BANYAN

Penguins aside, it's time to work on the Queen's armament.  I'm using the diagram below as a guide.  It shows 7 gun ports on the main deck bulwark and 8 gun ports on the gun deck, so I'll make cannons to fit that configuration.
 
 
 
I start with the 14 carriages needed for the main deck guns.  Taking a thin (0.4 mm) piece of planking from my Constellation kit, I narrow it to 3mm wide.  Then I cut a bunch of pieces 1/8" long and an equal bunch of pieces 1/16" long.
   
 
 
 
Next, I glue the 1/16" pieces on top of the 1/8" pieces to give each carriage the semblance of the stairstep look you see from the side of carriages.
   
 
 
Next I take a small diamond grinding bit in my cordless rotary tool and hollow out a cradle for the cannon barrel.
  
 
 
 
The next step is making the cannon barrels.  I start with 20 gauge veterinary needles that are 0.8mm in diameter.  I like using vet needles because they are hollow like a real cannon barrel.  It's hard to see inside the bottle, but when you look at them close enough they look much better than the solid wire cannon barrels I used in my first SIB efforts.  I mark them off in 4mm lengths, then use a thin cutting wheel on my Dremel drill press to cut them into pieces.



 
 
 
The last steps are gluing the barrels into the carriage cradles and painting.

 
 
 
The gun deck cannons are much simpler since I don't build carriages for them.  I just cut slightly longer cannon barrels from the needles.  When the time comes, I will drill holes into the ports on the gun deck and insert these cannon barrels.  Here's the full armament ready to equip the Queen.

 
 

We made it dang near 2 pages before penguins got mentioned, which I think is a record! 
 
Maybe instead of the ship's cook getting roasted by the Greek Fire, I'll put a couple of penguins in the long boat.  Y'all would call that penguins on the barbie, right Pat?  😄

Glen, your build has gone on for a little while with no suggests (where are you Keith B?). Noting the theme of this build can I dare to hope to see a couple of 'pirate' penguins, perhaps one with an eye patch and the other with a peg "flipper"    Long shot over the bow!  
 
cheers
 
Pat

Glen, your build has gone on for a little while with no suggests (where are you Keith B?). Noting the theme of this build can I dare to hope to see a couple of 'pirate' penguins, perhaps one with an eye patch and the other with a peg "flipper"    Long shot over the bow!  
 
cheers
 
Pat

Glen, your build has gone on for a little while with no suggests (where are you Keith B?). Noting the theme of this build can I dare to hope to see a couple of 'pirate' penguins, perhaps one with an eye patch and the other with a peg "flipper"    Long shot over the bow!  
 
cheers
 
Pat

Glen, your build has gone on for a little while with no suggests (where are you Keith B?). Noting the theme of this build can I dare to hope to see a couple of 'pirate' penguins, perhaps one with an eye patch and the other with a peg "flipper"    Long shot over the bow!  
 
cheers
 
Pat

Glen, your build has gone on for a little while with no suggests (where are you Keith B?). Noting the theme of this build can I dare to hope to see a couple of 'pirate' penguins, perhaps one with an eye patch and the other with a peg "flipper"    Long shot over the bow!  
 
cheers
 
Pat

Glen, your build has gone on for a little while with no suggests (where are you Keith B?). Noting the theme of this build can I dare to hope to see a couple of 'pirate' penguins, perhaps one with an eye patch and the other with a peg "flipper"    Long shot over the bow!  
 
cheers
 
Pat

With the suggestion I made...it is easily applicable to 2 purchases.  One port the other starboard.  Simply end the tie chain heading back down to the deck with another gin block.  Then run chain down to each purchase point and end in the block purchases.   In essence the tie gin block would be the same for any double topsail arrangement.  The tie leaves the yard, goes up through the mast fairlead pulley, just under the top tree....back down to a gin block that separates the two port and starboard purchase lines.
That is how I plan on rigging the heavy topsail yard.
 
Here is rudimentary drawing depicting what I'm describing.  Note the gin blocks....the path of the tie.....the addition of the P/SB purchases......and the parral band wire lifts.
 
Rob(Thanks)

Still working on deadeyes and straps.  Made a little more progress.  The starboard side is complete.   Now to complete the other side.
 

 

That is a really cool build, Ian.  And my fireball is similar to the explosions on that sub with LED lighting and cotton balls for the explosion.  Plus, that builder did a nice job with his colors using a paint brush.  And glad to have you aboard here!
 
 
At least you had the courtesy of not saying it reminded you of Disco Inferno!  Any references to disco should be grounds for suspension from MSW.
 
 
The next step for the ship is making the channels, which is always a painstaking chore.  I'm not sure I've ever gone into much detail on how I make the channels so I'll give a little more info here.  I start with bamboo stir sticks that I borrowed from a Panera Bread restaurant.  I like to use bamboo on things I'm drilling tiny holes into because it does not splinter easily nor does it have any fuzz.  You can make very tiny and very clean holes.  

