Glen McGuire
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@Landlubber Mike Thanks, Mike! Your comment about the main mast just made me realize I got VERY lucky with it not banging into the inside top of the bottle. My original plan had the ship sitting lower in the water leaving plenty of room for the mast height. However, when I had to go to plan B and glue the ship to a base on top of the water, I knew the ship would sit higher and the mast might be too tall when I raised it. So I planned on snipping off a couple of mm from the top of the mast to make sure it fit. Then I went on vacation. When I got back and resumed work on the project, I got so excited about trying to get the ship back in the bottle, I completely forgot about snipping off the top of the mast! Since it ended up fitting okay, I didn't even think about it till I read your comment just now. So I just went back and looked at it. And wow! It BARELY fits! It's hard to tell exactly when you are looking thru the glass, but I bet there's no more than a mm of clearance if that much. I definitely dodged a bullet there! -
And now it was time for the rematch! Man vs Model. The score was Model - 1, Man - 0, but I was determined to even the score after the debacle a couple of weeks ago. I bought some Loctite Extra Time epoxy. This gave me an hour to spread the epoxy on the base, mash the ship, insert it into the bottle, lower it on the base, remove the tool, and adjust the ship to its final position. And.......everything worked to perfection. WHEW!!! RELIEF!!! Deep breath. Immediate lowering of blood pressure. Ahhhhhhhhh. It took about 20 minutes from mixing the epoxy to getting the ship in its final position as shown in the 1st pic. After letting the epoxy dry overnight, I pulled the strings to raise the masts, yards and sails. Then I tied it all off and snipped the thread. Next step is making a display base that hopefully will do justice to all the hard work and frazzled nerves! New score is Man - 1, Model - 1.
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OK. I took my lumps (and a vacation) and got back in the game this week. The first thing I decided to do was add some white highlights to the water to show some churn at the stern and some scattered whitecaps elsewhere. I had to reconfigure one of my paintbrushes to reach all the necessary spots inside the bottle as shown in the 1st pic. My tool for lowering the ship onto the base is shown in the 2nd pic. It's the 2 square wooden poles that came in the kit, but I added some carefully bent brass rods to go around the hull. It basically holds the ship up by the shroud channels.
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And the agony of defeat... The moment of truth was here. Could I get the ship in the bottle and placed in the right spot in the ocean? I got the ship in the bottle just fine. My tool for holding the ship worked perfectly and I was able to position the ship right where I wanted it - between the 2 pieces of blue painters tape in the pic below. And then things went south - in a hurry. I lowered the ship into the ocean expecting it to sit right on top of the water. Instead, the ship plopped down way too deep. The paint mixture was too thin to hold up the weight of the full ship (unlike on my practice run where it held the practice hull ok). Now I had paint way above the waterline, covering all the white of the hull, plus some spots of blue on the sails. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! My first thought was that the whole thing was ruined. But after a lengthy cussing session and resisting the urge to spike the thing on my driveway like a football in the end zone, I somehow managed to get the ship back out of the bottle. Remarkably, the ship was still in good shape other than blue paint all over where it should not be. So I cleaned it up, washed out the blue spots on the sails, and repainted the hull. Of course when I pulled the ship out, I left blue streaks of paint all over the inside on the bottle. It took a while, but I was able to get all those cleaned up as well. So time for plan B. I carved out a small wooden base matching the underside shape of the hull. Then I stuck it in the middle of the ocean where I'd been trying to place the ship hours earlier. When everything is dry and solid, I'll lay some epoxy on the base and then drop the ship onto it.
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The thrill of victory... Today was the day I planned to get the ocean in the real bottle and get the ship in the bottle. For the ocean, I used the 3 thick acrylic paint products in the first pic (mixed roughly 1-1-1). I squeezed the ocean in the bottle without making a big freakin mess like I did on the practice bottle. I used long wooden handled Q-tips to push the ocean around inside the bottle. I used more of the same Q-tips to swirl the ocean around for waves. It came out looking pretty much like I had hoped.
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On to the water. My water is a mix of acrylic paint and medium gloss gel. I did a small test last week where I put a dab of the mixture on a small pane of glass and then pushed a small wooden practice hull into it. After drying, the mixture adhered to the glass really well and the hull was quite secure. So now all I had to do was figure out the best way to get the water into the bottle. Thankfully I decided to do a test run on a scrap bottle. I filled a plastic squeeze bottle with the paint/gloss gel mixture and attached a long piece of surgical tube to the bottle's nipple (since I would need to reach all the way to the back end the bottle). Then I stuck the tube into the bottle and started squeezing. Things worked nicely at first. But after I had gotten some of the mixture in the bottle, things clogged up a bit. So I squeezed harder. Then harder. Then harder. Then BLAP!! The clog gave way and I splattered my water all over the back end of the scrap bottle (2nd pic below). This would have been impossible to clean up in the real bottle. Fortunately, this was only a test. So I finished putting my water in the scrap bottle, swirled it around a bit for waves, and place another practice hull in the middle of it. I like the way it looks. I've just got to figure out a safer way to get my water in the bottle. Things don't always go smoothly with this hobby, do they!
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I did a test smash to see if I could get the ship into the bottle opening without breaking or bending anything. It's kind of like trying to fold a fitted sheet, there's just no good, smooth way to do it. But I got it in pretty far so I think I'm good from that standpoint. Now whether or not it will stay in the little insertion tool I made, we will see about that when it's really game time.
