Category: H.M.S. Pegasus

In order to finish the rest of the standing rigging, the upper masts need to be constructed. These are similar to the lower masts, but require a bit more shaping and some complicated details. To add the the challenge, these masts (especially the Top Gallants) can get very small in diameter at this scale. As always, some accommodations need to be made to adjust for parts this small and delicate. You may recall a previous Ship’s Boat post, I took the opportunity to practice making two of the upper masts. This gave me the chance to use my previous plans, along with this schematic from The Fully Framed Model (TFFM) of all the necessary masts, yards, and spars. The schematic is scaled to 1/64 so I can use it as a direct reference when measuring and shaping the masts and yards.

One point of learning for me – as we all know, I’ve been following several Swan class ships from other builders, some of which have three t’gallant masts. However, other Pegasus builds and swan builds only have two t’gallant masts with the mizzen only having a top mast.  My reference schematic from TFFM have three laid out. It took me a while to find the addendum note in TFFM that explains the third t’gallant mast on Swan class ships didn’t occur until the 1790’s.  So my 1776 version will only have two. After a couple of minor adjustments were made to my “practice” mast notes and diagrams and a fair amount of math was done then I hit the lathe.  For the Fore and Main top masts I decided to go with a larger diameter round mast and square off the bottom and shape rather than start with a square.  This is done for a couple of reasons – but mostly because I have a limited supply of lumber, and a VERY limited supply of the harder woods such as boxwood, etc.  So I am using the dowels that come with the kit – good quality, but definitely softer.

As you can see above (and remembering my practice run), the top masts are broken down into several sections starting with an octagonal section, squaring off where the fids are located, moving into octagonal again, then rounding and tapering toward the top. Another octagonal section will house the upper crosstrees and trestles, then taper round again.  Making these sections is quite difficult in my opinion.  After trying various cutting and sanding techniques, I ended up using my new mini Veritas chisels to create the octagonal sections.  Even so – because of the softness of the wood – I’m going to call these “octagonal-esque.”  The silver lining as this will all be painted black and so my lack of precision will be obscured a bit.

All all of the top masts and t’gallant masts contain a number of sheaves.  Sheaves at this scale are really, really difficult to pull off.  I can still manage to construct the lower sheaves for the top masts in the way that I did those on the hull and bulwarks, but all the smaller sheaves are simulated by drilling a couple holes and carving out a ‘sheave like’ notch between the two holes.  For the ‘real’ sheaves, I drill out the holes and patiently adjust a slot with my smallest pin file. The sheave itself is a cut off piece of round brass rod notched, sanded down, and slid into the slot.

The top masts are fitted to the bottom masts using mast caps, a square piece of lumber with a square hole and a round hole. The square end sits on the lower mast head and the round end fits over the upper mast. The bottom of the upper mast rests between the trestle trees and cross trees and is held in place with a “fid” – a small strip of metal that runs through a hole in the mast. Although I recreated all of the mast caps, I was able to use the trestle trees and cross trees from the kit for the transition between the upper masts and Top Gallant masts (often called ‘t’gallants’).

Each of the upper masts also have cheek blocks on either side of the mast head to allow for the running rigging along the masts. Each cheek block is made up of two sheaves and each of the fore and main mast heads have the pair of cheek blocks. They are so small that they definitely need to be made from boxwood, as nothing else I have will lend itself to this level of sanding and shaping. First, I took a 1 mm by 2mm strip of boxwood and put it on my Byrnes saw with a slightly thicker black adjusted all the way to do some milling. I cut a couple of notches in the strip, then sliced off 1.5 mm strips to create the cheek blocks. The sheaves are made from thicker pins / nails cut off at 2.5mm lengths. Holes are drilled in the sides of the cheeks and the sheaves are slid into the holes.  I did mount these sheaves a little lower in the cheek block slots instead of the center to make sure I have enough room to feed a line when it becomes necessary.

Although the t’gallant masts are a bit less complicated to craft in terms of shape, they are QUITE small in terms of diameter at this scale and very, very delicate. Once again, this is where I wish I had more boxwood with which to work.  I did however start out with square strips of lumber with these, as rounding our a square piece on the lathe is often easier than squaring off a round piece as I did with the upper masts.

All of the fids are made from a brass strip shaped on my belt sander. Typically each fid also has a hole on one end, however I only drilled holes in the two larger fids, as the smaller ones are just too small to accommodate holes that no one is ever likely to see. With all the masts (except the Jib boom) constructed, they are painted. 

Although test fitted here, only the upper masts will be mounted first to allow for the upper shrouds, ratlines and stays to be rigged. The upper masts are slid into place and secured with the fids.

The final lower mast is the jib boom which extends out over the bowsprit. I have waited this long to make and mount the jib boom because it is always easy to snag and snap off during the rest of the ship build. The moment the jib boom is mounted, the amount of personal care and attention that needs to be paid during the build increases exponentially. The crafting of the jib boom itself is pretty straight forward, though a little delicate at 2mm toward the tip.  I started with a 4mm diameter dowel and shaved an octagon into the base as I’d done with the other masts.  This time however, I documented a little closer how I do it.  I mark the dowel and put it in the vise, then I cut the mark with a razor to prevent myself from shaving off too much wood. Then I use the mini chisel to shave a sliver at a time until I get the flat portion I need.  I rotate the dowel to do four opposite sides, then shave off the remaining corners to create the octagon.  Finally, I touch it up with the hand held miniature sander.

The dowel is made of walnut, which is pretty soft, so this still comes out as “octagon-esque” and not as clean as it would with boxwood or something similar – but not terrible in my estimation.  After the chiseling it goes into the lathe for shaping and sizing. The shoulder is cut and shaped on the outboard end. Once removed from the lathe the two sheaves are simulated (one at the base the other near the shoulder) with two holes drilled and a notch cut between the holes. Finally, it’s given a couple coats of paint and wipe on polyurethane.

The boom is dry fit into place to check the fit, looks, etc. But once again, I won’t be mounting and rigging it until absolutely necessary as the jibboom remains the number one snagging hazard on the ship during the rest of the build.

As the lower standing rigging continues, the ship really starts to take shape. It’s always a little bit of a challenge to add the standing rigging in a way that maintains a certain level of tension and stability without pulling things out of shape. As each portion is added – whether fore, aft, starboard, or port – the corresponding lines have to even out their counterpart to maintain the ship’s overall symmetry. In addition, the lines have to correspond to the ship’s rake, bowlines, and overall shape to look even and correct.

Futtock Shrouds

The futtock shrouds were pretty straightforward – particularly compared to the catharpins. The futtock shrouds extend down from the mast tops to the lower shrouds connecting them for stability, but also allowing a way for sailors to reach the mast tops as they ascend the ratlines. The futtocks themselves attach to the deadeye/futtock plates via a hook seized to a line. The bottom of the futtock loops over the futtock stave then seizes to the shroud.

Technically, the upper deadeyes are supposed to be a bit smaller than the smaller of the lower deadeyes – and the upper mizzen deadeyes smaller yet. However, I have a pretty large supply of 3mm deadeyes and the look is comparable in my opinion. So only using 3mm deadeyes and having them all the same size is a compromise I’m willing to make.  I did however, make the futtock plates on the mizzen noticeably shorter by comparison.

After the deadeyes are all loaded up, I selected my hooks.  Instead of the supplied hooks – which unlike the deadeyes are clearly too large, I went with my leftover hooks from rigging the cannon.  I’m pretty sure they’re from Syren Ship Company, but I have such a random supply of fittings at this point, I have a difficult time remembering from where my blocks, deadeyes, or hooks etc, all come. At any rate, I did have to widen the holes on these hooks to accept the lines, and definitely broke a few and sent a few flying across the room while doing it.  The  futtock shrouds for the fore and main are .57mm diameter at scale; I’ll be using .50.  And the Mizzen shrouds are .44mm; I’m using .40mm. The rather small plastic hooks were expanded just enough to accommodate those size ropes.

To attach the lines – I first measured the approximate length that I would need – about 50 mm for the fore and mains and 40 mm for the mizzen.  Then I seized them all the to the hooks first.  I attached the hook to the futtock plate, looped it over the stave then seized it to the shroud.  Keeping the line taught while seizing – but not so much that it pulled on the rest of the rigging – was accomplished with a very tiny dab of CA glue right where the upper seizing would ultimately cover it up. I also alternated from port to starboard with each shroud to keep the rigging balanced as I went along.

Ratlines

The ratlines are likely the most recognizable and ‘famous’ bits of standing rigging on historic tall ships. They are of course the rope ‘ladders’ that sailors use to scurry about the ship and accomplish the rigging needs of the ship. There is however quite a debate regarding the color of the ratlines on ships. Most folks have likely always seen the ratlines as dark or black – mirroring the darker tarred standing rigging. However, the most accurate representations show the ratlines as tan, not tarred. That’s because the ratlines were most likely adjusted pretty frequently, but it was also not feasible for sailers – who were nearly always barefoot – to be running up and down tarred rigging. This representation is clear with ships like the HMS Victory at the Maritime Museum in Portsmouth, England. The Victory, Admiral Nelson’s flagship and the oldest still commissioned ship in the world, is a clear reference of ships of the era.

Another clear example is the Walrus the fictional ship in the television series Black Sails. Although not a real historic ship and was in service at least 75 or so years prior to the Pegasus, the producers of the show went to great lengths to ensure accuracy.

However, on the other side of the coin, most of the master ship builders I’ve seen and followed still go with a darker set of rat lines because at a smaller scale there is just too much of a contrast between the two parts of the rigging and it looks funky. This left me with a significant decision to make. After going back and forth and literally losing sleep over it, I settled on the darker ratlines. I think there will be plenty of contrast between the running and standing rigging, and adding lighter ratlines to the mix might just be too much. So this is another case where I’ll be sacrificing some level accuracy for aesthetics.

