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.

I just found your new build log. I'm in for the ride too!

Thank you to everyone for your comments above. Now I'm in a quandary and gotta ask for some help here. Normally, I get an idea in mind about what I want the SIB presentation to look like and I'm rock solid about it. This time, however, I'm waffling. I've got 2 ideas and I cannot decide which I like better. I keep going back and forth, so I thought I'd put it out for a vote on MSW and see which one y'all like better. For the first one, I stuck with the entire Japanese theme from top to bottom - Japanese whiskey bottle, bonsai driftwood cradle, and Japanese Zen garden base. For the second one, I swapped out the Zen garden for a natural rock base (it came from my ranch so there is no Japanese tie). So if you would be so kind, please take a moment to look at the 2 pics below and let me know which one you believe is the better presentation. Thank you for your help!

It's ridiculous how many times that happens. I'm convinced there is an invisible black hole surrounding my work area that those things fall into. Regardless, that is really nice detail you are adding. She is looking good.

I was with Eric and Wefalck at first, but the more I look at it, the less I see dinghy bow. It does look like there's a keel, but it seems to stop abruptly at the black thing. The top end of the black thing looks like it's looped around the end of the keel thing. If it's a keel, you can see the end sticking thru the black thing. That doesn't make sense to me. Could the white thing be a cover of some kind and the black thing is a tie-down? Maybe a dinghy cover? Also, the white doesn't lie flat on the slanted roof, but level with the water. I'm stumped.

I agree with JC. Very nice work on the paint job. Looks fantastic. Now about that mystery box in the background...

If anyone knows about piping, it's got to be Roel!

I've been following your build log and you are doing an incredible job on the Prince. Based on the the work I've seen, I think you'd sail thru a Constitution build just fine. And speaking of the Prince, I actually have that same kit from Constructo (won it in a raffle). Sadly, I've been poaching parts from it for my SIBs and some of this Constitution work. If I do ever get around to building it, your log will be a great resource.

Thank you so much, Steve. I just noticed you have the historic and unique 15-star flag as your profile pic. Is that a closeup of a Constitution flag? I love that quote, Mark! I had not heard of Mr. Rose so I had to look him up. And I found the entire poem, which I thought was mesmerizing: Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made, For somewhere deep in their oaken hearts the soul of a song is laid; A soul that sings with the ship along through plunging hills of blue, And fills her canvas cups of white with winds that drive her through. For how could a nail and a piece of wood, tied with a canvas thread, Become a nymph on moon-washed paths if the soul of the ship were fled? Her bosom throbs as her lover's arms clasp her in fond embrace, And the joyous kiss of briny lips is fresh on her maiden face. No storm can smother the hempen song that wells in her laughing throat— Small wonder then that men go mad for the love of the sea and a boat. For the singing sheet is a siren that tugs at the hearts of men, And down to the sea they must go once more, tho they never come back again.

As this thoroughly enjoyable adventure comes to a close, I’ve got a lot of thank you’ing to do. First of all, thanks to those directly above for your kind words. I want to give a special thanks to @Keith Black for sending me Carson’s original post on MSW requesting assistance. It has been a real pleasure working on the Constitution for these past 8 months. I have loved every minute of it (except for the ratlines 🤪). It almost makes me want to put down the bottles and do another regular ship model! But we’ll see about that. Next, I want to sincerely thank everyone in the MSW world that followed along on this build. Your advice, tips, critiques, corrections, suggestions and good humor made my work better so much better. So a huge thanks to @Knocklouder, @popeye2sea, @BANYAN, @Ian_Grant, @Coyote_6, @gjdale, @Paul Le Wol, @Bryan Woods, @Javelin, @FriedClams, @Landlubber Mike, @Canute, @SaltyScot, @Thukydides, @tmj, @hollowneck, @JacquesCousteau, @gsdpic, @lraymo, @PvG Aussie, @GrandpaPhil, @gieb8688, @Snug Harbor Johnny, @Bill Morrison, @Desertanimal, @vossiewulf, @ccoyle, @Marcus.K., @CiscoH, @KARAVOKIRIS, @Nearshore, @schooner, @Ryland Craze, @PaddyO, @SiriusVoyager, @DanB, @G.Frost, @eatcrow2, @Auger, @Paryzek, @Jolly Jo, @chris watton, @DanielD, @Zarkon. Whether you were here for each post or just popped in every now and then to have a look, I greatly appreciated your company. You helped to make the build that much more enjoyable. Next, I want to thank @xken, @usedtosail, @robnbill, @KurtH for your superb build logs. I relied on them greatly to help me understand the BlueJacket instructions and figure out some of the trickiest parts of the build. Each of your versions of the Constitution are magnificent. And finally, I want to thank Carson (a.k.a. @Robert in Austin) for entrusting me with a treasured family heirloom. His father, Hollye, was a highly skilled ship modeler and I consider it a real honor that the family allowed me to complete his work. I’ve posted a few pics below, but I believe it’s hard to capture the magnitude of the Constitution with a few snapshots. So I tried making a drone-like video tour of the model. It’s about 4 minutes long and you can view it here if you like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLITokzun78 Here are the pics: I was truly honored that Carson wanted to include my name along side his father's on the nameplate.

Welcome to MSW, Andreas! Hope you start a build log for your Virginia Schooner.