Glen McGuire

1 hour ago, GrandpaPhil said:

That’s Griswold the Blacksmith.  

A blacksmith supervising a card model build?  What could possibly go wrong?  🔥🔥🔥

You are a brave man, Phil!!

On 5/3/2024 at 11:15 AM, hollowneck said:

Brilliant, Glen.

I also like your branding of "Star M" on the spooky cedar branch. You Texans sure know how to identify your stuff!

Mahalo, Ron!!  Yes, some folks call it a Texas Tattoo! 
I appreciate you following along.  🤙!!! 

 

 

On 5/3/2024 at 11:20 AM, Scottish Guy said:

Thank you guys for allowing me as well being part of your conversations.

Thanks for following along, Micha!  Your comments were greatly appreciated and I sincerely hope that you take part in all my future builds!

 

 

On 5/3/2024 at 11:25 AM, Landlubber Mike said:

Love the details, especially that little penguin!

Thanks, Mike!  And yes, I finally caved to the pressure and found a way to get a penguin in the bottle.  No doubt they will now want a polar bear or Canadian rat or something in the next one! 😁

 

 

On 5/3/2024 at 11:30 AM, gsdpic said:

Wow, the cedar root really takes this project up a notch, especially with the branding that Ron pointed out.  Wonderful result, I am sure this will make a treasured gift.

Thanks, Gary.  As a fellow Austin guy, I'm sure you are way too familiar with those cedars trees!  Hope you don't suffer from the allergies like so many around here do. 

 

 

On 5/3/2024 at 11:46 AM, Keith Black said:

The darkness of the root highlights the white of ice and snow

Thanks, Keith.  I was worried about how much the poly darkened the wood, but you make a really good point about the contrast with the white ice and snow.     

 

 

23 hours ago, GrandpaPhil said:

Incredible work, Glen!

Thanks you, Phil!  Always appreciate you following along.

 

 

23 hours ago, Paul Le Wol said:

Glen, congratulations on completing your Ghost Ship Jenny.

Thank you, Paul!  And many thanks for following along.

 

 

23 hours ago, Canute said:

Well done. The root ball really sets off the frozen Jenny. 👍

Thanks, Ken!  I appreciate you being part of this project.

 

 

23 hours ago, Knocklouder said:

Good luck on your next journey, what ever that may be. 

Thanks, Bob!  Not sure about the next one yet but hopefully something will come to mind soon.  In the meantime, I'll enjoy checking out you and Captain Marvin on your dual builds!  

 

 

20 hours ago, Coyote_6 said:

Nicest gift one could imagine!  Great work and artistry sir!

Thank you so much, Steve!  I'm really anxious to see my niece's reaction to it (she knows nothing about it yet).

 

 

19 hours ago, gjdale said:

I’m sure the recipient of this one will be absolutely delighted.

Thanks, Grant!  Same comment as above to Steve!!

 

 

19 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Literally took my breath away.   

 

19 hours ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

Your Jenny is stunning - in the best sort of way!

Thank you so much, Mark and Johnny!  I'm always grateful to hove y'all following along on these projects.

 

 

15 hours ago, BANYAN said:

There I go and not pay close attention to the forum and you sneak another wonderful build under my nose - how dare you!   I don't know how I missed the log. At least it gave me some interesting reading when I found it today (only a month late but I'll put that down to encroaching 'old fella' symptoms). Great to see that you were able to satisfy all those 'stalkers and their penguins' in this build log  .

Hey Pat!  So glad you found this but I certainly did miss your excellent commentary and suggestions along the way.  I've grown accustomed to them on my build logs!  However, as I mentioned to Landlubber Mike above, I don't think the "stalkers" (LOL!) are going to be satisfied with that one tiny penguin!

 

 

1 hour ago, FriedClams said:

A very difficult subject to model but it came out great.  

Thank you so much, Gary!  And thank for following along!

Dang!  That's 2 pieces of great news for us.  Maggie is making a wonderful recovery and you are fixing to get back to work on the Tennessee.  That's an even better update than I was hoping for!

I just went thru this build log from start to finish.  What an incredible journey, Gary, with the destination being a true work of art.  Congratulations on overcoming a myriad of challenges and producing such a beautiful model!    

The Ghost Ship Jenny is complete!  Before I get to the final update, I want to give sincere thanks to everyone that followed along on this short but entertaining journey:  @Keith Black, @Knocklouder, @Ian_Grant, @gsdpic, @gjdale, @Scottish Guy, @FriedClams, @Canute, @Javelin, @mtaylor, @GrandpaPhil, @Thukydides, @Bryan Woods, @JacquesCousteau, @John Fox III, @hollowneck, @Landlubber Mike, @ccoyle, @Coyote_6, @BLACK VIKING, @CiscoH, @Rik Thistle, @Ryland Craze, @Paul Le Wol, @Mike Y.  I can never thank y'all enough for your support, suggestions, critiques, and humor!