The ratlines themselves are made from line just over .10mm – which is as small a line as I can make spinning three strands Gutermann Mara 150 – the smallest thread they manufacture. The distance between ratlines is listed as between 13″ and 15″ – I’m going with the smaller end of that which is a distance of 5mm at 1/64 scale. I pulled out some old school graph paper with 5mm distanced squares and cut that to the shape of the shrouds and angled the bottom the lines are parallel to the ships lines. The graph paper is taped to the shrouds to keep it still as it serves as a template for the lines. The ratlines are tied across the shrouds using a basic clove hitch. After the first few lines from the top are secured I used my scaled sized seaman to test the distance and placement.

When tying off ratlines, there can be a tendency to over tighten the lines which causes the shrouds to get squeezed and alter the overall triangular shape. To avoid that, it’s good practice to tie off every third of fourth ratline, then go back and fill in the gaps. Each knot is touched with diluted PVA (white glue) and left to dry overnight before the ends are trimmed.

It is quite important (especially at this scale) to let the diluted PVA dry completely before you try and trim the edges otherwise the knots will unravel and you’ll have to redo some lines.

After the end knots dry, I use a brand new blade on my scalpel, hold the end of the rope as tightly as I can with my smallest tweezers, then gently cut the rope as close to the knot as possible with a slow back and forth sawing motion using only the weight of the scalpel. Trying to “slice” the rope does not work here and results in pulling and fraying.

There are a couple of small but very important differences between the mizzen ratlines and those of the main and fore masts. Predominantly, the first six lines on the top and bottom of both the main and fore shrouds skip the foremost and aftmost shrouds.

Otherwise the process is the same as the mizzen – once again skipping every few lines to prevent the shrouds from squeezing together or skewing.  I used a long ruler to make sure  my graph paper was positioned properly to the match the lines of the ship and remain consistent with the other ratlines. Obviously it would be eminently noticeable if the ratlines all had their own angles.

This is also one of those places where it really does make a difference when you use higher quality lines – another benefit of making my own.  The polyester fibers do have a tendency to slip a tiny bit, so going through and adjusting the clove hitches across each ratline is paramount to maintaining some semblance of evenness throughout the rigging. I have some a bit more slack than others, but overall I’m pleased with the end result. This is one of those (many) parts of the build when patience really does pay off.

There are 784 total clove hitches making up the lower ratlines – including those on the futtock shrouds.

Shroud Cleats

Another often overlooked element of a truly accurate build are the shroud cleats. Many projects and builds opt for the much easier “belaying pin” which were in fact prevalent on many tall ships. However, some British ships in particular belayed rigging lines on cleats and railings. To create the shroud cleats I started with a 4mm x 10mm strip of a hard wood that I repurposed from an old cheese block we got as part of a gift basket. I often save random pieces of wood never knowing when they will be needed. Optimally, I would use English boxwood for this purpose, but it’s quite expensive and I don’t have any extra lying around.

Basically, the process involves mass producing the cleats by forming the shape using the strip, and then slicing them off. It’s a delicate process using a couple of different sizes of blades on my miniature table saw. First, a thick blade is used to notch the grooves on the side (deeper) and one on the top (shallow). The top is then shaped with a round sanding block, then a smaller diameter pin file. The grooves are shaped using a folded piece of sandpaper. Additional varying degrees of sanding shape the strip before a thinner blade is put back on the saw to cut the strip into 2mm wide cleats. My strip was long enough to produce more cleats than I need knowing that at least a few will be broken or lost during the process.

The individual cleats are then subjected to even more delicate sanding to round out the edges.  More are lost to this process as well regardless of how gently I apply 600 – 1000 grit sand paper. Each survivor is then dipped into water based wipe on polyurethane to provide a modicum of strength for later rigging then left to dry.  

After they dry, the final products are seized to the shroud. First, a tiny drop of CA glue is used to hold them in place against the shroud then they’re seized using Mara 100 thread. I ended up with 28 or so workable cleats, which should be a couple more than I need.  I actually had a pretty difficult time determining exactly how many I’d need. After scouring the Fully Framed Model images I have, as well as some Swan class ships from other builders, I finally came up with a total of 26 – though it appears not all of them are rigged when all is said and done.  Here’s my list (applies to both port and starboard sides): Two each side (port and starboard) on the Fore and Main Topmast shrouds, one each side on the mizzen top mast shrouds. Three each side on the Fore and Main lower shrouds, one on the aftmost Mizzen lower.

Euphroes & Crow’s Feet

One of the last elements of the lower standing rigging is the crow’s feet. These are a series of several very small lines that extend from the mast tops to the main and fore preventer stays. The goal of these lines is additional stabilization to the masts and the rigging under heavy strain. The crow’s feet themselves extend down to a uniquely shaped and lengthy block called “euphroes.” The euphroes have holes corresponding with the number of crow’s feet. The line begins on the top end of the euphroes seized to an eyebolt, extends up through a series of holes on the front of the mast top, loops back down through the holes on the euphroes, then back up to the mast top. The bottom of the euphroes are seized to the preventer stays using a two block method that allows for additional flexibility and adjusting. The real challenge to this set up is being able to adjust all these lines to create a proper amount of tension without distorting the lay of the preventer stays.

All of this is compounded by the very small size of all these parts at 1/64 scale. The fore and main are supposed to be just over 6mm at scale with the mizzen at a little less than 5mm.  I quickly determined that I wasn’t going to be able to do that and get the holes I needed drilled, so instead I went about creating the euphroes the other way around. Boxwood is a must for these parts as they are very small and delicate.  I drilled the smallest diameter holes I could get, as close as feasible, and let the overall length of the euphroes determine themselves. Six holes for the mizzen, 10 holes for the fore and main. The mizzen ended up at about 7mm long, and the fore and main at about 10mm long.

The shaped and drilled euphroes are fitted with a seized eye loop on one end and a 4″ single block and eye loop on the other. The edges were cut using my thinnest pin file to make room for the serving. The eye is served first then the euphroe wrapped, then the 3mm block, then another eye.  The block-end of the euphroes are seized to the preventer stays for each mast. I started with the idea of serving it by feeding a line through the stay and wrapping it. This is how I did the mizzen.  But this ended up not being the best method as it did not allow for shifting this rigging around to adjust the tension. Although I went with this on the Mizzen, I changed it up for the other two masts.

It was very challenging to get the tension correct without distorting the stays. If you tighten the crow’s feet too much, it pulls on the stay until it is out of place. If you keep too much tension on the stay, when you loosen it, all the crows feet relax and are askew. I hung a clip off of the stay to keep it reasonably taught for the mizzen until I could rove all the crows through. Which, in itself, is not an easy task without snagging just about every fitting on the ship.

Finally getting a balance took several tries and much adjusting.  What I decided to do with the other masts, was to keep every seizing and knot loose until the crow’s feet were roved through – then I could tighten the blocks and each component individually until tension was maintain and the stays were not distorted.  Once again, using a clip to loosely hang off the stay was helpful, but being able to adjust the block that is seized along the stay was most beneficial. Using this method worked a bit better and I was able to get a decent result on all three crow’s feet.

Part of the fun of rigging an 18th century ship (in my opinion) is learning and relearning all the interesting words and definitions. One can’t help but look at the evolving complexity over the course of a few hundred years and marvel and the engineering. I think it can be argued that the late 1700s was the height (no pun intended) of the era of the tall ships. This was just prior to the prominence of the steam power sailing vessels in the early 1800s. The British Navy in particular had honed the rigging to a fine art giving them the ability to maneuver these large vessels in amazing ways.

Jeer Tyes

The Jeer Tyes are a set of larg(er) blocks that extend down from the mast heads and allow for the hoisting and lowering of the lower yards (the main crossmembers that hold the largest of the ship’s sails). I’m adding these jeers now before I permanently affix the mast tops so I have more room to maneuver the rigging. They are comprised of 20″ single blocks (about 8mm at scale) double stropped with 7″ (.88mm) line and lashed to the masthead with seven wraps of 3″ (.38mm) line through two closed cleats.  My .85mm line looked a little bulky around the block, so I used .75mm instead which I liked better visually. 

The cleats that hold the lashings in place against the mast tops took me two iterations.  The first attempt was with boxwood, and I tried to give them some nice shape and a little finesse with some sanding and they just ended up looking like they were cut out of wood by a third grader with a dull pair of scissors.  So I tried again with some dense scraps of an unknown wood that used to be a pen case, and I simplified them to just rectangular closed cleats. Helpful that they’ll eventually be painted black. Notice that I made an extra knowing at least one would either break or go sailing across the room.

The double strop is made from a 90mm length of line turned into a closed loop by securing the ends together, then folded around the block creating a 45 mm long strop.  I closed the loop by feeding a needle and mara 100 thread through the two ends and seizing it at the base of the eye. An eye is seized at the other end, then both strops are looped over the block and seized once again.

The jeers are lashed to the mast through the cleats and the eyes with the aforementioned .40mm rope, while being careful to lay the rope as cleanly as possible around the masthead. It’s not shown here, but I used a small clamp attached to the block to give it a little weight and tension while feeding the line through the cleats. The strops should hang down just long enough that the yard will sit at the level of the futtock shrouds when they are rigged later.

Futtock Staves

The futtock staves were tarred, hardened, and served lines that are seized to the shrouds to stabilize them as other rigging and tensions pull at the shrouds. They also set the foundation for the futtock shrouds which extend down from the futtock plates (attached to the bottom of the mast top deadeyes) to the shrouds. The futtock staves are fitted the same distance below the mast tops as the mast head rises above it. The scale for these lines is .5mm, however I am skeptical of having just a served line. I’ve seen quit a few folks serve something more firm like a strip of bamboo or wire to create something more rigid to withstand the pull of other rigging.  I’m taking this tactic as well, and for my futtock staves I’m opting to go with serving a straight pin, as they are just under 1mm. A smidge bulky, but still looks goo to my eye.  The serve the pin, I loaded it into my Dremel, started with a tiny touch of CA to hold the Mara 100 line in place, then I rotated the Dremel by hand to serve the line. 

