HMS Pegasus by flyer - FINISHED - Victory Models

[flyer]

Hi all
 

 

After the crash my log seems lost. I’m trying to rebuild it with information stored on mycomputer.

The build started some 3 to 4 years ago and the following are copies of my original log…

As I am a slow builder and already more than 2 Years into the building process of my HMS Pegasus I might be a bite late, but...

...after having profited much from your forum I might pay a bit back if somebody finds something useful.

... there are some things in building a ship model (this is actually my 5th) which I find particularly important and perhaps they could be discussed. Among those are sails. A sailing ship should have sails – not only invisible down in the hold but on the yard. My lazy solution is to show them furled. But more of this much later.

Another point is the great cabin which should have as much light as possible. I find the contrast between the sturdy hull and the flimsy stern fascinating and try to catch it in a model.


... my building standard (and the order on the workbench) are not on the top level but everybody can still have a lot of fun this way and get a model which smells of the sea.



 

 

Edited February 20, 2013 by flyer

[flyer]

As you will know the details of HMS Pegasus’ kit box and the initial build from other postings I start with my log about 1 ½ years ago while I was building the great cabin during the 2nd planking.

 

As the captain of a model ship I try to make my cabin as airy and spacey as possible. This means I had to file and scratch away some wood of the stern structure.

 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2013 by flyer

[flyer]

 

The opening for the quarter badge does not follow the form of the badge window but is rectangular, similar to a gun port.

 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2013 by flyer

[flyer]

 

The next step after finishing the 2nd planking was the coppering. I did this rather early in order to have unrestricted  access to the hull and less risk to break anything.

The copper plates were attached slightly overlapping. Following the waterline is a double row of complete plates as top of the coppering. This pattern is according to one found in ‘Ship Modelling from Scratch’ by Edwin B. Leaf. It is rather easily done and in my opinion gives a satisfying result. And those copper plates from Victory Models are a pleasure to work with.

(I find I must apologize for the quality of my pictures but when I took them there was no intention to post them.)

After coppering the plates were cleaned with a brass brush in a little drilling machine. This was to clean all leftovers of the CA glue and let the copper get a natural patina.

By the way – for the colouring of the hull I tried to follow the colour scheme of HMS Bellona.

 

 

[flyer]

 

Next I started to work on the guns and put those under the forecastle into position.

All guns are fixed only by their tackles. Thus they keep a certain play or flexibility and I think are less prone to be broken off after they are no longer accessible.

 

 

(Actually this picture was shot a bit later and of course shows the aft part of the ship.)

 

 

Edited February 16, 2013 by flyer

[rdsaplala]

Hello Flyer,

 

I'm pleased to see your Pegasus build-log up and loading again, she's looking great, excellent detail-work

[flyer]

Thank you Aldo.

 

There is a lot of detail-work ahead also to rebuild the log. But going over it again will perhaps make my learning curve steeper and help me to avoid old mistakes.

 

Cheers

Peter

[flyer]

While laying the planks on the forecastle I grew more and more irritated by the size of the midship gun ports. Compared to those which will be fixed with port lids they seemed too large (and would have offered only a limited protection to the gun crew behind them).

 

Old layout with the  B I G  gun ports

 

Quite reluctantly I finally decided to scrap off the already partly fixed decoration, tear off some planking and fix those ports
with a frame. Then the side was planked again. Now the ports looked more right to me. They were now also quite similar to those of my caldercraft HMS Granado.

 

(I learned a lot with the Granado kit – except how to make rope coils – and still think it is one of the kits with the best value for money and excellent material and instructions. It lets you build a really beautiful model.)

 

The lower sills of the gun ports and the sweep ports were no longer in line but I find the overall picture more convincing.

 

 

[flyer]

Initially I thought that Pegasus’ galley stove was placed under the main deck (similar to Granado) and fixed only a chimney leading up under the forecastle.

 

This was the initial chimney.

Unfortunately I found those excellent build logs of that marvellous Kingfisher kit in this forum and had to rethink.

So it was back to the yard again. The chimney was pulled out and with help of the pictures of the Kingfisher logs I assembled a much simplified stove from scratch (mostly wood, wire and some leftover copper plates) with the same proportions. It would just fix between the supports for the riding bitts.
To be able to put it in place the part just below the chimney was made separate.

 

You really don’t see much of the finished stove, but the little building project was fun.

(Looking at it now, I wish I had made it more acute...ok, replacing is impossible because it’s fixed with epoxy, I will make a better one on the next ship.)

 

 

 

[flyer]

Next the quarter badges and the stern with its decorations were fixed.

Victory models carvings which are build with photo etched layers of brass are the best I have ever seen in a model kit.


For colouring I used the ‘expensive’ gold only sporadic on carvings and the ships name. The side decorations were painted yellow.

