HMS Pegasus by Blue Ensign - FINISHED - Amati/Victory Models - 1:64 scale

[Blue Ensign]

Hatch Guard Rails.

I wanted to replicate something more realistic than simply using long stemmed eyebolts with line threaded through, but my usual fudges are insufficient to meet the needs of doing this. 

A new skill set is required that is Silver soldering.

To make the stanchions I will be using 0.8mm diameter micro bore brass tubing and 0.3mm brass etched eyelets. (Caldercraft)
Two of the brass eyelets are required to be fixed to the stanchion towards the top at right angles to each other.
Here is the raw material for the makings.

Those who are familiar with the Caldercraft 0.3mm brass etched eyelets will be aware of how fine they are.
After cleaning the brass tube is held in position on the heat pad and the eyelet is held by self closing tweezers.

A tiny amount of ‘medium’ paste is applied to the stanchion.

The eyelet put on top of it and the heat applied, all done in seconds.

For the second eyelet ‘easy’ paste is used (to avoid melting the solder on the first), again a matter of seconds and it’s done.

I was amazed that the bond was so good it withstood filing of the ring once I had cut the stem off it, and even bending the eye slightly into a horizontal plane.

Good stuff this silver soldering, or brazing as we experts prefer to call it.
First tentative fitting:-

A lot of cleaning up and finishing to do including finials for the posts, but for me the exercise was a success and the objective achieved.
I would recommend this method of fixing fine parts together to those who haven’t tried it; it really extends the possibilities for enhancing a kit, even for a beginner like me.

My initial results with the brass rod were successful, but the finials less so, so I searched around for an alternative.

The replacement material is stainless steel and I initially had concerns whether the brass eyes would braze satisfactorily to them, no problem. An added advantage is that they are far more robust than the micro tubing.
 

Seems to be the right height in relation to Capt. Silver.

Can’t believe how long it has taken to finish these little items, the brazing was the least of it.

These finials are a tad over 1mm in size and the stanchions 0.8mm diameter.

The blackening process differed, this time I used Carr’s Metal Black for Steel, but it also blackened the brass rings and solder.

Oh, the origin of the stanchions.....

Donated from William’s dog brush.

Not too impressed is he

To finish off this section, the railings for the Fore hatch have now been completed.

 

B.E.

Edited May 24, 2022 by Blue Ensign

[Blue Ensign]

The Boats of a Sloop of War
The question of a ships boat for Pegasus is something that has been dwelling on my mind for a while now and I need to get it sorted. W.E. May in his book The boats of Men of War gives the establishment of boats for Frigates and Sloops introduced in 1769.
This authorised for sloops of 16 guns a 19’ Longboat and a 26’ Pinnace, and for 14 gunners an 18’ Longboat and a 25’ Pinnace.
For ship modellers there does seem to be a little leeway as the boats actually carried could differ from the official establishment due to circumstances or special request.
Desperately seeking an option that will avoid a complete scratch build I have been looking at available alternatives.
The kit supplies a metal boat that looks like a Longboat and at 103.81mm scales to a 21.79’ boat.

Not too bad for size on the gallows, and I have seen examples made up that look just fine, but as I don’t wish to paint the boat, this is not an option for me.
Caldercraft/Jotika supply a 28’ Pinnace @1:64 made from thin walled resin.

Here with a 19’ cutter inside the Pinnace.
It rather overwhelms little Pegasus on the Gallows, and I’m not particularly happy with the shape.

My idea of a Pinnace is a rather elegant boat fairly narrow in relation to its length, with a decidedly narrow and distinctive stern, with a separate Coxwains’ seat behind the backboard of the sternsheets; a shallow draught and fairly rounded bow.
What we have in the Caldercraft hull doesn’t quite fit this description as can be seen against a drawing of a Pinnace and the outline tracing of the Caldercraft hull in the above pics .
Too broad in the stern, too pointy at the sharp end, with quite a deep draught.
There may have been Pinnaces that looked like that but not in my Navy.

This is the tarted up Caldercraft 19’ Cutter I made for my Pickle. Looks better in terms of size on the Gallows, but I have set my heart on a Pinnace, and Pinnace I will have.

B.E.

 

 

 

[Blue Ensign]

Building a 1:64 scale 25’ Pinnace
I have finally had to bite the bullet and consider scratch building a Pinnace at 1:64 scale using scaled down plans from the M.S 1:24 scale Pinnace kit.
I first mocked up a framing set using a boxwood keel and card frames.

Mainly to convince myself the project was feasible at this scale.
Having trialled a practice piece I am now moving onto the real thing. The false keel and keel are separate on the plans but given the small and delicate size I decided to combine them rather than try to rabbet each side of the 1.5mm thick false keel which would then leave little glue contact with the keel.

 

The rabbet line was first scribed and then cut freehand using my engraver. A bit wobbly but it will suffice.
Next up the frames
These are also cut from 1.5mm boxwood sheet.

Before starting in earnest I was keen to establish which was the best way to orientate the frames, with the upright part running with the grain or across the grain. To this end I did trial cut with examples both ways.
As might be expected the piece cut with the grain across the upright proved the least strong, but either way these are quite delicate pieces.

 

The frames were cut out on the scroll saw, a tool that has proved invaluable. The quick release of the blade allowed easy access to removing the frame centres. A bar was left across the top to afford a little strength to the frames during fitting and planking.

I did have a few failures with the frames but they are easily replicated.
With the frames cut out they were sanded down to fit within the keel slots and squared up.
There are 24 frames along the keel to accommodate.

I started with frame 0 midships, ensuring it was square and level.

My idea is to fit every third one or so along the keel and use those to sight and align the remainder. Once the outer planking is done the bar will be removed and the internal frame faces reduced in depth – well that’s the plan, but this is my first attempt at a fully scratch framed boat - we’ll see how it goes. 

With the frames in place I can now start the process of fairing. I intend to glue some strips along the top of the frames to provide a little more stability during the process.
I was curious to see how this new enlarged Pinnace would fit on Pegasus.

 

Even in frame I can see the elegant shape of a Pinnace which is what I was after. It remains to be seen if that holds good once I’ve been at it with the sanding sticks and the planking is applied.

to be cont'd.....
 

 

[Blue Ensign]

Onward with the build...
I am quite pleased with the stability of the frames during fairing, but I have come across one or two which have needed bulking out to get a fair run of planking. Accuracy in cutting by hand is one of the downsides of working at this scale, at least for me.

One needs to get a tad inventive when trying to secure additional strips to the frames.

For clamping while gluing on small items, where not too much pressure is required, these Ladies hairgrips are ideal.
A shaped piece of balsa is inserted between the last frame and the Transom to try and help keep the transom square.
Whilst puzzling over the best way to secure the hull for working I came across this little beauty. (the vice not the boat)

Just perfect for holding and angling bijou project such as a 1:64 scale boat. The weight of the vice is sufficient to use without securing down when working on these fragile items.
The planking in the 1:24 scale kit has plank widths of 4.5mm. At 1:64 scale I had thought of using 1.8mm strips but these allow very little for tapering so I will be using 2.7mm wide planks generally although I do have wider planks to accommodate any spiling needs.
The strip wetted and formed around a Humbrol paint tin held their shapes for the curve around the bows.

