Jim Lad

Not a good day at the museum yesterday; I had several splices pull in the main rigging as I put tension on the halliards.  I've never had that happen to me before so I think I must have been getting a bit lazy and complacent as I was doing the original splices.  All fixed now all the rigging is on her, so I'm pleased that I at least got that far.
 
Although she looks superficially finished, there's still a heck of a lot of detail work to be done on her so it'll be a little while yet before I can sit back and admire my work.
 
For our overseas members who may not be familiar with the design of the T.I. pearl sheller; apart from the obvious modifications for her role as a mission ship such as the removal of the diving outriggers at the mizzen mast, the conversion of the hatch into a low accommodation deckhouse and the addition of a toilet (not present in these photos); she has some unusual rigging features.  The topmast shrouds, running stays on both masts and the mainmast flag staff are all features not found on your common or garden pearl sheller.  Why the 'Pritt' had the is anybody's guess, but they show clearly in all the photos.
 
John
 

Not a good day at the museum yesterday; I had several splices pull in the main rigging as I put tension on the halliards.  I've never had that happen to me before so I think I must have been getting a bit lazy and complacent as I was doing the original splices.  All fixed now all the rigging is on her, so I'm pleased that I at least got that far.
 
Although she looks superficially finished, there's still a heck of a lot of detail work to be done on her so it'll be a little while yet before I can sit back and admire my work.
 
For our overseas members who may not be familiar with the design of the T.I. pearl sheller; apart from the obvious modifications for her role as a mission ship such as the removal of the diving outriggers at the mizzen mast, the conversion of the hatch into a low accommodation deckhouse and the addition of a toilet (not present in these photos); she has some unusual rigging features.  The topmast shrouds, running stays on both masts and the mainmast flag staff are all features not found on your common or garden pearl sheller.  Why the 'Pritt' had the is anybody's guess, but they show clearly in all the photos.
 
John
 

Not a good day at the museum yesterday; I had several splices pull in the main rigging as I put tension on the halliards.  I've never had that happen to me before so I think I must have been getting a bit lazy and complacent as I was doing the original splices.  All fixed now all the rigging is on her, so I'm pleased that I at least got that far.
 
Although she looks superficially finished, there's still a heck of a lot of detail work to be done on her so it'll be a little while yet before I can sit back and admire my work.
 
For our overseas members who may not be familiar with the design of the T.I. pearl sheller; apart from the obvious modifications for her role as a mission ship such as the removal of the diving outriggers at the mizzen mast, the conversion of the hatch into a low accommodation deckhouse and the addition of a toilet (not present in these photos); she has some unusual rigging features.  The topmast shrouds, running stays on both masts and the mainmast flag staff are all features not found on your common or garden pearl sheller.  Why the 'Pritt' had the is anybody's guess, but they show clearly in all the photos.
 
John
 

Not a good day at the museum yesterday; I had several splices pull in the main rigging as I put tension on the halliards.  I've never had that happen to me before so I think I must have been getting a bit lazy and complacent as I was doing the original splices.  All fixed now all the rigging is on her, so I'm pleased that I at least got that far.
 
Although she looks superficially finished, there's still a heck of a lot of detail work to be done on her so it'll be a little while yet before I can sit back and admire my work.
 
For our overseas members who may not be familiar with the design of the T.I. pearl sheller; apart from the obvious modifications for her role as a mission ship such as the removal of the diving outriggers at the mizzen mast, the conversion of the hatch into a low accommodation deckhouse and the addition of a toilet (not present in these photos); she has some unusual rigging features.  The topmast shrouds, running stays on both masts and the mainmast flag staff are all features not found on your common or garden pearl sheller.  Why the 'Pritt' had the is anybody's guess, but they show clearly in all the photos.
 
John
 

Not a good day at the museum yesterday; I had several splices pull in the main rigging as I put tension on the halliards.  I've never had that happen to me before so I think I must have been getting a bit lazy and complacent as I was doing the original splices.  All fixed now all the rigging is on her, so I'm pleased that I at least got that far.
 
Although she looks superficially finished, there's still a heck of a lot of detail work to be done on her so it'll be a little while yet before I can sit back and admire my work.
 
For our overseas members who may not be familiar with the design of the T.I. pearl sheller; apart from the obvious modifications for her role as a mission ship such as the removal of the diving outriggers at the mizzen mast, the conversion of the hatch into a low accommodation deckhouse and the addition of a toilet (not present in these photos); she has some unusual rigging features.  The topmast shrouds, running stays on both masts and the mainmast flag staff are all features not found on your common or garden pearl sheller.  Why the 'Pritt' had the is anybody's guess, but they show clearly in all the photos.
 
John
 

Not a good day at the museum yesterday; I had several splices pull in the main rigging as I put tension on the halliards.  I've never had that happen to me before so I think I must have been getting a bit lazy and complacent as I was doing the original splices.  All fixed now all the rigging is on her, so I'm pleased that I at least got that far.
 
Although she looks superficially finished, there's still a heck of a lot of detail work to be done on her so it'll be a little while yet before I can sit back and admire my work.
 
For our overseas members who may not be familiar with the design of the T.I. pearl sheller; apart from the obvious modifications for her role as a mission ship such as the removal of the diving outriggers at the mizzen mast, the conversion of the hatch into a low accommodation deckhouse and the addition of a toilet (not present in these photos); she has some unusual rigging features.  The topmast shrouds, running stays on both masts and the mainmast flag staff are all features not found on your common or garden pearl sheller.  Why the 'Pritt' had the is anybody's guess, but they show clearly in all the photos.
 
John
 

Thanks, Popeye.
 