 

[flyer]

Now the guns under the quarterdeck were fixed there with the tackles.

The Deck was then closed and planked. To simulate the caulking I used a black textile marker to paint the sides of the strips.

 

 

Now it was time to finish the bulwark inner planking, the capping rail and the headrail and cathead assembly.


The last was quite a puzzle and finally I made the complete lower bow rails from the decorative white metal strips filed into
size.

 

 

Edited February 17, 2013 by flyer

[flyer]

The rudder could be hanged. It was previously coppered and fixed with a spectacle plate made from paper and 2 eyebolts.

 

 

 

The channels were pinned and glued and deadeyes and chainplates attached as per instructions.

 

[flyer]

 

I tried to improve the swivel guns by opening the muzzle with a small drill.

[flyer]

 

Rudder assembly and deck fittings were fixed with the following additions:

The chimney of the galley stove is a caldercraft part.
And also the binnacle got a caldercraft chimney.

 

[riverboat]

Hi Peter.... What an outstanding build!!! ..... superb job on the copper plating..... there are alot of talented guys here and you are certainly one of them. Thanks for looking in at my log, glad you liked the worn look. I'm at the stage now of mounting the yards, and like you I like the furled sails, so thats whats going on the yards. as soon as finish catching up on reposting what was lost, I'll post some new updates. Would you mind telling me how to insert copy between pictures like you did? Tha nks

Frank

[flyer]

Hi Frank

 

Thank you for the very kind remarks.

I look forward to how you make the sails. I’m still undecided. On the last boat I asked a professional seamstress to sew them. But her finest seams still look oversized.
I might try the method of pulling threads I found in one of the old forums. But this still leaves the seams around the edges…

How to mix pictures and text – that’s rather easy on the new forum.

 

You must use the ‘More Reply Options’ option. If you now upload your picture to your unposted reply you see it at the bottom just above ‘Attach Files’. Below the small picture of the file you see 2 possible actions: Add to Post ¦Delete. If you click onto ‘Add to Post’ you create a text-placeholder in the text section where the cursor stands. This placeholder can be moved around like any text block.  If you now push the button ‘Preview Post’ or ‘Add Reply’ the post will be displayed with pictures and text mixed.

Take care not to scrape yourself on those barnacles!

 

Cheers

Peter

 

Edited February 18, 2013 by flyer

[rdsaplala]

Very nice work, Peter, I especially like your scratchbuilt oven, very creative

[flyer]

Thank you, Aldo.

 

I’m sure your scratch build oven will look much better than mine.

Cheers

Peter

 

[riverboat]

Thanks Peter for the info, I'm going to post a picture on my log of one yard with a furled sail attached . Please take a look at it and let me know your thoughts. Thanks

Frank

[flyer]

Hi Frank

 

Weeeel … my friend, since you asked …

The color of the sail looks nice, worn and a bit shabby; I think that’s what you are looking for. The way you fixed the sail to the yard looks fine as well. But…

After checking all my clever books I think that the furled sails should look different (at least on a warship, where you have plenty of hands to furl the sails). When furling the sails they took the sides in and up and then rolled it up the front to form a roll, which is thicker towards the middle, with just the two lower corners falling forward over that roll and then all the lines were straightened.

It’s a bit difficult to explain as I’m actually sitting in a hotel in Far East and don’t have those clever books with all the correct terms available.

 

I try to show what I mean with a picture of my Granado’s furled sails.

I had those sails made by a seamstress with just the vertical seams and the seams around the edge and then sewed a boltrope around the sail. Then the sail was fixed to the yard and then furled and only now the yard was fixed to the mast. The furling went easier with the sail dampened.

 

 

 

I am not sure how smooth your sail material actually is but usually it’s still rough-textured. Just use the very finest cotton you can find.

I don’t mean to criticize your work - heaven forbid! – I am just giving you my honest thoughts and still think yours is a really outstanding build.

Take care

Peter

 

Edited February 19, 2013 by flyer

[flyer]

Finally the almost finished hull was fixed on its stand.

 

[flyer]

The general idea about colour was to use it as sparse as possible. So all the deck furnishing along the centreline was left in
wood. As far as I know, they did also use varnish to protect the wood in the 18th century.

The gun carriages are also just varnished. With those wooden ones this is fortunately possible and I like it better than red.

 

(One of the comments to my first build log pointed very correctly to the rather ugly narrow sides of all the plywood parts. He was right of course and later I did try to mask them, where still possible,  according his suggestion with wood colored paint. On future builds I will do this before assembling and building in.)

 

 

 

A lucky shot against the sun rising behind the forecastle

 

[flyer]

The port lids and several small parts, likely to break off, such as hammock cranes, hatchway rails or swivel guns will be put in
place after the rigging.

