Glen McGuire

That is a possibility. I think it would present another challenge with cutting the lines as Pat mentioned, but at least I would not be reaching around the length of the ship to do it.

It does make sense, Pat and is an interesting idea. I agree with you that the hardest part would be cutting the pull thread off the bowsprit. The bottle I'm using has a very long neck and with the ship pointed towards the back would be a really long reach. Plus, it would be at a difficult angle. Cutting the threads inside the bottle is always one of the most nerve wracking things for me as I'm always afraid my razor will slip and cut other lines which would be disastrous. You may have just convinced me that I will have to raise the masts and cut the lines with the bowsprits close to the bottle's neck and then push the ships into position afterwards.

Still patching whirlpool leaks, but in between, work continues on the Black Pearl. First up were the 14 cannons for the spar deck. The barrels are 20 gauge vet needles. The carriages are made from .5mm planking strips. Next was carving the beakhead rails that extend from each side of the bow to the top of the keel. I have a hard time carving sharp angles that are so small. I use a scalpel with a fine pointed blade but it's still to big for some of the tight spaces. Next, I carved and added the knee, channels, poop deck, and quarter galleries. Finally, I gave it a paint job. Following @Old Collingwood tip, I wanted the to have something that resembled the storyline from the movie where the Pearl was set on fire and sent down to the bottom of the sea with Captain Jack Sparrow aboard. Sparrow sold his soul to Davy Jones and was allowed to raise the ship and continue his command. So the ship needed a dark look of charred wood. At the same time, I wanted to make sure there was enough color contrast between the Pearl and the dark gray Dutchman. So I made a black wash with liberal amounts of thinner (Tamiya black and acrylic thinner medium) and brushed it lightly over the hull making sure that a hint of the underlying wood color showed through. I left the deck a lighter color with some random streaks of ash color.

Proof that I have not given that subject the proper amount of thought yet. I did not really pay attention that they were sailing in opposite directions until you brought it up! So I will probably need to raise the masts first then position the ships, at least for the one sailing away from the bottle's neck. Hmmmm. Much to consider. But not just yet! That's funny about finding your piece of railroad track. At least you were smart enough not to throw it away!!

Great eye, Keith!!

OMG, I am dying!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Thanks, Roel. The way the whirlpool turned out is that there are horizontal fissures or crevasses between each layer on the outside. So that would probably make brushing anything on the outside futile. So I decided to put blobs of the clear caulk onto my prong and push it into the fissure where the big hole was, which was between the first 2 layers. I could not find any other obvious holes but I went and did the same thing for every spot that looked even a bit thin or weak. Bob had the same idea about brushing glue or something on the surface. The inside of the whirlpool is more of a uniform surface than the outside so the brushing technique might work there. I may give that a try. As far as the ships, I plan to orient them at an angle similar to the screenshot picture from the movie that I put in a previous post. That way, when viewing from the side, you will have a good look at both the ships. Here's the idea: The challenge will be how to raise the masts once each ship is inside the bottle. Do I glue the ship in place and then try and raise the masts at something near a 45 degree angle? Or do I try to raise the masts without the ships locked down (difficult) and then move them to their final position? I haven't thought that one through yet. I gotta get past a few more hurdles before I'm ready to focus on that. I don't think I've seen your piece of railroad track in any of your build logs yet! Hopefully soon!!

Thanks, Ken. No way I'm giving up on this one. It's gonna work one way or another! In the meantime, I began work on the Black Pearl. I'm building it similar to the Flying Dutchman with a layered hull, using my favorite technique for plank bending. @Keith Black - I know on your Lula build you said creating the upward sweep of the deck was a challenge. I highly recommend pieces of railroad track for the task! 😃

Breaking news - the leak test failed spectacularly. My whirlpool had more holes in it than the S.S. Minnow after its 3-hour tour. I just patched up everything I could see and more. I'll give the caulk a day to set and give her another try.

It actually reminded me of a word we have here in Austin - Dragworms. The main street that runs on the west side of the University of Texas campus is affectionately known as "The Drag". It's full of eclectic bars, shops, street vendors, etc. But it also has its share of unsavory characters that are always milling about and everyone calls them Dragworms.

Just found this build log, Phil. I'm on board for what looks like a cool project. Looking good so far!