The plans for the Pegasus as well as the images I have from The Fully Framed Model show the staves attached to the outside of the shrouds. However, as I understand it, most British ships had them on the inside of the shrouds. Also, the other builds that I follow for reference have them on the inside – so this is the option I’ll be going with. I measured the distance and lined up the staves, then used another tiny dot of CA on a couple of shrouds to hold it in place while I seized it to the shrouds. I cut off the ends of the pins with wire cutters, sanded a tiny bit, then touched the metal ends with a dark sharpie to match the serving line, etc. 

I was having a very difficult time matching the port and starboard futtock staves exactly and getting both sides absolutely level. As one might imagine, if both sides are not perfectly symmetrical, it’ll be very, very noticeable when the futtock shrouds are added. I finally stumbled on this idea – putting a small piece of timber across the staves to create a ‘level’ until I could place the opposite stave. 

Catharpins

The catharpins are served lines that hold the shrouds together neatly underneath the mast tops at the futtock staves. This is necessary for a couple of reasons. First, there will end up being a lot of rigging tugging at the masts and shrouds in this part of the ship and these lines will strengthen that area quite a bit. Second, the next step will be the futtock shrouds that will extend down from the mast top deadeyes and deadeye chains to the shrouds to provide additional ratlines as well as stabilize the top masts. As these areas are responsible for stabilizing the entire upper rigging of the ship, it’s very important that they have a strong foundation – provided in part by the catharpins.

The lines themselves are a very tricky lot to get right. Each one has to be measured perfectly to link the shrouds under the mast tops, but that measurement is quite difficult to maintain when making the eye splices on the ends. I started by serving a .45mm diameter rope for the length that I would need to make all eight of the catharpins.  Then, for each one I would start with an eye loop, remeasure the distance using a small piece of timber placed against the shrouds, then cut the other end of the catharpin a quarter inch long, unwind the served rope, then feed that serving thread through the line itself to create the splice, then wrap the thread to finish it. I had at least three than despite every effort ended up being just off enough to not work out.  To get the catharpin attached to the shroud, I started by attaching one end at the bottom of the shroud, then feed the guy up to the futtock stave, pinch the other end to the opposite shroud, and then tie both sides off using a needle to feed the seizing through the eyeloop and around the shroud. It took about an hour for each catharpin start to finish.  

It took about an hour to create and attach each catharpin, so a couple of tedious days to get all eight attached to the fore and main set of shrouds. A couple of them look just a smidge loose in the images below (fore mast is left, main is right), but those will tighten up when the futtock shrouds are attached and pull the tension in the opposite direction.

The mast tops are the elevated platforms above each mast at the mast cap and provide space for lookouts, assist in navigation, and to access upper parts of a ship’s rigging. Many folks may have heard mast tops (especially those highest on the ship) referred to as the “crow’s nest.” The mast tops for the Pegasus are planked wood structures with railings on one end and able to fit nicely over the mastheads and shroud rigging. Mast tops also provide room for additional rigging including a number of blocks and collars that serve as an intersection for much of the standing and especially running rigging. Many contemporary models provide for a ‘scaled down’ version of this rigging because it becomes quite complicated quite quickly. My goal – as with the rest of this build – is to provide as much accuracy as possible within the confines of the small scale.

The kit provides a very basic version of the mast top that has been simplified for most modelers. It isn’t quite accurate in a few ways, but serves as a good starting point upon which to build mast tops that are more accurate and pleasing. The first thing we notice is that the center square opening contains an addition notch in it. David Antscherl’s The Fully Framed Model suggests that this notch began in about 1775 and allows for lower yard slings to pass through the mast top more easily. However, according to James Lees The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War, 1625-1860, this practice didn’t begin until 1802. Lees says up until that time, two additional holes were cut on either side of the center near the front of the mast top to accommodate these slings. While I’ve been leaning toward the TFFM for most of this build, I’m not keen on how much I can see the cross trees through the notch, so I’ll going to square it off.

Step one is to plank the base of the mast tops. For this I’m using .6mm x 3mm planks that were originally intended for the deck; which we’ll remember I replaced with pear strips. This planking squares off the aforementioned notch. After some light sanding I cut/sanded out room around the perimeter to attach the rim. The overall mast top is much too thick and out of scale at this point, so I sand the entire thing down both top and bottom. The photo below shows the difference in thickness between the sanded down mizzen top and the un-sanded fore top.

I’ve also run into another small problem – the mizzen top mast is a bit too small for the cross trees and trestle trees that I’ve already installed on the mast. This isn’t a huge challenge, I’ll just need to sand them down a bit – however, I don’t want all that sawdust to get on the ship. To help with that, I put a masking tape “bib” on the mast to catch my shavings as I sand it down.

Another aspect of the mast tops on predominantly English ships of the era were crow’s feet. The crow’s feet were an assemblage of small cords extending from the front of the mast top to the through the “euphroes” and then attach to the main stay to extend the awnings and keep the foot of the top sail from striking under the tops or other areas of rigging. The crow’s feet run through a series of small holes on the rim of the mast top – the number of holes depend upon the size of the mast top. There are some different accounts of the number of crow’s feet depending on which publication reference. While I took these into account, I ultimately went my own path here and decided on a number of holes based on visual aesthetics and measurements. I decided that using .10mm line and drilling the smallest hole that would accommodate that line meant spacing each hole about 2.5mm apart.  Given that spacing – I ended up with 13 mizzen holes and 21 holes for both the main and foremasts.  I measured out these holes along with the locations of the small timber support battens, the holes for the deadeyes and futtocks shrouds, as well as the holes for the blocks mounted under the mast top.

The crows feet holes were started with a dental pick before being drilled out. The little indentation provides a seat for the drill bit when the drill press is lowered and keeps the bit from sliding and missing the location at the start of the drilling process. I have a lovely set of MA Ford twisted drill bits that work brilliantly, avoid slipping, and give me very clean holes at very small diameters.  The #74 bit is about .5 mm, which gives me a smooth feed of the line. 

After all the crow’s feet holes are drilled, the support battens are added using .6mm x 2mm strips. The block mounting holes and holes for the aforementioned holes for the slings are added before they are all painted black to match the mast head.

As mentioned above, the mast tops not only serve as a lookout and stable platform for sailors to reach upper rigging, but they also serve as a focal point for much of that rigging. There is a significant number of blocks and tackle that attach or go through the tops. A series of 12 double blocks beneath each of the main and fore mast tops handle brace lines, bunt lines, and leech lines (all of which will be explained later). There are some variations to the number and sizes of these blocks, but as with much of this build, I’m predominantly following the guidance in The Fully Framed Model by David Antscherl while referencing others. Technically, these sets of blocks under the tops are also slightly different sizes – from 8″ on the outer blocks to 6″ inches on the inner blocks – however this differences ends up being pretty inconsequential at this scale, so I’m using 3mm blocks throughout. I did however pre-drill the holes in the blocks to be slightly larger to ease the rigging and accommodate larger lines if necessary.

Most model instructions and model builders themselves typically mount these blocks to the bottoms of the mast tops by using eye bolts. This is bar far the easiest method and thus the most common. However, in reality these blocks were mounted using small wooden pegs to hold a loop in place after it’s been inserted into the mast top. This is what I’ll be doing to add a nice touch of realism. However, since these blocks are all under the tops and will be very difficult to see once the rigging is complete, I am taking a couple of other shortcuts that will hopefully be unnoticeable to most people.

First, to simulate ‘seizing’ of the strop around the block I used a simple overhand knot rather than a full wrapping. Second, I secured the bottom of the strop by just overlapping and adding a touch of CA glue. I pre-stropped all 24 needed blocks before moving on to mounting them. I wasn’t quite as consistent as I would have liked getting all the eye loops exactly the same size, but came as close as I could.

The small peg that holds the block to the mast top was quite small at this scale and very fiddly to make. I started by sanding down a bamboo toothpick to as narrow a diameter as I could get. Bamboo toothpicks are very good to have on hand as they are firm enough to be cut down for a variety of uses. I ended up getting it down to just under 1mm before it would just shatter or fall apart.

I used a fishing line to feed the eye loop at the top of the block through the hole in the mast top, then insert the peg – a 1.5mm sliver cut off the end of the shaved down bamboo shaft. A touch of white glue is used to hold it in place.

Once all 12 blocks are mounted, the mast top is test fitted on the mast to ensure that none of the blocks interfere with the cross trees and trestle trees upon with the top sits. If any of the blocks are too close or fitted too tightly, it has the potential to foul the future rigging.

The final step for the mast top are the stanchions and railings. Each mast top features one railing on the aft side of the top. I wanted these railings to match those on the main part of the ship, so I am again using brass tubing and a walnut strip. The stanchions are three parts – the main post is a 1mm brass tube cut to 15mm with each end sanded to a point to facilitate my later placement and soldering.  The bottom of the stanchion is 2mm tubing cut to 5mm and the top is 2mm tubing cut to 3mm (missed taking a shot of these).  The bottoms and tops are slid over the top of the pointy ends of the middle and silver soldered into place.

The stanchions are sanded and blackened. The blackening process is laid out in my previous section regarding the Swivel Guns. I bored out recesses in the mast tops and the under side of the railings to fit the stanchions then assembled them. The last step is a thin coat of tung oil on the railing. The first mate let’s me know that the sizing and scaling are pretty close to what I’m looking for.

