Richard44

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

I did think of using threaded rod. The end that goes into the captured nut is not a problem, but the other end? The rod would need to be tightened but how to do this. File a slot for a screwdriver - don't think so. Silver solder a nut on the end and use a nut driver?, but this would essentially be the same as what I did more simply. I did spend some time puzzling about this, and I came up with the simplest solution I could think of. SpyGlass, I have been following your helpful comments on various Pegasus builds - thanks for your inputs. Cheers

So, my build log of the Pegasus kit from Victory. I’m not going to describe the kit contents as there are quite a few build logs here on MSW that do exactly that, the latest being that by Mugje. The first task was to read the instructions carefully, at least as far as the first planking, examine the plans and read the already existing build logs. The second task was to repeat the first to ensure that I had a more than reasonable grasp of what was to be involved in starting this build. Unfortunately, the result of all this reading was information overload, but anyway, on with the build. As well as the information in the build logs, I will occasionally refer to the "The Fully Framed Model" by David Antscherl and Greg Herbert. After numbering, the false keel and the bulkheads were removed from their sheets and trial fitted. All slots had to be eased slightly as the fit was just a little bit too tight. It was noticed that bulkhead 13, the last one, was not properly centered when slotted fully home onto its tab - it was slightly shifted to starboard. The slot in the bulkhead was widened with a few passes with a file to correct this. The false keel has to be thinned near the sternpost to allow for the thickness of the two layers of planking to closely match the width of the sternpost. To do this, the bearding line first needed to be drawn on the false keel as the thinning starts here. The kit plans do not show this, and in looking at the logs there is some variation in builders’ interpretation of where this line should be. I drew my line so that it clipped the fore edges of bulkheads 9-12 and finished under the filler block (part 16). A 2mm wide strip of wood was spot glued to the rear of the false keel to aid in sanding the false keel to the needed thickness. The bearding line was continued along the keel as a marker for a rabbet here, and then along for the stem rabbet. Although Chris Watton in one of his posts says that a keel rabbet was unnecessary, I decided to cut one for the experience. A knife cut was made along the line using a steel rule to keep it straight. A chisel was then used to pare the MDF to give the rabbet. A 2mm wide wood strip was spot glued along the bottom of the false keel to guide the depth of the cut and then removed. A similar method was used to cut the rabbet at the stem. The MDF cut easily. The walnut stem and the two keel parts were glued to the false keel. The stern post was not fitted at this time to allow easy sanding of the first planking at the stern. The rabbet at the stem completed. I’d decided to mount the Pegasus on pedestals, so mounting holes, for 3mm bolts, had to be drilled through the base, the pedestals, the (real) keel and far enough into the false keel to give secure mounting. Captive nuts were epoxied into slots cut near the end of the holes in the false keel and small pieces of ply were epoxied over these for additional strength and to help in preventing the nut from turning. The only 3mm bolts I could find locally were too short for my need, so two bolts were joined to form one by expoxying them into a brass sleeve which was then crimped. I thought epoxy rather than solder was more than sufficient. The bolts were run in and out repeatedly to ensure that there was no binding or glue blocking the holes. The ends of the bolts were rounded to enable them to easily “find” the nuts. Trial mounting onto the pedestals. The bulkheads, the false lower deck and the main, fore and aft decks were trial fitted and then removed. The slots in the main deck needed slight easing to enable it to be fitted without undue force. The lower deck, bulkheads and pre-shaped infill blocks were then glued in place on the false keel. Infill blocks were glued in between bulkheads at bow and stern. I used scrap wood that I had rather than buying a sheet of balsa, so the appearance is not as neat as others. After several hours sanding, the hull was apparently faired. Upon checking with a strip of wood though, I found the same problem with BH7 as Mugje did. (To confuse things, Mugje in subsequent posts referred to the bulkhead as BH6, though the photos are clearly that of BH7).That is, the strip does not fair smoothly past BH7, but there is a gap between it and the bulkhead. The gap was more prominent at the top of the bulkhead and decreases towards the keel, and is the same on both sides of the hull. It would seem that either BH7 is slightly undersized, or the adjacent bulkheads are slightly oversized. More gentle sanding was done on bulkheads 5,6,8 and 9 but even so, the fairing still was not smooth. So, a shim strip was glued to BH7 and finally, after BH7 was sanded, a fair run from BH5 through to BH9 was achieved. Although totally unnecessary, the lower deck was partly planked below the main hatch. Antscherl describes the kingplank of the lower deck as being 3 inches thick and, as the remainder of the deck planking is 2 inches thick, it stands proud by 1 inch. So a kingplank 1mm thick was laid, and with the other planks being 0.6mm thick, it stands proud by about 1 inch equivalent. Not that anybody's ever going to see this. The stern counter pieces were glued into their slots. The quarterdeck was positioned to ensure that the outer pieces were angled inwards correctly. A minor amount of sanding was required to fair these. The main deck was glued in place and is ready for planking. Cheers.

That's looking very nice Russ. Cheers

Ok, extreme slackness on my part. I hadn't bothered to read the detail on Chuck's website, where it specifically says "These cannon also fit the Amati Victory models Pegasus and Fly kits very well." So, I'm about to order some, that's if Chuck is shipping to Australia. Edit. Ordered.

Hi Grant, Yes, Chuck has cannons that are close to the size I'd like, so I may well go with those. Chris is developing a set of cannons, but his smallest is 9pdr, not the 6pdr that Pegasus has. Cheers

Hi, I'm just starting to build Victory's Pegasus and I'm not happy with the quality of the supplied cannons. The cannons are 6pdrs with a length of about 32mm. Any suggestions please as to replacements. Thanks