Glen McGuire

Next up is the very elaborate and high-rising stern structure. The goal is to have something that in some way resembles this: The structure causes the stern to be way too tall to fit thru the bottle's neck, so it will be built as a sub-assembly and installed after the ship is in the bottle. In fact, it will actually be 2 separately built sub-assemblies. The first will contain the sidewalls and stern wall as well as the deck behind the mizzen mast. The second will be the 2 balconies and their decking that protrude in front of the mizzen mast. The 2nd sub-assembly must also be added after insertion because it would get in the way of the main mast when it is folded to stern. Nothing complicated about the build process - just carving and sanding a number of tiny pieces and fitting them together. Test fit of the first piece. Once I was happy with the fit, I added the side railings, curved stern railing, and some other things to give a hint of the stern area decorative elements from the real thing. Also, you can see that I did a bit more carving to the descending side wall to make it look more like the real thing.

That's a reasonable suggestion, Keith. However, I spent such a ridiculous amount of time getting the hull color the way I wanted, there's no way I would paint over it. Plus, the railing is so small I figured that if I could get a fairly close match to the hull color, it would not be noticeable. Hmmm. If I agreed to put a penguin on the build, it must have been the Bundy rum talking. I am not responsible for any typing done under the influence of @BANYAN's Aussie firewater.

Such a unique subject and very well executed. Congratulations, Keith!

She's my hunka hunka burning love, Keith! The next task is to try and create something that resembles the railing on the bow. I went to a dear friend's wedding in Philly last summer and they were handing out little fans because the temps were a bit warm. The 90 degree weather felt like a nice fall afternoon for me but I took a fan anyway. Then I noticed the ribs were made of super-thin bamboo, so I kept it knowing I'd find a good use for it. The ribs are 0.4mm in thickness which I thought might work well for the railing. For the 2 curved portions of the railing, it's way too small and frail to try and bend, so I took a diamond crusted grinding bit and gently carved it to shape. It's shaved down to about 0.5mm in the 2nd pic below. The vertical sections of the railing were pretty much specks that were difficult to pick up and put in place even with my finest point tweezers. Here's the railing in place.. It's here where I realized I should not have painted the hull yet. It was a varying mix of 4 different colors plus some thinner to get the look I wanted, but now I needed to match it and unfortunately, I didn't pay much attention to how I mixed things earlier. So I did my best to get a match. I will have the same problem when I build the tall, rising back end of the ship.

Coming along very nicely, Mark!

I'd say the blind hog found a 5 gallon bucker full of acorns. The whole build is fantastic. Well done, Keith!

That's hard to believe that it's your first big planking job, Kenny. Looks like the work of a seasoned pro.

On to the mast and yards. Again I start with bamboo toothpicks since I have to drill small holes for the pull threads and the shrouds. Here are the mast sections. I already hinged the lower masts using a crude version of the hidden hinge method that I borrowed from @John Fox III. I've covered that in several previous build logs so I won't go into detail here. For the mast tops, I take another bamboo stir stick and shave it down to about .5 mm and square off the sides. Then I carve out a hole in the middle, drill tiny holes for the upper shrouds, and cut them to shape. Here are the masts fully assembled.

Your cabins are looking sharp, Paul. Nice work. Also, what is this thing you are using as a weight?

Another ingenious use of Lego blocks! Hadn't seen that one before.

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.

Nice use of Legos, Phil!

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? 😄

You are right on both counts, Ken. They work great in my Dremel drill press and are also very brittle. If I drop one from more than an inch above my workbench it breaks. Or if I do anything more than push it exactly straight in and straight out, it breaks. But with careful use they work great.

Just noticed the link to this build in your signature. I'm on board. Looks like another AWESOME project! But I couldn't help but think of poor ol' neglected Tennessee...