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

[Ray]

The masts have been stepped, just a matter of gluing them in after checking the alignment square to the sides and equal distance from the top to each side of all three masts.

[Ray]

Rigging

Rigging not my favourite part of the build and Pegasus has so much of it!!! Right you have to make a start somewhere. I will do most of it, in what seems to be the most poplar order, but with several differences, firstly I will not make up the yards yet, I will do all the standing rigging first, and secondly to try and avoid the ratline tying brain meltdown. My plan is to do one mast at a time starting with the foremast, that is to tie all the shrouds, lash the deadeyes, fit the topmast shrouds and futtock staves and catharpins, and then tie all the ratline to that mast, anyway that’s the plan; this part of the rigging should not be too bad.

 

 I have started to look at, and try and understand the rest off the rigging and at the moment it is giving me brain ache, I am hoping that it will become more evident how it all goes when I come to do it, one problem is I do not know a lot off the terminology, the names for a lot of the ropes, for instance, I hope to learn as I go along. I  have found a book Rigging Period Ship Models by Lennarth Petersson which looks like it could be the answer to all my prayers, it shows a lot off 3D drawings, I have sent off via Amazon for a copy it could be £21 well spent. I will also try to update the log in smallish parts not leave it until huge chunks of rigging have been completed.

 

Right time to start or continue as the eagle eyed might have seen the first shroud it in place.

[Ray]

The fore mast shrouds were all tied first using simple bent wires jig to obtain the correct space between the deadeyes two sets were made one for the 5mm deadeyes and one for the 3mm ones. In the main a fairly straight forward job the only awkward bit was the catharpins, I cyno fixed one end to hold it in place first, before tying it to the other shrouds, and then did one thing I always do dab each knot with glue in the main thick cyno and on the other times thinned pva. I will tie the ratline on this mast before fitting the shrouds to the main mast.

[Ray]

 

All the ratlines have been tied on the foremast. I made a spacing guide out of a card and as shown in the photos just held in behind the tied rows, and adjusted them as required before a dab of cyno to set the knot’s and then just the ends trimmed to finish of.

[Ray]

 

Progress has slowed down a bit as we have been babysitting two off our grand daughters whilst our daughter has been in hospital, so a bit more rigging for a week and back to babysitting for a week. The shrouds have now been added to the main mast, I am, and will continue to use cyano to fix my knots, I stress, I only use the tiniest amount and it works for me as it did on the Lady Nelson, and her rigging (she is not in a case as survived a house move is still as good the day she was finished)
 

My next model has been ordered and arrived Jokita`s HMS Diana I will have to put aside some time to check it out.

[Ray]

 

Mainmast ratlines completed

[Ray]

Standing rigging

Not much progress on Pegasus of late, mainly down to the time of year, carp fishing and golf, plus some hard landscaping in the garden to keep the governor happy. The weather has given me a window of opportunity (it here in the UK the weather has been foul) to make a start on the standing rigging, I am fitting the main and preventor stays first and when done will do the crows feet and add the backstays, no problems so far just it does just seem to take a lot of time for each rope added, and I am making great use of the book I bought Rigging period ship models.

[Ray]

All the standing rigging is now done, minus the backstays no real problems or difficulties encountered, I thought the crow’s feet would be difficult but they proved to be not to bad, keeping the tension the same on all strands was the only tricky bit, backstays next.

[Ray]

Back to the rigging all the backstays have now been done, no problems encountered, next job is to make up and rig the yards.

[Ray]

Now all the sanding rigging and the backstays have been done time to start on the yards.

Firstly the unimat was set up for tapering the yards, just emery cloth and sand paper were used to taper the good quality dowel supplied, and a micrometer to measure, the unimate this really does make tapering easier. I started with one of the more straight forward ones the fore topgallant yard.

[Ray]

         The fore topgallant yard was now shaped from the 3mm dowel, next I added a pin, so that the yards can be pinned into the mast, they will be glued and pinned into place before rigging, Also as I make them up I will set them on the masts with the pins this will serve a two fold purpose, one to keep track of which one had been made up and also which ones were made up and rigged, plus I could see how they looked. I next added the cleats these I cut from styrene the right length but over size and cynoed them to the yards, when dry I filed them down to size I find this way you can obtain much smaller cleats, I then painted the yard dull black, in real life the yard is not as shiny and much smoother than it looks in the pics.

[Ray]

Yards

 The next job was to make the yards that have hexagon centres the mizzen crossjack yard was the first one made it, allowed me to work out the best way to add the hexagon centre, this was achieved by measuring around the spar and lining with pencil and then filing the flats with a needle file, then tapering on the lathe, and then lastly retouching up the hexagon centre this did make the yard slightly undersize! But I think, actually looks more in scale, I think and others seem to have mentioned this that if made up to the drawing size they look a bit chunky.

 

All the rest of the yards have been made the same way with the added stun sail booms and furniture, the only real problem was setting the stun sail booms, I found it difficult to get them at the correct angle out from the yard and pointing forward using the plans, and in the end used the photo on the box lid and set them to look like in the photo. They are all pined and will be cynoed in place this will keep them on the correct plane horizontally and fore and aft, and will allow rigging to be tensioned without moving them.

 

The yards made so far just set on the masts with the pins so I could see how they looked, the booms are not fixed yet just loose on the yards.

[Ray]

Gaffs

The driver gaff and boom were made up as per the rest of the yards, they were then rigged with all the necessary blocks, all fairly straight forward.

 

Next job will be to rig the rest of the yards.

