HMS Pegasus 1776 by Moonbug - Amati Models - 1:64

[Moonbug]

  Continuing with the headworks, next up was the simple, yet always anxiety inducing job of cutting out the hawse holes. I marked them out and then used a very high speed drill bit to avoid flaking or other damage. 

 

 

I was able to reshape and use the precut pieces for the cheeks.  However, I did run into a slight issue. Once again, because of the way I mounted the main wales, the cheeks now conflicted with the gammoning slots when I extended the hair bracket from the upper cheek. Not a huge issue, I just drilled out more room for the gammoning and added the hair bracket moulding.

 

 

 

 

 The main rails were quite tricky of course - as they are for everyone.  I chose to cut them from boxwood in three separate pieces.  I used a template to measure out the necessary distance, then temporarily mounted the two end pieces. This allowed me to fill in and custom fit the middle piece into the gap. Once it was all fit, I glued it together and and sanded it down. It's worth nothing that there is also a slight angle between the three pieces allowing it to guide along the bow properly. 

 

  

 

 

  I need to measure out and cut a few more pieces before I start permanently assembling it all.  More to come of course...

 

[Moonbug]

  Continuing on the bow and the head works. I quickly added a little filler for the upcoming Pegasus herself; I've been working on something quite different for the figure head and I'm admittedly excited to see how she'll turn out.  The filler is just an easy piece of walnut added now so I can paint it along with the rest of the bits. Then I carved out the lower railing and fit it to the head timbers - once again from boxwood.

 

 

 

This is all very touch and go and one piece at a time since I'm basically finagling my own scratch pieces here. I cut and fit the bolsters so I could finish sizing out where the lower rail would end up.  I'm electing to just have the bottom bolster and not fit a 'top half' to the lower rail where it extends below the cat head support.  I've learned quickly that I need to make a handful of concessions in this area as working at 1/64 sometimes becomes just too small for me to produce the quality product for which I'm aiming. 

 

 

   

  Lower rails are carved out with a curve in a similar manner as the main rails and measured out.  The cathead support is carved, shaped, and fit also from boxwood. I then painted everything with my color scheme - I'm going with a look similar to the Victory stylings. I went ahead and gave this fitting a coat of paint and wipe on poly before I progressed to the covering boards on the outer edges of the head timbers. I know that's going to be some VERY delicate painting, etc, and I was hoping the coat of poly would help me fix mistakes that occur as a result of my hands not being nearly as steady as they "good ol' days".  A lesson I learned trying to paint Cap'n Amati and his crew.

 

 

 

   Covering boards are cut from my thinest stock and soaked before they're shaped along the head timbers.  I did have to sand down the areas where the lower rail meets the head timbers to provide the necessary fitment. After they were dried and glued in place, I added a little bit of filler where needed and painted. 

 

 

 

   I heavily debated whether to added the little vertical strips of decoration along the covering boards or to just keep the yellow outline as seen on the Victory and other ships.  After a lot of holding it in place and debating, I finally decided that the added decoration somewhat detracts from my sketchy paint job.  I REALLY had a hard time with those little yellow lines after trying to mask them off and everything else.  I even tried using tiny strips of yellow tape but the color didn't match the other ochre.  I ultimately got the best results I could by just painting them free hand. The added vertical decorations also blend with the cheeks, so I'm cool with it. 

 

 On to the grating...

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Moonbug

[BobG]

Exceptional work, Bug!

[Moonbug]

   Thanks Bob, much appreciated.  Any kind of carving of shapes isn't really my forte, so this is definitely part of the build where I'm really never sure how it's going. 

 

    This is one of those short but long posts - meaning the post isn't very long, but it took me the whole day (and blowing off much of work) to get done.  I tried to model the grating after the TFFM style, and first attempted to cut grooves in which the grating could fit. But that did not work at all - I couldn't get them precise enough even using boxwood.  So once again I had to make some concessions due to the small scale. I had to cut, measure and place each piece individually because my scratch made rails and timber heads were fractionally different.  I started at the base of the bow, added the most forward supports, then filled in the grates in between.  

    The process was basically to cut it close, test fit, sand the edge literally three or four strokes at a time, then test fit again until it slid into place. 