 

Now the final update.  To finish up the Jenny, I wanted to mount the bottle on something that would look a bit spooky, maybe a little eerie - something that would add to the mystique of a ghost ship.  A while back, I found this root ball from a fallen cedar tree that looked cool (actually a juniper tree, but we call them cedars in Austin).  I kept it knowing that I’d eventually find a use for it.  

The bottle and the root ball turned out to be a perfect match.  The root ball rests stable and level on its side, and the bottle fits right in between the “tines” of the roots.   The cedar wood is very hard, weather resistant, and lasts forever.  They are commonly used for barbed wire fence posts around here.  However, they will still flake off strands of thin bark so I decided to seal the surface, trying to keep as much of the natural color as possible.  I ended up doing a 50/50 mix of Minwax semi-gloss poly and thinner.  The mix kept the poly from darkening the wood too much and allowing the natural variations to show through.

Here’s the completed project.

 

Job well done, Bob!  You are a helluva lot better at ship modeling than you give yourself credit for!

Let Captain Marvin know that Choco Taco and I are on board and ready for the action!  Let's Git R Dun!!!

1 hour ago, Knocklouder said:

Maybe I should start a ship while the paint drys lol.

Best MSW comment of the year!!!  🤣🤣🤣

4 hours ago, FriedClams said:

Perhaps I'm a simpleton, but I find this extraordinary.  To be honest, I thought this was going to be an interesting but ho-hum visual event, but when it went dark and I took off the glasses to see where the sun had gone, I was mesmerized.

Count me as a simpleton too, Gary!  I was also mesmerized even though most of the eclipse, including the 90 seconds of totality here in Austin, was obscured by clouds.  Your pictures are fascinating.

 

As for your build, superb work and detail as always.  I particularly like how the ageing on your bulkhead planking turned out.  So well done!

Congratulations on a fantastic build, Bob!  She looks truly magnificent.  Job well done.  

 

And Choco Taco gives it 2 wings up and says he can't wait to see it in next year's NRG calendar!!  

Looking better and better!!

Another option might be breaking the the top pieces of each of your 2 layers in half (at slightly different lengths to maintain the randomness of the edges).  This would thin out the existing layers and give you 4 layers (or steps if you will) of roughly equal thickness. 

5 hours ago, Keith Black said:

Grant, scratch the penguins.  

As Lee Corso would say, "NOT SO FAST, MY FREIND"  

 

And welcome aboard @gjdale!  Always glad to have you along for the ride!

 

Well, I got the Jenny inside the bottle without incident, although I did have to shave off a slight bit of ice from one spot on the bulwarks to get her to fit. As usual, I left no room for error.  After the glue was set and Jenny was firmly ensconced into her new home, I raised the masts, untangled the sails, and haphazardly tied off the ends of the running rigging I had left loose.   

 

And then it happened. 

 

I left the Jenny unattended overnight, woke up this morning, and found THIS inside the bottle.

   

 

 

I scoured the house to see if there were any others planning on joining the invasion, but didn't find any.  So I'm pretty sure it's just a lone renegade.  I'll leave the stopper off the bottle in case it changes its mind and wants to get out.  

 

Here's what the whole thing looks like now.  Still working on the final presentation.

 

 

On 4/20/2024 at 4:08 PM, Javelin said:

Do you consider adding another layer of epoxy/water to submerge part of you icebergs? 

Or is too late in the build to consider that? 

Hey Javelin.  It's definitely too late, but I actually did think about that earlier.  I quickly dismissed the idea because of what I saw the epoxy resin do in my 2 previous builds (as well as your sea installer project).  If you recall, as the epoxy resin cures it tends to crawl up edges that it's in contact with.  As small as my icebergs are, I was afraid the resin would crawl all the way up to the top edges of the icebergs and look terrible.  Most iceberg pictures I found had a pretty sharp distinction at the water's edge, so I wanted to match that look

 

On 4/20/2024 at 4:08 PM, Javelin said:

Love what you did with the ship. Difficult not to overdo the ice effects, but you clearly managed to make it work. 

Totally agree.  I started off with a just little bit of ice and frost in various places around the ship and then kept adding small bits at a time.  I finally forced myself to stop and say "good enough" to keep from going overboard.

 

 

5 hours ago, Knocklouder said:

The Rock is in site  😎. 

I was actually at Plymouth Rock back in Feb.  Here's is your destination!

 

 

You did a superb job on your Mayflower, Bob.  The sails and rigging, in particular, look top notch.  I bet Captain Marvin is secretly smiling behind that scowl!  

