Glen McGuire

Glad to see you back at work, Roel!

Pile has been in contact with me inquiring about bottles for Bob's next project.

That is so awesome, Bryan. What wonderful and well deserved sentiments expressed in the card. Hats off to you!

Not that I am biased, but I think it's time for another SIB!! Your Golden Hind is a beauty. You get better and better with each build!

Yes. But I certainly would not make any conclusions based on my opinion!

Add one more to that list!

Instead of plastic wrap, you might try wax paper. It's easier to handle than thin plastic wrap. That's what I use for similar applications. Regardless, great job on those sails, JC! They really look nice.

Late to the party, but I'm here for the grand finish. Nice work so far. You've done a great job, Bob!

Those barrels are tiny, indeed, and look near impossible to drill out. I use veterinary needles (intended for cattle) for my very small SIB cannon barrels. They are cheap and come in a variety of gauges/thicknesses. Something to consider if you want that hollow cannon barrel look. Although the one on deck above looks to have a bit of a taper, which the vet needles do not have.

Thank you, Keith! But this SIB will not be going north. She will be making her home on a beautiful 250 acre hill country ranch about an hour west of Austin. I built this one for an old college roommate that wanted something special to give to his wife for a milestone birthday.

The final vote tally was 26 - 2 in favor of the rock. Voters included all you fine people here on MSW as well as assorted family and friends. Thank you for helping me make a difficult decision. Now, about the other suggestions: I'm going to side with Keith on this one. I think the picture that I took distorts the depth perception somewhat and makes that front left part of the rock look more prominent than it really is. If you saw it in person, Roel, I believe you would like it as is. Regarding the moss at the base of the driftwood - as I mentioned above, I really liked that idea. And I also agreed with those of you that suggested it did not need much, just a touch of color to help with the transition. So I used some fake grass leftover from my Archimedes' Claw build and put a few mossy patches around the roots. I didn't think it was quite enough, so I stole some green stuff from a neighbor that does floral arrangements. It's a little bushier than the moss, but I don't think it went overboard. I also did one other thing to help with the visual. In the previous pics, I thought the top surface of the bonsai driftwood looked too much like a mushroom with the bottle balancing on top rather than resting in a cradle like I had envisioned. So I did some pruning on the backside and added some supporting branches at the ends to flatten out the support structure. Here are the final pics: Here's a better angle showing the flattened cradle: Up close and personal with the greenery: Other assorted angles:

Closing out the build log here. My son and I delivered the ship to Carson last night. All the pressure was on my son as he had to hold the model in his lap and not let anything happen to it while I drove the truck. We got it to Carson's house safe and sound (whew!) where he surprised me with two very nice bottles of rum - Chairman's Reserve from St. Lucia and Holmes Cay single cask from Guyana. I thought @BANYAN's Bundy was potent at 37% alcohol by volume but the Holmes Cay is 60%. Whoa! Gonna have to be careful with that one. Now I've got rum from dang near every corner of the world! I just wish I could share a tipple with all of y'all that took part in this fun journey over the past 8 months. Thank you again!

Javelin, always asking the tough questions! 😃 The answer is that I'm working on it. I really like the idea, so we will see if I can come up with something that looks decent. Thanks to @Thukydides for the original suggestion and the others that seconded it.

Despite a few absentee votes remaining to be counted, the Associated Press has called the race and declared victory for the rock in a landslide! Full disclosure - the rock was my first choice and I was already drilling holes into it to secure the driftwood when the idea for the Zen garden popped into my mind. So I had to explore it. But I guess the golfers are right when they say, "first sight is usually right." Thank you to everyone for not only your vote, but also for including a reason. Everyone looks at something (especially something artistic) from their own unique perspective and I found it fascinating to hear how each of you viewed the 2 different presentations.

Fabulous work, Paul. The lines are so clean. Very pleasing to look at.