HMS Pegasus by Richard44 - FINISHED - Amati/Victory Models - 1:64

[Richard44]

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.

[mugje]

Great start on your Pegasus Richard! very recognisable that information overload 😂. At some point...you just need to get started. Sorry to confuse you with the numbers of the bulkheads  

[Richard44]

2 hours ago, SpyGlass said:

Try using threaded rod for mounting rather than bolts?

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

[ccoyle]

I'd be genuinely curious to know how many Fly and Pegasus units Amati has shipped. These two kits must certainly be among their all-time top sellers.

[Richard44]

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.

[Richard44]

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.

[starlight]

Hi Richard,

 

Just wanted to say that I recently came across your build log and am very impressed! I myself am building HMS Fly (my very first model) and have found a wealth of useful information in your posts. I'll definitely be keeping an eager interest in your progress.

 

-Starlight

[DD-708]

Just found your build log and will closely follow your progress. I'm currently doing a build log of Pegasus on the Ships of Scale website.

Good luck

Charlie

[Richard44]

11 hours ago, DD-708 said:

Just found your build log and will closely follow your progress. I'm currently doing a build log of Pegasus on the Ships of Scale website.

Good luck

Charlie

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

[mugje]

Your doing great Richard! Looks very good...I had the same thing with the TFFM, you can't follow it exactly so just chosing some things to replicate and some things not. It's indeed still a kit...

[Blue Ensign]

Very nicely done Richard,  great detailing on the deck and fittings thus far.👍

Always a relief once the gunport pattern is fixed into place.

 

Regards,

 

 

B.E.

[Richard44]

Thanks for your comments.

 

Once the gunport patterns were in place, I completed the deck planking. The ladder in the forward hatch can be seen.

 

 

Before starting the hull planking, I decided to make and install the ladder in the forward hatch. I did this now on the very reasonable assumption that I would drop the ladder down the hatch before actually gluing it in place, and it would be difficult if not impossible to retrieve it via the hatch, if the hull was closed off. Sure enough, I did drop it a few times. The supplied wood for the ladder was a bit mixed. The sides were ok, but the wood for the treads was 1x2mm. This was both too narrow for the treads and too thick to fit into the grooves already cut into the sides. So some 0.5x3mm was utlised.

 

I commenced the hull planking by gluing the garboard strakes in place, making sure that they did not rise too high at the bow. At the stern, I allowed the strakes to find their own run, without trying to force them towards the keel. This resulted in a gap which may need to be filled with a triangular stealer. As most of this area has to be sanded heavily before doing the second layer of planking, I may get away without having to do so. There is nothing unusual about needing a stealer at the stern and I expect more will be needed. I then pinned some battens along the hull to get an idea of how the planking should run. I wasn’t entirely happy with how these looked, even with some adjustments, so used paper tick strips between the garboard strake and the lower edge of the gunport patterns to mark the bulkheads as well.

 

The garboard strakes glued and pinned.

 

 

Three battens in place and it can be seen that the bulkheads have also been marked after using tick strips.

 

 

 

 

 

Planking has progressed, and has been going quite smoothly. The appearance of triangular gaps at the stern was expected and will be filled with stealers if necessary. I know some builders end the planking at the stern somewhere between the bearding line and the stern post, but I decided to run the planks out past the stern post - makes it easy to keep the symmetry. I know though I'll have to do more sanding to reduce the thickness of this planking.

 

 

 

 

That's it for now. Cheers.

 

 

 

 

[starlight]

Hi Richard,

 

Your hull planking is looking quite methodical and well done.

 

If you don't mind me asking: for the deck planking, are your margin planks cut from a flat sheet of wood, esp. at the bow? I would like to add a margin plank to my build but I only have the kit-supplied Tanganyika strips to work with. The instructions suggest making cutouts along the inner radius and bending the strips, which I already know will be a nightmare to do.

 

Thanks,

starlight

[Richard44]

4 hours ago, starlight said:

 

If you don't mind me asking: for the deck planking, are your margin planks cut from a flat sheet of wood, esp. at the bow? I would like to add a margin plank to my build but I only have the kit-supplied Tanganyika strips to work with. The instructions suggest making cutouts along the inner radius and bending the strips, which I already know will be a nightmare to do.

 

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

 

Cheers

[DD-708]

On 10/19/2020 at 10:40 AM, DD-708 said:

Just found your build log and will closely follow your progress. I'm currently doing a build log of Pegasus on the Ships of Scale website.

Good luck

Charlie

Thanks its been a challenge. Looking forward to your progress.

[glbarlow]

I guess you know to do a good deal of tapering to have the same number of planks at the bow as at midships and the stern.

[Richard44]

12 hours ago, glbarlow said:

I guess you know to do a good deal of tapering to have the same number of planks at the bow as at midships and the stern.

