Glen McGuire

What about using the wider plank in the center? That would give it a symmetrical look.

That was a fun ride you just took all of us on. Great build log and even better build. Well done, Bob!!

Thank you, Roel, Grant, Keith, and Ian for the kind sentiments. The Masters level builds are amazing, Roel. Based on my understanding of the rules for competition, you have to earn your way into the Masters category by accumulating awards at lower levels. And from what I've seen in person, I've got room for improvement in my ship building to reach that level. So I happily accept the Apprentice label with the goal of getting better with each build and eventually reaching that level of craftsmanship. I appreciate your thoughts, Keith. I believe my SIBs were well received based on getting an award (I just didn't get a feel for it when I dropped them off). If I had guessed beforehand which one would get an award, I would've picked the Dutchman/Pearl like you mention. I was very surprised that the Jenny was recognized like that. Keep in mind that there is not a separate category for SIBs, so my entries are being judged against regular ship models. I honestly have no idea how the judges do a comparison of an SIB to a regular ship model. So I was thrilled beyond words when I found out they recognized one of mine for an award. Now about that salty iced tea. Hmmmm. You got me on that one! Interesting that you should mention temperature. I was wondering about that myself. On the drive to Boston, I spent 2 nights in Gettysburg, PA and the temps got down to -5 F at night. I knew the negative temps would be hard on this old Texan's body but didn't really think that the low temps might affect my SIBs, so I just left them in the car. Now I'm wondering if the cold actually did cause the crack. Or maybe there was already a hairline crack in the bottle that I could not see beforehand and the vibrations of a 30 hour drive in the car caused it to expand. After all, the bottle was fished out of a creek before I put it to use!

That is very precise work with those thin veneers, Chris. Well done.

Those railings are incredible (along with the rest of the ship). Well done, Phil.

Thanks, Keith! The model show is incredible. There are some truly remarkable craftsmen that participate. It is quite the honor to have some of my work sit alongside theirs for the competition and show. The show runs from 1/28 to 3/8. So the models will be on display at the museum for public viewing for over a month. A large number of the Boston area schools schedule field trips during this time so there will be hundreds and hundreds of kids that get to look at all the models. As far as how my SIBs were received, I couldn’t really say at the time. There was a 3-hour window to drop models off on Sunday 1/26. You sign in, put your model(s) on a table, and then the official photographer takes pictures of them. When I arrived, there were only a handful of people in the exhibit room and nobody said much about my SIBs. Then Monday the next day, the judges review the models and determine awards so that when the show starts on Tuesday, the viewing public will know which models are award winners. I was not able to stick around for all of that as I needed to hit the road and head back home. So here’s the Paul Harvey rest of the story. I took 4 of my SIBs to the show – The Independence, Flying Dutchman/Black Pearl, Ghost Ship Jenny, and Hannah (my first SIB from that Amati kit. I took the Hannah because the museum was celebrating the 250th anniversary of the US Navy and they asked for as many historic US Navy ships as possible). I was watching the photographer take pictures of the Ghost Ship Jenny when, to my absolute horror, I noticed that the bottle was cracked! And I mean a LARGE crack running horizontally along the base and circling around the bottle. When the photographer finished with his pictures, I examined the bottle and pressed on it to see if it was fixing to come apart. But it still seemed solid despite the hideous crack. So I figured, what the heck, maybe a cracked bottle adds to the mystique of a ghost ship? So I left it there. An FYI - this Ghost Ship Jenny was not the same one that I did the build log for here on MSW and is linked to below. That one I gave to my niece since Jenny is her name. But I liked it so much that I decided I wanted one for my own collection. Her father (my brother) had fished out an interesting bottle of Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey in the creek behind his house and given it to me. It was a great fit for Jenny version 2 so that’s what I used. I worked on it in parallel with the Banshee last year but didn’t do a build log on it since it was a repeat. Here are before and after pics. The first one I took before I started the drive to Boston. The second I took on the exhibit hall table at the museum. For Jenny 2, I did make a few changes from the original Jenny. For the icebergs inside the bottle I used pieces of quartz rather than modeling clay. The piece of wood that the bottle rests on is a root ball from a cedar tree I found on my ranch. The flat rock base also came from my ranch. I think its sandstone, but I’m no geologist. In the second pic, you can see the large crack running somewhat horizontally the length of the bottle’s base near the water line. To wrap up this way too long story, I got an email form the modeler’s guild on Tuesday informing me that one of my SIBs was awarded 3rd place in the Apprentice category (the only SIB to receive an award). And guess which one of my four SIBs got the award – the Jenny, cracked bottle and all!! I would have never guessed that. But maybe the gruesome crack did add to the mystique of the ghost ship after all! So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Epic! That's the word that comes to mind for your Duchess build. Congratulations, Bob. A masterful job all the way around!

That is superb work on that engine, Keith!