The first step in the accomplishing the standing rigging among the main portion of the ship is “stepping the masts” or rigging them into their proper place. This is generally the most visible portion of the rigging and where most people’s eyes are first drawn when they look at a model, so it is vitally important to get it as accurate and clean as possible.

The lower standing rigging is made up of a series of shrouds that run from the mastheads to the deadeyes along the the sides of the ship and hold the masts in place in the athwartships direction. The shrouds end in ‘lanyards’, or series of looped ropes lashing the deadeyes together, provide flexibility for the masts to shift in place during sailing. The shrouds are obviously very stout and high tension lines. Another thick, sturdy set of standing rigging lines called ‘stays’ connect the masts to one another and the ship along the centerline fore and aft and also stabilize the masts.

This ship is generally rigged from aft to fore starting with the mizzen as it creates easier access as the other masts are rigged. Once the mainmast shrouds are fitted it makes rigging the mizzen forestay much more difficult.

Mizzen Shrouds

The mizzen shrouds on a ship this size are 4.5″ circular and are served for about the first 6′ from the masthead. At 1/64 scale, this equates to a.57 mm diameter line served for about 2″ down from the masthead. First, I measured my line and marked where they’d be served, then I used a .60mm line served with Mara 120 and did all the serving in advance.  The shrouds are wrapped around the masthead and seized on top of the burton pendants two at a time alternating between port and starboard.

One of the most difficult parts of this process is creating consistency where the shrouds attach to the deadeyes. Oftentimes you will see varying distances of the lanyards that lash the deadeyes together. While it’s not the end of the world – I think that it is more noticeable (in a good way) when all the lanyards are virtually the exact length along deadeyes. That lanyard distance is dictated by the size the of deadeye – i.e. the smaller deadeyes have shorter lanyards and the larger deadeyes have slightly longer lanyards. In order to create consistency, I manufactured a couple of metal spacing jigs using straight pins. I measured my needed lanyard distances, bent the straight pins to the right length, sanded down the points, and then attached a small ‘handle’ with silver solder.

These spacers allowed me to measure the bottom of the shroud and keep it place with a touch of CA before seizing it to the upper deadeye. The lanyards themselves are 2.5″ circular which works out to a .30mm diameter line at scale. I did have to slightly bore out the holes of my smaller deadeyes to accept the lanyard. As mentioned above, the lanyards allow for flexibility and therefore are not tarred like the standing rigging lines. As such, they are a natural tan color and not dark.

Like anything – the lanyards are fed through the deadeyes in a very specific way. Starting with the foremost hole, they’re fed through the rear of the top deadeye looping alternately through each hole until they are seized along the bottom of the shroud.

My process toward getting consistency with the length of lanyard is to feed it through the deadeye, tie off the knot from the initial feed as shown above, and leave the other end loose until I can tighten the lanyard to the proper tension / distance and lash it off to the shroud. Then I go back and seize the excess length of shroud in two additional places.

It may seem obvious, but it is vital that the lengths of the shrouds are consistent on both the port and starboard sides of the ship to ensure that the mast is perfectly vertical and not listing to one side or the other.

Mizzen Stay

As mentioned above, the stays are standing rigging lines that run from aft to bow along the centerline of the ship. The mizzen stay runs from the masthead – looped over the shrouds – down to the mainmast about 7′ above the deck. As with other standing rigging, the stay ends in a closed heart block and is lashed to another closed heart block before it is finally lashed to the mast itself. Like the deadeye lanyards, these lashings provide some flexibility with the masts as the ship adjusts to wind and seas.

The Mizzen stay gets rigged prior to the mainmast shrouds ensuring that I have proper access to the mainmast – particularly regarding the collars which I find to be a little fiddly anyway. Starting with said collar – the Mizzen stay is 5.5″ circular on a ship this size, so I’m .60mm line served with Mara 120 for the strop that makes up the collar and .75mm diameter rope for the Mizzen stay itself. The collar is pretty straightforward and is seized the same as the bowsprit collars on previous posts. The hearts are closed and for these I’m going with Chuck’s Passaro’s product from Syren Ship Model Company – easy to put together and work with – including filing an indentation around the edge within which the strop will fit. The lashing is .15mm tan line for mostly aesthetic reasons – it’s the smallest rope that I have that still retains some “visual to the naked eye” detail.

The stays themselves have a “mouse” near the masthead. The mouse is essentially a woven bulk of line that allows for adjustments to the stay. It’s basically a ‘stopper’ for the line after it is wrapped around the masthead. The challenge with a mouse is getting the proper texture so that it looks ‘woven’ and realistic to the eye. The top portion of the stay is also served to just below the mouse with an eye into which the rest of the stay is inserted.  To get the serving correct, I started by looping the end of the stay then feeding my serving line (mara 120) into the stay via sewing needled.  The eye portion was ‘hand served’ then I was able to load the entire thing into my serving machine to do the rest of the portion that needed it.

To make the mouse, I sanded a dowel then drilled out a hole just big enough to accommodate the served line. I don’t have an exact diameter of the bit that I used because I started with “very small” and then gradually increased bits until the serving line was just barely able to snug its way through.

I’ve seen quite a few different ways to simulate the ‘woven’ texture of the mouse. After quite a bit of noodling through what to do – my option was this bandage. This particular fabric bandage had the look and feel of weaving at the correct scale. The added bonus is that it has adhesive – though I did had a dab of CA to ensure it does not come loose.

The size of the mouse is listed in Steel’s reference book as three times the diameter of the stay, but the bandage added a little bulk – so I did have to scale the mouse down a tad as my original effort was a little big for my taste. Ultimately I just ‘eye-balled’ it until it looked right to me. The mouse is then painted first black, then brown to try and match the color of the stay. Finally, the lower end of the stay is seized to a twin closed heart to the collar and lashed.  One note in the second picture below – although the lashing behind the mast looks much lighter – that’s a trick of the camera where my overhead light was shining – all the lashings are the same color. 

Mainmast Shrouds

The mainmast shrouds are done in an almost identical way as the mizzen shrouds with a couple of key differences. The main shrouds are a larger rigging line – 7″ in circumference, which translates to 1/64 scale as .88 mm diameter, my rope is .85 which of course is an inconsequential visual difference. The second difference is that the foremost shroud for the mainmast (as well as the foremast) is served for its entire length while the remaining shrouds are served for the first 8′ scale feet.  There are eight shrouds which hang over the masthead in pairs (like the mizzen) and extend down to deadeyes that are also larger than those that hold the mizzen shrouds. Otherwise the process is same; measuring the shroud, serving the line, looping and seizing the shrouds at the masthead, then attaching the deadeyes using my handy (slightly larger than the mizzen) spacer.  This time however, I measured each shroud around the mainmast and marked the distance of where I’d need to serve with a touch of white paint. The total length needed to serve is slightly different for each shroud as they each angle shallower as they move from fore to aft. Overall, a slow process which took three days to complete for the mainmast.

Main & Preventer Stays

The mainstay and the preventer stay each extend from the masthead of the main mast toward the bow of the ship with the preventer stay attaching to a collar on the foremast and the main stay attaching to the previously built mainstay collar looped around the bowsprit. As the largest line on the ship, the mainstay is a whopping 10″ circumference translating to 1.26mm at 1/64, or in my case 1.25 – which I had to take the time to spin since I didn’t have that size immediately available.  I created this diameter by spinning four lines of Gutermann Mara 15 thread. 

    After doing a little searching and noodling, I found some evidence of the preventer stay being below the main stay, while most had it slightly above. I went slightly above for a mostly selfish reason – I was able to lash the preventer stay collar right up against the bottom of the cheeks rather than adding a couple of cleats to keep it in place. The closed heart on the preventer stay collar is a 5.5 mm heart and will lash to a twin using .30mm rope lanyard.

The other end of the stay – where it loops over the masthead – is held in place with a mouse just as with the mizzen stay; though this mouse is slightly larger as well. This is also true of the preventer stay. Both should be three times the diameter of their respective stay and both of mine came out larger than they should be, but about as small as I could get them and still be able to work with them. The heart on the mainstay is a twin to the one I made in an earlier post on the bowsprit collar – 5.95mm (6 really) boxwood and the whole thing is lashed with .45mm diameter (3.5″ circular per Steel) tan rope at the lanyard.

The preventer stay mirrors the main with smaller dimensions – the stay itself is 7″ (.88mm diameter) the same as the main shrouds. I measured the mouse as best I could but ended up just ‘eyeballing’ it to get it a bit smaller than the main mouse and still look right. The twin closed 5.5 mm heart is lashed with .30 mm rope. After some measuring, remeasuring, and adjusting the heart placement a couple of times, I still ended up with a bit longer lanyard than I’d like, but acceptable to me. 

Foremast Shrouds

As with the other two masts, the foremast shrouds extend from the masthead down to the deadeyes at the port and starboard sides of the ship near it’s bow. Although the same process is followed as with the other shrouds, these are a bit trickier for a couple of reasons. First, they are very precisely placed to ensure the gaps for the cannon are accurate. After all – what good would a small hand cannon be if all it did was blow off part of the rigging? Second, there is an uneven number of shrouds at the foremast, seven, which means there are three sets of paired shrouds then a single shroud called a “swifter”. The swifter is the aftmost shroud and is the last one looped over the masthead with an eye splice. As with the main mast, the foremost shroud is served it’s entire length while the others are served for the first 6 scaled feet extended from the masthead. The foremast shrouds are 7″ in circumference which scales down to .85 mm.

Fore Stay & Preventer

The fore stay and foremost preventer stay are essentially carbon copies of the main stay and it’s preventer. They key differences being the sizes of the lines and where they are attached at their bottom ends. Both of these stays are lashed via lanyard to the two open hearted collars that were previously attached to the bowsprit.

