Glen McGuire

@Bill Morrison Thank you for the comments, Bill. If you read my first post on this build log, you will understand that this is not my ship. I am merely completing the model for a family that recently lost their father who was the original builder. Since the family would like the model as a tribute to their father, I do not want to change any of his original work if I don’t have to. I want there to be as much of him in the completed ship as possible. Are there some things I might have done differently were it my ship? Sure. As an example, I would have painted the masts solid white instead of having black bands. But my assumption is that the original builder had a reason for the black bands. Maybe it was his signature style or maybe he just liked the way it looked. Not sure, but I don’t want to change something like that because if I did, in my mind I would be making it my ship instead of his. The same goes for the height of the white band. Regarding the gunport lids, I measured the upper and lower pieces and they actually fit the opening perfectly. So it may just be some bad photography on my part that makes them look too tall. As for the spar deck cannonades not being cannonades, you got me on that one! I had to read the armament part of the kit instructions 3 times to realize it was saying “carronade” instead of “cannonade”! My mind kept seeing cannonade. So thank you for the correction on that terminology. Thanks again for the comments, Bill. I appreciate you looking in.

Really nice work! For me, cotton is the key for spray and foam and you did very well with it. If you are going to do some touch up work, I would suggest taking out the prominent white lines I've circled below. The lines don't look as natural as the rest of your water effects and I don't believe you need them there. I think you could cover them with the blue of the surrounding water and it would look more natural. Just a suggestion. Regardless, this is a great diorama!

Next up - making and affixing the channels. The channels were made from 1mm thick basswood. I drilled .35mm holes spaced 1.5mm apart. The next step was making the crow's nests - much more time-consuming that regular mast tops. They are carved out of 2mm think basswood, then rounded and tapered. I got the crow's nests made and installed, followed by the upper shrouds. Then it was time for @Knocklouder's favorite pastime (aside from killing varmints in his workshop), adding ratlines. As with my other builds, I used fly tying thread (136D 6/0W). I cut a bunch of short pieces, dabbed them with fabric glue, then inserted them with a small weave where they sit on top of the outside shrouds and underneath the middle one. After the glue dried, I clipped the ends with cuticle trimmers. Next, I made all the yards and added a thread in the center to attach them to the masts with a clove hitch. And here's where she is at now with the masts dry-fit into the deck. You will notice that I removed the poop deck rails at the stern. This was necessary to get the mizzen and main masts through the bottle's opening. I may try to reinstall them after the ship is in the bottle. Also, you may notice that I carved a half-moon shape out of the leading edge of the poop deck. I put the main mast crow's nest bit too high on the mast. It was supposed to lie short of the poop deck when the mast was folded over but was hitting it and preventing the mast from lying down as far as I needed it to. I may carve it out further and just make a quarter deck out of it. Not too much left here - sails, lower shrouds, and a bit more rigging. Oh, and one other small thing, the ship will NOT fit inside the bottle with the foremast lying down to the rear. Not even close. I simply made this ship too tall for the bottle opening. So I've got to engineer a solution for that. Of course I'm not talking about a real engineering solution like @Ian_Grant would come up with. I'm talking about something simple-minded. It will fit if I fold the fore mast forward. That will create some difficulties with the rigging, but I think I can make that work. I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...

I'm on board too, if Bob will share his popcorn with me.

Whether they are visible or not, you know what they look like and the high quality of work you put in. To me that's what really matters. It seems like half the details I put on my SIB ships are almost impossible to see once it gets in the bottle. But I know they are there. You are doing beautiful work here. Keep it up, JC!

Everything has come together very nicely, Keith. Your weathering, smudging, and dirtying look very authentic.

"Ambitious" is a nice word, Gary. Thanks! But ludicrous may be a better description of this one! We shall see. I appreciate your confidence in me.

Gravity and brute force! The only way to go!! And glad to have you on board, Gary! Thanks for joining!

Looking forward to this one, Keith! Don't count on me for any help with the knowledge part, but I will cheer you on the whole way!

Indeed, Ian. That's been my problem all along! I'm the guy in the 3rd Indiana Jones movie that picked the wrong Holy Grail to drink from.

Catching up on all the research posts above. Fascinating. This is going to be another very entertaining build.

