Javelin

I'd probably bend some 0.3mm copper or stainless wire around a rod/drill bit of appropriate diameter for the bow and cut to length. Then insert it through or glue it at the end of a small strip and make a support of an opposite V shape of 0.1 or 0.3mm wire. Something along those lines in any case.

Well not entirely true. I'm building on autopilot so to speak. Pushing to get ahead with it and get rid of it. I'm on the verge of giving up. Perhaps I'll complete it without a bottle, as a gift to my son. It'll probably be that or just squash it under my foot (which is the faster way). I'm longing for something with sails, probably made out of wood too. It's been fighting with project all along.

Hi, I have some serious branches of pear and apple trees in my backyard (more or less freshly cut) and would like to know how to prepare it for modelling use. - Do I first de-bark it? - Do I dry it first (in original branch form or cut up in shorter lengths?) - Do I just cut it in slices and let it dry that way? Removing bark after drying? - Any known sequence/additional info is welcome It's the first time I've cut larger branches and I don't want to let them go to waste.

I've made a start on that crane. Seems simple enough, but it doesn't fit through the neck due to its large square shape. The idea is to drill two holes through its feet and mount it on pins to the aft superstructure. The aft superstructure will be glued in place before bottling. The crane will then be hinged down forward, on deck to pass through the neck. Once in, I'll have to erect the crane before putting the accomodation block in place (hope this makes sense). She'll be mounted more aft than on this picture as she's normally somewhere aft to avoid blocking the sight from the bridge when handling the anchors. Since I've been working with simply a circle cut-out from a page to see if things are passing, I though I'd use the Sea Installer bottle for some testing. To avoid surprises later on. I was happy to see the gantry fit through. I'll have to shorten the main spud a bit, but that's not an issue since it's always a question how deep the spud goes in the soil, so I have a few mm (meters in reality) to play with.

Great progress indeed. Did you consider an offset cut to keep the bow, stern and masts fixed on one half? Would make life a lot easier I believe. Or is the bottle neck really too tight to do that with the oars and all? I kind of expected my comment to backfire in following way: "Shouldn't you be building instead of making stupid comments in my build log" But I'm happy it's motivating (forcing ) you to carry on

Nice work. Love that forepeak entry hatch with the attached davit.

I checked and it appears the current rules for navigation lights were only implemented from 1969, so considering the age of your tug, they wouldn't have been applicable. Can't say anything useful on lights pre-dating that implementation, I assume it was regulated on a national (flag of registry) level.

That's a stunning result on that sail. Quite a job to do all of them like that. Are you going to repaint the hull as well? The green looks quite authenthic, but its application isn't exactly what I'd call "sharp"... On the other side you are restoring, rather than rebuilding...

Beautiful model, one note though, the inside of navigation lights is supposed to be matt black, this is to avoid any sheen that would reflect the light out out of its regulatory angle. I'm not sure however, when this matt black was introduced into the regulations. Towing lights are normally a combination of masthead lights, depending on the tow's length. Basic is 2 masthead lights on top of each other (tow less than 200m in length). The red-white-red means restricted in manoeuvrability (also carried by other vessels)

I knew it was the penguins you were talking about. But shouldn't you continue the build instead of watching movies???

Another small update. Looks small, but did a lot of detailing. I'm now working towards application of white primer. I'm using white primer instead of grey for parts that need to be white in the final coat. Additionally I've applied the grey primer to the hull and started with the Moss Green deck. I don't like glossy paint and normally I simply mix it with colourles matt paint to tone down the glossy effect. Unfortunately my matt dried out and inside the bottle, everything looks glossy after all. This is not the final coat of the Moss Green. In reality of the course the ship is less than half the size of this picture. As you can see I'm forced to work at about 0.1mm accuracy to make everything fit. The printer didn't really succeed in printing a lot of lines on this scale. I've also finished the anchor chairs in front of the accomodation now. Next step will be working towards finishing the hull to a level where I can paint the yellow-green. The installation sequence for now, in my mind, would be: - Install base plate (pre-coated with sand-acrylic mixture) - Blend base plate into acrylic base on the bottom of the bottle - Insert lower part of main spud - Insert hull and mount it on top of main spud, lowering the pre-rigged ladder to keep the vessel up - Erect auxiliary spud - Deploy anchor booms and anchors - Pour Epoxy to steady the ship - Mount funnels - Deploy barge loading pipes - Erect crane - Mount accomodation block Conclusion, the bottling process has a lot of chances to get screwed up... and definitely won't be a 5-minute job. Still a while to consider changes in the design/sequence since I'm a long way off from completing the vessel itself. (but at least we have a plan)