Thanks, Ken. I took my time getting up there with stops at several historic places along the way - Wash DC, Ft. McHenry, Gettysburg, Battleship Cove and the Maritime Museum in Fall River, CT, and the Whaling Museum in New Bedford. In Boston, I got a tour of the Boston Museum of Art from a fellow ship modeler and artist that taught art at the museum for 30 years. And then, of course, the USS Constitution Museum which is amazing. But I'm out of the cold and happy to be back in a much warmer Austin! For the next step, I decided to work on the Jacob's ladders that stretch the length of each top gallant mast. The ladders go behind each mast and are perpendicular to the shrouds. So anyone climbing them would be facing the ship's bow. The BlueJacket plans do not call for Jacob's ladders, but I've seen them on a number of Constitution models, including an incredible one that is a centerpiece of the Constitution Museum, so I wanted to take the additional time to add them. Also, I think they look cool! The first task was cutting out the 70+ steps for the ladders. Each step is 1mm thick, 1.5mm deep, and 7mm wide. I lined them out a scrap piece of 1mm walnut and drilled holes near each end for the ropes to pass through. Next, I threaded the ropes thru the holes of each step and attached the rope ends to the cross trees. The mizzen mast's ladder is highlighted in the foreground and the main mast's ladder in the middle. Their steps are bunched up at this point. The foremasts's ladder has the arrow pointing to it with the steps spread out but not glued in place yet. Here are all the Jacob's ladders completed and in place.

That looks FANTASTIC!! What a cool project and a nice complement to the Sea Installer. Regarding the bottle cap. I agree that the white looks better than the shiny silver. Now if you wanted to get a little crazy, you could make the bottle cap look like some kind of piping cap. I don't know how much piping there is aboard one of these vessels, but it's just a thought (sorry, that's just the way my mind works! 😃). Something along the lines of the caps on the ends here: Regardless, I say again what a fantastic job you did here. I congratulate you on the uniqueness of your subjects and the quality of your builds.

You are correct, Roel. I have cut and glued wooden brush handles to reach behind the ship and other annoying places. I also have found some brushes with longer metal ferrules where I can bend and rebend the ferrule to change the angle as needed. Of course you can only do that a few times before you end up breaking the metal completely. I but cheap brushes and go through quite a few! As far as getting gel on the inside of the bottle neck, I will sometimes adhere some strips of blue painters tape to the inside of the neck to help keep things clean. Usually, however, I'm lazy and just decide to clean up any mess afterwards. Your waves are very well done. Just the right amount of texture.

Ditto what everyone above said about your planking job!!

Nice work getting both halves inside the bottle, mated, and hung in position. Looking forward to you adding the water.

Nice recovery, Roel. You had me really worried as I was reading thru your post. Those self-inflicted wounds are the worst (spoken from experience and many scars).

I feel like caveman with stone knives and bearskin tools when I seen you doing stuff like this! Very cool!

Fabulous work, Bob! She is a beauty and a fine addition to your growing fleet. Tell Goober sorry, but he's a little late. I had a job opening for a ratline expert but don't need one anymore. I guess he will have to settle for a title!

Sorry to hear about the arm, Keith. I figure broken arms are similar to broken bowsprits, so with all of @Knocklouder's recent experience, he could probably help fix your arm if needed!

Nice test run. Fingers crossed for the real thing.

I'm with you, Bryan! You would not believe how much time I spend trying to figure out what the instructions are telling me to do!

The crow's feet look great! Well done, Bob.

Thank you @Robert in Austin and @Ian_Grant for the comments! I have finally completed what I consider a major milestone on this project - all shrouds and ratlines are finished! That's roughly 3000 knots behind me. WOOHOO!!! For the top gallant shrouds, the ends run through holes in the crosstrees. For tying them off, the instructions gave an option of lashing them to futtock staves in the topmast shrouds or running them down and tying off to eyebolts inside the lower topmast deadeyes. I chose the latter, which I've seen in several build logs and liked how it looked. So the first step was to make futtock staves with eyelets for the ends of the shrouds to run through on their to the mast top. Here's the main top gallant shrouds running through the crosstrees, tied off to the mast top. Next, I added the royal shrouds. To my great relief, they did not require ratlines! With the upper stuff out of the way, it was time to circle back to the futtock and bentinck shrouds. The futtock shrouds have hooks on the ends that hang from the eyebolts underneath the mast tops (mast top eyebolts are visible in the pic above). The hooks are stropped to bullseyes. The futtock shroud is tied to the bullseye, lashed to the futtock stave and tied off to the Bentinck shroud ring. Here's the hook/bullseye assembly along with the Bentinck shroud rings. Here's the futtock shrouds highlighted in the first pic below. The Bentinck shrouds run from the ring at the end of the futtock shrouds, cross each other to opposite sides of the ship, and tie off with lanyards to eyebolts on the deck as shown in the second pic. And here she is with her full complement of shrouds. Although I do need to get a larger piece of poster board as a backdrop. That one works fine for my SIBs but is way too small for the Constitution! I seem to recall an old honky tonk song by Mac Davis called, "I Thought Happiness was Ratlines in my Rearview Mirror." I'll be humming that tune for a while. Next up is the 30 or so stays, plus those little ladders mentioned in an earlier post. But first, I'll be off for a couple of weeks to take several of my SIBs up to the USS Constitution Museum in Boston for their annual ship model show. Inside the museum, there's a LARGE model of the Constitution that's gotta be 5 or 6 feet tall. I'll be taking a ton of pictures of it to help me get through the rest of this Constitution project.

No pain, no gain, right Chris?

OK, now I get it. I like the look of the sand base even better. Ties in well with the theme of the project.

I wholeheartedly agree with what everyone said above. Exceptional craftsmanship in every detail. So well done. Congratulations on a fine build!

Larry and I are on board with you and Captain Rodney. Let's...