Add a zero to that first number, Tom. Maybe 2 zeroes! I finally quite procrastinating and decided it was time to put up or shut up about the whirlpool. My small test piece looked ok outside the bottle, but you never know what's going to happen when you try replicating something inside. Here's the caulk product of choice for this adventure - DAP UltraClear. It's very sticky but mixes well with acrylic paint and dries glossy clear which makes it very suitable for water effects. Plus, it takes a loooong time to dry so doesn't put me in any kind of time crunch for a change. Here's the process of building the whirlpool inside the bottle: 1. First, I used the caulk to make a small base layer of the whirlpool. It's about the size of a quarter and colored dark, navy blue. I epoxied it to the glass base of the bottle. To give a visual of depth to the whirlpool, the plan was to start dark and move to lighter shades of blue as I got nearer the top surface. 2. Next, I added a layer of the uncolored caulk to the outer edge of the base of the whirlpool. This purpose is to glue each layer of the whirlpool together. I will refer to the uncolored caulk as "glue" going forward to distinguish it from the caulk used to make the whirlpool. 3. I am "gluing" each layer together because there cannot be any gaps between layers of the whirlpool. Otherwise, when I add the epoxy resin ocean water surrounding the whirlpool, it will seep into the whirlpool and be a disaster! 4. Next, I cut the next layer of the whirlpool into small pieces and used very long tweezers to insert them into the bottle. I positioned each piece of the new whirlpool layer on the "glue" on the outer edge of the existing layer to widen the maw of the whirlpool as it is built higher. 4. I did this one layer at a time, allowing the "glue" to dry overnight before adding the next layer of glue and pieces of the next layer of the whirlpool. 5. Rinse and repeat as the whirlpool became taller and wider. Base and first 2 layers below: Layer #3 in place (you can see layer #4 lying in wait on the right side of the pic): Layer #4 in place. Here's where I started running into a problem. The edges of the top layer were now high enough and extending far enough out so that they began to droop as the glue for top layer dried. So I ended up having to turn the bottle upside down every few hours until the glue finally set. Here's where I could have used @Ian_Grant's idea of having some DC gear contraption to spin the bottle for me! Here's how I added the glue (clear caulk) to each layer of the whirlpool inside the bottle: And here is the completed whirlpool with all its layers. I am very happy (maybe more relieved than happy) about how it turned out. For scale, the whirlpool is about 3" across from edge to edge. For comparison, here's the whirlpool shape I was trying to recreate. I did not try to match the blue color in the pic below. I wanted a brighter shade of blue to make more of a contrast with the dark colors of the ships. I will add some thin white streaks to the inside of the whirlpool for highlights to help visualize the rotation. Now, I'm trying to decide if I should do a leak test with water to see if there are any gaps between the layers, or if I should just go for broke and add the epoxy resin ocean water around the whirlpool. As Dirty Harry once said, "Do you feel lucky?"

Someone once told me, "It's basically the point of SIB's. If it's not hard or just straightforward, then what's the point?" Oh wait. That was you, Roel! You posted those very inspirational words recently on my Flying Dutchman/Black Pearl log. Even though I have no idea what a draghead is, your sketch looks quite intriguing. I vote for that option.

She's got a nice looking profile, Bryan. Fine work so far!

I hope you tell the First Mate that you've been doing yard work the whole time she was out of town. She will be so impressed!

Simply amazing work.

Compared to the piping on your tanker, I figured you could do this one in your sleep! Just kidding, Roel! This one offers a whole different world of challenges, as you have described so well above. Looks to me like you are on a solid track though. Onward thru the fog!

850 knots down and 850 to go, on the lower shrouds anyway! I haven't estimated a number for the uppers yet, but at least it won't be near as many. I kept waiting for Bob to get here and help but I guess PFC Pile would not give him a weekend pass. Mini-Dimples did show up to supervise. Unfortunately, she was not much help. As tedious as those ratlines are, the ship really starts coming to life visually when they are added. For me, they are a defining aspect of the look and feel of the large age of sail ships. My goal when I got back from Hawaii was to get the lower starboard side complete before I head out of town for Thanksgiving. Mission accomplished! After the holiday, I will take a break from the Constitution here and swing back over to the Flying Dutchman/Black Pearl SIB to have a go at making the whirlpool. Yikes!! Speaking of Thanksgiving, one of the things I'm thankful for is all of the incredible people that make up the MSW community. As I've said many times before, y'all make all of my work better and so much more enjoyable. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

I think Michigan is somewhere between you and Austin, so you might as well grab @Keith Black on your way and bring him down here to the ratline party.

Good plan insertion, Roel. Sounds well thought out.

More progress the last couple of days. First was adding the mast top deadeyes. Next was snaking the fore stay and main stay. Then I snugged up the lower shroud deadeyes and added sheer poles. I went outside yesterday morning and there was something in the air. Took me a few minutes, but I finally realized it was the smell of ratlines. That dang north wind blew it all the way down from @Knocklouder's workshop in Canada to Austin. I don't see any way out of it, so I started by making some templates. Only 1700 knots. If I can average 30 seconds per knot, that's only about 14 hours of fun and frolic!! Or maybe I should send Bob a plane ticket and have him fly down here and knock 'em out for me!

Wasn't there a line in an old movie, "I love the smell of ratlines in the morning!"?

I thought the hull was beautiful before, but the varnish takes it to a whole nother level! Wow! Love the pic of your granddaughter as well!!

Very impressive research document, Thukydides!

Right back at him! And tell him I hope he's enjoying his long rest, but he needs to get back to work ASAP! That pile of kits in your workshop ain't gonna build themselves! Thanks, Keith. Yes, they were quite happy when I got back and gave them their cow candy!