Great progress Glen, rapidly catching up with me! That's a lot of patience drilling that many oar supports and making that many oars

@Glen McGuire, that's correct indeed. The nautical anchors in this case are recessed into the hull to avoid getting tangled on them with the wires or worse, having them caught by one of the workboats or barges when approaching the Spartacus. In normal merchant shipping, when the anchors are recessed instead of sticking out of the hull, it means the ship has an ice class. (where recessing the anchors is done to avoid them from being hit by ice that is pushed up by the hull). @Thukydides, thanks. The secret is often the manipulation of parts while shaping them. Unlike with kits, where you cut out the parts from a sprue, in this scale you often have to create a handle on them. I often make a sort of strip, shape one side of the part I want at the end of the strip, then shape the rest, all while using the strip as a handle. The last action is then to cut the last side of my part to part it from the strip. It's way more easy then to cut a piece the size of the part you want to make and then try to shape it, as you will have great difficulty to hold it while shaping. Another small update prior to primer. Must admit I'm rapidly losing interest in this project. Not entirely sure why. I primed it today and put some green on it and I was genuinely feeling annoyed during the painting... Here is the stern with the stern discharge pipe mounted. The bent piece at water level is where the floating line is connected. It can swivel and has a quick release ball-joint on the pipe. The Auxiliary spud is in it's final position here. Of course it won't fit through the bottle neck this way. That's why I created a hinge on the holding mechanism. In the following picture you see it hinged down. The lower ring will be glued to the spud, so it'll arrive at the correct height and look like it's attached to the hull. On the real ship, there is a big door that opens when the spud is tilted down. And a bow shot of the finished gantry with the sheave packs (little brown cylinders at the top) underneath. They are mounted on 0.3mm copper rod, which were then bent in a U-shape and drilled into the gantry. They'll be used to rig the ladder, with similar sheave packs. I've also built a slightly longer bottom plate, so it works better with the temporary laundry pins. I'll be mounting a piece of styrene in place of the forward laundry pin, which will then be covered by "soil". In reality the cutter is also sitting partly in the seabed, so that's not going to be an issue.

Love that fishing boat. I know how hard it is to keep children motivated to try things that appear too difficult for them. This experience a great result could be the start of something greater! Hope they didn't put a lego submarine inside the cake though... better be careful...

Penguins are seabirds... Might as well add some too, for realism

He is right though... Or perhaps a greenish sheen near the bottom? In any case an amazing construction job. The stones really look like they are made of limestone rather than "painted" in lime....👍

But you persevered and got it nice! Great job on a handsome ship! Very crisp and clean build.

Time for a small update. Got distracted by garden chores and it's quite hot over here. Made the two dredge anchors. This type of dredger has its "nautical anchors", which fulfill the requirements for a ship, and "dredge anchors", which are required for the dredging activity. The dredge anchors are waaaaaaaaaaay larger than the nautical anchors and weigh 60t, with the option to add another 30t of ballast in order to give more holding power in difficult soil. They called Stevshark anchors and are normally used to anchor floating structure on a (semi-) permanent basis offshore. I had to make tiny versions of it and the only reason I could produce something resembling the real thing, is that in reality they are quite huge. When not in use, they are stored in the anchor chairs on each side of the vessel below the anchor boom. You can compare to the guys walking by... And here is my version of them. Each anchor is made of 7 parts for now. I'd like to add a bit more detail, but am somewhat reluctant to screw it up. Would also hardly be visible inside the bottle I guess. And both of them, laying on their backs. It's my intention to have one of the anchors in the midst of its deployment sequence, with the anchor just on the bottom, while the other anchor would be hanging around waterlevel/epoxylevel underneath its anchorboom. Up till now I've always had in mind to have the PS anchor deployed, but now that I think of it, perhaps its better to have SB deployed... Something to think about. Finally possible to paint, so I'm preparing to put some primer on the hull.

hmm, kind of makes me think: Just kidding, great paint job and thanks for explaining your technique.