The Fore stay is listed as 9.5″ circular which becomes 1.2 mm at scale with a closed heart just over 5mm.  Once again I’m using the fine lasercut hearts from Syren. The closed heart at the bottom is 5.5mm and I’m using .45mm line for the lanyard, same as the main stay. The mouse is made the same as the mizzen and main stays and is sized to be three times the diameter of the line.

The preventer stay is a considerably smaller rope listed at 6″ circular which comes out to .75mm at 1:64.  The closed heart is slightly smaller as well at just over 4mm as is the lanyard – I’m using .30 mm rope. As with the other stays, these lines are served at the top where they loop over the masthead and run through the mouse and an eye loop.

So this is where she is after just under 700 hours of labor.

As the standing rigging continues, it moves from the bowsprit to the standing masts. The first step is an often overlooked feature on model ships. The burton pendants were relatively short lines that were wrapped around each of the mastheads hanging down about 8 to 10 feet below the mast tops. Each line is served it’s entire length (to protect it from frequent use) and ends in a circular thimble. The burton pendants were used for heavy lifting in conjunction with other rigging on the yards.

First I wandered around searching through my little drawers and containers to find something that might work for the thimbles at the end of the pendants. What I ended up deciding upon were these little nuts left over from some model or another.  They were an adequate diameter and just needed to be rounded off by slipping them over a toothpick and barely rubbing them against the belt sander.

First, I seized a loop around each of the sanded thimbles. Then, each of the pendants has a splice at the center of the line where it loops over the masthead. Creating this splice is a definitely a little bugger – it needs to be measured perfectly so that each side of the pendant hangs down the same distance.

Once it’s measured, another served line is attached to the first by inserting a needle and feeding a thread through to attach the two. Finally, the other end of the “loop” is seized and the pendants are looped over the mast head. I was using a .50mm line served with Mara 120 (my smallest) thread. It took me several tries to get the seizing correct as sometimes the tiny dab of CA glue created a giant blob of string instead of a nicely wrapped seizing.

The process is repeated for all three masts, however the lines for the main and foremasts are larger, so a .75mm thread is used and served with Mara 70 threat to create pendants that are a total of 1.0 mm in diameter.

I briefly mentioned in an earlier post that a ship’s rigging is broken down into two types – the standing rigging and the running rigging. Just as it sounds, the standing rigging stays in place and holds various masts and permanent fixtures in place, while the running rigging is pulled through blocks and other pulleys to shift yards, spars, sails and anything else that “moves” on the ship. The biggest differentiator between standing the running rigging to the naked eye is the color. While running rigging is tan (the natural color of most ropes) the standing rigging is dark as it was tarred to protect it from the harsh conditions of the sea while it stays in place for long periods of time.

Serving Rigging Lines

Some portions of the standing rigging that needed to withstand even more difficult conditions were also “served” by a smaller rope. Essentially a ‘served’ rope is one size rope wrapped very tightly in a smaller rope to provide an extra layer of protection and then subsequently tarred. This was primarily done with sections of the standing rigging that were likely to rub up against either other rigging or some portion of the ship. Just as I turned my own rope for this project, I’ve also created a little machine (based on others I’ve seen) to serve my own rope as well.

The main rope runs through a hole in the gears and the spool of smaller rope is skewered below it. The smaller rope is attached to the main rope then when the handle is rotated it wraps the smaller rope around the larger. It didn’t take long for me to be rotating this tiny handle a bunch of times before I decided I needed a workaround before I wore out my shoulder. As a result I created a small bit that I could put in my power drill to turn the handle quicker.

Bowsprit Rigging

The bowsprit rigging is the start of the ship’s standing rigging. It is made up of a series of “collars” lashed to the bowsprit and connected to other rigging or other parts of the ship with different sized ‘hearts’ – large blocks that were lashed together to create stability but also allowed for some level of shifting and flexibility. The heart can either be opened at the bottom or closed and the size depends on the type of collar. A total of seven collars make up the bowsprit rigging. Two bobstay collars attach the bowsprit to the head. Two shroud collars attach lines to small hooks against the bow hull. Two larger open hearted collars – the forestay and preventer collars – will later be attached to the masts. Finally, the mainstay collar wraps below the bowsprit through the kneel of the head and attaches to the mainmast.

The inner bobstay collar contains a strop (a served section of rope) that is wrapped around a closed heart lashed to another closed heart that is then stropped to the head. According to David Steel’s 18th century reference, the bobstay lines are 5″ in diameter and the hearts are 6″ at their top. For me, this translates to a .5 mm line served with a thin thread. Instead of starting from scratch on the hearts, I used some boxwood hearts that I have lying around but that are shaped wrong for the time period. I shaved them down and sanded out the middle then filed a groove around the edge to hold the line. I then measured the strop and tied it off to the heart. Each end of the strop has an eye to accept the lashing.

The strop is wrapped around so that it hangs below the bowsprit held in place by small cleats and then is lashed together on the top of the bowsprit. A second heart is then lashed to the first with a strop that extends down to the head into one of two holes just below the figurehead.

Important note: Throughout this build, most of my references are a combination of David Steel’s aforementioned books “The Elements and Practice of Rigging And Seamanship” from 1794, as well as “The Fully Framed Model, HMN Swan Class Sloops 1767 – 1780 Volume III” by Greg Herbert. At one point, I reached out the Greg who generously provided me with computerized 3D illustrations of the book which have been enormously helpful. In this particular set of images, the lashings were dark – indicating that the ropes being used were tarred. However, according to Steel and almost every other reference I came across, the lashings were actually not tarred – and thus would be tan. So, after putting together this first bobstay collar with dark rope, I went back and redid it using tan and rigged the rest of the rigging using tan colored lashings.

Following the inner bobstay collar, the next two pieces of rigging are the bowsprit shrouds. Once again (with each) one heart is collared to the bowsprit while a second is lashed to the first then connected to the hull. The two larger collars on the top of the bowsprit are the mainstay collars which contain open hearts. Once again, hearts are made from boxwood. However, these larger hearts are double wrapped with two strops to withstand the enormous amount of tension created by the lines from the masts.

The last collar is the largest and most complicated of the group. The mainstay collar has a spliced eye on one side, then it’s lashed to a closed heart, then it passes through a hole in the knee of the head, then another spliced eye is looped through the first one. Pretty easy to turn the whole thing into a big lumpy mess if one isn’t careful.   

     Starting with the heart – 15″ according to Steel which translates to 5.95mm at 1/64; we’ll call it 6mm. I actually made this heart (and it’s compliment from the main stay) from some hardwood I had lying around that was part of a pen case. It’s not quite as hard as boxwood but hard enough and has a little bit more color to it. I shaped two ends of a 6mm wide strip then drilled and shaped the holes before cutting them off and rounding off the hard edges and adding a groove for the line.

I do have to point out an oversight. I didn’t look far enough ahead (or at least missed this need) so I ended up having to drill the hole in the knee of the head now, as opposed to before I constructed the bits and finishings of the bow.  Little bit of a pain the rear, and yes I did go back and touch up the spot where I scuffed the yellow paint. Otherwise, the collar is constructed just as described above.

Along with the boomkin rigging (noted in a previous post), that wraps up the standing rigging on the bowsprit. Next we move on the standing rigging of the other three masts.

It may seem obvious at this point – but the Pegasus is a three masted ship. The masts, from bow to stern, are the Foremast, the Mainmast, and the Mizzenmast. The sizes of each are determined by the overall size of the ship. These calculations are laid out in the several times mentioned 18th century books by David Steel. According to Steel, the main mast of a Swan ship would be about 63′ high and about 18″ in diameter. The two other masts are then balanced against that. I won’t go into all the specific measurements here, but I sketched out the 1/64 scaled down version of the masts starting with the main at about 300mm total – some of which would of course be unseen below deck.

Each mast is broken down into several sections. The masthead at the top forms a frame upon which the topmasts will rest and be secured. Next the ‘hounds’ (which are also sometimes called ‘bibs’ form the foundation for the mast tops; the small platforms upon which sailors would stand watch or perform other duties. The mast tops are the more contemporary version of the old school “crow’s nest” of which most folks are familiar. The hounds/bibs make up the top portion of the mast “cheeks” – two long braces on each side of the mast that give it additional strength and stability. The cheeks are nailed in place against the masts but are also held in place with wooldings – hoops and ropes that wrap around the cheeks and masts to once again create additional stability.

So with all that – let’s get on to the building of the masts. I started by size, thus the mizzen at the stern of the ship. Step one is to get the mast in the lathe and taper it just a bit from deck to masthead. There really isn’t much taper to each of the lower masts. Next up, the middle of the masthead is cut down and squared off to mark the location where the cheeks begin and the bibs will be mounted. The rest of this masthead will be filled in again later. The cheeks are added at this point; worth nothing that the mizzen cheeks only extend down a few feet whereas they will extend 2/3 of the way down the other masts.

The bibs are mounted against the top of the cheeks and nailed into place. Two strips are added to fill out the masthead and steel wraps hold them in place. I’ve simulated these steel wraps by using thin strips of electrician’s tape. Additional vertical ‘battens’ are then mounted against those iron hoops to hold them in place. Just below that, the trestletrees (running fore to aft) serve as half of the base for the mast tops. The other half of the base (running port to starboard) is made up of the crosstrees. Small ‘bolsters’ are added to each trestletree where the shroud ropes will wrap around the masthead and extend down to the deadeyes on the sides of the shop. Then the entire top section is painted black.

The wooldings have bands that support the top and bottom of tarred rope wraps. I simulated these hoops by using thin strips of a manilla folder painted brown. The woolding wraps are .45mm hand made rope.

The Foremast and the Mainmast are very similar in process to the mizzen and have all the same elements. As mentioned before, the key difference is that the cheeks run 2/3 of the way down each mast. I am also able to add an additional detail to the longer cheeks – the nails that run up the sides and in between the woolding wraps.