The final bulkhead fitted post fairing is the Transom, this is simply glued to the edge of the false keel a somewhat vulnerable exposed place until secured by the planking but strong enough for fairing.
Unlike the larger kit which has a decorative additional transom piece extending beyond the hull to encompass the rudder, my Pinnace will be a simpler affair ending with the Transom proper.
Attaching the strips at the stern to the transom proved quite difficult due to the fragile nature of the Transom fixing and the awkwardness of clamping the strip to the transom without moving the transom out of line.
I did micro pin the transom piece through the false keel to try and give a little extra rigidity to the set up but even so it was a tricky exercise and I made numerous attempts to get the planks to stick to the transom.

I’m not entirely satisfied with the look of the planks thus far and I’ve only got 0.6mm thickness to play with for sanding.

I’m also having to make constant minor adjustments to the fairing to get the planks to sit right. Not too sure at the moment whether it will be good enough but I will persevere to the bitter end, and if nothing else it will provide a valuable learning exercise.
One positive thing is that with the top three planks attached the frame is strong and the transom no longer at risk of flexing.

One of the unrealised benefits of adding the three strengthening strips longitudinally along the tops of the frames is that it gives the clamps a purchase when gluing the planks.

Sort of achieved an even planking spread each side.

All done and the stern post is fitted.

Wasn’t too difficult sanding the strips down to fit flush with the stern post even tho’ it’s only 1.5mm wide.

 

Kind of looks like a Pinnace, but it’s all down to sanding now and a bit of filling and fettlin’ to make it the best I can.
If nothing else I has proven to myself that a scratch build of a boat at this scale is feasible for me even if the execution could have been better in places.

to be cont'd........

 

 

[Blue Ensign]

So removal of the frame braces begins.

This small cutting blade that attaches to a scalpel handle proved very useful.

No mishaps with the frame bracing removal.

But left myself a fair bit of shaping of the inboard framing to do.
Too delicate for any sort of machine assisted sanding, so it will be a fairly slow and careful process by hand.
At this point I have marked out the capping rail pattern using the hull as the template., I can play with this on the scroll saw when I get fed up with frame sanding....
It became apparent that hand sanding of the internal frames was going to take forever, so I risked using my Minicraft mini tool to speed things up. Using a very light touch quick progress was made.

The good thing about the Minicraft is that it can be held easily, comfortably, and securely in one hand whilst your other hand secures the boat.

The first fitting out job is to install the footwalings, five boards of 2.7mm width.
This is followed by the after platform which extends over the top of the footwalings.

 

Here’s a comparison between the Caldercraft resin Pinnace and the Pinnace designed by Chuck Passaro that may be of interest.

Having bought the Caldercraft Pinnace in a forlorn hope to avoid having to make one, its shape looked all wrong to me, too pointy at the bows and too fat at the stern, it just didn’t look right on Pegasus.
I have to say that Chuck got it spot on with his design.
Next stage will be fitting the risers and more internal fittings.
 

[Blue Ensign]

Pinnace Inboard fittings cont’d
For the risers I have used 1.5mm wide boxwood strip.
Fixing one side first, and the second once the first was dry but checking the horizontal level by use of a thwart before the glue set.
This revealed that the aft platform was slightly out of level so out it came. Also gave me the opportunity to further pare the frames down to get the platform a tad closer to the footwaling.

Next up was the seatback which took a fair bit of fiddling with to get it to look anything like it should. Numerous paper patterns were made and tweaked before cutting out on the scroll saw and then more tweaking to fit.
Onto the sharp end and a little platform. Quite tricky this and further modifications to the first two frames and adjustment of the risers in the bow area were required.

Fortunately the less than beautiful hacking about of the frames will all be hidden by the platform.

 

These photos show wip on the thwarts and stern sheets nothing fixed as yet just tweaking the layout.
I am making minor changes to the layout compared to The Model Shipways kit which is of a 21’ four oared single banked Pinnace, circa 1750, mine represents a 25’ Pinnace of a period some 25 years later.
Somewhat simpler and less ornate as befits a Sixth rate.
The thwarts are fixed, the hinges applied to the small cockpit trunk, and the support stanchions fixed beneath the thwarts. I also added a small compartment face beneath the fore platform.
The next and potentially tricky bit is adding the internal planking above the thwarts. For this I am using 3.7mm wide strip. This fortunately is just the size for the area above the thwarts.

Wetted, clamped, and instantly heat dried the strip needs to be bent both laterally and curved to suit both the round and upward sweep of the bow. In practice it didn’t present the problems I first thought may arise.

Applied a couple of coats of ochre to the inner planking and French polish to the thwarts.
Onto the capping rails next and the tricky little problem of forming decorative mouldings to the inner planking
 

The capping rails
Cut from 1.5mm boxwood sheet on the scroll saw with the final shaping once they were attached.
The Breast hook was then shaped and glued above the platform in the bows.
At this point the interior paintwork needed rubbing down with P1000 and recoating.

Here also I have started to apply the decorative moulding along the inside planking above the thwarts.

The moulding does improve the look of the boat by reducing the plain expanse of Red Ochre, and I rather like the look of the boxwood against the ochre.

Once the Helmsman’s seat has been installed I can return to the hull exterior for a little more fettlin’ and the application of the decorative frieze along the gunwales.

Bashed it about a little clamping the moulding rail to the hull, the joints need resetting.
The deficiencies in my planking require a tad of filler to even out the most noticeable flaws. For this I use Model lite filler, very fine, and with the addition of a spot of yellow ochre paint gives a reasonable match to the boxwood planking.

 

[Blue Ensign]

The Frieze decoration
I thought a while about whether a Pinnace for a sixth rate would have a decorative Frieze or perhaps a simple painted stripe between the capping rail and the lower moulding.

I decided that as Pegasus had decoration I would add an element to the boat.

The advantage of using a paper frieze as supplied in the larger kit is that it gives a line to apply the lower moulding to, and avoids having to paint a clean narrow line between the cap rail and moulding, tricky at only 2mm wide.
The paper frieze was reduced in scale but I decided not to use it because the blue background was at odds with the blue already used on Pegasus.
So...
I over-painted the frieze and then applied a design using a Sakura Gelly roll gold pen, after which a little shading was applied, before sticking to the boat with diluted pva.

The lower moulding is very fragile and it was too much of a stretch for me to consider giving it a moulded profile at only 0.9mm wide x 0.5mm thick.
The frieze was then given a coat of Humbrol Mattcote to protect it.

Old Bob’s had a peak at it, and it doesn’t look to bad as a far as human scale is concerned.

 

Progress continues but I’m now down to the fiddly and downright irritating little fittings stage.

First up are the tiny knees that support three of the thwarts; holding the pesky little beggars proved quite a trial with several near completions pinging off into the ether never to be seen again.
What to do about the Thole pins; at this scale I didn’t think I could replicate Chuck’s method with the 1:24 kit.

I eventually settled on using 1.5mm square stock. Drilled 0.8mm holes into which fitted rounded 0.9mm square stock.
The tholes projected 1.5mm above the base.
I got down to close to finish size but had to stick them to the rail to complete they were simply too small to hold and work on.
Ring bolts were made to fit in the footwaling and the breasthook above the forward platform.
With those completed I then moved onto the splash guard panels. Not too onerous, I used two lengths of 0.6mm thick boxwood strip. The relief panels were cut out and stuck to a backing strip and the pieces were then sanded down to finished thickness at around 0.7mm.

Heat was used to impart a slight curve to the panels.
The biggest problem was gluing them securely to the rail top, there is very little area to take the glue and they will remain vulnerable.

 

So this is where I am now with the rudder to complete and a little more adjustment to the finish.

 

[Blue Ensign]

The Rudder
The pattern was transferred to 1.5mm thick sheet and cut out on the scroll saw. The profile was tapered towards the aft side and a bevel put on the forward side.

