Glen McGuire

You did more than well, Steve. She looks splendid! Congratulations on such fine work.

Looking real nice so far, Phil!

Those sleds look fantastic, Harvey.

I agree, Steve. Nice touch. You are doing fine work.

Marvelous work, Phil! Congratulations on completing a beautiful scratch model.

Brilliant work, Paul. Each new post is somehow more impressive than the previous one. Wow.

I like the red much better. Really eye-catching!

Thanks for the health update, Pat. So glad to hear that you are all clear. Full speed ahead with your Victoria!!

She looks great in her new home. Well done, Bob!!

I agree with John and Bob that printing on paper and then applying would be a good solution. You've got 2 different fonts to deal with and the lettering on the original has sharp lines which will be hard to duplicate freehand at this small scale, especially the serif font of the "Pittsburgh, PA". I believe you could easily create a graphic with the lettering on slightly weathered/off-white background for printing. You could even add that faint dividing line that runs thru BILLY if you wanted to get crazy! I'm also wondering what causes those wrinkles near the top. It almost looks like a stretched canvas that's not quite tight enough - like how my bed looks after I put the sheets on it! That's the cool thing about these projects of yours - trying to figure out what's going on by just studying these old photos.

Swigging and rigging. Does it get any better than that?

She looks fantastic, Gary. Superb craftsmanship. Congratulations on a fine build!

She came out really nice, Roel. I'm astounded as to how fast you were able to create such a detailed model like that from scratch in such a short amount of time. Well done.

Looking good, Kenny. Your paint job on those tiny cannons was well done.

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!