 

 

 

  In the picture there's one piece of grating missing on the starboard side.  That's because I thought I glued it in place but didn't then when I shifted the model to take the picture it fell out and I didn't notice until I saw the photo.  😛

 

     Finally the seats of ease were added.  Nothing particularly special about them.  I sized them to be equal to one another and then shaved off little bits of the grating to get them to fit so they'd stay mirror images of one another.

 

[starlight]

Wow, that assembly came together really quickly and looks great. Thanks for taking all these close-up pictures.

 

-starlight

[Blue Ensign]

Nice work on the head rails Bug, I like the curvature you have achieved.👍

 

B.E.

[Moonbug]

   Thanks BE and Starlight - all that went a little better than I anticipated. 

    I was a little bit disappointed that the kit didn't provide the false rails, as I thought it might've been an easy add to the laser cut sheet.  I also realize that is a selfish perspective - mostly because of my sketchy carving 'skills'.  

     None-the-less, I wanted false rails, so I started with a card stock drawing fitted to the head rails, then carved them out of boxwood.  Knowing my scratch build main rails would not be identical, I cut the false rails with a little extra room on the bottom end so they could be fitted neatly to the specific curvature of each main rail. 

 

 

 

 

  

  The inner relief was carved out using my smallest Dremel engraving attachment then smoothed out using a pointed burr.  The rails were then mounted and painted.  A small amount of filler was used in the areas that didn't match up perfectly.

 

 

[Moonbug]

  The Pegasus on the Pegasus:

 

  I've been both looking forward to this part and also a little bit nervous about it.  I've had something specific in mind for the figure head since I first opened the Peg kit. While the kit figure is fine, I really wanted mine to be unique to any one else's. While I absolutely LOVE @Trussben's carved figure head, I wasn't sure I could get that pulled off in a 1/64 scale, and I WAS sure that I would not be able to pull off justifying the cost to the Admiral.  😜

  I'd been searching for other solutions for weeks when I finally stumbled across this package of little toys that were perfect for scale.

 

 

 

I really dug the wings and the body, but the head left much to be desired obviously. Also - there was no way the rear legs would work. Since it's a little rubber toy - I wasn't going to be able to manipulate it much and I was concerned about painting, etc. 

    So... I ended up creating "Franken-Peg" - a combination of the kit figurehead and the one I'd purchased.  The rubber was really receptive to cutting and gluing it together - and looked even better after a coat of primer. 

 

 

 

  Some final adjustments needed to be made after it was mounted, but I'm pretty stoked with the end look.  I've seen some good looking wood color paint expressions, but I wanted to stick with the traditional white figurehead look common to the Royal Navy. So "Franken-Peg" has several coats of paint to give her a carved look and some depth - which was important to me.   And it's definitely not a figurehead that will be seen on any other ship.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Edited March 9, 2022 by Moonbug

[starlight]

Ah, very creative Moonbug. I dare say these wings look much better than those of the kit figurehead.

 

-starlight

[Dave_E]

Works for me! Looks great! 👍

[mtaylor]

Beautiful and unique figurehead, Bug.  

[gjdale]

Great work Bug - that is just outstanding!

[Moonbug]

  Thanks very much Starlight, Dave, Grant, and Mark - very much appreciate the look-in and comments. 

 

   Moving on the the bridle and gun port doors/lids. According to most sources, the bridle port doors' primary purpose was to provide access to the anchor lines as well as other ancillary functions. As such, it was hinged horizontally rather than from the top as with gun ports.  I'll note an early mistake of mine here for other builders: this port should have been shaped quite a bit differently than the gun ports when it was cut out.  That is certainly illustrated in the plans - and I just missed it way back in the build. So mine is basically the same size as the gun ports which is incorrect.

 

   At any rate - it's pretty straightforward to put together with the exception of the hinges.  Rather than try to cut my own, I decided to use some parts that I hadn't intended to use - the kit provided hammock cranes; as I'll be making my own later.  I cut the eyelets off of these bits, and repurposed them as hinges by lining them up and inserting my smallest pin.  

 

 

 

 

  I sharpened the ends to create pins, then inserted them into the doors and also the hull.  Then I lined up the hinges on the door to appear as one solid piece. 

 

 

 

 

  I think it's worth noting that the bridle port door has a bolt on the outside as the ring bolt is on the inside. There isn't a need to open it with a line as with the gun port door.  