I cut the length of the head of the rudder a little long to allow for adjustment when I fitted the tiller.
For the gudgeons and pintles I used Jotika 0.3mm eyelets and stems. For the straps I started to use the brass edging from the frets, chemically blackened, but then thought what the hell as the1:24 scale kit used card strip and it was easier to apply.

The bolt heads were represented by blobs of pva, blackened once dry. At 1:64 scale an impression is sufficient.

The tiller was shaped out of two laminated 0.6mm boxwood strips and finished by sanding and filing.

 

The tricky business of oars
Oars are tricky, they are quite graceful in shape unlike the oft kit provided versions that look like canoe paddles. If I can’t get down to the fine tolerances required I will omit them from the build.
I require four seventeen foot scale oars for the Pinnace, these are single banked oars so they need sufficient length to cross the boat and exit on the opposite side from the rower.
I fashioning the shafts from 1.5mm square stock boxwood and the blades from 0.6mm laminated boxwood strip into which the shafts would be glued. From that point on it is a matter of very careful sanding and shaping as the finished dimensions are very fine.
This is my prototype oar.
I fashioned the shaft first reducing and rounding the handle and shaft whilst leaving the loom in square section.

This was then glued into the blade and the business of fining the blade down begins. From this point when shaping and thinning only the blade is held, holding the oar by the shaft when working on the blade will result in a breakage.

 

 

Next post should see the Pinnace onboard Pegasus.
 

[Blue Ensign]

at last - Pinnace and Pegasus come together
Seems to have taken forever but here are the photo’s of the union of Pinnace and Sloop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am quite pleased with the way the Pinnace  looks on Pegasus and whilst I have the momentum I am moving straight into making the other allocated boat for a 14 gun sixth rate sloop.

B.E.

 

[Blue Ensign]

A 19 foot Longboat for Pegasus
 The Longboat  won't actually fit on Pegasus, but if successful will be shown along side her within the case.
I intend this one to be masted and fully rigged.
I am again using the larger MS Longboat kit plans, reduced in size to 1:64 scale.
To achieve this I use the simple expediency of reducing the print size of the plan originally at 1:48 scale until the keel length measures the required 91mm.
Re-using the Pinnace build board I re-marked the station lines to suit the Longboat.
First job is to cut out the frame and combined keel/ false keel patterns and pva them to the 1.5mm thick boxwood sheet.

This time round I am going to try to cut a fine rabbet along the keel/ false keel line before I cut it out hoping it will give me more control. The pattern has been applied to both sides of the sheet. With the frames I hope to get closer to the finished dimension on the scroll saw and save myself some sanding down once the frames are in place.
I wasn’t quite satisfied with my first cutting of the keel using the kit plan. Unlike the Pinnace drawings the notches or rather the depth of the notches for the frames was not shown on the plan introducing an element of guesswork into the equation.
So Keel one is scrapped.
It struck me that why not scan the actual kit keel which of course has the notches pre cut and then reduce the scale to 1:64.

Because of the small scale I have not separated the keel from the false keel. The stem piece was cut out, glued in position on the drawing which was then scanned and reduced to size.
I took several prints of the scan when I was getting close and made small adjustments until the 91mm keel length was obtained.

This is the result.

The rabbet was scored before the keel was cut out, and subsequently deepened to take the 0.6mm planks; garboard strake along the bottom and the plank ends up the stem. It really helps here to secure the planks and give (hopefully) a neat line.

I have taken the frames down closer to the internal line than I did on the Pinnace to try and reduce the amount of sanding.

Next step will be to fine down the frame thicknesses and adjust the notches to fit the keel.
The frames have been sanded down to a tad over 1mm in thickness and the notches adjusted.
Very gentle handling is required with the frames as the weak point is where the notch is cut. Breakages are not too critical tho’ as once they are glued into the keel they become pretty solid.

The frames are glued into place.
My technique must have improved as unlike with the Pinnace I only had a couple of failures in cutting and preparing the frames.

Compared to the Pinnace this looks quite a dumpy little thing, and should be a tad easier to build.

The final Transom piece is yet to be attached.

As with the Pinnace I have left the frames with a cross piece for strength although I have fined down the inner frame depth closer than with the Pinnace.

Strips are glued along the frame tops to help prevent any lateral movement during fairing and I have added a block to the top of these to allow for securing the hull when inverted in a vice. It will be easier to check the fairing and work out the planking run with the hull inverted.

to be continued.........
 

[Blue Ensign]

With the frames secured I add two bow filler pieces and the transom which I also secure temporarily with a holding strip.

Seemed to be a little out on one or two of the frames on the port side for a fair run which necessitated adding strips to the outside frame face before fairing could commence.
With the hull inverted the forward and aft frames are very carefully faired with the softest of pressure applied to the sanding stick.
The first planks on the hull are the sheer line planks. For these I have used ‘ebony’ strip (dyed boxwood I suspect) of 3.4mm width.
There is a degree of sheer on the top strake which requires bending both laterally and with a curve to fit the bow.

Using the plan as a guide the strip is first bent laterally by means of wetting, clamping in position, and applying immediate heat to fix the line.

One of the additional benefits of attaching a block to the frame tops is that it provides an anchor for clamping the planking strips in place without putting too much strain on the frames which at this point are still quite fragile.
The first strakes are attached, the frame tops will eventually be cut to follow the sheer line.

 

 

I was hoping to get away without having to spile, but it was not to be. At least the spile planks are in the right position below the curve of the hull.
 

 

 

With the frames sanded down I can at last get to fit the capping rails, until they are in place I am under constant threat of breaking the top edges which would be a difficult repair.

 

These are cut out on the scroll saw, left slightly over large, glued on and carefully sanded back to their proper dimensions.
 

Two slight mods are now required, one at the sharp end, one at the blunt end.
At the stern the height of the transom needs raising above the capping rails by about 2mm so an additional piece was fashioned.

Here shown in place but before final shaping.
At the bow I seem to have got the stem insufficiently raised above the rails which would present problems both for the rigging attachments and fitting the jib. Again an extension piece was fitted to redress the error.

Shown here again before final shaping
For these items I used Aliphatic resin glue which is stronger than the usual pva I use.

Once the glue has fully hardened I can continue with the cleaning up before I move onto the internal fittings.

A quick check with my shipyard apprentice
So Wills whaddya think, will it pass muster...

Oh dear, doesn’t look too convinced does he.

Still we press on...

 

[Blue Ensign]

First of the internal fittings is the footwalings.

Followed by the aft platform and the smaller fore platform.

The platform planks are glued to the card template to give a little stability and slot into place.
Next up are the risers which support the thwarts.
The position of these is quite critical but having used black strip for the sheer strake the line is easy to follow. The risers did need shaping downwards laterally towards the bow . This was done using the wet, shape, and rapid heat dry method.

With one fixed the second is glued on and the thwart levels checked before the pva goes off.
As this is a reduced scale copy of the MS kit a little jiggery pokery is required to adjust the thwarts positions.

The MS longboat represents a 26’ boat having 8 thwarts plus the windlass and stern benches.
My boat represents a 19’ boat so a reduced number and some repositioning of the thwarts is required. The windlass is still positioned midships, so the thwart positions will be taken from this point.

Nothing fixed at this stage, and won’t be until the windlass is in position.
Making the windlass is the next job, might prove a tricky little beggar to make at only 22mm long.

The Windlass
This was made from a bit of 3mm square section boxwood.

