JerseyCity Frankie

Making tools to get at stuff on the inside of the bottle need not be a huge challenge if you select a bottle with the right ratio of neck diameter to neck width. The inside diameter of the bottle also plays a roll and some geometries won’t allow you to have an influence anywhere inside the bottle. Usually you don’t need anything more than a bit of wire twisted over the end of a wooden dowel or bamboo skewer and up till now I had not needed to build special tools more complex than a piece of razor blade attached to a stick. But this project has had some special challenges.  This tool is simply a tweezers tied to a threaded rod. I use metal rod since the leverage you put onto the end of the tool that you can grasp has a strong effect within the bottle and wood can break or bend more often than you would think. 

Here is the tool in use within the bottle. Its holding a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol and its making short work of the glommed on clay residue at the “water line”. The tool with the tweezers on the end could not reach the waters edge and when I tried to hold a Q-tip and use that to swab the inside it simply wasn't effective.

With the water in place and the wooden base built, the ship itself constructed and painted and now a new useful tool to use I guess there is no excuse but to proceed with getting the Kraken inside the bottle.

Nice save with the new tool.  When I saw the first photo I could not imagine how you were going to get the clay removed from the inside walls of the bottle.  There are some intricate tools developed by Ralph Preston for bottling models that you can read in Ship Modelers' Shop Notes II from the Nautical Research Guild.  The articles may give you some ideas.  Ralph is one of the top ship-in-a-bottle modelers in the US.
 
Dan

Here is the tool in use within the bottle. Its holding a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol and its making short work of the glommed on clay residue at the “water line”. The tool with the tweezers on the end could not reach the waters edge and when I tried to hold a Q-tip and use that to swab the inside it simply wasn't effective.

I had hoped to avoid building an articulated tool but it has become apparent that with all those tentacles I will have to manipulate I was going to have to make something I could bend around inside the bottle. It turns out it was very easy to make this elbow tool and I was done and using it a lot sooner than I imagined, I had set aside the whole night to cobble something together and really all I had to do was drill a hole and bend some wire. There is no glue or solder in use here at all its just bent wire and knots on the string. The inset photo is the tool in its bent mode. It swings through 120 degrees roughly when I pull on one string and ease the other. I’m sure anyone reading this could build one of these and a lot of you could build a more elegant tool, based on some of the build logs and evident competence I see on this site.

I had hoped to avoid building an articulated tool but it has become apparent that with all those tentacles I will have to manipulate I was going to have to make something I could bend around inside the bottle. It turns out it was very easy to make this elbow tool and I was done and using it a lot sooner than I imagined, I had set aside the whole night to cobble something together and really all I had to do was drill a hole and bend some wire. There is no glue or solder in use here at all its just bent wire and knots on the string. The inset photo is the tool in its bent mode. It swings through 120 degrees roughly when I pull on one string and ease the other. I’m sure anyone reading this could build one of these and a lot of you could build a more elegant tool, based on some of the build logs and evident competence I see on this site.

Here is the tool in use within the bottle. Its holding a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol and its making short work of the glommed on clay residue at the “water line”. The tool with the tweezers on the end could not reach the waters edge and when I tried to hold a Q-tip and use that to swab the inside it simply wasn't effective.

With the water in place and the wooden base built, the ship itself constructed and painted and now a new useful tool to use I guess there is no excuse but to proceed with getting the Kraken inside the bottle.

I've melted Plasticine for my last two builds and it works out great.  I like how you lay the clay snakes over each other the blending of colors will look awesome I'm sure.  I may try that on a future build  
 
I actually found two methods of melting.  First in the oven though I put the bottle in as it's heating up since I think the slower rise in temperature will prevent the bottle from breaking.  So far so good.    
 
The other method I've used it holding the bottle over a hot burner to melt the Plasticine.  I did this because I had laminated a card with the ship name my name and date and wanted to display it under the clay.  I wasn't sure what the oven heat would do to the laminated card to I used a burner for more control.  Actually worked really well just make sure to have oven mitts handy.   

Some stuff done up at the sharp end . . . and a couple of questions to come.
 
