Richard44

The next step was to finish the gun carriage and install it. A trial was done outside the boat, and a problem became immediately apparent. When assembled, the muzzle of the cannon pointed downwards to such a degree that removing the quoin was insufficient to get the muzzle to at least the horizontal. The carriage was built as per the instructions, and as all but two pieces were pre-cut, there was very little room for error, and the two pieces I had to make were fashioned from blocks already sized. A measurement made on the carriage as built was found to be 5mm greater than the same measurement on the cross-section on the plan. And this discrepancy was certainly sufficient to raise the quoin high enough to depress the cannon’s muzzle. I puzzled over this for a while, then decided to change the way the quoin was mounted. The cannon on its carriage as initially built. The carriage as modified. The carriage with its cannon, mounted on the gun slide. As part of the on-board equipment there are two water containers and three tubs, all of which have to be made by gluing staves to pairs of ply discs. The top and bottom discs are of different diameters. The tricky part of this is that all but one are open topped, so the staves cannot be glued to the top disc as this has to be removed once all the staves are in place. The instructions suggest waxing the edge of the upper disc so that glue does not adhere. Instead I wrapped the disc in cling film. The staves were tapered appropriately, glued to the bottom disc and edge glued to each other. Gel CA was used for this and with a setting time of 60 seconds there was plenty of time to position the stave and more than enough to get at least one finger in just the right place to glue it to the stave. All five have two bands of reinforcing rope wound around them, while the two water containers have rope handles. One tub, it contains the anchor rope, has both discs in place so this was easier than the others. The photos shows the beginning of this tub, and although it’s not apparent in the photos, I was actually building it upside down. How I did this I don’t know as the diagram on the plan is perfectly clear. Ah well. I realised this the following day, swore, pulled off all the staves, cleaned up the two discs and redid it. The beginning of a water container, showing the top disc wrapped in cling film and several staves in place. The tub for the anchor rope on the left, a partly completed water container in the middle and a finished water container on the right (it still needs the handle). There are various accessories for the cannon to be made - a swab, a scoop, a rod for ramming the charge home and what looks like a corkscrew that is used to clean fragments of rag out of the barrel. The scoop is formed from a section of brass tube, the “corkscrew” from twisted brass wire and the ram from a piece of dowel. The instructions suggest you make the swab by gluing small pieces of white cloth to the rod (the handle) to get the desired thickness, then trim this to get it looking cylindrical and finish by rotating this against sandpaper to get a fluffy surface. I decided to shortcut all this by gluing an unused felt polishing pad that came with my Dremel to the rod, then holding this against the Dremel’s drum sander to reduce its diameter. Quick and easy. Smaller versions of the swab and ram were made for the two swivel guns. The completed cannon and swivel gun accessories. A Dremel felt pad is on the right, and one of these was used to make the swab next to it. Another pad, cut down, was used to make the swabs for the swivel guns. Cheers.

Hi Mugje, How's the build going? I'll be starting my Pegasus in a month or two, so I'm following your build with considerable interest. Cheers

Firstly, I have changed the heading of this log from “Armed Pinnace” to “Armed Launch”. When I bought this kit about 20 years ago, I was given a review of the kit that had been published in, I believe, Model Boats and the author, Keith Julier, referred to the boat as a pinnace. I now realise that the boat is more correctly called a launch. Thanks for the likes and the comments, Lou and Barnes. On with the build. A short update. The photo shows the gun slide and carriage almost complete and ready for fitting. The rudder has been painted and the hinges are ready to put in place. The tiller had not been made at this time, but was later cut and shaped from a suitable piece of wood, rather than trying to bend a piece of 3.5x5 as suggested in the instructions. The making of the oars was tackled next. The photo shows the various parts for the oars, a partly completed one and a finished one (though not yet stained or coated with a satin finish). Cutting the slot in the central dowel looked as if it was going to be a real problem, as I don’t have access to a mill which would have done the job very easily. The plan suggests filing the slot which would have been an exercise in frustration. So, I mounted two Dremel cutoff wheels on the one mandrel, set up the Dremel on its stand and with the aid of a simple jig, basically ground the slots. The photo shows the apparatus. I anticipated lots of smoke, so this job was not done inside otherwise the smoke alarms would have been triggered. The slots were later cleaned up with a file. The gunslide has now been glued in place and the rudder fitted. The boat has been given one coat of a satin polyurethane finish. That's all for the moment. Cheers.

