josh44

Priming, Painting, and Deck Work

After a little more work carving down the curves, rudder, and keel, I sanded down to 300, and applied some primer.

and sanded down again, and then painted with basic acrylics, mixed to resemble the colors of the real Annie.

Then, I must admit, I was inspired by some of the work I had seen on this site, especially Igorsky and his phenomenal work in miniature!  While I will never be able to approach his level of detail, I wanted to try to elevate my game a bit; instead of scoring the deck, or painting decking, I decided to lay down some decking made of 1/32" cherry strips. 

Not perfect, but I'll do better next time!

Then I added a top rail from the same 1/32" cherry strip. (I originally bought this in the hopes of using it for masts and yards, but it's way to thin. Glad I kept it, and now I wish I bought more).  

Next stop: more sanding, and starting the masts. 

Cutting the hull blank:

the template is copies or traced onto a block of bass wood, then rough cut with a table-top band saw.

till I get a decent hull blank

then lots of grinding down and fine shaping with a dremel / spinning tool, and tons of sanding.

At this point, all the traces and sketches go out the window, and I have to try to make some nice curves and reasonable lines. (Sincere apologies to all the real ship and model builders!)

Its definitely not my worst work. And I still have all my fingers, which is a bonus!

Next step will be prepping the hull with varnish and paint, and preparing the masts.  

Next I create a master sketch, 1:1 for the actual model.

Many ships dont have recorded or complete mesurements, and this is where the replication gets a little tricky. I'm a novice at this, but I aspire to optimal proportion, as well as clean lines and authentic color.  The small size make it difficult for proportional integrity, especially with the masts and spars.  But this is part of the challenge and fun.

If the rigging will be more complex, eg with a Barque or Brig, then I would also sketch out the rigging and drill holes on the masts as well.  

I neglected to state the obvious, which is the choosing of the bottle. Finding bottles is actually one of the most difficult phases of this.  I like one pint whiskey bottles, with a wide stout neck.  Anything with an inner diameter under 1.7cm will be really challenging   I dont like the classic rounded bottles, because the convexity of the bottle makes it appear as though the ship  is 'sunk'  down at the bottom no matter what kind of base you make.  Once I find a bottle that feels like a good match, then I decide on the base within in the bottle.  This can be a tiny stand, clay, or silicone.  For this ship, I am going to try silicone for the first time. 

I transfer the sketch to tracing paper, in preparation for the cutting of the hull. Thats tomorrow.  

This will be my first Build Log, and 6th scratch ship in a bottle.

This will be a present for a friend named Annie. She will appreciate the obvious choice of ship name.

One of the best things about building scratch ships in bottles, is that you can choose pretty much any ship, based upon the occasion, recipient, bottle shape, or whatever your mood may be.  I like choosing less well known ships, perhaps from obscure sources or stories or tales.  I was happy to find a perky little schooner named Annie from New York, complete with a fine little backstory. 

I found a few pictures from which to work.

No, not really so light. 

It was on the junk heap, and I've been restoring it with balsa.

The original pieces feel like at least Bass wood.

thanks!

My dad who is 82 said this was previously built as a kit when he was a kid in the 40s. It does not look pure scratch to me, lots of uniformity in detail. 

Hi 

New member here!

great site, so welcoming and inclusive. Really wonderful for the craft. 

is there a specific forum here for bottled ship building? Or should I just use the search mode? (This brings up lots of glue and paint bottles). 

I supposed bottled ships aren’t as well regarded as larger scale models - I couldn’t do them - but they do present some unique challenges: material strength with small scale, proportion, detail, hingework, mounting issues, adhesive issue and blooming, &c. 

Your Thoughts?

Thanks all^

Frankie I checked out your website.  Beautiful paintings, and ships!

Does anyone know: Is there a forum on this site for bottled ships? 

probably about 90 years old - 1/50 santa maria. Was in terrible condition and I am restoring.

Does anyone recognize the make / model?

Oops, I just read Chris's Caution about mystery models .... not looking for value, just info.  

I am a  relatively new Bottled Ship builder. I started with a bunch of kits (thank you eBay and Jauce), now enjoying my own scratch builds much more.  Seen some incredible bottled ships by Igor on this site.

Looking forward to sharing my joys and sorrows of this great hobby:

Russian schooner heda

Marie Celeste

Fishing schooner Dauntless

Antelope of Boston Brig