The only distinguishing difference to the main mast is its increased size and the slightly more pronounced roundness of the cheeks.

I mounted all three masts in place (temporarily) to get a view of how the picture comes together and how they size up against one another.

An age of sailing ship’s boats – or ‘life boat’ as most modern folks are probably accustomed to hearing it called – were as varied as the types of vessels and their captains. The shape and size of the small boats varied immensely ranging from shorter round “cutters”, to arrow-like pointed “yawls”, to a more generic “launch”.
For the Peg, I chose to go with the same small boat as was mounted on the USF Confederacy – the long, slender Pinnacle. I felt as though the sleek lines and rounded front fit perfectly with the sleek lines and elegant shape for which the Swan Class ships such as the Pegasus were well known.

That said – before I could build the ship’s boat, I had to create the area where she would rest. The ship’s boat on Swan Class ships rests across the waist (the middle of the ship) on top of two spare top masts. Creating this masts was a great opportunity for me to practice my technique for the fore and main masts to come later.
I used two different types of wood for the fore top mast and the main top mast respectively, and the first one turned out with much to be desired.  It was an extra dowel I had lying around and I’m not even sure what kind of what it is – but it was too dense, very difficult to shape properly.  The second was a basswood dowel which turned out much better. Which gives me a plan for the “real” masts that will come later.  
As others have pointed out, the kit plans for the top masts leave out some detail, so I did some research with David Steele’s 18th century bookson seamanship and rigging and drew out my plan for the top masts. The books provide exact dimension for rigging and masts – all you need to do is a little math to convert to scale.  

Each mast has several sections to it – some square, some octagonal, some round – and Steele’s dimensions lay it all out.
There are a couple of basic methods for creating masts in general, and masts with different squared off areas – you either start with a square piece of timber and round it off, or start with a round dowel and square it off where needed. I am more comfortable doing the latter.

If you start round, you of course have to start with a dowel a bit larger than your final product to accommodate the square and octagonal areas. In all honesty, my first two attempts at these masts are pretty rough under scrutiny – so I was grateful they are painted on British vessels.
Once painted, the spare masts are mounted along the waist atop the gallows and resting on either side of the belfry. After the spare masts were mounted, I went ahead and added all of the 1/2 pound guns and took stock of where she was after 600 hours of work.

With the spare masts are in place, I could start work on the ship’s boat. Since the Pegasus and Confederacy are both 1/64 scale, I was once again able to base my Pinnace on the materials gathered from the Confederacy.
I borrowed the bones from the Confederacy Pinnacle, then went scratch from there.  The keel was pretty easy to duplicate – but the bulkheads not so much without a laser cutter or some kind – so I just outright stole the ones from the Confed kit.
    A couple of things I did a little differently as I built upon the keel and bulwarks – I glued a strip to the top of the pieces that’ll later be removed.  This adds LOTS of stability to the boat as you plank it.  Otherwise, the much smaller pieces tended to wiggle around and get out of place – and yes, that crooked one was fixed first. Second – I actually double planked this little bad boy.  The thin, narrow planks are really tough to get flush as you taper and shape them. Double planking gives me the opportunity to fill in some gaps with filler, sand smooth, then get the second layer of even narrower, and thinner planks really nice.

After the bulkheads are thinned and much of them are removed to reveal the frame, they are sanded even. Then the seat supports, floor boards, gunwales, and planking are added. For these parts I went with Swiss Pear to create a nice contrast against the boxwood, but to also match other parts of the Peg herself. This is a technique I used on the USF Confederacy and really liked.

  The seating and oar locks are all boxwood – mostly because boxwood is the only timber dense enough to accommodate the delicate sanding. The oar locks were shaped with a needle file in one strip, then cut off before being glued to the boat. The rudder parts are brass shaped and blackened.  Interesting note – the little round ‘handle’ on the tiller is a tiny bead that’s called ‘caviar beads’.  Apparently they’re used as decorations on women’s fingernails. They were the smallest bead I could find on Amazon a while ago.

Many of the ship’s boats of the time were painted white along the hull, but once again I am choosing to leave the beauty of the natural wood color. However, I did decide to paint the sides of the pinnacle to match the same dark blue that is along the gun ports of the Pegasus. She’s then test fit in her place along the waist.

Next up are the bits and pieces that are stored inside the pinnacle; including a couple of harpoons, a grappling hook, and the six oars to match the number of oar locks.
For the harpoons there are photo-etched harpoon tips that are blackened. To create the harpoon itself, I sanded a dowel down to approximate diameter, then cut a notch into the end to hold the head. Then I wrapped it in place. This is based on both my ship research and my anthropology research for the time period. These photos are a bit deceiving, but those 1/64 scale folks know just how small these buggers are. I used a jeweler’s saw with the smallest blade I had to very gently stroke back and forth and create the notch.

The grappling hook is pretty straightforward, the photo-etched pieces glued, blackened and then attached to a coiled rope dabbed with some diluted white glue to hold it in place.

The oars at this scale a BUGGER.  I started with a 5/32 x 1/32 piece of walnut. I used walnut instead of boxwood because once again I am paying very particular attention to my color schemes, and I want the oars to stand out from the launch, yet blend with the other walnut deck fittings.  Anyway, I mark off the length of the paddle, and rounded and squared off portions of the oar. Then I trim/sand the handle square, only to finally round out the portions in the middle.  Lastly, I thinned down and shaped the paddle ends.  I think I ended up doing about ten of these – at least a few of which broke – to end up with the six that I wanted.  This is a very slow, gentle, and tedious process of sanding. I’d guess that I probably devoted about an hour to each oar.

My ‘mounting’ technique in terms of where and how to place the items is a combination of organization and haphazard-ness.  In other words, I don’t like an OVERLY organized or militant look to things, because it feels unnatural. Yet, I don’t want it to appear as though the crew is completely void of discipline.
First, the spare top masts are strapped down with strips of rope, and the pinnacle is secured similarly. Finally, the oars and bits and pieces are stowed and glued in place. I threw in an extra coil of rope for good measure.

Anyone who has seen an historic sailing ship in person becomes immediately aware that space on these vessels (regardless of era or class) was at a premium. As such, spaces aboard had a variety of simultaneous uses. The 1776 HMS Pegasus is a Swan Class sloop with a 96 ft length on the gun deck and a 26ft beam (width) and held a compliment of around 125 sailors and officers. While shifts and watches overlapped and varied, all those folks had to sleep somewhere. The ‘where’ was on hammocks hung below decks when used, and stowed elsewhere when not used. Many of them were stowed using hammock cranes that stretched along the sides of the ship – as shown in the photos below.

While I don’t intend to create hammocks and load the cranes with them, it is important to include the hammock cranes as a detail. There are also varying sources that illustrate exactly where the cranes were located – whether along the waist, forecastle, or quarterdeck. Once again, I chose to follow the references from The Fully Framed Model series on Swan Class ships and located them along the quarterdeck parallel to the railing.
I started by cutting and bending lengths of 1mm diameter brass rod then flattening one end. My method of flattening is putting the end in the flat part of needle nosed pliers (the smooth area NOT the ridged area) then laying the pliers against an anvil and give it a couple of good whacks. The flattened bit does need to be shaped a bit afterward so that they’re all consistent width. I stuck a couple of pins in either end of the rail and ran a thread so I could measure the necessary heights of the stanchions as they ran alongside the railing. It’s important to ensure that the height of the hammock cranes falls short of the 1/2 pound guns – also figuring in the loops that are to be soldered to the top that facilitates the line. Stanchions are cut to height and a small bit of a 2mm brass tube is soldered to the top – same method as other railing stanchions on the ship.

Everything is blackened and mounted.  A couple notes – I kept all the railings in order of height as I blackened them, which was a bit tricky.  But I didn’t want to mix them up after I’d measured them all. I mounted them with a ‘bolt’ through the center of the flattened area. Technically, I should have used two bolts, but at this scale that was too much to ask.  The fore end is knotted at the stanchion. Technically (again) this should have been pulled down and mounted on a ring bolt at the railing, but my wood railing is a bit too far forward for that and it looked terrible, so I compromised.  The aft end is seized at a ring bolt.

As an additional detail, I also added the entry ropes. While they are pretty simple – just a couple of ropes tied with knots to assist climbing up the latter – it was a bit tricky getting the small knots an exact and consistent distance apart. The stanchions at the top are photo-etched metal pieces that were intended to use in a different area of the ship.

A ‘boom’ in nautical terms is a spar (another word for pole) that extends out from a rigged sail providing for a number of purposes including additional rigging and control. The boomkins are short booms that project from the bow of the ship and are used to secure a couple of larger main fore tack blocks.
A notable aspect of the boomkin is that it has a slight downward curve which gives it additional strength. Getting this downward curve normally means one would have to either soak and bend a dowel, or create the boomkin from a solid block of timber. Fortunately for me, I happen to have a couple of extra laser cut boomkins left over from the USF Confederacy build. Although the dimensions between the ships are different, the scale is the same and so these saved me a bit of work.

I did however have to make up that extra work when I discovered that my seats of ease were just slightly off – about a half millimeter to be exact. The boomkins run right along side the sides, so although I did measure for this – being off by even the slightest is no bueno. Moving the seats of ease meant readjusting all the ledges. A little bit tedious, but necessary.

The capsquares which hold the boomkin to the rail are cut from brass and shaped by curving them over a pin file handle. They’re then drilled & blackened, then mounted on the boomkins.

Next step for the bow was the berthing rail. I followed the same procedure here as the foc’sle by soldering a brass tube to a pin head, filling it down and running the same cabled wire through it. I still dig how this ‘railing’ looks as compared to using a line or a straight metal rod. However, I think this will preclude me from adding netting to the bow because I think that will look funky. I may change my mind after mulling it over as the netting can be added at any time.