 
 
The shape of the stir sticks is almost a very flat ellipse.  So before drilling, I sand the tops and bottoms flat and square off the sides.  Next, I mark the channel holes 1/16" apart - 6 holes for the fore and main (4 shrouds and 2 backstays) and 4 holes for the mizzen (3 shrouds and 1 backstay).  Then I drill pilot holes with a .015" drill bit followed by the final hole at .018" diameter.  Uniform spacing and straight alignment of the holes is the biggest challenge for me.

 
 
To finish off the channels, I cut them apart then file down the sides as close as I can to the holes.  The narrower the channels, the easier it should be to push the ship in the bottle.   Without fail, however, my channels always seem to scrape the inside of the bottle's neck when I am inserting the ship.  Ugh.  After I took the pic below, I realized that I could get the margins closer to the holes on some of those channels, so I did.

 
 
Once I was happy with the channel construction, I glued them in place and decided it was time to give the Queen's outer hull her first coat of paint.  I took a screenshot from a movie clip to give me a color to try and match.  The sides are kind of a dirty, faded red (with ugly sails to match).
 
 
 
So here's my attempt at a color match.   I think I got fairly close, but I still may do a bit of smudging to dirty it up just a bit more. 

 
 
   

I missed the kick-off yet again Glen; great to see another project up and running. And, what a great idea, that will be quite an unique display. It's looking great already.
 
So what are you drinking when you get these 'inspirations'?
 
cheers
 
Pat

I missed the kick-off yet again Glen; great to see another project up and running. And, what a great idea, that will be quite an unique display. It's looking great already.
 
So what are you drinking when you get these 'inspirations'?
 
cheers
 
Pat

I began the construction of the 3 lower masts.  
Turned , tapered and marked out banding locations.   
 
Rob

I decided it looks like a light saber!  
 
 
LOL!  Well, I can't blame it on the Bundy you sent me as it's gone!  But don't be surprised to see that bottle show up in a future inspiration, Pat!  

I missed the kick-off yet again Glen; great to see another project up and running. And, what a great idea, that will be quite an unique display. It's looking great already.
 
So what are you drinking when you get these 'inspirations'?
 
cheers
 
Pat

I missed the kick-off yet again Glen; great to see another project up and running. And, what a great idea, that will be quite an unique display. It's looking great already.
 
So what are you drinking when you get these 'inspirations'?
 
cheers
 
Pat

I missed the kick-off yet again Glen; great to see another project up and running. And, what a great idea, that will be quite an unique display. It's looking great already.
 
So what are you drinking when you get these 'inspirations'?
 
cheers
 
Pat

I missed the kick-off yet again Glen; great to see another project up and running. And, what a great idea, that will be quite an unique display. It's looking great already.
 
So what are you drinking when you get these 'inspirations'?
 
cheers
 
Pat

Before fully committing to this project, I wanted to see if I could actually drill a clean hole in a glass bottle.  After watching several youtube videos, I found a technique I thought might work.  I bought these diamond coated, hollow drill bits off Amazon for $15.  

 
 
The suggested technique is to run cooling water over the bottle and start the drill at a 45-degree angle till you get a small notch cut into the glass.  Then slowly work the drill into a horizontal position.  Once the vertical orientation is established, you gently rock the bit back and forth while applying light pressure letting the bit do most of the work till the hole is fully bored.  It only took about 10 minutes.  Afterwards, I had a pretty clean hole with no cracks and just a very tiny amount of chipping.  The hole is 3/16 inches in diameter, so the chipping is only noticeable in these closeup pics.  

@Keith Black wants me to try and fit the ship thru this hole, but I’m not even going to try! 


 
 


 
 
I got some small, flickering LEDs from Amazon that run on a 9-volt battery.  One or maybe 2 of these will go inside the fireball to bring it to life.  

 
 
 
Here’s the LED wire extending thru the hole and out the bottom of the bottle.  When the time comes, I will be making the epoxy resin water a dark blue to hide the wire.

 
 
 
Now that I’ve got a good hole in the bottle, we are off and running.  Here we go!!
 

I understand the problems you have experienced in establishing such a Rigging Warrant.  I was lucky enough to have that document but, as you have experienced, the implementation is a whole different issue.
 
Nice bit of research
 
Pat

Exceptional work , especially as Eberhard points out, this is mostly done with hand tools .
Very much enjoying your build log.
 
Cheers
 
Pat

Exceptional work , especially as Eberhard points out, this is mostly done with hand tools .
Very much enjoying your build log.
 
Cheers
 
Pat

Your work with hand-tools is admirable!

Turnbuckle, cathead, bollard.
Made of brass, acrylic, polystyrene.