   Speaking of which - I'm only creating one gun port lid on the furthest aft gun port - the one which would have housed a cabin. I'm following Dan and the TFFM's lead here that the other gun ports were all exposed to the elements and this would've been the only door. It's up for interpretation to be sure, but it's what I chose - helped by the fact that it's also the one that is in between channels. 

 

  Construction is very similar to the bridle port of course with the addition of the eyebolts and rings. I turned the eyebolts from wire, fed them through the drilled out hole, then turned them again on the other side. This was a bit tricky using jeweler's pliers and took some fiddling with tweezers once they were in, but created a more secure piece than trying to glue an eyebolt to each side. 

 

 

 

  Lids were mounted the same way as the bridle port with my manufactured hinges, then the rigging was added extending through two holes drilled just above the lid. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by Moonbug

[allanyed]

Bug

Your idea to replace the kit figurehead has opened up a world of new ideas for the rest of our community, including the carvers, even if only to look for a maquette.

Allan

Edited March 7, 2022 by allanyed

[starlight]

2 hours ago, Moonbug said:

I'll note an early mistake of mine here for other builders: this port should have been shaped quite a bit differently than the gun ports when it was cut out.  That is certainly illustrated in the plans - and I just missed it way back in the build. So mine is basically the same size as the gun ports which is incorrect.

 

Hi Moonbug,

 

Could you elaborate on this? I think the bridle ports and the aftmost 3 gunports are supposed to be about 1.5 mm narrower than the other ports, but are there any other differences?

 

I am also confused about the shape of the port doors (lids?). The kit-provided ones are completely square, but the ports themselves are not since the two horizontal sides follow the sheer(?) of the deck... so which one is wrong?

 

Thanks!

-starlight

[Moonbug]

     @starlight - you are correct, then bridle port is a fair amount narrower, giving it a much more 'portrait' shape than the rest of the ports. The shape the only difference visually - other differences were in terms of functionality rather than look.

 

   As for the other gun port lids, you are spot on there as well.  One thing to keep in mind - many fo the kits sacrifice some level of accuracy for ease in terms of mass (or repeated) production. So even kits as well thought out as Chris Watton's, there will always be some simplification for ease of production.  In this instance, @Blue Ensign's explanation of how he deviated from the kit is a great resource which explains the difference between the kit and other Six rate ships:

 

 

 

   

[Theodosius]

great kit-bashing(?) on that Pegasus! Fits perfect for me! 🙂

[Blue Ensign]

I too missed the narrower profile for the Bridle port and left it too late to do a modification.

I took the view that to side hinge the normal port would only draw attention to this omission and it didn’t really sit right with  my eye.

I drew a small comfort that the Sphinx  did have a normal sized and hung Bridle port.

 

Lovin’ the Pegasus figure Bug, it is a great modelling mindset to think outside the (kit) box and inside the (Toy) box.

 

Regards,

 

B.E.

[Moonbug]

   Thanks BE, appreciated as always.  I fretted over the side vs top hinge on the lid for a bit, and ultimately went with the side for a simpler reason: I had more room.  Sometimes those decisions are made for us. 

[Dave_E]

Bug,

 

Did you hand paint all that pretty yellow trim under a magnifier? What size brush? What color yellow is that? Crazy good work Sir! 👍😀

[Moonbug]

    Hey Dave, that's a good question - short answer is yes.  Here's a picture my youngest daughter took to make fun of me while I was painting the little Captain Amati.   Last year I got laser eye surgery, which  works great for everything except extremely close up work.  Even with varying levels of reading glasses I struggled with the ultra tiny things. A month or so ago I invested in dental/surgical loupes, and that's what I use to paint the tiny things. They're damn expensive, and I had to go through a local medical supply company (who may or may not have assumed I was Dr. without me correcting them) and they took forever to arrive, but they're very handy.  Sometimes - as in this picture - I use a combination of the loupes and the magnifying lens.  

 

 

 The brushes are a set of NicPro fine detail brushes, which work well - but I suspect the Tamiya ones might be better.

[Dave_E]

Very good! Nice shop! 👍

[Moonbug]

   I nocked out a quick waist rail and mounted it using the stanchions that the kit sets aside for the mast tops.

 

 

   Worked on the assembly line of deadeyes, stops, chains, and preventer plates the last couple of days.  As others have remarked, the photo etched parts provided are quite easy to work with.  I briefly considered soldering closed the chains, but they are barely (if at all) visible on back side so I left them as-is.

