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SkipW

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Posts posted by SkipW

  1. While "hiding" from COVID, I have spent a fair bit of time on the Pegasus.  Attached is the current photo of her with all the lower mast shrouds, deadeyes and lanyards completed.  No Small job.  I tried a number of tricks/techniques to get the deadeyes where I wanted them.  None seemed to work to my satisfaction.  I watched a video on You-tube that gave me a good lead.  I started by crossing the shroud over the top of the deadeye, which according to one of my references is how it actually was done.  Then I took an electronics test lead clip (available on Amazon (as is everything)), and locked the deadeye in place.  I could then lower the deadeye and check its height.  If satisfied, I took a needle and thread and put a lashing across the "X", but not permanent.  I then reeved up the lanyard. Once all the deadeyes were in place I could fine adjust the height by working the shroud thru the lashing a bit at a time until I was happy.  Once happy, I tightened the lashing and locked it with some white glue.  Then I could complete seizing up the free end of the shroud and lanyard.  Took a while.  Attached is a picture of the deadeye and shroud in the test clip.

     

    316558167_DeadeyeRig.thumb.jpg.168d53f0ca7e3f999912631999ed8ce4.jpg

    Starboard side - Shrouds.jpg

  2. On to capping rails, chains and deadeyes.  First I had a painful lesson on the fore-aft orientation of the capping rails.  What I realized after getting them mounted (and glued) was that at least in the foremast capping rails the fore-aft position is super critical - due to the close proximity of the cannon ports and oar ports.  Unfortunately they had to be removed and moved aft about 1/8th of an inch for every thing to clear.  Mounting the fore mast deadeyes, chains and preventers went smoothly.  However for the main mast I ran into the same problem cited by Blue Ensign and seen on other models.  The preventer plates overlapped the wale by a fair bit.  I don't like the look created by notching the wale.  Therefore I took the same approach as Blue Ensign.  I fabricated shorter chains to go from the deadeye to the long chain loop.  I did this using the jig shown in the photo.  Simply two brass nails about 3.5mm apart with the heads cut off.  A small hook in one end of 22 Ga, black, artisan wire was hooked on one nail, pulled tight then hooked around the second nail.  The wires were trimmed to leave about a 1/2mm opening in the open side.  These gave chain links of a great length so that while the preventer plates touched the wale, they did not overlap it.  Quite a few more deadeyes to go!

     

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  3. After consulting a few blogs I finished making and fitting up the bowsprit.  A couple comments.  I got the tip from Blue Ensign that the bowsprit cap in the kit was not really usable.  He was right.  So following his lead and looking at Anscherl's cap, I followed suit and made it bigger with holes drilled through at the proper angle using scrap 5mm walnut from the kit.  There is no way that using the kit supplied cap you could get the angle right and mount all the eyebolts.  The other interesting thing is the rigging of the bowsprit is different in the Anscherl book and the kit rigging sheets.  I chose to go with the kit rigging scheme.  I doubt many people will notice.😊

     

    Bowsprit.thumb.jpg.7382b70007055b8a1a11f0b1b432338b.jpg

  4. For turning the round mast tops - I started using the router and turning the lathe by hand - - but that was hard to accurately control the length of the rounded section.  I ended up just "choking up" on the mast section (exposing maybe an inch) and turning the round section using a 1/4" gouge and 1/4" skew - just normal turning.  For the square sections the lathe is just used for holding and getting precise angles.  On the upper sections of the masts, where the dowels are 6mm and 4mm - it became impractical to use the router.  So I took the jig off and simply used a flat file held parallel to the lathe ways, still using the indexing pulley to get perfect 90º angles.  With a good flat file 5 or 6 strokes gave me the depth I needed.  What I found intriguing was how to get a 6mm square base from a 5.88 mm round dowel.  So at the base of the mast sections I cut the square section all the way down.  Then laminated the lower part on all four sides with 1mm walnut veneer.  Using a sharp knife cut the angle at the top.  Looks very good and fits the trestle trees really well.