Instead of a circular ring at the end of the rope gripe, the "ring" is triangular - and this what is lashed to the eyebolt in the deck. You can actually see this in the diagram, deck-ring bolt-lashing- triangle link-rope gripe. Cheers Richard

I've just found your build log Lou, and read it from the begining. Nice work. Cheers Richard

There are six thwarts to assemble, with Number 3 having the mast step underneath and a 10mm hole in the centre to allow for the mast. The supporting elbows for the thwarts were made by using a Dremel with a drum sander attached and mounted on the Dremel router table, with the wood strip pushed against the sander until it hit the stop. The latter was a small strip of wood clamped to the right hand side of the router's fence. The shaped piece was then parted from its strip and cleaned up. I made two extras just in case, and sure enough, one dropped from my fingers, fell straight through the gap between the planks of the outside deck into the leaf mould underneath. Gone forever. And yes, in looking at the photo, I now realise that I should have fed the strip through in the other direction and used the adjustable wedge as the stop. Ah well, it worked. The thwarts are supported underneath by columns, the top of these being turned and supplied, while the bottom part was made from 6x6 stock. The two parts were glued together (CA gel was used) with a brass pin inserted into both for strengthening.. The columns being assembled. The mast step with its supports and thwarts with their columns and elbows ready for fixing. The thwarts fixed in place. The columns were first glued to the underside of the thwarts using a small blob of 5 minute epoxy. CA gel was tried but didn’t hold as well as I wanted. I've assumed that in the actual boat, the thwarts were fastened to the top of the columns by means of an iron spike driven through the thwart. I've used a short piece of blackened brass wire to simulate these The columns were then glued to the stringer on each side of the boat, PVA was used, and another small blob of epoxy was used on the bottom of the column to fix it to the bottom of the boat. The elbows were sanded to fit snugly against the side and glued using PVA. Shortened, blackened nails were pushed into pre-drilled holes in the elbows. The two fairleads at the bow and the thole blocks are also in place. There is quite a bit of loose debris in the bottom of the boat which needs to be cleaned out. Cheers Richard

Of course, how stupid of me. I did think you were being optimistic with your 3 inches, but that was as far as my thinking went.... 🙁 🙁. Anyway, on the positive side, you now know the size of the miniature vise 😀😀. Cheers Richard

No, fully open it's only 10mm between the jaws.

James, I've just come across your review, and it's made me get off my backside and retrieve my Planet bench which has been "stored" in the garage for quite some years. I could have used it yesterday as I had to drill a centrally located hole in some dowels - and it would have been so easy with this bench. Thanks Richard

Hi, The ink was simply brushed on. It is water-based so there is a tendency for the grain to be raised slightly. However, being water-based means that the wood is not sealed, as with paint, but just stained, so that all your normal glues will work as usual. The following photo shows the thole blocks glued using PVA to the already stained cap rail. I should add that I don't know how well the ink would cover any preexisting colour, especially paint or oil-based stain. Cheers Richard

Thanks for the comment Ernie, and the likes. The frame of the gun slide being assembled with the partly completed gun carriage in the background. A trial fit of thwart number three, the gun slide and the mast step, with the handle of a craft knife being used to locate the hole that has to be drilled in the step. The dowel supplied for the mast is 12mm and the lower end has to be reduced to 10mm to fit through the thwart and into the step. I have not yet done this so the knife handle was used as a proxy. The nearly complete gun carriage and slide with their blackened cannon. The formed mast step and a few small parts are also visible. The two blocks with the brass straps at the front of the carriage are to locate the bowsprit, if fitted. It isn't fitted there on the model, but held in brackets on the side of the boat (visible in the photo above). There are actually two bowsprits, one slightly smaller than the other, and they are held one on each side. A dry fit of the first three thwarts and the gun slide. As others have reported, there is a gap between the slide and the first two thwarts which increases towards the bow. As I mentioned in my first post, the foredeck as made does not agree with the diagram in the plan nor the photo on the box lid - it is quite a bit higher. And so the front of the slide where it rests on the foredeck is higher than it should be and as a result the slide is lifted off the first two thwarts. It seems the model has been partly redesigned but not everything was checked. The slide was modified so that it now sits on all three thwarts and on the foredeck. The slide before modification, with the block of wood showing the size of the gap. The slide after modification - a tapered strip of wood glued to the bottom of the slide. The stern bench seats and the swivel gun supports installed. Cheers Richard

