Richard44

Yes, making those nicks and then trying to bend the strip may work but it wouldn't be easy to get a neat finish. I had some wider strips (8mm) which were sufficiently wide to fit between the bulkheads and could be shaped to conform to the inner and outer curves. You just might get away with using three or four Tanganyika strips laid edge to edge without any caulkIng, particularly as you won't see the margin plank once the fore and quarter decks are in place. Cheers

Nicely done Starlight.

Very neatly done.

Tim, you're doing really well. Your positioning of the rear patterns looks to be spot on. It's hard to tell from the photo, but I think you may have to bevel the last two bulkheads (at the stern) even more. Limewood bends fairly easily if you soak it for a while. Cheers

Thanks for your comments. Once the gunport patterns were in place, I completed the deck planking. The ladder in the forward hatch can be seen. Before starting the hull planking, I decided to make and install the ladder in the forward hatch. I did this now on the very reasonable assumption that I would drop the ladder down the hatch before actually gluing it in place, and it would be difficult if not impossible to retrieve it via the hatch, if the hull was closed off. Sure enough, I did drop it a few times. The supplied wood for the ladder was a bit mixed. The sides were ok, but the wood for the treads was 1x2mm. This was both too narrow for the treads and too thick to fit into the grooves already cut into the sides. So some 0.5x3mm was utlised. I commenced the hull planking by gluing the garboard strakes in place, making sure that they did not rise too high at the bow. At the stern, I allowed the strakes to find their own run, without trying to force them towards the keel. This resulted in a gap which may need to be filled with a triangular stealer. As most of this area has to be sanded heavily before doing the second layer of planking, I may get away without having to do so. There is nothing unusual about needing a stealer at the stern and I expect more will be needed. I then pinned some battens along the hull to get an idea of how the planking should run. I wasn’t entirely happy with how these looked, even with some adjustments, so used paper tick strips between the garboard strake and the lower edge of the gunport patterns to mark the bulkheads as well. The garboard strakes glued and pinned. Three battens in place and it can be seen that the bulkheads have also been marked after using tick strips. Planking has progressed, and has been going quite smoothly. The appearance of triangular gaps at the stern was expected and will be filled with stealers if necessary. I know some builders end the planking at the stern somewhere between the bearding line and the stern post, but I decided to run the planks out past the stern post - makes it easy to keep the symmetry. I know though I'll have to do more sanding to reduce the thickness of this planking. That's it for now. Cheers.

I lost track of you Russ, I was wondering if you'd finished the launch. Nice work. Cheers

You're doing really well and you have a good base for your second planking.

Nice job of the planking Tim. Cheers

Wonderful build James and Chris - congratulations.

Like popeye, it's a while since I looked at your build - excellent work. Cheers

To make this more secure, particularly into MDF, drip thin CA into the hole first. Be careful. Let it dry thoroughly, then screw the bolt in. The CA hardens the wood.

No, I don't. I built the Xebec long before MSW came into existence.

Hi Charlie, I'm not a member of SoS, so won't be able to comment on your build, but from the photo above, it seems that you are doing an excellent job. Cheers

Of course it does - how silly of me. 🙁

Hi Yves, Fantastic model, I wish I had your skills. Cheers

Hi Tim, Welcome to the Fly/Pegasus club. There are many logs on here that deal with the building of these two ships. One I would thoroughly recommend is that by Blue Ensign. Enjoy your build. Cheers

You managed to get those gratings in ok, nice work. Cheers

Hi Starlight, If you haven't already thought of it, you need to consider now how you will display the finished ship. If just on a cradle, you probably don't need to do anything, but if on pedestals, a steel (or perhaps brass) rod through the pedestals and into the false keel is recommended so as to give support and rigidity to the display. To do this, you need to drill suitable holes through the pedestals and the actual keel and into the false keel. It's far easier to do that now rather than later. Small pieces of scrap ply glued both sides of the false keel will strengthen this in the path of the drillhole. Cheers

Yes, I meant the gun deck (it's also called the upper deck, just to confuse things). The false deck to me is the ply that you install then cover with planks. It's not to difficult to plank when it's in situ. Put it in place, without gluing, and try putting a few planks in place (no glue) to see how you go. Cheers

Hi Starlight, I wouldn't worry too much about the planking on the lower deck - it's basically invisible once you complete all the hatches on the upper deck. I did it, but I had plenty of wood left over from other builds. As for the coamings/hatches, if you haven't come across Blue Ensign's build log, look it up. He has some details of how he did these which should help you. I glued the false deck in place then planked it - it seems the logical thing to do. You're doing well with your build, the best piece of advice I can give you is to think ahead, several steps ahead in fact. Tends to prevent any nasty surprises. I've got a few days off then I'll be onto the hull planking. Should be fun! Cheers