     

    There is another turner's trick I used which is not shown.  To turn the tops of the t'gallants I made a steady rest for the tail stock.  I drilled a hole just slightly bigger than the dowel.  Then when putting the mast section in the lathe you insert about a 1/4" of the top into the steady rest.  This way you can turn the dowel down very accurately and very thin.  I lost my nerve when it got below 2mm and used a file and sand paper to get down to the ~ 1.5mm final diameter.  Then you simply cut off the 1/4" of original material at the top.  If you are interested I could post a picture of how this is done.  I will probably use this technique to taper the spars.

  5. While hiding from COVID I have been working along at a slow pace.  Finished most of the fancy work at the bow.  Then after attaching the chain plates realized that in order to get the proper angle on the deadeye straps I would need to get the masts at least roughly done.  That started an adventure of building jigs for my lathe to round, square and taper the various mast segments.  They are all finished now ant the attached photos show the lathe fixture that allowed me to use a laminate trimming router with a 1/4" bit to mill the masts.  (Not the topgallants as they are a bit too small - a different technique was used for those).  The lathe was fitted with a machinists chuck so the dowels could be passed thru the hollow live stock.  The router was set up using a birch dowel of the correct diameter and then the walnut masts sections were milled.  The square sections were done by using the indexing feature on the live stock.  With the masts now close to absolute position I can line out the shrouds and backstays and get the deadeyes in place.

     

    262097437_LatheFixture.thumb.JPG.59a64ca4d0b62d4ce25766edba136c2b.JPG1893998971_MastTestFit.thumb.jpg.306381adeeb6061ef2b03a4bb77b2064.jpg

  6. One part of the stern quarter trim that really does not fit well is the decoration running down to the wale.  It must overlap the wale but that is a mm higher than the hull.  Several of the blogs show how other builders have overcome this problem.  A very complicated way is to make a piece running from the bottom of the stern window piece to the wale.  It is composed of a double curve and it never seems to come out looking smooth due to the use of a lot of filler to get the curves and blend it in.  My idea was to simply take a piece of the walnut hull planking and fill in the space so it is on the same level as the wale.  Then once the trim piece is in place carefully carve back to the trim.  While it may not be perfect it does seem to look as the oriimageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018imageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018imageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018imageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018imageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018imageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018imageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018ginal plan simageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018imageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018imageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018imageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018imageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018imageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018imageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018imageproxy.php?img=&key=4f3b55ae31fcd018heet shows.

    port-quarter1.jpg

    port quarter2.jpg

  7. Just because I've been rather silent, doesn't mean I haven't been working.  I'm amazed it's been 10 months since my last post.  With the free time afforded by COVID I have been working away, albeit a bit slowly.  Most of the hull construction is finished.  A few challenges faced and met.  Some of the coppering needs a bit of recleaning but close to time to start thinking about masts, spars and some rigging.  I have gotten a lot of help from the Build Logs on line - without those this would be infinitely harder.  Thanks to all those who have "gone before".  Stay well.

     

    1371931949_DeckView-Jun20.thumb.jpg.22254f1b9a919e03a00aec9c94d5a49e.jpg1296295517_SternShot-Jun20.thumb.jpg.5d9e5971b40d9d469267451a23f5f23c.jpg

  8. On 3/3/2017 at 11:45 AM, Blue Ensign said:

    The lower rail
    Another very fragile piece, but with the position of the SoE discharge pipes established these can next be fitted.
    The pre-cut notches in the head timbers seem too large for the rail and so required a little packing.
    I made replacement lower rails out of laminated boxwood strip; what little sods they were. Just as I would get close to finishing one, a bit would break off and another hours’ work went down the tubes. x38x

    Image

    The photo also includes a roughed out False Rail that comes into the picture later.
    Still after several attempts the objective was finally achieved but even so the thin end of the port rail splintered a little but the situation was saved by the use of Super phatic glue which wickes into the fibres, and is supposed to be stronger than CA.

    Image

    Here the lower rails are fixed into place and the Ekeing rail is trial fitted.

