HMS Pegasus by Ray - FINISHED - Victory Models - Build started Jan 2010

[Ray]

Fascia fitted

 

The stern fascia was added after the Pegasus name letters and trim, then the last trim around the windows was fixed in place, and lastly the side decoration under the fascia at the side between it and the main wale, which needed a fair, bit off reworking, I think the whole window-fascia in the black/gold and the blue/gold looks extremely good and justifies the black painting of the rails as well.

 

Ray

[Ray]

Pegasus mount
 

On starting the headrail and cathead assembly I first mocked it up with tape, this is probably the most difficult and complex part of the build so far, it soon became apparent that the Pegasus figure head would not sit on the pre-cut bow section of the keel as seen in photo 1 so I added some blocks and sanded and filled down to get the right shape at the Pegasus chest, and also leaving the correct gap between the back of the figure head and where the scrolled decoration was to end, now back to the headrail and cathead assembly.

 

Ray

[Ray]

Headrail & cathead

 

This has been the most difficult part to build so far, but also very rewarding it takes a bit of getting your head around, it did help looking at other finished projects, to see how it all goes together. I did, as I usually do, if at all possible dry fit as much as possible first, holding bits on and together with tamiya tape. The assembly started by marking out and then cutting through the upper rails, this needs to be done first, and also slight adjustment to the cross braces on the keel were needed to line all the parts up, and with the dry fit ok all the separate parts were painted, before fitting, I did assemble one side at a time with cyno gel and touched up the paint as necessary.

 

All the decoration was then added as well, and the Pegasus figurehead made up and painted, but this is only dry fitted, also the bridle ports are being made and dry fitted.

 

Ray

[stevieshrek]

Hi Ray,

               Many thanks for taking the time to reload for build log, i had printed your full log of the the lady nelson which has been invaluable has i work on my own and has been a great help,  peggy is my next build (a little way off yet) and again i will print the whole log and use as a manual and guide.  Any plans for your next build?

                                Thanks again Steve

[Ray]

Side Decoration added

 

Time to add the rest of the side decoration; this was done after making and fitting two port lids for the bridle ports. The decoration was again given two coats of gold paint before fitting, next the chess tree and hull fenders were also fitted taking care to allow space for the decoration, the rest of the decoration was fitted again using thick/gel cyno it went on fairly well but did need some adjusting just fettle ling with a needle file around the gun ports so as to not overlap them and one case of cutting and shutting but you cannot see the join. Overall I am well pleased with the effect I think the gold sits very well on the blue.

Ray

[Ray]

Fore capping rails

 

After holidays and a lot of time on the golf course, I had not done much on the build, so this is  just a small update before making up some of the deck fittings I decided to fit the fore capping rails only to find one had gone missing, and after hunting high and low and some unprintable words decided the only way forward was  to fabricate another one, I sorted out a piece of ply the same thickness and using the other one as a pattern made another one, which I must say took a fair time to make, but I do not think you can tell any difference between them now they are fitted and painted. Looking forward to making up most of the main deck fittings next.

Ray

[Ray]

Deck fittings
 

I next made up a lot of the deck fittings all went together well. Colours ? I painted them in colours I liked best having looked at other builds, some like black, or red ochre, some just keeping the natural wood colour and some a mix, since the photos were taken the capstan has changed and is now red ochre. I made the kitchen chimney out of some tube, as I did not like the suggested shape, some have been permanently fixed and some just set in place for now.

 

Ray

[Ray]

Making ready for Quarter deck fitting
 

The Quarterdeck needs fitting next but before it is fitted you need to fit anything that goes under this deck, mainly the deck fittings and the six cannons, I have decided to fully rig the cannons, but only rigged the first two, they can only just be seen when the deck goes on so no point in rigging the other four I did use a large amount of cyno to fix the cannons and rigging coils, this can be seen on the photos, this amount will only be used on these cannons to make sure they can never be accidentally knocked or moved, for if they were to it would be a nightmare to get them back in place and you will never see the excess glue with the deck on.

I will modify, and go into the details of the cannon rigging later when the rest of the main deck cannons are fitted, but will mention now that all the trucks were made up and painted and the cannon barrels spray-painted with several coats of matt black which I have found gives acceptable finish.

 

Ray

[Ray]

Quarter deck now fitted, and fixing pins removed the deck was planked in my normal way with a length of .25mm black thread between each plank and the planks fitted in scale length using thick cyno, sanded and coated with matt varnish after simulating the treenails with a fine marker pen. I over planked where the hatches and some of the deck fitting will go as you cannot see under them, and this saved fitting very short lengths between them, I planked to the edge and then with some thin ply that some parts been pushed out of made up the inner bulwark painted it and then fixed in place over the planking, this way round does make the planked edge nice and neat. The ply is easily filed or sanded down to the correct height.