Rigging the boomkins consists of three lines that extend out from the end of the spar – the larger fore tack that I mentioned at the beginning of the post and two shrouds that attach the boomkin to the hull and knee of the head (the portion of the front of the keel just below the figurehead).
The fore tack block is one of my larger (6 mm) boxwood single blocks sanded down to create the shoulder block look and the served line for the strop that wraps around the block and loops over the end of the boomkin.

The aft shroud also loops over the end of the boomkin then attaches to the hull with a pretty simple hook into an eyebolt. The fore shroud is a bit more complicated with a triangular eye bolt strapped to a heart block and lanyard. The eye bolt is a bit of wire angled into the triangle with the end soldered then attached to a standard eye bolt. I don’t remember where I got these laser cut heart blocks, but after a little sanding they worked out well. Strapping the heart to the triangle without it looking like a just a big lump of line was a bugger however. For the second shroud, it made much more sense to do that part first, then loop the other end over the boomkin and finish the shroud.

The spar that extends forward from the ship’s bow is called the bowsprit, and is one of the most notable (and I think cool) aspects of a fully rigged ship. That said, on many builds and kits the bowsprit is over simplified for ease of construction. In reality, by the mid to late 1700s, the bowsprit had become and complicated piece of engineering and rigging. As with the rest of the build, my intention with the bowsprit is to added those addition complications to provide as much accuracy as is feasible at this scale.

The spar itself is a round dowel, however it squares off at it’s tip so that ‘bees’ can be fitted and a jib boom can be added. The square end of the bowsprit is often overlooked in kits and instead both the bowsprit and jib boom end up being rounded off for simplicity.
There are a couple of way to achieve a round mast/spar with a square end; either start with square timber and round off the rest of the mast, or start with a larger size dowel, square off the end, then taper the rest down. I chose the latter method.

However, first, I needed to measure out where the taper and other aspects would need to take place. The base of the boswprit narrows, enters the bow, then is secured in the supports on the main deck below the forecastle. I used a dummy dowel to measure out the distance to these supports, as well as lining up where the gammoning (the ropes that secure the bowsprit to the ship) would take place in the headworks. These areas are marked on the dowel that will become my bowsprit.

The fore end of the bowsprit is sanded to square with the top three sides extending slightly longer than the bottom. The whole thing is put in a lathe and tapered at both ends until the fore end is slightly smaller than the square and the aft end fits into the hole at the bow of the ship. That same aft end is notched to fit into the support on the main deck (which we cannot see at this point, but can be seen in this post).

Now that the bowsprit is in place (at least temporarily) I am able to finish a couple of important elements on the forecastle – the bowsprit partner and the breast hook. I fashioned the partner from planks of Swiss Pear so it would have the same look/feel as the deck. I cut out the space for it, then added it in place. Worth noting is that the partner would most likely have been a single piece rather than planks glued together as I have it – but I’m pretty much out of Swiss Pear, so I’m adapting; and I didn’t want to use a color wood that was vastly disparate. Second: Also, most of this will ultimately be obscured by the breast hook and associated rigging.

The breast hook is fitted against the foremost bulwark of the forecastle and houses a number of cleats for rigging the bowsprit and other elements near the front of the ship. First, I measured the curvature using a piece of cardstock, then cut the breast hook from pieces of Swiss pear glued together to achieve the proper thickness. The piece is mounted with ‘bolts’ along the front.

The small cleats are made from boxwood and initially shaped by a round dremel tool before using small bits of sanding paper and sanding sticks to give them their final shape.

The base of the bowsprit is fitted with gammoning cleats which will hold the wrapped line in place where the bowsprit is secured to the ship through the headworks and a hole in the keel. Just behind the cleats is a ‘saddle’ that contains a set of holes to facilitate additional rigging.

The fore end of the bowsprit is fitted with ‘bees’ and a ‘cap’. The bees are a set of wide sheeves (pulleys) for the running rigging and the cap allows the jib boom to be joined.
The cap is a rectangular piece with a square hole that fits over the bowsprit and a round hole that accommodates the jib boom. In addition, the edges of the cap are angled to match the overall lines of the bowsprit. Finally, the cap also contains a rounded notch that will fit the “jack stay” – or small flag pole at the front of the ship.
The bees are flat planks to either side of the bowsprit bolstered by blocks on the bottom and then fitted with two sheeves on each side.
The other two elements on the front of the bowsprit are the jib boom saddle (where the end of the jib boom will rest) and the ‘woolding’ – a wrapping of strong line that strengthens the end of the bowsprit. This line is wrapped between two rings which I have simulated using electrical tape.
The entire fore end of the bowsprit is painted black and final elements are added – a series of eye bolts and the woolding line.

The bowsprit is secured onto the bow of the ship with the base inserted into the bow and secured in the aforementioned bowsprit bitts on the main deck. The gammoning lashes the bowsprit securely into place. After reviewing a couple of books to ensure accuracy, the gammoning consists of 9 to 11 wraps around the spar, twisting in the center, then feeding through the gammoning slot in the part of the keel called the “knee of the head.” As is stood, I could only manage eight wraps without looking funky – but the important aspect is that the number of horizontal wraps along the middle match the number of vertical wraps.

A note on rigging lines and color

I have decided to start making my own rope / line for this project which allows some flexibility and additional accuracy. It also allows me to adjust the color of the line to achieve what I believe is a more accurate build.
Most people have heard that the the running rigging of a ship (which was constantly moved, changed, and adjusted) has a lighter look, while the standing rigging on a ship (which was rarely adjusted) was tarred to provided protection thus giving it a dark look. This “dark” look is most often – almost always in fact – represented by using black line. However based on the research I’ve done, the standing rigging for British ships were often soaked in “Stockholm tar” which apparently had a more rich brown color. That’s the option I’ve chose for this build, hence the brown color on the gammoning pictured above.

And here are a couple of gratuitous shots of me turning my own rope.

Contrary to the how the name sounds, the ‘fish davit’ is not actually used for fishing – at least not for catching sea critters. Instead, the fish davit is used to help ‘fish’ out the extraordinarily heavy anchor for stowage.
The davit is a large, square beam fitted on each side with rope handles to allow multiple crew members maneuver it into position. The davit is tapered slightly from the center outward with crowns cut out on the ends to fit and secure rigging. One end of the davit hangs over the side of the deck and is held at the opposite end by a spanshackle securing it to the forecastle and providing leverage to haul up the anchor.

I began with the large, square spanshackes by taking a round brass rod and sanding the edges square on both the inside and outside a loop that is measured to fit the davit. They are chemically blackened then secured to the forecastle with a ring bolt.

The davit is pretty straightforward to shape, merely a square piece of timber cut and tapered. However the hand rope is a bugger to get correct. The rope is secured along the davit with looped knots of line rather than metal rings. To create each loop I drilled a hole in the davit, added a small bit of super glue to stiffen one end of a rope so it can be inserted into the hole. Then, I stuffed the other end of the loop into the same hole using needle nose tweezers and a dental pick.
The davit is then mounted on the deck and in the spanshackle. At this point, it’s not permanently mounted in case it needs to be shifted around to get at any rigging, etc.

The billboard is a relatively small detail that I have rarely seen added to builds, but provides a very nice additional detail. The name belies the purpose, as it’s not intended to display any sort of information or advertisement as one might assume now days. Instead, the billboard protected the sides of the hull and the chain plates from the extremely heavy anchor as it was pulled up and stowed.

  A second layer of planking is mounted to the main wales for protection using 1/16″ x 1/8″ strips of basswood. Though softer, basswood is easier to work with and is ultimately painted black to match the main wales so the difference in texture is unnoticeable.

The rest of the setup is comprised of a flat ‘bolster’ along the main wale just below the preventer plates, two stanchions that support the planks from the bolster to the channels, then the planks themselves. I used boxwood for the bolsters, stanchions (1/16″ x 1/16″) and planks (1/16″ x 1/8″) so that they would match the other hull fixtures (such as the fenders, etc) after being coated with wipe on poly. Final touches are the blackened bolts that mount all the planks to the wales and stanchions. Though there were likely two bolts per plank, this small scale only provides enough room for one.

The ‘waist’ of the ship is the area between the quarterdeck and the forecastle (foc’sle), which was open on ships of this size and era. The gangways provided a means for sailers to traverse this area without having to run up and down the stairs and across the main deck. However, it was necessary to have some semblance of safety or sailors would have likely been tossed over board each time the ship dipped in a heavy swale. The waist rails provided this sanctuary of course. There is some flexibility here, as some waist rails were just a rough strip of wood mounted on stanchions, while others had some kind of netting. I chose the latter as it is illustrated in the “Fully Framed Model” (FFM) series.
The first step was to come up with the rough rail on stanchions. I used an oak strip to match other deck rails and stanchions.

I’d been noodling through how to make the netting along the waist rail and spent quite a while looking for a good “fishnet” representation – even going so far as to ask my lovely wife 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.  Which meant coming up with my own version.

     First, I tried weaving together my own netting using Dan Vadas’ example from his Jib Net here.  My attempt wasn’t great.

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 a good video on youtube and illustrated traditional net making for fishing. Though challenging, the method was transferrable to a much smaller scale and I was able to replicate it using .20mm rope.  Here’s a shot with my first attempt on the 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.

  It 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 glue 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 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 the pa. But I’m much more pleased with this than I think I would be with a more modern alternative to netting.

I’ve always loved the name “deadeyes” – because of course the round rigging blocks that facilitate the shrouds look just like blank faces when oriented properly.
The materials provided make pretty easy work of the deadeyes, binding, chains, and preventer plates on the Peg. The deadeyes fit into pre-shaped binding which is opened, fitted with the deadeye, then closed up. The chains are slotted to fit over the binding, then the bottom of the chain is attached to the hull with a preventer.