Thank you to everyone for the lively discussion and the creative solutions for solving the whirlpool problem. You have given me a number of good ideas to try out. In the mean time it's back to work on the Flying Dutchman. Next up is the ship's armament. I built the ship with ports for 7 cannons on the gun deck and 6 cannonades on the spar deck. In the movie, there's a few close-up shots of the cannons emerging from the gun deck ports. In some shots, there are triple-barreled cannons. I thought those looked very cool so decided to make all my gun deck cannons with triple barrels. For my cannon barrels, I use 22 gauge (.67mm diameter) veterinary needles. They are hollow, so if anyone looks close enough they they look more like a cannon barrel than a solid rod which is what I used to use. I cut the needles into pieces 4mm long, then CA glued them into a mini pyramid 3 at a time. For the spar deck cannonades, I made carriages out of .75mm thick basswood, grooved a small cradle into the top surface, and CA glued the barrels in place. Crude, but it works at this scale. Here she is with the triple-barreled cannons glued in place and the cannonades dry-fit. Next up - the masts. I'm doing 3-piece masts for the fore and main with a 2-piece for the mizzen. For these, I take a bamboo rod, cut it up, thin it, and taper the tip. As usual, I use a version of John Fox III's hidden hinge method at the base. Here's the ship in its current state with the masts and bowsprit dry-fit. The junction on the mizzen between the main mast and top mast is too high, but necessary for the crow's nest to clear the stern when it is laid down.

When I first started research on this project, I googled "how to make a whirlpool with epoxy resin" and that video showed up at the top of the list. I perused the entire Minibricks website and was left in awe. They take epoxy resin art to a level that I've never seen before nor thought was possible. That particular video is what I'd like mine to look like (in my dreams, anyway), but doing it inside a bottle makes it a whole 'nother thing!

Yes, much bigger. The diameter will be about 2 1/4" at the top edge of the whirlpool where the ships face each other (red line below). Depth will be around 3/4", maybe a bit more. Hence the problem with getting a funnel that large, or even pieces of a funnel that large, out of a bottle neck that is 3/4" wide. That's why I think I will have to construct the whirlpool inside the bottle, but I'm going to experiment with the funnel idea.

Thanks, Mike. I think the Vallejo product you used is similar to the Woodland Scenics Water Waves that I've used. The idea has some promise, but scooping so much into the bottle cleanly will be a challenge.

Are you trying to get blocked from this build log too, Ian?? 😃 Now remember, I am not an engineer. So I don't have a box full of DC motors and rheostats lying around in my garage like I'm sure you do! I also think we have different definitions of the word "simple", but I do appreciate your creativity!

The funnel is an interesting idea. Getting the funnel out, as Roel said, would be the hard part. I'll do some experimenting on that.

That would make me a cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater!! 😲😲😲 I'm sure it would also violate something in the SIB builder's Pirate Codex and I know what happens in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies if anyone does that!

Dang, Roel! I was hoping you had an answer for me! A fairly easy solution would be to use clay. I've seen a lot of SIBs that use clay for water in the bottle. But I like using epoxy resin or something similar that has transparency because it looks so much more like real water. One idea I've got is using Woodland Scenics Water Waves product. I've used it in the past to add texture to a layer of epoxy resin and it works very well. Another idea is clear silicone. I need something that I can swirl around but will hold it's shape while it dries. I'm going to experiment with some things. Glad you are following along!

Welcome aboard, OC! I need to check out your Black Pearl before I dive into mine.

As much as I like the Tennessee, I vote for the Lula to complete this unique project.

Where's a site moderator when you need one? 😃

Glad you are here, Grant! It wouldn't be the same without you!

The biggest challenge for me was making those dang 8 battens that go around the middle of most of the yards. Trying to make each set of 8 exactly the right width to fit evenly around spars of varying diameters cost me some brain cells. But to my surprise, they all ended up fitting pretty well in the end.

I spent the weekend doing yard work. But I wasn't pushing the lawn mower in our 100 degree heat like I should have been. Instead, I was hunched over the drill lathe making all the yards and yardarms for Connie. That consists of 15 yards, 16 yard arms, a gaff and a spanker boom. Here's everything laid out on the mast/yard plan after the tapering process which was followed by adding the center battens, the parrel cleats, and the yardarm cleats. Next, I carved out the jaws for the spanker boom and gaff. Here's the completed spanker boom and gaff. Here's a closeup of the main yard. And here's the whole 9 yards (haha 🙄). I think that's a fair amount of progress for a little over a week, so I'm going to give Connie a short rest and head back over to the Flying Dutchman/Black Pearl SIB.