At only 22mm long the windlass was formed within a longer length so it could be supported in the jig for cutting the eight sided central section.
A further fine sanding and it should pass muster.

Working out the mast dimensions
The mast fits thro’ a modified thwart so at this stage I need to calculate the size.
For this I refer to Steel.
For those who may be interested this is the calculation.
A longboats mast is three times the breadth of the boat in length, and the ø is 7/10” per yard of length.
My boat is 30.86mm wide = to 6.5ft x 3 = 19.5ft length of mast.
19.5ft at scale is 19.5 x 12(”) x 25.4(mm) =5943.6(mm) ÷ 64 = 92.86mm. in length.
The diameter calc: 19.5 ÷ 3 = 6.5yds x 7/10 = 4.55” x 25.4 =115.57(mm)÷ 64 = 1.80mm ø at scale.
With the size worked out I can make the modified thwart .

I first make the mast support hole within the thwart easier to establish the foot position of the mast.
This will be further modified now the mast position is established by re-shaping to allow for an iron cap square to retain the mast in place.

Mast looks about the right length and diameter but will need a degree of taper. I am using 2mm diameter dowel.
The mast support thwart is now modified to fit the iron work and support cap square

Firstly the iron work is made. At this scale the brass fret surrounding the etched fitting sets comes in very useful.

The assembly in place.
So a little further fettling of the thwarts n’ all and they can be glued into place.

to be cont'd

 

[Blue Ensign]

Once more unto the breach... well that’s how it’s felt trying to make the side benches for the longboat.
The requirement is they are curved and require notches cut out to fit around the frames. The problem is that just when one is finished the bally edge breaks off....

Still eventually managed to get two intact benches.
The final item for this sequence is the lid to the storage box.

At this point the mast thwart and the one aft have been glued into place.
This is a good time to fix the lifting rings, which are awkward little sods to fix because of the necessarily short stub, and once the thwarts are in place the job becomes more difficult.

The knee at the head is added along with the windlass and remaining thwarts.

Still some knees to add and some more ironwork.

So Gromit what do you think of it so far, what’s that you say on the whole you prefer a bit of Wensleydale, I dunno......
Pressing on....
Nearly forgot to add the moulding strip below the sheer plank; in hindsight it would have been better done before I added the internal fittings – more scope for clamping, and far less scope for inflicting damage. Had a near miss with one of the stern benches yielding to the pressure of a clamp.

For the moulding I have used a 0.8mm boxwood strip, attached with ca to give a more instant bond.

This was then sanded down a touch and slightly rounded.
All ready now for a final cleaning up of the hull exterior.

Time to move onto the rudder

The usual round has been applied to the inner face of the rudder and taper to the aft face, Still wip at present.
Meanwhile I turn my attention to the Bowsprit and its fittings.
The Bowsprit is 59mm long, and I used a length of 2mm ø dowel tapered on the lathe.
The interesting part is the iron fittings that hold it in place. These comprise two rings, one with a long leg which takes the heel, and one with a short leg attached to the stem. Fortunately I was able to adapt a couple of Jotika 0.9mm brass etched eyelets for the purpose. These were bored out to fit the bowsprit ø

The rear support bracket fits thro’ the fore deck and sits against the forward thwart.

The leg has yet to be shortened on the forward ring which should be pinned to the face of the stem. Not sure whether there is sufficient woodwork to take a pin so I may just ca it to the stem.

to be cont'd.......

 

[Blue Ensign]

Sorting out the Rudder.
At this scale attaching the gudgeons, pintles and straps to the Long boat are quite fiddly.
Starting with the gudgeons on the hull.
A small eyebolt represents the gudgeon and a thin black cardboard strip the iron straps.
The Pintles on the rudder are formed from a stem off an eyebolt.
With the lower gudgeon in place the position of the eyebolt which secured the upper pintle of the rudder can be marked.
Having established the position the hole is drilled and the eyebolt checked for fit. I like to cut a narrow horizontal groove across the hole line which allows the eyebolt to sit deeper into the stern post and thereby reduce the gap between rudder and post.
The cardboard straps are firstly glued across the groove and taken around the sides to form the straps. The eyebolt is then inserted and the job’s done.

At this scale black cardboard is much easier to fit than brass fret, and even looks better in my view.
The Pintles on the rudder are formed from a stem off an eyebolt.
With the lower gudgeon in place the position of the eyebolt which secured the upper pintle of the rudder can be marked.

 

With the rudder hung the length of the head can be adjusted, shaped, and the tiller fitted.
A satisfactory fit close to the sternpost has been achieved.

The tiller was made from a length of 0.7mm boxwood square stock.
The final part is adding the straps to the rudder pintles.
Tiny spots of pva on a needle point are added to the straps to represent the bolt heads.

Footnote.
Lavery (Arming and Fitting) indicates a different approach to hanging the rudder to that suggested by the MS kit.
The rudder was hung on the sternpost by only two gudgeons and pintles. Unlike the rudder on a ship it was likely to be hung and unhung every time the boat was used and it needed to be easily removeable. The lower pintle was fitted to the sternpost rather than the rudder. It was very long and extended almost up to the waterline. The upper one was shorter and fitted to the rudder.
This makes quite a lot of sense if you imagine trying to ship a rudder in a pitching boat with the gudgeon below the waterline. Having a long pintle at the lower end would make for easier and quicker location of the rudder.
Looking through some of the drawings in the AotS Books – The Frigate Diana, Endeavour, show the ships boats with long pintles on the sternpost .
To illustrate the point here's a shot of The Barge onboard Victory.

The extra long pintle fixed to the sternpost can be clearly seen.
I don’t intend to change the arrangement on my Longboat but I’m slightly miffed because I do now recall from the recesses of my mind that I was aware of this. Had I remembered in time I would have followed that arrangement.

Hey ho........

 

[Blue Ensign]

Masting of the Longboat and fiddling with the sticks.

Purpose of the exercise to check that the Mast, Bowsprit, Boom and Gaff all look proportional to each other, so a test fitting is called for.
The base material for the spars is 2mm ø dowel.

Proportions look ok to my eye at least.
Think the top of the mast could still bear a little more fining down.

The Boom is 72mm long, thinned down a little with a slight taper each end.
At the inner end there is a gooseneck fitting to attach to the mast. The iron bands are represented by card.

The Gaff is 45mm long with jaws on the inner end. These were formed by slotting the end of the gaff into a bit of 4 x 1.5mm lime strip and shaping the jaws once the glue had set.
An eyebolt is fitted atop the gaff jaws for the Throat halyard.

 

Horse
This is the iron bar along which the sheet block runs. On the MS kit version circa 1750, the bar is fitted below the tiller, which created problems in allowing the sheet block a free run.

Can’t actually find any photos/drawings of contemporary models showing the raised horse, and I’m not sure that it translates well to 1:64 scale.
I think I prefer the lower version - I’ll muse over this for a while.....
Parrel Trucks
Tried using blobs of pva to represent the parrel trucks but given the very small scale I couldn’t get sufficient definition within the available line space of 4mm.

I finally settled on using slivers of 0.6mm ø micro brass tubing. Still barely noticeable with the naked eye but they are there and are about as close as I can get at this scale.
Mastbands
At the masthead should be two iron straps that hold the blocks for the boom topping lift and the gaff peak halyard. The mast head is very fine with sheave holes cut thro’ it which makes it risky to attempt fixing even the finest metal band around it lest the mast breaks during the process.

I took the soft option of using 0.7mm etched eyelets to take the blocks with simulated bands of card.
A pair of 3/32nd single blocks are attached.