 

 

 

   It's worth noting that while I did my best to consider the lines of the shrouds when lining up all the chains and preventer plates; some adjustments had to be made for the gun ports, sweep ports, and even a couple scuppers.

  I also used slightly larger pins/nails as they needed to be functional as well as decorative. Once the deadeyes and chains were in place, the channels were capped with a thin strip of walnut scraped with a corner portion of one of the AL scraper edges.

 

 

 

 

 

  Lastly, I soldered and shaped studding sail boom irons. I'll likely add the stun'sl boom later. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Edited March 13, 2022 by Moonbug

[Moonbug]

  I spent today working on netting for the waist rails - I took a few pictures but in a bonehead move, did not have a card in my camera.  Enh.  Not sure I'm liking how it's turning out anyway.

 

   The rest the day was spent adding 30-something preventer bolts along the chains, and a couple of swivel bolts toward the aft of the ship.  Preventer bolts were a back up plan to tie off shrouds should failure of the lines occur, or if repairs were needed.  I drilled out the holes, added eye bolts, then tapped them in to make them flush with the hull.  I used a pointed dental pick to hold them straight whilst I tapped them in.  It's also worth noting that the two in the waist are fixed horizontally, while those in between preventer plates are vertical.

 

 The swivel bolts are a just a couple of eyebolts mounted to a plate then blackened before mounted in the main wales just aft of the last gun port. Personally, I think these are the kinds of details that are relatively easy to add, and yet add a lot of authenticity to the build. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Techtonic]

On 2/25/2022 at 7:32 AM, Moonbug said:

     Hello everyone.  I did not fall off the face of the earth - only to Mexico for holiday with the admiral.  One day she got fed up with her work (we both work from home at the moment (Covid rules apply) as well as the cold Colorado winter and rather spontaneously booked a trip to a resort in Yucatan.  Who was I to argue?   I'm an anthropologist so I was happy to finally see one of the "new" seven wonders of the world - Chichen Itza, and I'm also a golfer so I got to play a round at the Riviera Maya PGA course.  

 

     Meanwhile, while we were away - the ubiquitous and certainly infamous Amati Crew arrived, so I painted those fellas up and mounted them on small bases made from a leftover hard plastic container.  Except for climber-guy of course.  I've never considered myself very adept at painting by hand (which is why I airbrush so many things), but I like the way these guys turned out. Just for fun I tried to give them a little extra realism by adjusting their skin tone depending on their job and exposure to the sun - ranging from the pasty white Cap'n to the super tan fellas.  

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

      

Great job on painting the figurines! They certainly look much better than my attempt last year when I was building HMS Beagle https://modelshipworld.com/topic/28420-hms-beagle-by-techtonic-finished-occre-160/?do=findComment&comment=822063

 

. I wasn't too sure at the time what sailors wore back then and I definitely made their fashion sense a bit too colorful!

 

I'm now about half way through doing the rigging on my Pegasus. A week or so ago I stumbled across these new figurines that Artesania Latina just brought out late last year https://www.agesofsail.com/ecommerce/metal-figurines-with-accessories-for-hms-endeavour.html. They are marketed as an accessory for their HMS Endeavour kit. This kit is contemporary with, and at the same scale as Amati HMS Pegasus kit. I ordered them and just received them. I'm not sure about the Cossack dancer, but all the other figures look more appropriate to me for the Pegasus than the Amati ones. You can see them in place on the Endeavour here https://youtu.be/6v6QVFRALFE?t=173. Well just thought I'd let you know in case you wanted to consider using them.

 

I'll certainly be using your efforts as an inspiration when painting these figures.

 

 

[Moonbug]

Thanks @Techtonic, thanks for letting  me know!  I may have to give them a try. It’s nice to have another option besides the infamous Amati crew.  Be sure and post pictures of your fellas when they’re painted. 

[Moonbug]

   This is one of those short updates that represents a bunch of work.  I've been noodling through how to make the netting along the waist rail. I spent quite a while looking for a good "fishnet" representation - even going so far as to ask the admiral if she had any 'delicates' lying about that were no longer in use 😉.   I found a couple of 'acceptable' options at a fabric store, but nothing that I was really happy with.  None of them looked like "rope" but rather just laced thread.  