That is an interesting discussion on the true color of icebergs!  Having never been closer than 8000 miles or so to a real iceberg, I can only go by what I see in pictures found on the internet.  So I sincerely appreciate any insight or opinion on how to make my SIB more true to life.  This is especially true for colors, where I struggle with the artistic side of things.     

 

Personally, I believe it's hard to say there's a "true" color for any object you see outside.  So much depends on the ambient lighting, angle, reflections, etc, (not to mention the quality of the eyes looking at the object).  I can be right next to someone and argue with them about the color of a car we're both standing next to. 

 

It's also interesting to think about how people who look at my icebergs will judge them.  People like Keith, who have actually seen and even been on the ice will judge them against what they've seen in real life.  People like Micah (and me) have to judge them against what we've see in various pictures.  At the end of the day, as long as both types of people think, "ok, those look like icebergs", it's mission accomplished!                

Really coming together nicely, Steven!

21 hours ago, Thukydides said:

One thing you can experiment with next time is putting even more blue in the shadows. If you look at icebergs in real life they look bluer in the shadowed lower portions and whiter on the top.

 

I hear you, Thukydides.  However...

As Gary (a.k.a. @gsdpic) suggested, I made an effort at giving the ice bergs a very slight tint of blue.   @Thukydides also gave me an idea with his suggestion of using inks/pigments instead of paint to color the varnish.  I did not have any pigments on hand but I've got a bunch of epoxy resin dye.  I thought it might work, so I gave it a try and was really pleased with the results.  The pic below shows a tinted berg next to an untinted berg.  It's hard to see much difference from the pic, but in real life it is more noticeable, just barely, which is what I wanted.

 

So big thanks to Gary and Thukydides for their suggestions.  

 

 

Next, here's the dummy ship in place with all the bergs in formation, followed by the bergs going inside the bottle. 

 

I think the 2nd pic does a better job of showing the slight bluish tint.  

 

 

And here's the icy tomb complete, patiently awaiting it's sea-faring sarcophagus.

 

 

Sorry, @Knocklouder, no penguin or longhorn "tracks" in my pristine ice!!  😃😃

 

Another unique and interesting subject!  I will enjoy watching this come to life.

10 minutes ago, Scottish Guy said:

Any suggestions about a nice wooden three-masted model? Most ones I can find are two-masted...

I have a pretty dismal knowledge of kits (I've only done 1 and it was a square-sailed steam yacht).  I would suggest posting that question on the "Discussion for Ship's Plans and Nautical Research.  General Research on Specific Vessels and Ship Types" forum on the MSW home page.  I'm certain you would get a lot of responses from the MSW community.

1 hour ago, Scottish Guy said:

So with all that uncertainty I could chose somehow any three mast schooner to "create" my own "Jenny"?

That's the great thing about a subject like this - whatever you choose to do, nobody can prove you are wrong!  

10 minutes ago, Thukydides said:

You could also try inks.

What kind of inks are you talking about?  Do you have a product name as an example?

1 hour ago, gsdpic said:

Do you plan to add any tinges of color to the icebergs?  Maybe a tiny bit of brown/tan and some blue or blue/green?

Yes, Gary.  I'm experimenting with adding a touch of Tamiya clear blue to some gloss varnish to see if I can get a good look.  The Tamiya clear blue is sort of translucent and I'm hoping it will give me just the slightest hint of blue while maintaining the shine of the gloss varnish.   I've got lots of leftover icebergs to play around with!

 

 

22 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

What do you mean you have no experience seeing melting in Texas? There's cars at red lights and pedestrians at crosswalks turned to puddles and billboard signs slumped over like a bad souffle. 

I was talking about snow melt, but you are right, Keith.  My choco taco used to last about 30 seconds in August heat before it was making a puddle on the sidewalk!

 

1 hour ago, Knocklouder said:

I can't help but ask, what is the name of your new assistant manager  🤔. 

That's assistant manager Choco Taco named in memory of one of my favorite freezer treats that was tragically discontinued a few years ago.

 

 

57 minutes ago, Scottish Guy said:

May I ask where you found the plans / patterns for the boat?

Hey Micah!  I was not able to find any plans or any information about the actual ship, other than it was a 3-masted schooner.   I'm not surprised you couldn't find it in a ship register since there's some doubt if it's a real story or urban legend of the sea.  The best write-up that I could find for Jenny's story is here:  https://puzzleboxhorror.com/ghost-ship-jenny-the-frozen-crew/  (although the picture used at the beginning is obviously not a 3-masted schooner).

 

With all that uncertainly, I figured I had plenty of artistic license when creating the ship.  So I ended up making sort of a composite build using pics and plans from three different 3-masted schooners - the sail plan (more or less) from the William Ashburner, the sheer plan from the James Miller, and the deck fittings and rigging from the Oosterschelde.  I agree that it would make an interesting subject for a scaled diorama.  Let me know if you decide to take it on!