Thanks for the comment Spyglass. Now for the gunport patterns. The NMM plans of Pegasus show two extra sweep ports compared to those already cut into the gunport strips of the kit. So two more were cut. The mounting holes for the eyebolts for the cannon breech ropes and side tackles were drilled through the gunport strips as well. This was done in the expectation of being able to use the strips as a pattern to drill through the bulwark planking, if this is installed before the second planking above the wale is completed. We'll have to see. The instructions and all the build logs say the same thing for fitting the patterns - soak, clamp, let dry and repeat if necessary. I decided to change this by using a heat gun after clamping the soaked patterns to the hull. The patterns were soaked in hot water for 25-30 minutes then clamped to the bulkheads and the heat gun was used to dry the patterns. In a few places the patterns did not quite mould to the bulkheads, so these places were heated again and while the patterns were still hot, finger pressure was used to hold the patterns against the bulkheads until they cooled. The forward port pattern clamped in place after soaking and heating. The two patterns after forming. Both patterns had to be trimmed to fit at the stem, and the hole for the bowsprit had to be re-cut. After allowing the patterns to thoroughly dry, they were glued to the bulkheads. The port pattern glued, clamped and pinned to the bulkheads. Both patterns glued in place. It can seen that I have already removed the extensions of BHs 5,6 and 7 in preparation for completing the deck planking. Cheers.

Thanks for the comments and the likes. And so on to the planking of the deck. I decided not to follow the kit instructions which would have you plank the fore and aft sections (but not the waist) and fix a transverse strip across the ends of these sections. Not very realistic. I’m going with full length strakes and I intend to follow as best as possible the pattern of planking as shown in TFFM. Before starting the planking, I made and fastened in place the various gratings/hatches and added mast partners and a step for the capstan. I also moved the after hatch forward and modified this to allow the main jeer bitt pin to pass through (as per TFFM). By doing all this, the planking would then have to butt up against these fixtures, rather than planking first and then gluing the hatches etc on top. As I hadn’t done it this way before I thought I’d give it a try. Antscherl doesn't specifically mention a kingplank on this deck though his deck plan diagram clearly shows one. I have assumed that this kingplank is the same thickness as the deck planks and hence it will not stand proud. The king plank was fixed in place and several strakes either side were trimmed and glued in place. At this point it became very apparent that trying to follow TFFM closely was just not going to work. There are some differences between the kit and the plans in TFFM which would have been correctable if I had known about them earlier. To do so now, while certainly not impossible, was impractical. So rip up the glued planks and start again. This time the deck planking was going to be based on that in TFFM, but not a copy. Once past the central part of the deck where short lengths of plank were used, it was time to start laying full-length planks. Antscherl’s deck plan shows that the strakes taper and curve fore and aft. Additionally, the last four strakes before the margin plank were worked in two lots of top and butt with varied plank lengths. The method I used to plank the deck was as follows. Firstly, the deck was subdivided with a curve being drawn using a strip of wood where the top and butt (T&B) would commence. The outer section was divided equally in half by a curve for the two bands of T&B. The inboard section would be covered by five strakes of planks and was lined accordingly. Exactly the same method we use to line a hull before planking but much easier on a flat deck. A full length strip of wood was trimmed and tapered, then held in position while the butt positions were marked on the strip. Antscherl’s deck plan was used as a guide for this. A strake ready for the butt positions to be marked. The strip was then cut into individual planks and these were glued in place. The curvature of the strakes was gentle enough not to need edge bending, though some minor sanding helped. To do the top and butt strakes, a pattern was first drawn on a strip of paper. Planking started at the bow. A piece of wood slightly oversized was sanded until its inside edge butted up nicely against the already in place planks. Its width clearly changes along its length at particular points and these points were marked on the piece of wood. The widths at these points were measured from the pattern, the wood was then trimmed and glued in place. Individual planks ready for gluing. This was repeated until the first strake of the T&B was in place. The second strake commenced with a length of wood being sanded so that its outside edge matched the curve marked on the deck. The points where the width changed were marked and the widths this time were measured off the deck, not from the paper pattern. The following photos illustrate the method I used, though I did not use a pen for marking out, just the tip of a sharp pencil. The high lighted plank is the one being made. The piece of wood has had its inside edge sanded so that it fits neatly against the deck plank (actually the first band of T&B) and has been marked ready for trimming. The first plank in place and the second marked ready for trimming. The two planks in place. Not a perfect fit. Light sanding may have improved things, otherwise I would have recut the second plank. The first band of T&B was completed, at which point I realised that I really, really should have already installed the margin plank, particularly at the bow, as several deck strakes should be butting against this. I am using a 5mm wide margin plank. A template was used (because of the curvature) to mark the inside edge of the margin plank at the bow, while elsewhere simply marking points 5mm in from the deck edge was sufficient. A chisel was then used to remove those parts of the deck planks where the margin plank should have been. The margin plank was then fitted between the bulkhead extensions, and fitting of the T&B continued. There is no joggling involved. The almost completed deck. The jeer bitt pins in place through the after hatch. Planking in the waist of the ship will be completed when the extensions to bulkheads 5,6 &7 are removed. Cheers.

I too have the Amati crimper and use it occasionally, but only when the crimped side is not visible. I also use it gently and put in numerous close-spaced shallow crimps rather than trying to get the curve I want with only a few. Some woods are not suitable and tend to splinter. Cheers

Thanks everyone for the likes and the comments. Cheers

Thanks Moab. Cheers