The little boat is coming together now.

Completed the internal fittings.

Belay pins, Thole pins and Thwart knees. Blobs of pva made the Belay pin heads, and the Thole pins are the stems off eyebolts painted. Needs another coat to thicken them up slightly.

to be cont'd.......

 

[Blue Ensign]

Chain plates n' stuff
A pair of chain plates is required each side for the shrouds.
These were fashioned from 0.5mm ø brass wire coupled with 2mm ø deadeyes.

The chainplates were formed around a simple jig.

Silver solder was used to bind the two sides together.

The loop around the deadeye was formed and joined together at the top, and silver soldered, leaving just enough flexibility to squeeze the deadeye in without breaking the bond.

They were then chemically blackened and the deadeye inserted.

The completed set. Whilst the enlargement photo's show I'm not quite up to the standard of Fabergé, at true size they look ok to my rheumy old eyes.
Attaching the chainplates
The tricky part of this is getting the holes correctly placed on the hull to take the retaining bolts. Amati fine brass pins are used for the purpose.
For drilling the hull is held against the light which shows up the frames into which the pins will be secured.
They proved fiddly to fit mainly because there is too little boat and too much hand, but I got there in the end, at the cost of some minor scuffs on the hull and loss of some blackening on the plates.
The two remaining bits of iron work are also completed; these are the chainplates for the backstays. Made essentially the same as those for the shrouds but with eyes each end.

Now for the masting and rigging.

With the sheet tackle in place the angle of the boom looks ok by comparison with photo's of contemporary models. I had initially thought with the 'high' horse the rigged tackle would throw the boom too high.

Shroud rigging in progress; these are tightened by degrees using the lanyards, but a constant watch that the mast is not being pulled out of line is required. At this scale snapping the mast is a real possibility so soft hands are a must.

I rigged the Forestay before the Backstays to counter any backward pull from the Topping lifts.
 

The deadeye lanyards are equalised and tied off giving stability to the mast.
The Bowsprit is fitted and a traveller was made for the Jib sail halyard; simply made from brass wire and silver soldered at the join.
A 2mm single block is fitted with a hook to fit on the traveller and carry the halyard. A similar arrangement is applied to the Staysail halyard which attaches to an eyebolt in the bow.
The Running Backstays.
The pendants are 0.25mm line with hooked 2.5mm blocks attached. 0.15mm line is used for the tackles.

Securing the block in the backstay pendant; tense part of the rigging this, the slightest knock of the third hand could break the mast.
The Flag halyards
0.1mm line is used, passed thro' the sheaves in the masthead truck and secured to the shroud deadeyes.
The rigging is complete apart from some coils to make.

 

 

At this point I introduce my new Cox'n George. It was necessary to make a scale figure to help me decide about the 'high' horse.

 

in my next post we'll see how it looks together with Pegasus and the Pinnace.

 

[Blue Ensign]

So Pegasus is removed from her temporary case to see how the Longboat looks as part of the package.
Firstly with the Pinnace:

Seems strange to me why the Pinnace would be larger than the Longboat, and 19' for a Longboat is barely larger than a Jolly boat of a few years later.

This was the resin boat which has been externally planked with Boxwood. An option for those who don't want to drive themselves mad with a scratch build.

With Pegasus

 

At waterline level.

One of my options is to display the Longboat at Water level perhaps using clear plastic rod.

This shots gives the relative size of Sloop and Longboat.

Well that's about it folks for  twelve week diversion, twenty-two weeks if I include the Pinnace.

B.E.

 

[Blue Ensign]

This post brings to completion the hull stage of the build.

 

 

 

 

Pegasus back in her temporary case

 

This is one of the last photo's I took of Pegasus on 22 February 2017.

 

I am currently working on the reconstruction of the Masting and Rigging part of the Log. This will be combined with this part once it is done.

As you can see there is a lot of log to be reconstructed.

 

B.E.

 

 

[Chuck]

very nice and thank you for recreating the log.

[Blue Ensign]

Masting and Rigging of Pegasus.
This is my opening post of the reconstructed log covering the Masting and rigging stage of my Pegasus Build. It was originally started on 29th January 2013.
Throughout the mast making phase I refer to Steel and make comparisons with the kit dimensions.

B.E.

 

[Blue Ensign]

   Index of subjects

PEGASUS Masting and Rigging LOG INDEX                     SUBJECT   PAGE   Post No.   SUBJECT   PAGE   Post No. Masting and Rigging Index Part Two   Four   111             Bowsprit Modifications       112   Fore yard Jeer Tye falls.   Seven   204 Spare Topmasts        113   Main Yard completion       205 The Lower Masts        114   The Crossjack Yard       206 Wooldings –       116   The Gaff       207 Bibs       115   Topmast Yards       208 Mizen Topmast       114   Parrels       209 Fore and Main Topmasts   Five   121   Main Topmast Yard.   Seven   210 Detailing the Lower Mast heads       123   Mizen Topsail Yard   Eight   211 Mast Tops       124   Topmast Tyes.       212.214 The Mizen Top dimensions?       125   Main yard clue garnets       216 Scratching a new Mizen Top.       127   Main Course Buntlines Mk11.       217 Re-visiting the Caps.       130   Foreyard clue garnets       218 Topmast Caps and Trestletrees       132   Main Sheets.       219 mast head trucks       133   Yard Tackle Pendants and falls       220 Lower Yards.       134   Yard brace pendants       221 Footrope Stirrups       136. 146.   Main Brace Falls       223 Driver Boom or no Driver Boom?       137   Fore and Main T'gallant yards       225 Topsail Yards       138   Main T'gallant Shrouds and stay       226 Studding booms.       140   Lashing the Studding Booms       228 Stunsail boom brackets and rings       140   Bowsprit and Jib rigging       229 Block stropping -       142   Jibboom       230 Fiddle blocks       148   Bowsprit Horses       231 Rigging Attachments for the Bowsprit.       149.151.   Jib Stay       233 closed hearts   Five   150   Anchor rigging       234 Stays, Collars, and hearts.   Six   154   Adorning the Cat head       236 Yard tackle pendants        155   Main Stay - tackles.       237 Topsail sheet block        156   Anchor buoys       238 Rigging the Foreyard       157   The Spritsail Yard   Eight   239 Swivel gun mounts for the Tops       158   Mizen Topsail Yard Braces   Nine   242 Pendants of Tackles       159   Vangs        242 Stepping Masts Mizen shrouds        161   Main Sheets       243 The Mizen Stay.       162   Main Brace Falls       243 The Main Shrouds       170   Main Tack       243 The Main Stay       172   The Fore Sheets       244 The Fore Shrouds       176   The Fore Tacks       244 Futtock Staves       178   Stanchions,misc items       245 Ratline application   Six   180   Swinging Studding Booms       245 Fitting out the mast tops   Seven   181   Making Ensigns.       246 Topmast deadeyes and Catharpins       186   Fitting Ensigns       247 Fore and Main Futtock shrouds       187   A base for Pegasus       261 Rigging the Jeers.       192     Thoughts about Pegasus         271 Mast top Rails       193   Completion Photo's     Ten   286 Euphroes and Crowsfeet       194             Pegasus Topmast Rigging       196             Topmast Ratlines        199             Mizen Topmast Stay       200             Fitting the Fore Yard       201             Main Topmast stays       202             Main topmast backstays       203

[Blue Ensign]

The beginning
In preparation for the masting I have invested in a brand new toy.