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@gjdale Hey Grant - your CA idea for threading worked perfectly and helped speed things up for me. Thanks for the tip! The ship is complete. Now I just gotta get up the nerve to mash it all down and see if it's going to fit inside the bottle opening. I will give that a try and if it looks like it's going to work, I'll start on the water effects.
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@Landlubber Mike Thanks, Mike. The more sails and stuff I install on the ship the smaller that bottle opening looks. Is it cheating to go buy a bigger bottle? 😲
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Hello from Texas Longhorn Country
Glen McGuire replied to Glen McGuire's topic in New member Introductions
@DelF Thanks for sending that link about the English Longhorns. Very interesting info! I have what they call around here a gentleman's herd - only 4 and they are really pets rather than beef cattle for production. Sometimes referred to as yard art. -
I continue to make slow progress with the rigging. Getting the thread thru such tiny holes is a challenge to say the least. I'm using Guttermann all-purpose thread for the standing and running rigging which is small enough for all the holes but just barely. If I had to do it over again, I think I would drill out the holes just a bit more before putting anything together. Too late now, as I'm not letting a spinning drill bit get anywhere near this ship! Some times I can get it thru ok but other times it just won't work. So my last resort is to put a dot of CA glue on the end of the thread, glue it to the end of a #78 drill bit, and push it thru the hole hoping the thread stays attached (see pic). It works, but is a pain. Got a couple more sails strung up plus the shrouds. I'm also making an attempt to add ratlines to the shrouds. For the ratlines, I'm using the white thread that came with the kit because it's slightly thinner than the thread I'm using elsewhere. It's about the same color as the sails so the ratlines are hard to see in the pic below. I'm using fabric glue to attach the ratlines to the shrouds. The spaces are way too tiny for any kind of knot that I could tie. Will the ratlines survive when I wad everything up to put the ship in the bottle? Who knows. The sea around my ship might be littered with tiny little bits of thread. If I get lucky maybe they will look like whitecaps!
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Hello from Texas Longhorn Country
Glen McGuire replied to Glen McGuire's topic in New member Introductions
@Jim Lad I think you are right! Maybe Surly Ernie? -
Hello from Texas Longhorn Country
Glen McGuire replied to Glen McGuire's topic in New member Introductions
@DelF Those are beautiful animals, Derek! I had no idea there was an English version of longhorns. The one on the right in your picture has remarkably similar coloring as my Sweet Eileen which is the one on the right in my picture. -
Thanks, Grant! I hope she comes through for you! I'd love to see what somebody with your skills could do with this project.
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Hello from Texas Longhorn Country
Glen McGuire replied to Glen McGuire's topic in New member Introductions
@bruce d Thanks for the welcome, Bruce. But I gotta tell you, my babies below DO NOT like to hear anyone saying that word BBQ!!!
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Hello from Texas Longhorn Country
Glen McGuire replied to Glen McGuire's topic in New member Introductions
@Louie da fly Thank you, Steven and thanks for the welcome! -
Hello from Texas Longhorn Country
Glen McGuire replied to Glen McGuire's topic in New member Introductions
@Laggard Not only do we lose to OU every year, now we get to lose to Bama every year too! I think OU will do a lot better in the SEC than we will and I think I'll be building a lot of ships during football season from now on. ☹️ Regardless, thanks for the welcome!! -
OK. I may have gone off the deep end here but I blame it on all of y'all in this forum and your amazing build logs. Rather than leave well enough alone, I decided to add some rope hanks along the inside of the bulwarks. I'm not sure any of these extras will even be visible once the ship is in the bottle and all the sails are up but what the heck, right? Also got the flying jib sail hung. Wow, this rigging job is tedious!
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@Keith Black Thanks, Keith! I can't wait to see what you do with the Alabama when you get started. I'm gonna grab a front row seat for that build!
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Finally finished the sails and got them looking like I wanted. I also tied the yards, gaffs and boom to the masts and then attached the masts to the deck hinges. The instructions say to "solder" the ends of the threads instead of tying knots (to avoid an excessive # of knots). I did not like that idea. If one of the soldered ends gave way when the ship is in the bottle and I'm raising the masts, adjusting the yards, etc., it would be game over. So I tied knots and dabbed with a tiny amount of glue. I actually threaded each junction twice for some added strength.
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@Louie da fly Hey Steven - Thanks for the comments and the suggestions. I have not heard of silkspan before. I will definitely investigate that for future builds. Appreciate the education on the rigging as well. As for that build of the Victoria, OMG, thanks for sending the link. That is almost beyond my comprehension! I also took a bit of time and looked thru your log of the Henry Grace rebuild. What a truly fascinating project (and story). And some very interesting things you've done like using a 3D printer for custom deadeyes. Your sails are simply amazing. I will be checking back in on that one.
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I was also looking at some pictures of a few larger, non-SIB models of the Hannah. I noticed that some of them had a lifeboat stored between the steps going up to the quarterdeck. So I decided to see if I could carve out a tiny one to add to my Hannah. I took the wooden base from the kit (since I'm not planning on using it) and made a very primitive looking lifeboat. But unless you are looking at it with a camera zoom or a big magnifying glass, you don't really see how crude it is! You can't really tell it from the picture, but the brown matches the color of the bulwarks, so it's got the same color scheme as the ship itself. OK, back to the sails...
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