Hi, There has been a bit of a break in modelling, but back to it now. The instructions would have you make the cap rail (gunnel) by cutting part of the supplied 3.5x10 timber into short trapezoidal sections, then gluing these back together in such a fashion as to give the necessary curve towards the bow. This seemed rather complex, and as edge bending the timber was never going to work, the outline of the hull was traced onto some sheet wood and the various sections cut out. Two of the cap rail sections stained and ready for fitting. The stain used was India Ink, which worked very well, though as it is water-based, the grain was raised slightly and a very light sanding was required before a second coat was applied. The two rubbing strakes high on the hull were stained and pre-bent before gluing in place. A mix of PVA plus a few drops of CA were used. Tape was sufficient to hold the strakes in place while the glue dried. The complete cap rail stained and in place. The foredeck and transom have been painted red. The outside of the hull was then painted. As the wood used for the planking on the lower part of the hull was quite coarse grained, putty was used to fill the grain before an undercoat was sprayed on (from a rattle can). The completed paint job. A clear satin finish is yet to be done. The decorations on the stern were picked out in gold, though the colour is not especially apparent in the photo. Cheers Richard

Thanks for all the "Likes". Along each side of the hull is a rubbing strake, which needs to be formed from 3.5x5 wood, and edge-bent to conform to the shape of the hull. The locations of the strakes were marked on the hull, and a flexible rule was used to transfer the required curve to cardboard. The flexible rule laid on the hull, the tape is only holding it in place for the photo. The timber strips were soaked in hot water for about 20 minutes then bent using finger pressure only and using the curve on the cardboard as a guide. The two strakes formed but not glued in place. Masking tape was sufficient to hold the strakes in place while the glue dried. The next job was fashioning the two small gun supports. These run upwards from the rear deck, are flush against the side of the hull and are notched to go over the stringers and the cap rail. There are two rear benches which are themselves notched to allow fitting over the gun support (and the ribs). The benches are then glued onto the stringer and fitted flush against the hull. If the instructions were to be followed in the order given, you would have installed the benches first, then puzzled about how you were going to fit the gun supports behind them. Clearly the supports must be fitted first. A cardboard template was made to ease the fashioning of the supports. As the supports fit flush against the hull, the necessary curve for this was obtained by placing the flexible rule against the outside of the hull, then transferring this shape to a piece of cardboard. Some trial and error gave the locations of the required notches. The template was then used to copy the shape to the wood. The flexible rule bent around the hull. The rule and the cardboard template. The two gun supports and the benches shaped and ready for final finishing and fitting. Cheers.

Next job was making and installing the gratings. As with the shutters, these should have been assembled on the cutouts from the deck, but as I no longer had them, Plan B was started. Paper templates of each opening were made and the frames of 2x2 timber were sized and glued to the templates. The two larger openings were subdivided into four, the two smaller ones into three. The gratings themselves were assembled from the pre-cut material, keeping in mind other builder's comments that Panart only provided barely enough material. And yes, I did run out and had to use some gratings left over from some other kit. Fortunately, these gratings were very close in size to the Panart material. Once all the individual gratings were made, they were glued to the paper template, which was dyed black before doing so. I then stained the gratings before fixing them in place in the deck openings. Cheers Richard

Neddie, it's been a long time since I glued up the pinnace hull, but I'm reasonably sure I would have used a strip of masking tape across the plank (the first layer) and wrapped over the top of the bulkhead to hold the edge-glued plank in place while the glue dried. If you try and fit a plank, without glue, you'll see what I mean. And not the high quality model-type masking tape either, just the cheaper paper stuff. And as Lou (ASAT) said, be careful of getting glue on the inside of the planks - it's a bugger to get off later. Cheers Richard