     First, I tried weaving together my own netting using Dan Vadas' example from his Jib Net here.  Here's my attempt:

 

 

  This is after something like 6 hours mind you, makes tying off ratlines feel like a breeze.  After all that, I still wasn't digging it.  I think it looks fine - and I may well still use it for a Jib Net, but I didn't like it for the waist.   So, after more research I found this guy on youtube.  

   

 

 

   He over explains a bit - which is better than under-explaining I suppose - but more importantly, his method was transferrable to a much smaller scale and I was able to replicate it using .20mm rope.  Here's a shot of my first attempt (bottom) which was pretty sketchy, but a good practice to get the hang of it and improve my method.  In the top one, I used more pins to hold my tiny work in place and thus create more even loops.  I didn't use any sort of net needle, I just used rope with the end stiffened with CA glue.

 

 

  Still took 6 or 7 hours each to complete the netting which ended up being about 113mm long by 11mm wide.   I then mounted it to my waist rail by first using a tiny dot of CA glue to attach the loops to the rail and stanchions, then tying off the loops to the stanchions, and finally looping and tying off another length of rope around the rail itself.  I've seen other example of this looping on rails in this time frame - usually metal ones to create a better grip on the rail when wet.  So I figure it too much of a stretch to have seen it on a waist rail. 

 

 

  Finally, it's mounted on the waist. Last touches were to add another tiny drop of CA to hold the bottom loops even with the ship's rail.  Overall, this was a boatload of work (no pun intended) for a relatively small area and detail; and I still have the port side to do. I think it's still a touch out of scale (especially the knots), but it's about as small a rope as I could go and still successfully work with. But I'm much more pleased with this than I think I would be with a more modern alternative to netting. 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Moonbug

[Dave_E]

Showed this to my Admiral. She thinks we are all nuts. 😆

[Moonbug]

 

   

38 minutes ago, Dave_E said:

Showed this to my Admiral. She thinks we are all nuts. 😆

 

  That's been the case around here for quite a while, and I'm sure not uncommon amongst this lot.  Heh. 

[WalrusGuy]

3 hours ago, Moonbug said:

   This is one of those short updates that represents a bunch of work.  I've been noodling through how to make the netting along the waist rail. I spent quite a wile looking for a good "fishnet" representation - even going so far as to ask the admiral if she had any 'delicates' lying about that were no longer in use 😉.   I found a couple of 'acceptable' options at a fabric store, but nothing that I was really happy with.  None of them looked like "rope" but rather just laced thread.  

     First, I tried weaving together my own netting using Dan Vadas' example from his Jib Net here.  Here's my attempt:

 

 

  This is after something like 6 hours mind you, makes tying off ratlines feel like a breeze.  After all that, I still wasn't digging it.  I think it looks fine - and I may well still use it for a Jib Net, but I didn't like it for the waist.   So, after more research I found this guy on youtube.  

   

 

 

   He over explains a bit - which is better than under-explaining I suppose - but more importantly, his method was transferrable to a much smaller scale and I was able to replicate it using .20mm rope.  Here's a shot of my first attempt (bottom) which was pretty sketchy, but a good practice to get the hang of it and improve my method.  In the top one, I used more pins to hold my tiny work in place and thus create more even loops.  I didn't use any sort of net needle, I just used rope with the end stiffened with CA glue.

 

 

  Still took 6 or 7 hours each to complete the netting which ended up being about 113mm long by 11mm wide.   I then mounted it to my waist rail by first using a tiny dot of CA glue to attach the loops to the rail and stanchions, then tying off the loops to the stanchions, and finally looping and tying off another length of rope around the rail itself.  I've seen other example of this looping on rails in this time frame - usually metal ones to create a better grip on the rail when wet.  So I figure it too much of a stretch to have seen it on a waist rail. 

 

 

  Finally, it's mounted on the waist. Last touches were to add another tiny drop of CA to hold the bottom loops even with the ship's rail.  Overall, this was a boatload of work (no pun intended) for a relatively small area and detail; and I still have the port side to do. I think it's still a touch out of scale (especially the knots), but it's about as small a rope as I could go and still successfully work with. But I'm much more pleased with this than I think I would be with a more modern alternative to netting. 

 

This is amazing!!! Nicely done 😀