Glen McGuire

What is that? Sorry for all the dumb questions, but I do not know any of the terminology for these large industrial vessels.

This is the small structure I was talking about. Not sure what it's called.

Nice work, Roel. What is that small structure made from and how did you make the windows?

That is a work of art, Bob! So well done!!

That's a beautiful model. Well done, Phil!

Nice repair work on that damaged hole. A chef friend of mine once told me there's nothing more dangerous than a dull knife!

That made me laugh! Very appropriate saying for this one, Pat! And thank you to everyone for your kind comments regarding how the project turned out. I greatly appreciate all of y'all. As for the next one, the Essex is certainly an intriguing idea. There's probably a lot that could be done with that ship and story. And I'm having a hard time getting Gary's suggestion (having a whale boat glued upside down to the inside of the bottle) out of my mind. But the next project may be a more standard SIB in nature. A local restaurant (very high-end chop house) has asked me to do an SIB that will be the centerpiece decoration for their "Mayor's Room". We are still working out the details on what they would like the project to be. I'm getting the impression that they may want something a little more traditional than my usual stuff, but we will see. Regardless, I'm really looking forward to creating something that they are happy with and will be a complement their fine establishment.

Where do you come up with cool things like this and why have you not told me about it before!! That looks perfect for my SIBs - a heckuva lot better than the pencil lines I've been drawing for a deck plank look. Oh, and by the way, what a cool project you are working on, Mike! Can't wait to see how you present it in a diorama (with a hanging locomotive I hope)! The Seishu Maru looks like the type of industrial vessel that @Javelin might model, albeit a vintage one.

Yessiree! Thanks for the tag, Bob. I'm on board and ready to watch the action. Looks like you are off to a nice start, Kenny. Now you know why I do all my SIB hulls in laminated layers. Learned it from this kit.

I got all the wires soldered together and the connectors connected to the switch. The last step was mounting the bottle on the base. The bottle is flask-shaped, but the sides are curved so it does not lie on it's side with any stability. Also, it's got kind of a female body shape with a gentle waistline in the middle. After more hand-wringing, I decided to mount the bottle on a "black sand beach". The thought was that I could push the bottle slightly into the sand and it would conform and adhere to the side of the bottle providing stability to the mount. For my black sand beach, I used a mixture of aquarium sand and Mod Podge. After a day, the Mod Podge dried clear and provided a solid adhesion to the bottle and the base, I also made a nameplate and attached to the front which you can see in the final pics below. But before I post those final pics, I want to give a sincere thank you to everyone that participated in the fun expedition. Whether you read every post of just popped in on occasion, I greatly appreciate you being part of the journey from idea to completed project. So a huge THANK YOU to @Keith Black, @Ian_Grant, @Coyote_6, @Snug Harbor Johnny, @Knocklouder, @Javelin, @KennyH78, @Canute, @Bryan Woods, @Baker, @gjdale, @gsdpic, @Paul Le Wol, @BANYAN, @JacquesCousteau, @SaltyScot, @GrandpaPhil, @John Fox III, @popeye2sea, @hollowneck, @tmj, @CiscoH, @FriedClams, @Desertanimal, @ccoyle, @BLACK VIKING, @Siggi52, @robdurant, @Landlubber Mike, @Kauz, @Kenchington. Here are the final pictures: And here's the same in low light: What you can't see in the still shots is that I used a flickering LED inside the fireball. So if you want to see what that looks like, here's a 15 second video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQxOmC4wIFM. And with that, this fun ride comes to a close. Thank you again for all your comments, help, humor, and inspiration! It's an amazing community we have here in MSW.

Agree with Paul!

Nice job with the crow's feet, Bob. Much better looking than the ones on my face!

Of course the best part of "In the Heart of the Sea" was the fact that Nickerson was a ship in bottle guy, right? Although his years of emotional scars seemed to drive him to that devotion. For me, I think it's working in the opposite direction! 😵‍💫 After a couple of lessons in electronics from @Ian_Grant (thank you, Ian!), I figured out my wiring and power supply (8 x AA batteries). The challenge then became how to incorporate it into an interesting base that would hide everything from view (at least from one side). After much gnashing of teeth, I decided to try a small wooden serving tray and flip it upside down. The depth of the tray was just big enough to hide the battery pack. Here's a shot of the tray after carving a slot for the battery pack. The tray is right side up in the pic, but upside down for my usage. Next, a small slot for the on/off switch. I also added the pedestal that the serving tray is attached to. It's a section of a small cedar tree trunk that I cut down at the ranch (smells really nice!). I built a crude compartment for the battery pack to slide into and added a rope wrapping around the edge of the tray. You can also see the yellow wire disappearing into a hole in the pedestal that leads thru a hole in the tray. And here's what it looks like from the backside. A bit messy, but hopefully will look better from the opposite viewing side.

Somehow I forgot to hit the Follow button when you kicked things off. I'm caught up and fully on board now. You've made a lot of progress in just a couple of weeks. I like the way you layered the pieces of the hull with different thicknesses to create the side openings. Well done. She is really starting to take shape and looking like the real thing. The fly screen looks perfect for the supporting structure of the carousel. Again, well done. However, I'm having a hard time getting a grip on how large (or small) she is. For your next post, can you put something next to her that helps visualize the scale?

I'm late but ready for another interesting build, Keith. You never disappoint!