Catheads and roundhouses made. Finished roundhouse stands beside the blank for the other one >>>
 

 
I used a 12mm dowel for the form of the roundhouses. The dowel was sliced lengthwise to leave just over half of its diameter. At 12mm it was a little underscale for the model, so before applying the vertical planks I wrapped the half-dowel with thin card then glued the planks and the bindings on to the card.
Here's the front end with the catheads loosely placed in position, and some dowels placed in 'holes' while they pretend to be masts >>>
 

 

 
. . . and now the questions ~~~
 
The catheads -- at what point is it 'normal' to fit these? Just looking at how they stick out they seem a little vulnerable to me. However, I want to be getting the forecastle deck planked soon and the inboard parts of the catheads are virtually concealed below that deck but I don't want to be messing around trying to make a neat job of fitting the catheads through the deck planking. (As this is my first build I don't want to be fitting one part only to find that later on it hampers my attempts to fit another part or parts.)
 
. . . and a general question about the roundhouses ~~~
 
I've never been sure what their function was -- I've googled looking for an answer but only found reference to the roundhouses at the stern of the ship. In my absence of accurate knowledge of this I've imagined they may have merely been "posh toilets" for some ship's officers ??? --- but someone may know differently ???
 
 

Here is the finished knot drawn up on a cylinder. Its nearly the same knot as the Clove Hitch but it stays tight when you pull on the ends and I actually find it easier to tie. If your tying a pair of shrouds or backstays you can tie it in the center of the line and the ends can lead port and starboard. 

Hi Jim. Your post caught my attention about your cat heads and I don't believe that they was covered by the deck planking. Am not 100 percent sure but the most forward beam of the forecastle was very wide and had a rabbet on the aft edge for the planks to land on. On top of this beam the cat heads would set. I went through the book and most of the 50 gun ships show this type of set up if they had a beakhead bulkhead.  Much like Alfred had. If you look in the 50 gun ship book by Winfield, on page 82 and 83 at the most forward end of the forecastle deck you will see this very wide beam. Also on page114 that plan gives a side view of the beam setting behind the beakhead platform. Am not quite sure why McKay shows the deck planking covering up the cat head beam which looks a little odd to me. Of course it being you ship, you can do it as you see fit sir. Here is a picture of Alfred's beakhead along with one of the cat heads waiting to be finished. You will also see the large beam with the rabbet  in the photo's. Just something to think about and might help keep you from putting them on to early. Gary

As much as I love wooden ships and tar and three stranded line I have to admit our hobby does not have enough modern sail vessels being represented. Dan I think yours is the ONLY fiberglass sloop on Model Ship World and I see no kits available for them out there either. Which is amazing since there is a WORLD of modern sailing vessels of every size and shape on ever lake river and sea the world over. There are kits and builds of modern motor vessels aplenty but where are the recreational sail models? I can see you have "invented the wheel" on this model, with no aftermarket parts available. For each part you had to invent the process then build the part, over and over again! I'm impressed with the whole project.

As much as I love wooden ships and tar and three stranded line I have to admit our hobby does not have enough modern sail vessels being represented. Dan I think yours is the ONLY fiberglass sloop on Model Ship World and I see no kits available for them out there either. Which is amazing since there is a WORLD of modern sailing vessels of every size and shape on ever lake river and sea the world over. There are kits and builds of modern motor vessels aplenty but where are the recreational sail models? I can see you have "invented the wheel" on this model, with no aftermarket parts available. For each part you had to invent the process then build the part, over and over again! I'm impressed with the whole project.

Another elevated image

And my carved figure.

Hey there Popee I have not read your whole log but I have been admiring parts of it and I noticed your Reversed Cloths Pins. What a great idea! I hope somewhere in your build you mention them, its like you made a hot rod clothspin, I'm going to use the idea on some of my pins now.

I was mussing on the presumed necessity of the pendants. With a capable boatswain, couldn't they just rig a strop of some kind when they needed a point from which to rig a purchase, like a selvagee? sure they could but it would always have to be attached to one of the other shrouds, which are already under some degree of strain and you wouldn't want to compromise any of those in any way- although you do see lead blocks for braces and things on them, and that is surely a strain, albeit usually lateral strain. And there are collars lashed around masts to direct the stays to the deck, and these are certainly under a lot of strain, why not an eye like one of those lashed up high? But the stay collars too have a mostly lateral strain on them and a vertical strain would probably make them slip down. The pendants are made off right around the masthead, an unambiguous strong purchase. Any strain placed on them would be translated directly to the strongest part of the ship aloft with no chance of damaging or carrying anything else away. "Nothing too strong ever broke".