    The Ekeing rail
    In the kit the Ekeing rail is represented by a decorative white metal strip that simply has to be curved to shape and cut to size, attaching to the bottom of the Cathead support and joining with the Lower Rail.
    OK as it goes but it lacks the subtle shape of a true Ekeing rail being only on one plane, not fitting well to the adjoining timbers, and lacking a good match to the other timbers. As it has to be painted it is any case of no use to me as I need all the rails to match in natural boxwood finish.
    I don’t think the job could easily be done with walnut, and it wouldn’t be easy to include a laser cut version in the kit because this rail has to be fettled to suit the shape of the bow which in practice would vary slightly from build to build.
    The metal strip does however provide a good template to assist making a wooden replacement.
    Firstly a piece of the metal strip is cut and shaped to size, it is then transferred to a boxwood blank, and the shaping can then begin.

    Image

    Metal strip on right used as a template.
    I used a Jewellers saw to rough out the shape, and from then it was a question of sanding and whittling away until the desired shape was achieved.

    Image

     

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    The piece was soaked and then clamped to give a round to the lower end.
    Once the plan shape is achieved the face is then tapered down from where it meets the Cathead support to finally fay into the Lower rail.
    The back of the Ekeing rail needs to remain flush with the hull to which it is glued, which means that a little trial and error shaping is required. The face tapers evenly down from the support and as it turns across the round of the bow it is progressively thinned and tapered to meet the thickness of the lower rail.

    Image

    A fair bit of scarring to the paintwork during the course of rail fitting.
    Image

    Seem to have taken a chunk out of the stem during the proceedings, fortunately the Pegasus figure will cover this.
    Not as formidable a job as I had imagined, patience and a fine grained wood does the trick. I didn’t cut the rail with a built in lateral curve but relied upon the thinness of the timber plus a little water based bending to achieve the end result.
    The trickiest part is fixing the rail to the hull, there is no easy way to clamp the rail whilst the glue sets. I glued it by degrees and pinned at two points.

    Image

    The Ekeing rail just cuts across the top of the Hawse holes.
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    The grating set up between the Main rails now completed, needs some fine sanding before a varnish.
    Image

    I have also added a Breast hook over the Bowsprit, courtesy of Rabone Chesterman, and the piece was fixed into the bows using eight iron bolts.
    Below it can be seen the Bowsprit partners raised above the deck planking level.

    Image

    Still some way to go before I’m sufficiently happy with it and Part Four should see the final additions.

    B.E.

     

     

    Really appreciate the explanation of the catheads - - I've been struggling with this for several days.  You're exactly right - the only way to completely comply with the kit parts and drawings and keep them below the rail is to install them "upside down".  It wasn't until I saw your write-up that I realized they needed modification to get the proper upward angle coming thru the side.  Thanks!

  9. Blocks

     

       In checking the kit parts list I should have 180 3mm single blocks - - however on checking the contents of the large packet of 3mm (actually 3.8mm) blocks I have 110 single blocks and 100 double blocks.  Anyone else make this observation?  I think I am seriously short of 3 mm single blocks.  All the other sizes/types of blocks and deadeyes check out.

  10. The lower hull is finally finished.  All the excess CA was cleaned off by using a brass wire wheel in the Dremel tool.  It was not easy, but it did work.  The best approach is to try to minimize CA squeeze-out when applying the plates.  I probably over-applied CA being cautious about the plates adhering.  When using the wire wheel it has to be low speed, low pressure.  If you generate too much frictional heat you get transfer of brass onto the copper and that is harder to get off then the CA!  That requires medium coarseness steel wool.  The top of the coppered area was finished off with a 1x1mm walnut strip as others have done - it dresses it up nicely.  Hanging the rudder was a bit challenging, but once you realize the gudgeons are at a right angle to the stern post the rest is just care in fitting them, aligning the gudgeons on the rudder and putting in the dozens of nails.  The preventer  chains will be put on later.  Now onto the upper decks.