John

I got quite a bit of work done at the museum yesterday, but naturally not nearly as much as I hoped to get done.  Both booms and the mizzen gaff are now rigged, leaving only the main gaff to rig plus the running stays to set up before I can go on to the final detail.
 
he detail consists of the flying topmast on the main; cleaning up all the 'Irish pennants" around the boat and finally fixing the standing rigging; rope coils; sidelights; anchor rigging; lifebuoys and footropes on the main mast - the mizzen only has a couple of spars on which the lifebuoys are housed.
 
I've tried including some 'baggy wrinkle' on the topping lifts as this is a very prominent feature on the photos of the 'Pritt'.  After several false starts, I ended up using chenille yarn through which I sewed the lifts.  Not a perfect solution, but it looks OK on the model.  I may have to experiment further in case I want to do the same on a future model.
 
Some photos of the current 'state of play' are below.
 
John
 





 

A bit more work has now been done on the 'Pritt'.  Both mastheads are now festooned with blocks and the spars are just about ready to rig, so next time I'm in at the museum I should be able to start putting it all together.  After the spars are rigged there's still a bit of work to do, of course - footropes; lifebuoys; sidelights etc., but she's now starting to look like a pearler rather than just another boat. 
 
John
 

 

 

 

The 'Pritt' continues to creep towards completion, but currently at the pace of an arthritic snail!  The standing rigging is now all fitted, but not finally secured until I do a bit of fine tuning on tensions.  The two lines that can be seen hanging loose from the main mast are the running backstay pennants, which had to be fitted over the mast before the upper rigging, although they will be about the last rigging to be finally run as they, together with the mzzen running forestays, are in the way of all the mainsail rigging.
 
The two white circles that can be seen lying on the starboard side of the deck are the partially made lifebuoys.
 
John
 

Denis, sorry, but I don't have any photos of my mast hoop process, but I'll try and explain what I do.
 
Some time a go I noticed that a very nice piece of pine I was planing for a job around the house was producing very nice, even, shavings, so I saved the shavings (as we model makers do) and have used them for mast hoops ever since.  The shavings are quite thin (having come off a wood plane) and about 3/4 of an inch wide.
 
To make the hoops, I find a dowell or anything else round, for that matter, that has a diameter slightly greater than that part of the mast just above the deck where the hoops will rest on the model to use as a 'former'.  I then wrap some paper or plastic kitchen film - much wider than the wood shaving -  tightly around the 'former' and hold it in place at each end with elastic bands.  Once that's on the 'former', I simply paint a length of shaving with white wood glue and wrap it carefully around the 'former' between the two elastic bands.  This process needs to be done fairly gently to avoid splitting or cracking the shaving.  Simply wrap the glued shaving around the 'former' until you have a reasonable thickness of wood (I do this by eye), and then hold the shaving in place with another elastic band while the glue dries.
 
Once the glue has hardened, take off all the elastic bands and slide your wooden shaving tube off the 'former'.  this 'tube' can now be carefully sliced into narrow sections to use as hoops.  If your 'former' is of scrap wood, then you can use it as a cutting block to avoid crushing the tube of shaving while you cut it.  It is far easier to clean the paper of kitchen film off the inside of the individual hoops than to try to clean up the entire shaving tube in one go.
 
I hope this makes my process clear to you - if not, then just give me a yell and I'll try and clarify it.  It looks clear to me because I can see the process happening in my mind as I type this, but in might not be quite as clear to anyone trying to figure it out!  
 
John

Beautifully precise work as usual, Glenn!
 
John

Coming along very nicely, Bob.
 
John

A very ineresting looking model, Mike.
 
John

Absolutely beautiful work, Pawel.
 
John

Congratulations on the completion of a fine model, Russ.  You should be proud of her.
 
John

Beautifully precise work as usual, Glenn!
 
John

Painstaking work, Michael, but she's getting there!
 
John

Denis, sorry, but I don't have any photos of my mast hoop process, but I'll try and explain what I do.
 
Some time a go I noticed that a very nice piece of pine I was planing for a job around the house was producing very nice, even, shavings, so I saved the shavings (as we model makers do) and have used them for mast hoops ever since.  The shavings are quite thin (having come off a wood plane) and about 3/4 of an inch wide.
 
To make the hoops, I find a dowell or anything else round, for that matter, that has a diameter slightly greater than that part of the mast just above the deck where the hoops will rest on the model to use as a 'former'.  I then wrap some paper or plastic kitchen film - much wider than the wood shaving -  tightly around the 'former' and hold it in place at each end with elastic bands.  Once that's on the 'former', I simply paint a length of shaving with white wood glue and wrap it carefully around the 'former' between the two elastic bands.  This process needs to be done fairly gently to avoid splitting or cracking the shaving.  Simply wrap the glued shaving around the 'former' until you have a reasonable thickness of wood (I do this by eye), and then hold the shaving in place with another elastic band while the glue dries.
 
Once the glue has hardened, take off all the elastic bands and slide your wooden shaving tube off the 'former'.  this 'tube' can now be carefully sliced into narrow sections to use as hoops.  If your 'former' is of scrap wood, then you can use it as a cutting block to avoid crushing the tube of shaving while you cut it.  It is far easier to clean the paper of kitchen film off the inside of the individual hoops than to try to clean up the entire shaving tube in one go.
 
I hope this makes my process clear to you - if not, then just give me a yell and I'll try and clarify it.  It looks clear to me because I can see the process happening in my mind as I type this, but in might not be quite as clear to anyone trying to figure it out!  
 
John

Coming along very nicely, Bob.
 
John

Bob, the cabin trial fit looks very nice - she's going to be a little beauty.
 
John
 
PS - Michael, it will be 37 c here today!  

Beautifully precise work as usual, Glenn!
 
John

A very ineresting looking model, Mike.
 
John

Coming along very nicely, Bob.
 
John

Beautifully precise work as usual, Glenn!
 
John