I think of the Burton Pendants as being auxiliary handy places to hang something heavy from, and I do believe they just hang down under the tops when not being used in conjunction with a temporary lifting project. I know one of their uses was for setting up the lanyards on the deadeyes, with tackle hooked to the Burton Pendants to put tension on the lanyards, which in turn kept the shrouds tight. The lead from the Burton Pendants is PERFECT for this. I hear tall ships to this very day have issues keeping their shrouds tight- those few that do not use steel wire rope standing rigging, so this reason alone would be enough to keep the pendants on all the rigs. I am certain that the gear would be struck down after the job was done though so I wouldn't place anything on them on the model.
The toprope I would just leave off too. Its only in use when they are striking the topmast down on deck and I seriously doubt anyone would leave that line in place if it wasn't in use. Why risk the wear and tear on a line you REALY don't want to part? Striking or Housing the mast was certainly done often enough. I recall reading somewhere of an English frigate crew that had trained so well they could strike topmasts in a matter of minutes, but it was a big 'all hands" type of job and setting up the tackle would be just one part of the sequence of events. Incidentally the Top Rope is one of the Seven Ropes on a ship. There are only seven ropes on a ship, it is said. All the other ropes are properly called lines.

Fine job for sure Frankie.  I never have built a ship in a bottle before...I even have a kit.  I know it takes some engineering to lay everything down and then pull it all back up once in......still pretty nifty stuff.
 
Watching with anticipation.
 
Rob

The ship building and preparing will reach a point where I will need to start using the bottle in the planning and prep. I will need this round bottle to be stable so I should at this point build the base for the bottle and I may as well build the base I intend to display the model in rather than make a temporary jig that would be discarded later. A square bottle is nice since it will sit on the workbench but this one has the word "KRAKEN" embossed on it and two nice loops (presumably so that it may better be grasped with tentacles) so I want it to sit exactly at the right position. I need two brackets to conform to the profile of the bottle so I trace the bottle onto the timber I want to use and cut out the arcs. I learned the trick of finessing the cut to fit the bottle by wrapping some sandpaper around the bottle and sanding into the rough cut to make a nice fit even nicer.

The ship building and preparing will reach a point where I will need to start using the bottle in the planning and prep. I will need this round bottle to be stable so I should at this point build the base for the bottle and I may as well build the base I intend to display the model in rather than make a temporary jig that would be discarded later. A square bottle is nice since it will sit on the workbench but this one has the word "KRAKEN" embossed on it and two nice loops (presumably so that it may better be grasped with tentacles) so I want it to sit exactly at the right position. I need two brackets to conform to the profile of the bottle so I trace the bottle onto the timber I want to use and cut out the arcs. I learned the trick of finessing the cut to fit the bottle by wrapping some sandpaper around the bottle and sanding into the rough cut to make a nice fit even nicer.

With everything dry you can cast off from the building jig and fold the masts over to check for fit in the neck of the bottle. Drop the model right in with confidence since you can pull it back out again via the stays. If its a tight squeeze, sand file or shave off some of the bottom of the hull. In a conventional ship in a bottle, you are making a waterline hull anyway and shaving off the bottom is no big deal. Another conventional ship in a bottle practice is to attache the yards and have them stay with the masts through the insertion and erection inside the bottle. I have done this in the past but the yards add a TREMENDOUS amount of bulk and complexity and you have to finagle them back out of their inevitable cockbilled disposition once the masts are up.  I am opting to attach the yards AFTER the ship is in and the masts are up and glue them on one at a time.

The stays were bent to the mast, then they pass through holes I drilled right through the deck and are left long outside the hull, about ten inches long. I paint one, two and three white stripes on the bitter end of each lower stay so that I can identify them outside the bottle. When the time comes to erect the masts within the bottle you will spend a lot of time trying to find which exact line to adjust during the process. Paper tags would work but I find the lines get pulled out and re-run a few times during the whole process so the paint works best for me. If I put on the upper stays they will pass through the wire eye fairleads aft of the tops and on the bowsprit. The ones the go through the tops will also pass through holes in the hull.