Glen McGuire

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.

I'd been waiting for a couple of weeks for the last piece of the puzzle to complete the construction. While the instructions do not call for a bell, most Constitution models I've seen have one secured to the main mast. I ordered one from BlueJacket which I thought would be the right size. It was advertised on their website as simply 1/4". I didn't know if that was height, bell diameter, etc, and the picture on the website was a drawing and not an actual picture. But I figured it would be pretty close to what I needed. Here's what it looked like when I got it. The size was good, but it needed some work to make it worthy of the Constitution. I started by hollowing out the interior. Then I inserted a brass nail (leftover from my Mamoli CSS Alabama) for the clanger. I know it's officially called a clapper, but I think clanger is more descriptive. 😃 Next, I took some leftover brass sprues and soldered together a mounting bracket. So here's where I had to take some artistic license. From what I've seen on other Constitution models, the bell should be attached to the main mast. However, my main mast did not have room for the bell because I took up too much space with the boarding pikes. But the foremast had room, so that's where it went. Here's the bell painted and mounted on the foremast. And with that, I declare the build complete! Oh, and while waiting for the bell to arrive from BlueJacket, I did get the ship mounted onto its base. So the work here is truly done. I will post some final pics tomorrow.

I'm on board for round 3 of these unique builds! Looking forward to another interesting trip!

Nice work, JC!

Such a cool subject and so well done. Congratulations, Keith, on completing a remarkable build!

I's pretty solid so it must be the Bundaberg! They are forbidden to get near my Bundaberg. I am very stingy with it!

I did some poking around and did not find anything either, Steve. Interesting idea though.

Working on the display base now. In keeping with the Japanese theme, I wanted to have elements of Japanese culture in the display base. I had this idea of mounting the bottle on a live bonsai tree, but @landlubber gave me a quick education on bonsai trees and let me know that they should be kept primarily outdoors rather than inside sitting on a shelf. Obviously, that would not work. I tried to come up with some other ideas, but I could not get rid of the bonsai idea. So I started googling around and found that bonsai driftwood is used somewhat commonly as a decoration in aquariums and terrariums. I went on eBay and found this amazing piece that looked like it might be able to hold my bottle. It reminded me of the banyan trees you see in Maui. I bought the piece and it arrived a couple of days ago. For the bottle to rest on top, I needed to carve out a cradle. I used some flush-cutter snips and my battery Dremel-like tool to do the trick. The wood was surprisingly hard. When I first got the piece, I was almost afraid to handle it because it looked so fragile. But it is quite durable. Here's a side view of the cradle afterwards. Even with the cradle, the bottle would still be resting on the ends of small shoots or little branches or whatever you want to call them. I wasn't sure if that was enough to safely hold the bottle in place. To secure the bottle on top, I wanted to have as much surface contact of the bottle as possible. So I filled in the middle portion of the cradle with air-drying modeling clay. Here's how it looks with the bottle in place (but not glued down yet). The last piece of the puzzle is the actual base - what the bonsai piece will rest on. TBD.

Sounds like we need to start a large penguin colony here in Texas to help with our drought!

Magnificent, Keith!!

Christmas in May! Gotta love that!

That's exactly what I was thinking, Eric! I think Keith made it the perfect width.

Thank you, @JacquesCousteau, @Keith Black, @Knocklouder, @FriedClams, @GrandpaPhil, @gjdale, @BANYAN, @lraymo, @Coyote_6 for the kind words and for following along. I've got some ideas for the base that I'm messing around with, so I've still got a little ways to go on this thing. But at least the hard part is done and my blood pressure is back down to normal. Now there's an idea, Pat! I'd like to know what a tipsy longhorn would look like. Or maybe I don't! The funny thing is, Lynn, that I'm actually a very impatient person. That's probably a big reason why I do these ship in bottle projects - because I can usually get them done in 3 months or so. My mind just cannot fathom spending 3, 4, 5 plus years working on a single project like so many of the builders out here that do real ship models. Their patience astounds me!

A very interesting subject and kit, Ferrus. I've done one SIB with Chinese junk ships and have another SIB currently in work with a Japanese ship as the subject. I find the ancient Chinese and Japanese ships fun (and challenging) to build because of their unique hull shapes, deck structures, and sails. Really nice start with the weathering process of the hull. This should be a great tutorial for your friend. Looking forward to see your work here.

Whoa. Hot tub? Now that's something I definitely need to add to my shipyard!!

Agree with Keith B and Wefalck. appreciate the update and look forward to you resuming work when possible.

Oh duh! Wipe on poly. I should have figured that out since I use it frequently. 🙄 Thanks for the explanation!