Hi Glenn,

 

Yes I know I'll be doing a fair bit of tapering, but there will be more planks at the stern than amidships, simply because of the greater area there. There will be several stealers, simple triangular ones as this is only the first planking. After I lay two strakes, one up from the keel the other down from the gunport pattern, I remeasure the gap and vary, if necessary, the amount of taper. It's all good fun. 😄

 

Cheers

 

Edited October 30, 2020 by Richard44

[Eugenio Treviño]

Richard your planking looks great!

Keep the good work! Best regards.

[mugje]

Your planking is going very well! Nice deck to!

[Richard44]

Thanks for the comments and the likes.

 

The first planking has been completed. The photos show the result. There are some minor gaps between planks which I haven't bothered to fill. The only filler (putty) I used was in two small patches at the stern. Note that the counter was only held in place by two strips of masking tape and moved while the photos were being taken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

[Blue Ensign]

A fine job Richard, would even work as a single layer hull in other circumstances. 👍

 

B.E.

[mugje]

Well done! I'm also in the sanding part of the first layer. Good idea to test the counter...will do that  

[Richard44]

Thanks for the likes and the comments.

 

The capstan on the upper deck. I’ve been making this on and off over several weeks, and though I didn’t document the actual making of it, I decided to give this description with a few photos of how I did it.

 

The dowel for the central column (the barrel) was cut long enough so that it reached up to the quarter deck, as I intend to make the two capstans look as if they are joined.

 

I wasn’t satisfied with the kit supplied whelps, as they were too thin according to TFFM. I tried gluing two together to get a more reasonable thickness, but messed up a couple. I wasn’t happy with the appearance of the plywood edges either, so made a new set of whelps from walnut. A suitable number of blanks were cut to length, then sandwiched together with kit whelps on each end to be templates. Small amounts of PVA were used to hold everything together while the blanks were shaped using files and sandpaper. Once formed, the glue was dissolved with isopropyl alcohol. This method is basically the same as I used when making wing ribs for model aircraft way back when. It is also the way Mugje made his top and butt planks for the deck of his Pegasus (here).

 

The next step was to glue the whelps (five according to TFFM) equally spaced around the barrel. The TFFM very nicely provided me with a diagram allowing me to do this easily. But before I could do this, I had to get a spacer onto the bottom of the barrel as it goes through the deck slightly, and the whelps have to be at deck level. One of the kit provided parts proved to be just what was needed. The blue marks on the diagram allowed me to center the barrel and it was held in place with a piece of double-sided tape. The whelps were then carefully glued to the barrel using gel CA.

 

Once all the whelps were in place, I made the chocks (not supplied at all in the kit). One of the sanding drums I have for my Dremel was the same diameter as the barrel and was used to put a shallow rounded notch in a strip of walnut. The required width of the inside edge of the chock was measured using dividers and this was marked on the strip. The width of the outer edge was similarly marked, allowing for the approximate 3mm between inner and outer edges. The strip was then cut to give a wedge shaped chock  that  was kept deliberately over-length to allow for its outer edge to be shaped later. The thicker lower chocks and the thinner upper ones were all made this way and glued using gel CA. Some gentle sanding was often required to give a good fit.

 

Once the glue had thoroughly dried, I used a second, larger diameter sanding drum to give the lower chocks their concave outer edge. The convex outer edge of the upper chocks was done using a sanding stick.

 

The trundle head was assembled using kit-supplied parts and glued in place. A simulated iron reinforcing ring was made and glued on top of this.

 

The scratch built whelps with the kit ones at each end.

 

 

The diagram from TFFM. The blue marks allowed me to center the barrel.

 

 

The barrel with its spacer, held on the diagram by double-sided tape. Two whelps are in place, not glued in this example but again held by tape.

 

 

Measuring the width of the inner edge of the chock.

 

 

The wood strip (limewood in this example, not walnut as actually used) with the rounded notch and the shape of the chock marked. A sharp pointed pencil was used, not the fine point felt pen as shown. A chock after marking and cutting, and well overlength.

 

 

Finally, the completed capstan on the deck.

 

 

Cheers.

 

 

[glbarlow]

Your hull looks great, nice work. 

[TimC]

Richard this is looking wonderful!!!

[Richard44]

Again, thanks for the comments and the likes.

 

Not much progress this time, in fact it was one step forward and two back at one point.

 

I glued the lower counter (Part 146) in place at the stern, then decided to plank this to reflect the actual ship. The instructions call for the upper counter to be planked (there is no false counter) but they are rather vague, and the only diagram showing the upper counter is in the instruction book, not on the plans, and is not to scale. The rearmost edge of the gunport pattern was not cut especially cleanly which hampered efforts to accurately locate the upper counter. After some head scratching, sanding to clean the edge of the pattern to better match the plans and measurements, both counters were planked, the lower using 1x4mm walnut strip, and the upper using 1x3mm. The instructions actually call for the latter to be 1x4mm as well, but three strips of 3mm fitted neatly.

