Masking tape was reapplied to hold everything in place while the glue set, and they were left overnight. The next day the tape was removed, and excess glue cleaned up with Acetone and cotton buds (Q-tips). All in all, this was a lengthy and difficult process – far more so than the description suggests!
 
Lower boiler wall being formed using Coal Bin and Boiler Ring for index:
 

 
Upper boiler wall being formed using Mainframe and Boiler Ring for index:
 

 
And the finished boiler walls: 
 

 

 
These are now set aside until much later in the build. The reason for forming these now is so that subsequent paintwork on the other parts does not get scratched in the forming process.
 
Attention is now returned to the mainframe and some initial components – the Lower Steam Box and the Upper half of the Water Box, along with various attachments. Locating and identifying some of these parts is a real challenge. Although the drawings are very good and the instruction manual has a lot of photos, some of the smaller parts take a while to positively ID. And although the instruction is very good, it is not perfect, and I’ve already found a couple of inconsistencies that it took a while to nut out. It is important to scrape, file and sand the casting imperfections and then dry fit everything prior to painting and assembly. All the locator holes had to be re-drilled to accommodate the indexing pins as well. Once all of these parts looked like they would fit in the appropriate place, they were scrubbed with a toothbrush in some warm soapy water before being set aside for painting.
 
Here are the parts ready for the spray booth (along with the main frame – not pictured):
 

 
It may not seem like much, but there is two full days work to get to this stage!
 
 

I'm in for this one Greg.  I have some of the similar Japanese subjects in 1/700 scale on the shelf, but always liked the Langley - especially this one as compared to the CV-1 with the full deck.
 
What do you think of the kit?  It doesn't look like it builds into too large of a model at this scale?

Great work there!  And thanks for the pictures of the Tenacity.  I've seen some of them but those are really high resolution, thanks!

Great work there!  And thanks for the pictures of the Tenacity.  I've seen some of them but those are really high resolution, thanks!

Hi Spyglass, I took a closer look at the parts sheets you mentioned (including some macro close-ups, which were the best I could do).  Here are some pictures:
 

 

 

 
 
It does look like these parts sheets in my kit are essentially walnut ply (or some other wood).  It almost looks like there's a very thin piece of plywood in the middle, with very thin walnut ply glued to either side.  The Caldercraft Badger kit was somewhat similar, though I think it was just walnut ply for three layers.  I sure hope it's not like my Badger kit - that walnut would crumble if I sneezed on it, which was incredibly frustrating   Caldercraft at least added plenty of extra pieces so that I could choose the best from the bunch, or just make my own from the extra wood of the sheet.

Thanks for the heads up on the flags guys.  Interesting that Amati missed that detail, but maybe these are stock flags that they use in other kits from the 19th century.  Now I'm going to have to check my Badger - I think the flags I used are the correct ones.  In any event, I was probably going to replace them anyway, as the flags I believe are of more of a vinyl material.  I like the way cotton allows you to add more natural folds and creases

Thanks very much guys, I really appreciate it!
 
Alistair, on the friezes, there are two paths I could take.  One would be to use them, but to paint them so that they have a patina look using dry brushing techniques and/or washes.  I think the former would be better given that there aren't many, if any, nooks and crannies in the friezes for the wash to settle into.  The alternative would be to carve them.  I'm not sure if I really want to go that route, as the PE pieces are gorgeous, and it seems like it would be a big waste of the kit.  Plus, I'm scratching enough of the Unicorn that it will be nice to just build the kit with as many of the kit components as possible.
 
On the Hunt practicum, it was helpful in a few very select areas with my Badger, but I doubt that I will be relying heavily on it for the Pegasus, if at all.  Frankly, I was very disappointed in it.  As you say, he does a lot of complaining in it and uses other models for pictures.  On top of that, he makes a ton of errors during the course of the build and fesses up to them.  Chuck's practicums are much, much better in my opinion.

My approach to the build:
 
The Pegasus kit seems to be a very accurate kit.  There are some questions about the size of the cannons that have been documented, but overall, it seems to me that one can build a very accurate kit out of the box.  For my build, I not only have the full TFFM series, but I also recently ordered the lines and profile plan from the National Maritime Museum (available at the link below).  I plan to use those resources to help me add additional details to my build.
 
http://prints.rmg.co...MS_Pegasus_1776
 
I also have Bob Hunt's practicum for this kit.  I bought it a few years ago when I bought this kit from a MSW member, in large part to help me get through my Badger build.  I'm not sure how much I'll get out of the practicum at this stage, but it probably does have some decent nuggets that will be helpful.
 
At this initial stage, I plan on doing the following:
 
1.  Avoid the use of paint.  Like with my Unicorn, I'm hoping to avoid paint to the extent possible.  I probably won't completely "paint with wood" as the kit wood seems to be very good, but I will use some dyes and stains that I bought from General Finishes to add some color to the model (black, red, maybe blue).  I need to see how well the kit wood takes the dyes and stains.  After working with Jeff's wood however, I might replace some of the kit wood with respect to the outside hull planking, the deck, and the masts.  For example, I probably will go with boxwood for the masts and some of the accents and trims.  The only paint that I can see using at the moment is paint to provide a burnished look to the decorative items, and maybe the figurehead (though, I might carve my own to get it closer to the NMM plans).
 
Overall, I don't want a brightly colored model.  So, in addition to avoiding paints, I might try different washes, stains, dyes, finishes, etc. to come up with a darker, more muted older look to the model like some of the museum replicas and modern masterpieces.  Not sure how to do that, so I have a feeling there will be a lot of experimentation.
 
2.  Sails.  I liked how the sails came out on my Badger, so I will add sails to this build.  I probably will add a mix of furled and unfurled sails.
 
3.  Replacement and scratch details.  I'll have to go through the kit in more detail, but it looks like the cannons are a bit oversized so those will likely be replaced.  The kit also comes with cast metal small boats - to avoid the use of paint, I might try scratch building them.  There are also a lot of other interesting details that you can add to the kit that are outlined in the TFFM series that I might try.  Finally, the stern decoration is a bit different on the NMM plans as Blue Ensign points out - not sure what I will do there, but I might end up modifying the stern decorations to more closely conform to the NMM plans.
 
Should be fun!  Hope I can keep up with the high bar set by the other Swan class builders

The kit is very high quality all around.  It definitely is a big step-up in quality from my Caldercraft Badger.  Here are some pictures for those of you that like eye candy:
 

 

 
 
Wood - the keel and bulkheads are on a very solid piece of MDF, with no warp issues.  I'm surprised more kit manufacturers don't use MDF, given all the issues people are having with warped keels and the like (such as what I had with my Unicorn).
 

 

 

 
 
Building materials - nice kit pieces, but in particular, the copper plates are very, very nice.  Some questions about the size of the cannons, and the anchors seem a bit too triangular, but otherwise very nice, high quality parts.  The photo etch detail pieces are very well done.  In some areas, PE pieces are laid on top of each other to create a more three-dimensional decoration.
 

 

 
 
Plans - the plans are very detailed and nicely laid out.