My old Mantua wood turning lathe died on me a while ago, but this proxxon is in a different class, quiet, smooth, and a pleasure to work with.
The Bowsprit
A good place to start, not least because until the gammoning is fixed I can’t complete the headwork finishing touches. It is also a good exercise to get into mast making.
Bowsprit Modifications
I have put aside the provided walnut dowel in favour of Lime wood which I can colour to suit myself.
Having achieved the basic spar dimensions the bowsprit has to be squared at the outer end, rebates cut to take the Bees, and the tenon for the cap cut.
BEES
The kit provided Bees are simple Walnut affairs with slots to take the Fore topmast and preventer stays. There is no mention of the Bee blocks that sit beneath the Bees and contain the sheaves for the Fore topmast stays.
Steel is quite expansive on the subject of the Bowsprit fittings, and I followed his lead.
The Bowsprit Cap
I dispensed with the provided cap because the holes for the bowsprit and Jib Boom were central to the cap and made no allowance for the Jack Staff. Bowsprit caps were slightly wider on the starboard side of the mortise for the bowsprit and hole for the Jib boom, to allow for this.
I scratched a cap from an old boxwood ruler courtesy once again of Mr Rabone.

The main complication for the cap holes is that they have to follow the stive of the bowsprit so the holes have to be angled at the correct degree so that the cap sits vertical to the keel when viewed from the side.

Angled inserts were put in the vice to give the correct stive before drilling.
The kit instructions rather gloss over this simply saying that the Cap should be 90 degrees to the keel, but as the provided piece has pre drilled vertical holes it would present a problem in then trying to angle the holes without eating excessively into the surrounding woodwork.

The scratched cap, bees, jib saddle, and Woolding hoops. I made the hoops from styrene strip for this particular woolding as all will be painted black.
This feature does not appear in the kit instructions.

 

The Jackstaff in place now you can see why the cap is wider on the Starboard side. There is no provision in the kit for a Jackstaff.

 

At the other end the Gammoning cleats have to be fitted.

To mark their position a temporary line is fed thro’ the slot with the line restrained at the aft end of the slot. The line has to be vertical to the keel.

The faces of the cleats are angled to meet the run of the line.

Jib Boom
I cut this from 4mm Lime wood square stock because the inner end of the boom should be octagonal, the remainder of the boom was then rounded on the lathe and the necking formed at the end.
In shaping Octagons it helps to make a little ‘V’ jig to hold the timber section in the right position for planing
Two other points not indicated on the kit plans; there should be sheaves set into the boom at the inner and outer ends and a hole at the inner end to facilitate the heel lashing.
The Jib boom is blackened from the inner end to the cap and thence varnished.

This shot also shows the woolding of the Bowsprit and the lead cover for the spritsail yard slings.
With the Jib boom completed the bowsprit is fixed and the gammoning applied.

Bowsprit Gammoning
0.6mm dia line is used for the Gammoning; it is important to ensure that enough line is taken to complete the turns and frapping. In the case of my Pegasus I allowed 40” to complete the job.
In applying the gammoning to Pegasus there seems to be a difference in the application of the frapping between the Longridge account for Victory and the Antscherl account for rigging a Swan.
With Longridge the frapping is taken around the outside of the gammoning and is then seized to itself.
With Antscherl the frapping goes around and then crosses between the two verticals of the gammoning before being hitched through the last two turns.

Steel makes reference to cross turns of the frapping so this is the method I have adopted.
When all the turns are passed, and hove tight, they are frapped together in the middle, by as many cross turns as are passed over the bowsprit, each turn hove tight: the end of the gammoning rope is then whipt, and seized to one of the turns. The frapping increases the tension; and adds to the security acquired by the purchase.

The Gammoning is Morope line which has great definition but is a little more time consuming to work with.
Rather than buy black line for the standing rigging I prefer to dye it myself using Colron Jacobean dark Oak wood stain which gives a more scale black and over time fades to a dark brown/black, more in keeping with Stockholm Tar.

Fitting of the Bowsprit and up to this stage was actually done earlier in the build as it needed to be done before the Headworks were completed (see posts 73-75 in the first part of the build)

 

As I fiddled around the Bowsprit area much later in the build I suddenly realised I had forgotten to fit a Bowsprit saddle, the fairlead that carries some of the rigging lines from the jib. It wasn't too problematical even at that stage to retro fit, but would have been better fitted at this point so I include here  as an amendment.

A card template to gauge the fit over the Bowsprit

and a suitable bit of Boxwood out of the scrap box to make the saddle.

The Saddle sits just forward of the Bowsprit Gammoning.

 

B.E.

 

[Blue Ensign]

Spare Topmasts

These were also done earlier in the build as they rest upon the Gallows and Foc'sle rail of the ship.

The topmasts are the most complicated masts to make because tapering rounds, square, and octagonal sections are involved.
Two spare topmasts are required to fit on the gallows so making these seems a good place to start. I will be using 6mm square stock to make the masts, and then round off and taper for the main length of the mast.
Steel’s ratios
Main Topmast = 3/5th of lower mast
Fore Topmast = 8/9th of Main Topmast
Mizen Topmast = 5/7 th of main Topmast

Steel’s given dimensions
Fore 33’ 4” (158.75mm at scale) Kit plan = 178mm
Main 37’ 6” (178.59mm at scale) Kit plan = 192mm
Mizen 26’ 9” (127.39mm at scale) Kit plan = 124mm*

*Plus pole mast 51mm.

Looking at the kit mast plans two things strike my eye immediately.
Firstly there is no block below the heeling, and between the heeling and the Lower mast cap the profile of the topmast is shown as square but of a narrower section than either the heeling or the round section above it. The heeling is built up using spare strip to turn the round into a square.
In terms of the various ratios of one part of a mast to another the kit dimensions are at variance with the Steel data:-
The Block = 1/7th the length of the Lower Masthead
The Heeling = Twice the length of the Block.
The Hounds = 4/5th the length of the Head.
The Head = 1/10th of the Mast Length
The first action is to redraw the masts to take into account the shape differences, and then transfer the dimensions to the square stock.

A ‘V’ jig is very necessary for mast making.
I think it is easier to make topmasts using square stock, rather than try to square off dowel or build it up to represent the square and octagonal sections.

The lines are transferred to the square strip and the mast is then formed using scalpel and chisel blades to form the octagon shapes.

Fitted in the lathe the round tapering part of the mast is formed.

The non round areas are clear of the chuck and protected where the round starts.
 

At this point I introduce my second new toy...

 

I know absolutely nothing about Milling and Milling machines but youtube and a little book with the catchy title of The Milling Machine got me started sufficiently to cut the toprope sheaves in the masts.

Cutting the toprope sheaves in the block using a 1mm straight bit.

The completed masts in the raw.

Sheaves cut for finishing.

Head of masts with the hounds shaped.

 

Completed spare Topmasts.

I have not made masts to this level of detail before and making the spare topmasts has allowed me to work out the best approach to take.
Not sure these two are good enough for the actual masts, but practice makes perfect and eventually I may even replace these spares on the gallows as my skill level hopefully improves.
A word on the timber.
I am using Lime wood, I like this because it is virtually grain free, carves very easily, and being of a whitish colour allows for a colour finish of choice. The main downside of Lime is that it is fairly soft and can be more difficult to get a sharp edge on say octagonal profiles.
I did look at Beech as an alternative; a little harder, a reasonable colour, but too grainy for the scale involved.
I don’t like mahogany because of the dark colour which doesn’t appeal and would require painting rather than varnishing to get a paler colour I seek. I will use mahogany for the yards as they are blackened.
I quite like and have used Birch dowels previously for lower masts but it is not supplied in sufficient square section sizes to make topmasts.
In place on the Gallows

 

Just to see the effect, a boat I made for Pickle but did not use.