     

    1603241994_FinishedHull-PortSide.thumb.jpg.500d6bc1375fee9b3ac6f21155d044f9.jpg

     

  11. My coppering job is done - I will post some pictures when I am satisfied with the clean up.  A word of advice to those who will copper the hull - - - be very judicious with the CA adhesive.  Getting it off the plates when you are done is more than onerous.  The problem with CA is it polymerizes and that "plastic" that is formed is very tough and not very soluble.   I've tried many ideas, and while acetone is helpful, for the thicker spots, especially along the bottom edges of the plates, it is not that effective.  I am now using medium coarseness steel wool, which does work, very slowly, and does not mark the plates.  Going over it with 0000 steel wool leaves the plates bright and shiny.   I'll be cleaning plates for a while so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

  12. After a lot of debate (with myself) and reading blogs I decided this was a good time to copper the hull; prior to installing the upper decks.  It has its advantages and disadvantages, but this way once the hull is coppered I won't have to invert it anymore.

     

    I used the technique described by Blue Ensign - soaked the sheets, one at a time, in white vinegar, buffed with 0000 steel wool and then cleaned with acetone.  Put the sheet into a gallon zip-loc bag and then folded to separate the plates.  Once this was done they were never touched without latex gloves.  Used medium CA to glue the plates, applied with the side of a needle as a spreader.  Too often I still ended up with too much CA and cleaning the plates will be a bit tedious, but I have found 0000 steel wool with a bit of acetone will take off the excess CA (with a bit of elbow grease).

     

    First I put folded plates around the stern post, which will be mostly covered with the hull plates.  This gives a neat look to the stern post.   I started off trying to "brick lay" the plates like Blue Ensign, but quickly became unhappy with the gaps caused by the curvature (kudos to Blue Ensign).  I then went to the technique used by Flyer, of overlapping the plates slightly at the bottom (top edge of the lower row).  This allowed me to get tight fits and looked a lot better.  The upper most row was installed along the waterline as done by Flyer.  I like the nice appearance.  Cutting the plates always leaves a somewhat jagged edge.  When both sides are complete I will add the small wooden strip at the top of the copper, on the waterline.

     

    Pictures show the starboard side, finished, and lightly cleaned.  I won't do the final cleaning of the CA until both sides are coppered.

     

    2106536983_SternPost.thumb.jpg.f1cd9866c2ea225c99073b0ba76c75af.jpg1658767264_StarboardSide.thumb.jpg.e6dfc203549736c152938f7553062b27.jpg

     

     

  13. Hi Martin -

     

       You can find a lot of info on rigging the guns "for sea".  The barrels were typically raised quite high and lashed to a ring bolt above the port.  I would guess in this configuration you would build it with the gun ports closed, which while realistic, would hide some nice detail.  I have not seen any models fitted with all 18 gun port lids (open or closed).  Most have the guns run out and only show closed lids on the forward two ports, where guns were not fitted according to the records.  I think there is even data to suggest that very likely the Pegasus went to sea with only 14 guns as the British Admiralty was short of cash and scrimping on armaments and decorative work on the Swan class ships.  

     

    Cheers,

    Skip

  14. Back to cannons and how to rig them since the cannons which will be under the upper decks need to be placed prior to gluing the decks in.  I decided to fit all carriages with breeching ropes, not a big deal.  Only the four cannons that will be slightly visible will get in-haul and out-haul tackles, out-haul only on the visible side.  There are several approaches to treatment of the spare line on the tackles.  On DubZ's Syren - he leaves the lines free on the deck, although these are not cannons and don't have as much excess line.  Many builders of the Pegasus, e.g. Flyer and Blue Ensign, chose to frappe the tackles.  After looking at a lot of reference material and blogs, I have gone a slightly different way.  With the guns run out, showing her teeth as they say, I would guess that the gun would need to be ready for somewhat violent recoil, so the out-haul tackles would need to be free to run, not frapped as they might be for storage with the guns stored inboard.  So I have flaked the excess line alongside the gun as I might imagine it was done in preparation for firing.  The in-haul tackle is at its' maximum extension so there is likely very little excess line, so I chose to affix it to the deck running back close to the eye bolt holding the inboard block.  This seems to me how the cannon would be set up prior to firing.