 

Ray

[Ray]

 

Capping rails Part-1 With the quarterdeck planked the next job was to make up and fit the rest of the capping rails, it is one of those tasks which is easier to do that think about, what I mean by that is, you try and work out in your head the best way of doing it, and how to get the curves and shapes and you cannot quite work it out, but when you start adding the bits of timber on and dressing in down, shaping it and putting on the next bit it does seems to fall into place, so all rails other than the supplied pre-cut ones for the quarterdeck were made up this way first shaped filled sanded until they were ok.

 

Part-2 rails all finished and painted their curves and shapes might not be exactly to the plans but the curves and general shapes of them I am pleased with as they are not the easiest thing to get right.

 

Ray

[Ray]

Rudder Fitted

[Ray]

The fore deck fittings have now been made and fitted, firstly the timberheads and cleats into the pre-cut holes on the rails, and then the swivel gun posts, after painting, I only had to make some very miner adjustments to the rail that I had made up for them all to fit. I will not fit any of the swivel guns until much later as they are so easily caught and broken of and catch up in the rigging process, the belfry was made up next I used some dowel obtained from some cocktail sticks instead of square section to join the two rails, it gave a nice tight fit and I think looks better than square section does, it was then painted up and fitted, lastly the chimney and gratings were added and some of the rigging rings to the deck.

 

Ray

[Ray]

The quarter deck fitting were the next to be made up the rudder housing, binnacle, gratings and capstan only the wheel to fit and rig.

 

Ray

[Ray]

The ships wheel is now fitted and rigged, completing most of the quarter deck, I am going to fit and rig the cannons next, before doing the rail work between the decks and the sides, mainly to leave as much room around the cannons as possible.

 

Ray

[Ray]

Block modifications before fitting and rigging the cannons

 

I found using 2mm blocks to rig the cannons with hooks meant that the blocks were too close together when rigged, I also discovered that the 2mm blocks were to small to carry out this mod too, so I found some 2.5mm blocks which work just fine, first I opened up the eye of an eye pin and cut the eyes pin down short enough not to hit the rope hole, then drilled a hole in the end of the block and cyno glued the eye pin as in the photos, painted the eye/hook job done.

 

When rigging the block you need to run the thread around the eye/hook and tie tight at the opposite end, I the just add a tiny blob of glue to fix.

The last photo shows the difference between the two methods and the shorter length of the modified one.

 

Ray

[Ray]

I prepared the cannons by rigging them before fitting as far as possible, firstly fitting the breech rope, then tying on the tackle blocks and eyes and then threading the tackle rope through them, I covered the knots with dilute PVA and trimmed as close as possible, they look to be trimmed closer in real life than they do in photos, the next job was the rope coils a bit of a pain but had to be done they were also given the PVA treatment, the guns are now already to mount and rig.

 

Ray

[Ray]

Fitting and rigging the cannons

 

 

 

Part 1

 

 I first fitted the four cannons in each corner of the deck, and then the middle four, the corner ones were fitted and completed each one in turn,
 

Firstly cynoed the carriage to the deck then fixed the main breech rope, glued in the cut down eye bolts, and then adjusted how the rope sat on the deck and fixed it with dilute PVA, then hooked on my modified blocks, and adjusted the tackle tapping down the rope ends, and the gluing the ends again with dilute PVA and when dry cut of the excess rope, finishing of the fitting by adding the rope coils, I then did the same for the tackle that draws the cannon inboard.

 

Part 2

 

          This set of photos show the middle four cannons being fitted, the same sequence used, but all done together, I will post some photos of the completed job.

 

Ray

[Ray]

Cannons all fitted and rigged

 

All the cannons have been fitted and rigged, and it feels like she is now really coming together, I also think fully rigging them was well worth the effort, as the eye will always be drawn to them.

 

 

Next I will finish off the quarterdeck rails and fit the two small decks above the cannons.

 

Ray

[Ray]

Quarterdeck rails & gangways

The quarterdeck gangways were planked first and then fitted in place, the ladders to them made up, and also fitted, the main mast bit and gallows, plus the pumps and handles were also fitted. I then made up the quarterdeck rail assembly again changing the square sections for round ones, I fitted the base plate for the rail unit to the deck, as shown in the photo this made it easier to get the curve in the whole unit that matched the deck camber, when clamped in place it just took the camber on, lastly the turned columns were drilled and pinned top and bottom and fitted to the gangway and then clamped to the rail assembly, lastly it was painted.

 

Ray

[Ray]

Quarterdeck rail & Gun ports

I have now added the quarterdeck rails I did make new posts for both end; I have again not fitted the swivel guns to the posts at this stage. Next I fitted the gun ports I stiffened the rope the dilute pva drilled a hole in the hull and pushed it in which has kept the rope looking taught. I am now adding the hammock netting, which is a bit of a pain, will update on that soon, and I noticed I missed the end of the rails where they join the top rail to the bottom will add those after the netting, I will also paint the edge of the gun ports as well.