B.E.
 

[Blue Ensign]

The Lower Masts
The masts on Pegasus as per the plan are ok, but lack a bit of refinement and may be a tad heavy.
There are things that can be done to tweak them a little and give them a slightly better authenticity.
If you want to see what Swan masts should look like you need look no further than Remco’s fine build on MSW.
I hasten to add that I don’t think I will get anywhere close to his standard of artistry, but I hope to improve things over the basic kit arrangement.
I had intended to make the lower masts out of lime wood dowel but with the lengths involved the dowel seemed a bit flexible, and I wasn’t sure that it would remain straight and true.
I re-ordered some birch dowel, still ok for colour but a bit stronger.
In the meantime I will play with the lime wood to work out my strategy.
The ground rules according to Steel
The Main mast height is determined by adding the length of the lowerdeck and extreme breadth together, the half is the length of the main-mast.
The Foremast is 8/9th of the Main Mast height
The Mizen mast is ¾ of the Main mast height.
The head of the Main and Fore masts is calculated as 5 inches to every yard of the mast's length.
The head of the Mizen-mast, and Main and Fore topmasts, 4 inches to every yard of the length.

Steel gives in his tables the length of the masts and the diameters at the partners.

Dimensions for a Sloop of 300 tons.
Foremast Steel given length 56.0' scale equivalent @1:64 266.7mm Kit Plan 269.0mm
Main Mast Steel given length 63.0' scale equivalent @1:64 300.0mm Kit Plan 303.0mm
Mizzen Mast Steel given length 48.0' scale equivalent @1:64 228.6mm Kit Plan 252.0mm
 

Mastheads Kit Plan
Fore 7' 9" 36.9mm 39,0mm
Main 8' 9" 41.7mm 42.0mm
Mizen 5' 4" 25.4mm 29.0mm

For the kit model the mast height above the partners is the important dimension as the below decks length is not to scale.
The partners are taken at the Upper deck level
First job will be to draft out a modified mast plan and see how it looks in a mock up.

 

Re-drawing the lower masts.

The main mast
From Steel the mast height is given at 63’.0 with a dia of 18⅜” so I have an overall scale height of 300mm. The diameter scales to 7.3mm slightly less than the provided 8mm dowel.
I have decided to accept this slight discrepancy and stick with the 8mm ø dowel. The mast is divided into quarters from the partners using the ratios 60/61. 14/15. 6/7 . This effectively gives a taper from the partners at 8mm to 6.85mm at the stop of the hounds( bottom level of the masthead).
The masthead on the basis of 5” per yard of the masts length scales to
63 ÷ 3 x 5” = 8’ 9” at scale =42mm. This is marked on the plan.
The masthead is interesting because it is wider athwartships than in the fore aft direction.
The lower end of the head is the same as the 3rd quarter athwartships ie 6.85mm. The fore/aft width is ¾ of the partners dia = 6mm. at scale.
The Upper end of the head is 5/8th of the partners dia =5mm.

The hounds which effectively are the top part of the cheeks are given at 2/3 the length of the masthead equating to 28mm.

The Cheeks. According to Lees post 1773 cheeks came 2/3 way down between the hounds and the partners and were half the mast ø in width at the bottom end.
I have taken this to mean the distance between the partners and the Stop of the Hounds.

Checking with the cheek lengths on the kit plan they don’t seem to meet any of the criteria given by Lees
Front Fish. Lees mentions masts being made with a front fish from around 1773, the length is taken from the stop of the hounds to within a foot or two from the upper deck.
Fishes aren’t shown on the Atalanta model, and David Antscherl doesn’t include them in his tffm books. However I have seen them on contemporary models, some quite a while earlier than 1773.

The jury is still out on this one

The Wooldings , according to Lees smaller ships had an average of six on the mainmast, five on the foremast, and three on the Mizen.
The ffm indicates seven on the mainmast six on the Foremast and none on the Mizen.
I note that contemporary models show both examples, with the Swan models showing three on the Mizen.
I am inclined to go with six on the Main mast, five on the Foremast and I’m leaning towards three on the Mizen, but no need to make that decision just yet.
The wooldings were of 12” in depth = to 5mm at scale with hoops top and bottom of 0.6mm depth.
So with the plan drawn I can mock up a mast to the given dimensions and see how well it satisfies my eye.

Time to cut some wood.

B.E.
 

[Blue Ensign]

I have started to construct the Main mast in accordance with the dimension given by Steel, but I am bedevilled by the warping of the Birch dowel I have.
I am pressing on with a trial mast to gauge how it might look, and to fine tune my approach to the construction.
The overall length has been cut to Steel’s dimension and tapered as directed.

The quarters are marked on a card to constantly check the taper. The Main Lower mast is too long to fit between the chuck and tail stock so I have to reverse it to complete the work.
With the taper done, the mast head is formed using a scalpel to square off and taper the head.

The Cheeks which on the revised plan are 20mm longer than on the kit plan are cut from some boxwood sheet, and the mast is squared off where they fit on the sides.

A first check to gauge the height from the partners

The white card gives a comparison with the kit height of the mast from the partners. Effectively with Steel’s measurements the difference is a mast head height equivalent.

There is definitely a warp in the dowel but I will progress the mast a little further by adding the cheeks and bibbs, and marking the woolding positions.
The search carries on for some warp free dowel.

In my seemingly endless quest to find some straight stuff I ordered Ramin dowel from Westbourne Model Centre, and glory be when it arrived it was true. Pale in colour, fine of grain, just what I required.
On the basis of why keep a dog and bark yourself I had used the time whilst waiting practising forming the square sections on dowel using my new milling machine .

 

 

Milling square profiles out of dowel worked a treat, far less hit and miss than doing it by hand as on my test piece.
With the dowel cut to length and tapered again by reference to the Quarters, the final part was to form a tapered flat on the sides to take the Cheeks.

Tamiya tape was used to mark the outline of the cheeks on the mast for flatting off.

The cheeks were cut from boxwood sheet and pva’d to the mast.

The top line of the hounds need to be cut horizontal, allowing for any rake of the mainmast and to keep the Main top level with the waterline.
There is only a very slight rake to the kit mainmast so adjustment is minimal.

The Bibs.
On the kit the Bibs are pre shaped walnut ply and in fact combine the upper part of the cheeks ie the Hounds and the bibs.
In reality the cheeks thickened out at the top to form the hounds which were then scored to take the bibs which are extensions to support the trestletrees.

I cut a simpler shape of combined bib/hounds out of boxwood sheet and scored and marked the pattern to indicate where the bibs attached.
These were then simply glued at the hounds top level.

Tamiya tape is used to check the positions of the wooldings with the mast in place. This is not far off the scale depth of the wooldings which at 12” is equal to 5mm.

The next stage will be to varnish the masts and begin what I suspect will be the long process of attaching the woolding hoops.

B.E.
 