[Ray]

Rigging the yards

I now rigged all the yards, with all the blocks, foot ropes & stunsail booms, I stuck to my normal practice that is to dab each knot with cyno frowned on by some but I find it will not allow the knot come loose, or even worse case undo, and it also allows the excess thread to be trimmed very close. One thing I did which I wish I had done on the masts was to run a drill, held it a pin vice through the holes it the blocks and to lightly countersink the beginning of the holes, this will aid threading. I think I will have to do this, to all the blocks fitted to the masts, not easy now they are in place with all the standing rigging in place, still you live and learn.

[Ray]

All the yards are now the rigged, I will dry fit them with the pins and blutac to see who they look.

[Ray]

All the yards have now been made and rigged, I have dry fitted to the masts using the inserted pins and on some blutac to keep them in roughly the right place, I only did this to see how they looked on the masts, next job to start rigging in earnest.

[Ray]

 

The running rigging on Pegasus is a bit of a daunting prospect if it’s your first fully rigged ship; there is just so much of it! Also there does not seem to be a step-by-step guide or procedure, only the next plan 11 then 12 and so on. Some say plan ahead to make later parts easier, but if you have not rigged a ship like this before how do you plan ahead?

 

Anyway I have started with the help of "Rigging Period ships Models by Lennarth Petersson" which does have three-dimensional drawings, which help interpret the plan type line drawings; I will try and point out where I have had to backtrack if it happens (as I am sure it will).

 

I decided to start with the Mizzen mast and I added both the halyards and the yard lifts, to each, yard starting at the bottom and working up the mast.

 

I will leave the gaff driver and boom till later so I do not catch them when moving the model around as access to the stern later should not be a problem, with the mizzen done I shall repeat the process on the main and fore masts.

[Ray]

 

Part one

 

My first backtrack has been on the halyard blocks on the main mast the same will apply on the fore mast the plan just shows a 5mm single block times two with no !!!! I removed the blocks and re-tied them they could have been changed once the yard had been fixed but with more difficulty.

 

Part two

 

The halyards and yard lifts completed on the main mast.

[Ray]

All three masts with yards lifts and halyards

[Ray]

Tack Toggles

Firstly I though shall I bother making /adding the toggles as a straight through cord would be much easier, but I decided to make them all. The were made up as in the attached photos with a longish length as per the plan soaked in cyano and allowed to harden. I also decided to make loops and toggles not just pass a bit of stiff cord through a knot, a bit more work but worth the effort.

[Ray]

All the halyards and yard lifts completed. Next job all the rigging on plan 12 the top part first, using the tack toggles that I have practiced making, in the last post.

[rdsaplala]

Splendid rigging and detail-work Ray, she's a real beauty

[Ray]

Additional ships boat a 19ft longboat

 

I bought of e-bay a pair of cast ships boats for a very small amount and decided to give Pegasus an extra boat, which according to “The boats of Men of War” she most likely carried. I turned the cast boat into a 19ft ish longboat by adding ribs, and floor boarding, and seats, spacing them to allow barrels to be carried, I will add some oars and I might still add a rudder. I painted the boat to match Pegasus and will rig the boat to hang above the pinnace; it’s been a nice little diversion from the rigging (there is a lot of it). 

[Ray]

Rigging update

 

I added all the rigging as on the top part of plan 12 leaving of, the main sheet tacks and braces for the moment, terminating in belaying points 68,69,72,67,71 and 66 not sure of all the correct names for these points so the numbers may help, this will help to give access to the middle of the hull and the lower main and fore yard rigging. It is all now starting to get a bit congested! This is I suppose actual planning a head, hopefully leaving room to add the bowline rigging (the lower part of plan 12).

 

To summarise so far.

 

It has not been as quite as difficult as I thought it would be, although the more that gets added the less room there is, and the more times you have to try more routes to avoid crossing other ropes or interfering with them. One wish I do have is that my fingers were a bit more nimble, longer and thinner!

[Ray]

Small boat update before and after and the boat kitted out with oars boat hook and rope

[Ray]

Pegasus 26ft Pinnace

 

The pinnace was fitted out in the same way as the longboat, and I think makes up into a very nice model, now it back to the rigging as on plan 13.

[Ray]

Both ships boats fitted out back to the rigging

[Ray]

Bowline rigging

All the bowline rigging as on plan 12 (bottom half) has been added minus the rigging on the main and fore mast lower yard, to continue leaving access to the middle of the deck and belaying points, again no real problems were encountered other than that the congestion keeps increasing. One thing to be aware of, is that I found it best to add both the port and starboard rope runs at the same time, so they can be tensioned and tied off together that way they have the same tension both sides, I did have to re-tie or re-tension a few previously rigged runs at this point.

 

I next, very nearly added all the rigging that I had left off for access, but a good job I did not for, whilst having a rigging break making up the ships boats I also making up some rope coils and hanks, and I decided to offer up a few of these to see how they looked, and it soon became apparent that they needed to be added next while there was still access, so that will be the next job.

[Ray]

Rope coils

Three types of coiled rope were needed to be simulated at the end of rope runs the first set of photos shows them in hanks larger coils tied in the centre, I saw a similar jig somewhere so its not all my idear the photos explain how its done, after the cord is wrapped around the pegs it was washed in diluted pva and left to dry before the top peg was removed and the centre tied off.

 

Rope coils two

 

The second coils type to be laid flat on a deck were as per the photo just coiled round on a length of tape and PVA washed, the third type as the photos were done several sizes using larger or smaller dowel, again PVA washed all were done in batches.

[Ray]

Rigging rope endings belaying points

I have now made and added most of the rope coils, there still might be a few more to add once the rigging is complete, I think they give a fair representation of the rigging endings you cannot add a coil for every rope ending there just is not room, a bit like in a painting you cannot paint every tree in a landscape just enough to look right.