 

The following day, I looked at what I had done and became more and more unhappy, in particular with the lower counter. The supplied ply counter plus the planking made the whole thing too thick and it was very obvious that the second planking was not going to finish against this neatly. I offered up some 1x4mm strips (the size of the second planks) to the counter, and it looked terrible.

 

So out with the isopropyl alcohol and off with both counters. Two steps back.

 

I should mention here that I have only used PVA glue on the hull, the only CA I have used so far was in constructing the capstan.

 

This time, I just planked the lower counter as well as the upper. The walnut strips, again 1x4mm for the lower and 1x3mm for the upper, were edge bent using Chuck’s method before fitting. A second plank offered up to the counter looked good this time.

 

Both counters will be painted, the lower black, the upper blue. There will also be decorative strips between the second planking/lower counter/upper counter and stern window fascia.

 

 

 

That’s it for now. Cheers.

[Richard44]

Thanks for the like BE.

 

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I was thinking of planking the inner bulwarks before doing the second planking, in spite of the instructions telling you to do the reverse. The reason for this was because I planned on drilling the gunport pattern (before fixing) with the holes needed for the cannon eyebolts that are fixed into the inner bulwarks. After planking the bulwarks, I could then drill through them, using the gunport pattern as a guide. Doing it this way seemed to me to be far easier than trying to locate and drill the holes from inside the hull after the second planking was finished. There was no chance either of drilling right through the outer planking.

 

And that’s what I did. It needs to be mentioned that if you do plank the bulwarks this way, you cannot quite finish as the beam (Part 38) has to be in place first. This slides into place, and cannot do so if the planking is complete. This part is also somewhat fragile and can be broken if forced into place. In spite of SpyGlass’s warning, that’s exactly what happened. Not serious, but annoying. And installing the beam at this point, before doing the second planking, would be extremely risky.

 

The first plank across a gunport was trimmed to open the port. A modified razor saw was used. This gave a gap and subsequent planks were easily trimmed again using the razor saw. The final gap was tidied up using a sanding stick. The sweep ports were an exercise in patience. I very, very carefully drilled a hole through the covering plank, opened this with needle files then completed opening the port using the smallest sanding stick I have ever had. The modified saw and the two sanding sticks are shown in the photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While I was happily drilling holes, I also decided to drill four more to allow the cleats (Part 226) to be pinned through the bulwark rather than just being glued to it. The cleats were drilled themselves and thin bamboo dowels glued in. The two cleats have not been glued in and the dowels are yet to be trimmed.

 

 

Cheers.

Edited November 21, 2020 by Richard44

[starlight]

Hi Richard, looks great! Forgive my ignorance, but what is the purpose of the sweep ports? I see that many modelers add extras to the gunport strips.

 

-starlight

[Richard44]

3 hours ago, SpyGlass said:

Pegasus was a SMALL vessel though it looks much larger. The sweep ports were for sweeps - large oars - to row her with

Always seemed very strange to me - where do you stow them and how do you row with them.

But they were there and thats what they were for.

 

I have absolutely no idea of how long the sweeps would have been, but stowing them below would have been an interesting exercise in getting them through the hatch and onto the lower deck. Maybe they were lashed to the outside of the ship's sides. Or to the beams under the foredeck and quarterdeck.  And you wouldn't be able to get much of a stroke when using them because the cannons would be in the way.

 

Anyway, they are a bit of a pain on the model 🙂.

[Richard44]

Thanks for the likes everybody.

 

Along with some others, I decided to make the stove (Blue Ensign and Alistair in particular inspired me). I followed the diagrams in TFFM and made it slowly over a period of several weeks.

 

Although small, I used a wide variety of materials to make it - wood, bamboo, cardboard, paper, metal, plastic and thin cord. It was fiddly to make but not especially difficult.

 

The basic body is wood, L-shaped styrene was glued along the edges and very small squares of styrene were used to represent the boltheads. The doors on the sides are thin cardboard and the hinges are a thin bamboo dowel glued to paper and then cut into strips. Holes were drilled into the sides and bamboo dowels were pushed through to represent the fire grate bars. The supports/spacers for these are simply thin cord wrapped around them in a figure of eight pattern. The spit is likewise bamboo. The pot holders and the supports for the spit are plastic. The two boiler covers are wood with brass wire handles. The two bars along the sides are wire, paper clips actually as these looked to be of the "right" diameter. The drip tray has a wooden base with a paper strip wrapped around it.

 

The beginning and the finished stove.  The hole in the top is to locate the chimney when I make it. It will be greater in diameter than that hole.

 

 

 

 

 

The stove approximately in place on the deck.

 

 

Cheers