And yes, somebody will have to go over the transom with some blue and white paint to refresh the carvings’ colour. Most probably it will have to be me, which is only fair as I obviously didn’t always ‘mind the paintwork’.

 

 

[riverboat]

Hi Peter: Thank you for your input, I see what you mean. more sail in the middle of the yard, I'll try it on the next yards I do . I followed Huberts  (Ship Modeling for Dummies)  way of furlig, It's always good to have different input Thanks again Peter. Your Granado looks great!

Frank

[flyer]

Hi Frank

Some more about furling the sails:

 

For deciding how I would make up my furled sails I was mainly using John Harlands ‘Seamanship in the age of sail’.

 

I tried to follow the method used to furl sails. It’s not a straightforward description and I’m not sure if I read it correctly. But the main steps seem:

1. Pull up the sail with its gear. This would bring the clews to the clewline blocks which are near the slings or about 1/3 of the length of the yard from the mast.

1. Then fold after fold of the sail was brought up its front, the last fold covering all the rest to protect the bulk
   of the canvas from the weather. The furled sail rested on the front upper side of the yard.The clew would lie over the last fold back down the front side of the yard.

1. Secure the sail with the gaskets.

In merchantmen the canvas was probably distributed as equally as possible along the yard. The whole description goes over several pages and sometimes overstrains my English.

The illustration is from the same source.

 

And by the way… I really think you underestimate enormously your abilities by using a book called …for dummies’ (Isn’t the most useful in the series perhaps ‘crash tests for dummies’? )

 

Cheers

Peter

 

[flyer]

The next step is the assembling of the masts. The first is the most simple – the mizzen.

 

Having no turning lathe I just use a file or a small plane and a drilling machine to form the different parts.

 

On each mast I work from top to bottom. First I file all the square parts and the round parts are made into 8- or 16-sided polygons.

Then I put the mast - with some extra length on the lower end - into a simple handheld electrical drilling machine.

To form the round parts I use sanding paper of increasingly fine grade with the other hand.

 

Lower end of main topmast

Mainmast parts ready to be glued together

 

 

With this kit there is again the problem that the manufacturer expects you to file a dowel of 6 mm diameter into a 6 mm sided square and I still don’t figure how to do that. (Recent repetition of basic geometry problems with my daughter didn’t help.)

So I made the square part of a piece of the next thicker dowel and glued it to the rest. To give some more strength I used a pin to put the parts together.

Lower end of main topgallant mast

On the fore topmast I tried a different solution: a tenon was filed on the lower end and a suiting hole drilled into the extra part. Gluing the two parts together this way gave more strength.

 

Alternative method on fore topmast

The finished mast foot

 

Another solution I saw in this forum is to form a smaller square and glue some planks onto the sides to make up the missing size.

In any case this part of the mast will be painted black, which will cover the traces of the working process, the difference in wood colour and the glue.

 

(I will have to figure however, how to make the spare topmast to be placed across the waist with other spars. I think these spare parts there were left in raw wood (maybe oiled to protect them) and only painted when used.)



 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2013 by flyer

[flyer]

On Pegasus’ mainmast and foremast I added mast bandings made of paper and battens made of leftover deck planks.

 

 

Foot of a topmast

 

The mainmast is taking shape

 

 

The wooldings are protected with simulated wooden hoops made of paper.

 

 

mast bandings made of cartridge paper

 

The battens added

 

 

 

A finished masttop.

 

This and other details are added according the descriptions in James Lees ‘The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of  War’.

This book costs a bit of money but it is an absolute gem and a great help if your building and rigging manual doesn’t show enough details.


 

[flyer]

Topgallant mast added

 

 

The deadeye for the mizzen stay is fixed a bit higher up than on the plan to let the stay clear
the quarterdeck rail and the hammock cranes

 

[flyer]

The making of the bowsprit was a bit a puzzle because dimensions were missing and the drawing isn’t clear. With James Lees’ help I tried a solution as shown below.

The missing dimensions for the jibboom were taken out of the drawings with a little help from James Lees again.

 

First a square end and a tendon were filed.

 

Then one side was filed down to the level of the tenon.

 

Bees added

 

I keep asking myself, if on smaller ships as this one the jibboom really wasn’t fixed with a lashing (none is shown in the drawings).

Was it then only held in place by the friction in the cap and the pressure onto the end resulting from the pull of the stay?

 

Jibboom fixed...

 

...and painted.

 

 

 

 

[flyer]

While checking the different books for information about lashing the jibboom I found that I made a mistake about the front end of the boom.

It’s cross-section shouldn’t resemble a square but an U.

The two lower edges were filed round and repainted.

 

(During the first edition of that log some members supplied information about a possible lashing of the jibboom. As a  consequence I put on such a lashing.)

 

 

Then I added a lashing for the jibboom and the blocks.