[Blue Ensign]

Wooldings – working out a strategy at 1:64 scale.
I have reached the point where I need to attend to this part of dressing the masts.
I haven’t woolded a mast since around 1990 and the years have taken a toll on my eyes and dexterity, so the exercise proved somewhat frustrating with more than a few re-starts.
I use Dr Anderson’s method as indicated in his Rigging of ships book. This is also the method advocated by David Antscherl in his Swan book.
2½” circ line is appropriate which scales to 0.3mm dia line. I will be using 0.25mm dyed Amati line for the purpose. Much of my rigging will be done using Morope but for this particular exercise natural fibres are more easily manipulated, lie better, and trim more easily without the application of ca to prevent unravelling of the line.
Woolding hoops
I had initially decided upon using 1mm square boxwood stringing reduced to 0.6mm profile.
Soaked in warm water and manipulated between the fingers I managed to get a reasonable success rate as far as the curved sections between the cheeks, but the application at 1:64 scale proved very testing, both in the sense of getting clean lines and keeping the ca off the masts and wooldings whilst fitting.
I came to realise that to persevere with the stringing method would prove a very long and frustrating exercise with perhaps variable results in the end.
I did think about styrene as I had used on the Bowsprit, but the glue issue would be the same and it would then present a tricky paint job on the hoops.
My revised method now consists of using strips of thin card taken from a Manilla folder.

More easily applied, conforms to the required shape, and stick easily using pva. It is also a near colour match to the masts.

 

The conformation around the hoops can be seen here.

The completed hoops prior to varnishing.

 

 

It has taken a full day to woold and hoop the Mainmast.

A few completion insitu shots.

 

 

 

 

Back to constructing the Foremast....

B.E.
 

[Blue Ensign]

Completing the basic masts.
The Main mast I constructed earlier, but to recap I redrew the masts taking into acount the proportions given in Steel.
The Foremast
From Steel this scales to 267mm with a masthead height of 37mm.
8mm dowel is provided for the mast as per the Mainmast. This is in truth somewhat over-scale equating to a 20” diameter mast at the partners. Steel gives the mast diameter at 16⅜”
To avoid problems of seating I am sticking with the 8mm dowel, and basing the Quarter tapers from the Foc’sle deck.
As with the Main mast the square head is milled first and the taper then applied using the wood lathe.
The Cheeks after 1773 extended down the mast ⅔ of the distance between the stop of the hounds and the partners. On the model this equates to a length of 153mm. somewhat longer than those indicated on the kit.

Where the Bibs join the hounds is faked by scribing the line.
Six wooldings are applied to the Foremast, but working out the spacing needs to be done carefully.

I start with marking the woolding just below the Hounds, and the one just above the bottom of the cheeks. These are represented by 6mm wide tamiya tape applied to the mast. The intervening space is then centred, another woolding is marked, and the centres either side of that one marked.
I thus end up with five evenly spaced wooldings between the hounds and the cheek ends.
The final woolding can then be applied the even distance below.
 

The Mizen Mast.

This is the most straightforward of the lower masts, no cheeks and only one woolding. It also has the most rake so the top line level of the hounds/bibs needs to be checked carefully.
From the partners (Upper deck) to the mast head is 48’. The scale equivalent is some 8.6mm longer than the kit plans. The diameter of the mizen at the partners is 12” equivalent to 4.76mm at scale so the 6mm dowel is somewhat oversize.
I have gone with this but have applied the taper at the quarters from the QD and it looks good to my eye. As with the other masts Ramin was substituted for the kit walnut dowel.
The hounds/bibs were re-made using boxwood sheet.

Although some contemporary models show several wooldings on the Mizen, (the Atalanta shows four) and Lees suggests three, David Antcherl shows only one on the Mizen just below the hounds.This accords with the details contained in Steel.
To save myself some work I have decided upon just the one.
A few pics to show the overall state of play as of today.

 

 

The basic masts are now complete and I can go back to finishing the Mastheads and progress to the Mast tops and Trestletree/Crosstree assembly.

B.E.

 

[Blue Ensign]

Re visiting the Topmasts
I have Re -drawn the topmasts for Pegasus based on Steel.
I am Starting with the Mizen as this is the smallest of the set.
These are the stats for those interested.

Mizen Topmast
Length o/a 26’4” (125.5mm) Diameter 7⅜” (2.9mm)
Head of Topmast 3½” for every yard of height = 30.72” (12.2mm)
Hounds ⅗ of Topmast head (7.32mm)
Heeling = 7.0mm
The Mizen is formed into a pole mast above the hounds based on 3½ x the length of the hounds (7.32mm) = 25.6mm.
I have taken the o/a length of the Mizen set up as 125.5mm – 12.2mm (calculated masthead were a T’gallant to be fitted) + 25.6mm (pole mast) = 138.9mm, lets call it 140mm from Heel to Truck.

Things to know about the Mizen Topmast.
There is no Round Block beneath the Heeling.
The Pole mast above the hounds on my build is a Common Pole head, there are longer and shorter versions.

For kit purposes I am starting with 4mm square limewood.
In forming the topmast consideration also has to be given to the Lower mast Cross and Trestletrees, and the mast cap.
The provided mastcap is a tad on the small size. A square mortise should be cut to take the tenon on the lower masthead rather than the suggested round hole. It is a simple matter to square off the masthead mortise but the round forward hole for the topmast is too small to allow passage of the mast at around 3.8mm ø, and enlarging the hole would leave an unrealistically narrow margin around the edge.
The provided cap is also too deep at 5mm. 3.5mm looks better, and accords with Steel.
A new mast cap was milled out of an old boxwood rule.

 

The difference in dimensions is clear to see.
Within the overall length of 140mm there is a square heel, an Eight square section, a further tapering octagonal section at the hounds, and a pole above the stop tapering to around 2.0mm diameter beneath the truck.

This has to be accommodated within an overall length of less than six inches.
Having the Proxxon lathe helped a lot.
A sheave is required in the Eight square section of the topmast for the topropes, and a fid hole in the heel. These were formed on the Mill.

Testing the fit of the cap and the mast between the trees.
Sheaves for the Running rigging.
There is a confusion regarding the position of the sheave for the Mizen Topsail yard Tye.
Vol IV ffm (p24) suggests it is located half the diameter of the Pole head below the tenon at the pole head. (p116) says that the Tye is taken up the front of the mast and through the sheave below the hounds.
To confuse matters further the photo on the facing page appears to show the Tye passing thro’ a sheave set into the hounds of the topmast. The rigging plan drawing supplied with the book also supports this arrangement.
Looking for corroborative evidence Lees has a drawing (p5) showing a Mizen (1773) with the sheave tho’ the hounds. Marquardt, Eighteenth century Rigs and Rigging says that The practice of fitting Tye sheaves in the topmasts of large ships was discontinued before the turn of the Eighteenth century, but were found on smaller ships right thro’ to the 19th century.
I made the decision to place the sheave in the hounds, not least because the extra width accommodates cutting of the sheave better.

The Toprope sheave in the heeling and the sheave for the topmast Tye in the Hounds can be seen in this shot.

I am hoping to utilise the kit crosstrees/trestletrees to save me the effort of making them, but they are simply mocked up at this stage.

One other sheave hole is noted on the Polehead; cut 1½ times the pole head diameter above the stop this is for the Mizen Staysail Halyard. P188 however indicates that the Mizen Topmast Staysail halyard reeves thro’ a block seized to the Mizen Topmast on the starboard side above the rigging at the hounds.
Lees does mention a hole in the mast just above the rigging where no T’Gallant mast is carried, but given the fineness of the Pole Head I will opt for the block.
Onto the ForeTopmast....

B.E.
 

[MEDDO]

 Absolutely wonderful you're able to re-create and recover so much. 

[realworkingsailor]

Sorry you had to restart your log from scratch, but it was nice to review all those forgotten details you have hidden inside your ship.

 

Andy