     

     

     

    Canon Rig 2.jpg

  15. Have moved on to hatch gratings.  After looking at a lot of blogs I came to the conclusion that the gratings should be cambered athwartships.  This agrees with some blogs and a lot of actual hatch grating pictures.  I assume this is so when tarped over they shed water easily.  To construct them rather than do the tedious job of making half lap joints I used two pieces of 2mmx3mm walnut.  The top one upright and the lower one on its side.  This gave me the 5mm height shown by others with the ability to camber, or crown the grating appropriately.  While a glue seam can be seen if you look really closely the net effect looks like the half lap joint.  Sanding across the grating with a rocking motion produced a good curvature. 

     

    Gratings.thumb.jpg.8f6c2805d4fd8010b248e71891f892eb.jpg395564423_HatchGrating-1.thumb.jpg.376d866ffa0fdc1485d9b224ffec136b.jpg

  16. Finally finished the second planking.  Overall I am happy with it.  However I needed a couple of "cheats" near the bow.  No matter how well I tried to taper the planks at the bow, they became very small and did not lie flat at all.  They started to clinker badly.  My fix was to put in three planks on each side that tapered to a point just short of the bow.  They will essentially be covered with copper sheathing so won't show.  You can see them in the "bow on" photo below about 1/3 of the way down from the keel.  At the stern I added several stealers with good success and had no problems with the stern planking even the turn up to the counter.  In reviewing all the Pegasus blogs it does not look like I was the only one who had trouble with the second planking.  Most models have some "adlib" to fit the planks at the bow, or stern.  Even the picture on the box cover shows some rather bizarre planking below the whale, just above the copper sheathing.  I also found the plans rather vague on the stern construction.  I planked the whole area above the hull planking, then fitted a piece of walnut veneer which will mate up to the stern fascia piece.  The height of which I ended up setting from looking at a number of blogs.  Now on with finishing the gun deck planking.

     

    Pictures are: l to r:  Bow planking, stern planking.

     

    Below:  Port side planking

     

    Bottom:  Starboard side planking.

    Bow Planking1247804497_SternPlanking-r.thumb.jpg.a2e5b9825ee14f28a9cfaf92c46648ff.jpg1825778453_PortSide.thumb.jpg.687bba367d6f6bb7bbe0b9aa91bff3f1.jpg1222851581_StarboardSide.thumb.jpg.ceec2f8b371e33af92b904dbc73023d6.jpg

  17. Now beginning the second planking with the walnut strips.  I have the strip at the top of the whale in place and now two strips along the keel on each side.  I find that there is a slight misalignment in height as the planks get laid next to each other.  Instead of waiting to sand this all out I cut a 3/4" wide strip off the end of a cabinet maker's card scraper and turned a burr on it.  This acts like a plane - used this to good effect on the deck planking as well.  The card scraper actually removes shavings - - not dust - - and you can quickly level out high spots.  This will in the end reduce the amount of sanding significantly.  See photos.  You can find how to turn a bur on a card scraper by Googling "sharpening a cabinet scraper" takes a bit of practice but once you can do it it is a very useful tool.

     

    I used Titebond to put the top of the whale and garboard strakes in - but cannot figure out how to effectively clamp the strips in between.  So have moved to CA - - no problems yet - only slightly glued my fingers to the planks.  Even though this will all be covered by the copper plates - I want to learn how to plank without pin holes for future projects.

     

    Pink spots are sanded down Bondo auto body filler which I used to level out low spots.

     

    1495847950_PlaningDownPlanking.thumb.jpg.7de84afaee99cefe314fcea9a2ffd6c4.jpgPlaning down second plank - note shavings622798269_CardScraper.thumb.jpg.0ba2004a841c8f4fb532f70d949f8bc3.jpgCard Scraper

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