 

Ray

[Ray]

Chain plates & Deadeyes

I ended up fitting the chain plates and deadeyes at the same time as the hammock netting, but I will update them separately in the log, the chain plates were straightforward to fit, I fixed them to the hull, using cut down brass pins inserted into them for extra strength the sharp point of the pins also gave a marker when pressed to the hull to where to drill a hole for the pins to locate into. The deadeyes were fitted into the brass holding straps and the links added and then just pined into the hull as per the plans, and when they were all in place a wood strip added and painted, then the rest of the paintwork was touched up, job done.

The gun port lid edges have now been painted and the top quarterdeck rail also finished.

 

Ray

[Ray]

Hammock netting

 

I obtained the hammock netting from Cornwall models, I then fitted the rope through the eyes along the top of the cranes, I next made up a wooded block to just fit inside the hammock cranes to hold the netting in place, against the sides and into the bottom I then tied the netting to the bottom of the cranes, that done I laced the netting to the cord at the top using std black cotton and a needle, a piece of white card behind helped to see what I was doing, and when laced the netting was trimmed the to the top of the cord, it looks much neater it real life than in the photos, in the photos the top of the netting looks a bit long and spiky, altogether a bit of a fiddly job, but the end result is well worth the extra effort. 

 

RAy

[Ray]

The Finished Hull

 

The hull is now finished (minus a few items best left till after the rigging) and I have set it on the display base, although it is not permently fixed, as I think it may be easier to do some of the rigging on the building cradle, you can still tilt it sideways and it is a bit lower, but for the photos I can put it on the display base.

Masts next dig out my unimat lathe, and some heating, or a warm day in the garage.

 

Ray

Edited February 16, 2013 by Ray

[Ray]

Bowsprite

I have started the mast making with the bowsprit I used my unimat lathe to good effect. Using the three jaw chuck to hold the dowel and then set the speed, to one which I find works for me, I use small and needle files and various grades of sand paper to obtain the required taper and diameter, all the cleats were cut from left over planking, I made them over size glued them on with cyno and when well dry filed them down to the correct size and shape, I find this is the easiest way and they are held in place on the dowel and you can keep them all the same. When finished the bowsprit was painted and all the rigging blocks added.

 

In my next updated I will post some actual mast making photos using the lathe.

 

Ray

[Ray]

My unimate with a three jaw chuck is an ideal tool for mast making, the photos show various stages of shaping dowel into the different mast parts, masking off certain parts and then shaping them. The main tools I use are a small file; needle files; and various grades of sand paper plus a micrometer. In general I found the hard wood dowel supplied in the kit works well and there seems to be plenty to make all the necessary masts and spars. The parts for the fore mast are now made so I am going to build that mast up first before making up the parts for the other two.

 

Ray

[Ray]

The Foremast

The foremast was made first, all the parts (main, topmast & top gallant) were tapered and shaped as described in the last post using the lathe, where the mast needed turning into a square section this was marked out on the ends of the dowel and lines drawn down the dowel you can see the marks on one of the photos, the dowel was filed to get the square sections. The main mast had the cheeks and the bibs added and the foretop made up with the sixteen holes drilled for the crow’s-feet and the eyebolts fitted. The topmast again had the square section made and the trestletree made up, at the same as the topgallant (scrap wood had to be added to the bottom of the topgallant where it was squared as squaring the dowel ended up with to small a square section) care must be taken when making the topmast to get both square sections parallel, if not the trestletree will not be square and will not align fore and aft. A lot of dry fitting was done on all the parts. When happy with the fit I added the cleats? To the mainmast and then painted it and lastly added the woolding by a half granny knot and winding round the mast to the width as on the plan and holding the end tight and fixing with a dab off cyno from a puddle, on the end off a cocktail stick when dry cut off very close with a scalpel.

 

 

Finally the last dry fit, with this dry fit being with the mast in the hull to make sure it looked right and the angles and distance to each side of the hull were equal. The mast was then glued together and painted were necessary, the finally all the blocks and rigging that needed to be were attached to the mast were tied on. One down two to go

 

Ray

[Ray]

All the masts are now made up, and they have all been rigged with the necessary blocks. They did not present any problems, and painted and with the woolding done I think look good, hopefully I will be able to step them in the next few days.

 

Ray

[Bummer!]

A nice walk through on the masts Ray.

This will help me a lot when I get that far in my build.

 

 

Bummer!

[rdsaplala]

Pleased to see your Pegasus build log, Ray, excellent work as always

[Ray]

Thanks guys I am reloading my whole build log, I had just completed it a couple of days before the crash, but it is taking a bit of time as there is a lot of it, I will then reload my Lady Nelson log, and then start my next build HMS Diana.

 

Ray