To properly align the chains, one typically needs to add the masts first. Then, the shrouds (which stabilize the masts and create the ratlines) are fed down to the hull and the angles of the chains line up with those shrouds. However, I am able to provide a ‘best guess’ based on the alignment of the channels and gun ports. That said, 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 – in other words they need to hold tight once the shrouds are run. After the deadeyes and chains were in place, the channels are capped with a thin strip of walnut scraped with a corner portion of one of the AL scraper edges.

The studding sails (also called stun’sl) were additional sails that were spread out on the sides of the hull to add increase speed in fair weather (see image below).

The stun’sl was attached to the stun’sl boom which was mounted on the channel with a pin on one end and a hook on the other to hold the boom when not in used. These two pieces were called the boom irons – one set on each side of the main channels. On my peg, they’re shaped from brass, drilled and blackened, then mounted with blackened nails / bolts.

A final addition are preventer bolts in between the chains and swivel bolts along the hull. These stays and bolts were used as a backup in the event that a shroud or deadeye failed or otherwise needed to be adjusted or if there was need to jury rig something.

The gun ports are the openings along the hull and waist that provide access for the guns (of course). There is much debate about how many of these ports actually had lids, and what ports did not. I’m opting to go with one gun port lid on the aft-most opening, as this opening would have been accessed in a cabin. The other ports (particularly those along the waist) would have been open to the elements, and a gun port lid would have provided little benefit.

The fore most port is the Bridle Port, and different from the rest as it served a more specific purpose. Its main function is to assist with the tackle attached to the anchor when it broke water. The bridle port also served as ventilation for the foredeck (which housed the galley) as well as serving as access to a recovery area for injured crew members. Because of its different purpose, the bridle port hinges are horizontal, with the door opening sideways rather than upward like the gun port lids. Finally (and this was a mistake on my part), the bridle port should have been shaped differently, with a slightly more ‘portrait’ opening vs. square like the gun ports. My mistake was cutting its opening the same as the gun ports.

All of the doors are pretty straightforward to create – two layers of planks the same size as the openings. The difficulty lies with 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 of the looped portions 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.

It’s worth noting that the bridle port door has a bolt on the outside as the ring bolt is on the inside rather than eye bolts like the gun port lids as there isn’t a need to open it with a line as with the gun ports.
I turned the gun port 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. 

There aren’t clear records, however it is generally believed that larger scale figureheads began appearing sometime in the 1500s, and were prominent on British naval ships by the end of the 16th century. However, the belief that a carving or relief on the front of a vessel could ward off evil omens or serve as an offering to the sea dates back much further. One of the oldest museum models, The Coca de Mataró, features a Griffin-like head carving that served as both a symbol and a battering ram. Viking Age figureheads were not only weapons in and of themselves, but also perpetuated the notion that Vikings regarded their ships almost as living beings.

Regardless, it is undeniable that figureheads were of great importance and coveted and cared for by a ship’s crew. I wanted to give the Pegasus that same level of respect with her figurehead. While the resin cast figurehead that came with the Peg kit was fine, it had two issues I didn’t care for; I wasn’t impressed with the style of the wings, and it looked like every other Pegasus figurehead I’d seen on HMS Pegasus builds.

After spending weeks searching for solutions by looking at everything from ear rings to Christmas ornaments, I finally stumbled across this package of little toys at a hobby store that perfectly matched the scale.

I really dug the wings and the body, but obviously the cartoon-y head (and unicorn horn) left much to be desired. Also – there was no way the rear legs would work with the space available on the stem post. Finally, 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 happy with the end look.  I’ve seen some good looking wood color paint expressions on figureheads, but I wanted to stick with the traditional white that was most common to the Royal Navy. So “Franken-Peg” has several coats of different shades of grey and white to give her a carved look and some depth.   Most importantly, it’s definitely not a figurehead that will be seen on any other ship

The elegant and decorative head works at the bow of the ship are an intricate weaving of shaped wood that serves to facilitate the bowsprit, but also provides a distinct look to the vessel.
For builders, it is a complicated area that is quite difficult, and so visible that any errors tend to be magnified. It is for these reasons that I’d been delaying work in this area. However, I’d delayed as much as I could, and the head works must now be tacked.

I’ve noodled through what I’d like to do here, and it’ll be based on the plans to form the foundation. However, the plans omit several aspects that are too complicated for most casual builders. This isn’t unusual for commercial plans, but does cut down on the accuracy quite a bit.
On the Peg, I’ll fill in the grating, seats of ease, false rails, and other elements not included in the Peg plans. Most of these will be done in boxwood as it’s the only material dense enough to carve and shape this small.

   I started with the three timber heads which extend from the knee (forward part of the keel that creates the bow) and support the grating and rails. The timber heads are cut from the plan pattern and shaped in walnut so they’re a bit sturdier. I wanted to slim then down and reshape them a bit so they look (hopefully) more graceful as it comes together.  The plan versions look a little thick and I want a more gentle curve as they work their way up to the rails. 

    As you can see in the third picture, there is still some shaping to be done so that the rails fit smoothly along the sides.
As a total side note – the bow doesn’t look as wonky and askew in person as it does in above middle picture.  I focus stacked four different pictures so the timbers would be all in focus and sometimes when Photoshop “auto blends” the layers the rest of the photo can come out looking a little odd if you don’t use a tripod (which I didn’t). 

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.
The hawse holes set the baseline for where the cheeks will be mounted. They set on the upper and lower edges of the main wales. However, I did run into a slight issue. Once again, because of the way I mounted those main wales so that they would be more accurate, 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 are the trickiest and most difficult part of the head works. I chose to cut them from boxwood in three separate pieces in order to achieve the most consistent “swoop.” I used a card stock template to measure out the necessary distance and curvature, then temporarily mounted the two end pieces onto the bow leaving the space in between. This allowed me to fill in and custom fit the middle “wedge” piece into the gap. Once it was all snug, I glued it together and and sanded it down. It’s worth nothing that there is also a slight inward angle between the three pieces allowing it to guide along the bow properly

The main rails are set aside for now to get to the lower railing. First, a filler piece of walnut is added where the Pegasus figure head will rest. Then, the lower railing runs along, and actually cut into, the head timbers. This piece is measured and cut from boxwood and slots are cut into the timber heads.

The hawse hole bolsters are cut, shaped, and fit into position so that the rest of the lower railing can be measured out as they run all the way up to the cat heads.

Those lower rails are carved out with a curve in a similar manner as the main rails.  The cathead support is carved, shaped, and fit also from boxwood. I then painted everything with my color scheme.
I went ahead and gave this fitting a coat of paint and wipe on polyurethane before I progressed to the covering boards on the outer edges of the head timbers where there is going to be some VERY delicate painting, etc, and the coat of poly makes it much easier to clean up errant paint mistakes that occur as a result of my hands not being nearly as steady as the “good ol’ days”. 

The covering boards are cut from my thinest stock and soaked before they are 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 add the little vertical strips of decoration along the covering boards or if that made it too busy.  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.

Much of the grating is omitted in the plans as it’s quite a complicated endeavor. More complicated at such a small scale as 1/64, and I learned again that I needed to make some concessions and deviate from the exact plans for a swan class ship.
I cut, measure and place each piece individually because my scratch made rails and timber heads were fractionally uneven. Fractions of millimeters don’t seem like much, but they become noticeable quickly. 

I started at the base of the bow, added the most forward supports and braces, marked out the locations of the grates, 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 above 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.  It has since been replaced of course.

     Next the “seats of ease” are added – simple toilets for the crew (the captain and other officers would have their own facilities in the cabins. The seats are rather simple to make and sized to be equal to one another. I shaved off thin little bits of the grating to get them to fit into the bow so they’d remain mirror images of one another.

The false rails were decorative boards that run along the main rails and add some privacy and wind protection for those on the bow, particularly when using the seats of ease.

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.

That addition wraps up the head works with the exception of the next step which is a milestone in any build – the figurehead.

The foredeck railings around the bow of the ship were metal stanchions through which a rope passed. However, I had something more specific in mind for these.  I wanted the same metal stanchions, but once again I really dig the little bit of coiled wire that I have and used for the hatch railings.  Now as far as accuracy is concerned; it definitely falls into Category #2 under my previously explained decision tree: “Not 100% accurate, but looks cool.”

 Stanchions first. I cut fourteen 1mm tubes and twenty eight 2mm tubes (two for each stanchion). The 1 mm tubes will insert into the 2mm tubes to create the wider portion at the bottom that then plugs into the railing. Another 2mm tube is soldered to the top of the stanchion as the eye through which the cable will pass. The top tube is soldered on larger, then filed down to be almost even with the stanchion, after which everything is blackened

Note:  Trying to hold these things in place to be soldered took some ingenuity, extra clamp hands, and locking needle tweezers. During this process, more than a couple of these little escape artists went flinging across the room never to be seen again.

I soldered a ring on one end of the aforementioned cable and an eye bolt onto the other end.  Here was a trick – I wanted to make sure all the stanchions lined up properly in terms of height, distance, etc – and then make sure the cable was the exact right length.  I couldn’t just cut and tie it like a rope, so I had to pass the cable through the stanchions after they were mounted, measure the distance of the cable, then solder the eye bolt on the end of the cable while it was on the ship.   Obviously paranoid about burning the ship up in a giant ball of polyurethane and wood flames, I used a piece of metal to block off everything that wasn’t being soldered.  Very tense process – wish I’d have been able to take a photo of it whilst I was doing it.

The bow end of the railing is seized just as though it were a rope, and the waist end of the cable is mounted into the railing with the eyebolt. After writing this and seeing the photos – it comes across as a pretty simple process. However, it was quite complicated and very tricky to get correct and look realistic.