Of course I'm in too. One question though, are you going to have the water level (and ship) in the bottle level with the bottle side, or angled with the bottle and level with the sea surface underneath?

They started using spherical trigonometry or spherical goniometry. It's a very different beasty from planar trigonometry. Distances between two points a sphere's surface are measured in angles. They can later on be converted to distances, depending on which sphere you use. Practically this is still the way we navigate today, except of course that a lot of it is automated. Not sure who or to what degree they used it back then. Gorgeous build by the way! Been following along for a while now.

They're called sea anchors and are commonly used on lifeboats, so nothing new... Using them for such a ship on the other hand. Gorgeous build Rob, love what you did with that sea base.

That depends. Preferably a floating pipeline is used, this ranges from a few 100m till several miles. Occasionally, when distances get long and traffic needs to pass, the floating line is connected ho a sinker line on the bottom, so traffic can pass over it. You do still need a floating line to give flexibility to the dredger. The pipeline is connected to a swiveling connection on the stern of the vessel. Spartacus Stern Connection In cases where this not possible, the dredger can either load barges using 1 or 2 barge loading pipes, T shaped on PS on Spartacus, or pump it in trailing suction hopper dredgers using the stern connection and a pontoon. On Spartacus, the pipes are 1.2m diameter and she can pump between 14 and 19km depending on material density and pipeline diameter. I still need to build the barge loading towers, I'll have to hinge the inwards to pass the bottle neck.

Hi Glen, it's a mix of circumstances I guess. I used to sail in the Merchant marine, however those ships (large tankers) aren't very suitable for bottling, you have to reduce the length so much to fit inside a bottle, that you automatically end up with a tiny scale. That in turn makes for a very low height and width of the subject, which means it would simply fit through a bottle neck without any "special" features, they also don't really fill a bottle very well, apart from their length. When I changed career to dredging, I got a wider view on these working vessels with very irregular shapes and dimensions. They're also generally smaller, which allows for larger scales. Although it is forbidden for me to post onboard pics, I guess I can post pics of the vessel itself as practically anybody can see it, and take pictures, this way. The above picture is more or less what I'm aiming at in my bottle. The main difference would be that I want the ladder on the bottom and 1 anchor on the bottom (ladder is up in this picture, you can see it behind/inside the forward dark green platform). Funny you'd ask for the material. It's sheets of styrene/styrol of different thickness glued on top of each other. It's funny because my technique is more or less stolen from you The only difference being the styrene instead of your method using wood. I got inspired for the gallery on this ship, as well as the small rooms aft inside the hull by your work to insert cannons in one of your builds. Currently working on the dredge anchors themselves and then one of the main remaining items is the large travelling gantry crane. The idea is to mount it with two pins to the superstructure, with the crane laying down, in order to be able to rotate it upwards when the vessel is inside the bottle. Haven't really completely thought this one out, but I guess it might work this way. Just need to take into account that the auxiliary spud will also be folded forward. I've also built the gantry version 3, I made it thicker with each consecutive version to attain proper angles on the small wings on the sides.

Not much progress to report. I've been mainly building 20 20ft containers, of which I'll probably use around 15 or so. I still need to make some half-height containers and probably a tank-container which is also frequently used on this vessel. Furthermore I've finished some of the main winches (Anchor Hoisting Winches and Guy winches, the latter of which are used to move the anchor boom in/out). Remaining are the largest, the Side Winches, the ones that pull on the anchors to move the ladder and vessel back and forth. For today's post I decided to share my way of making small sheaves or nice equally sized pieces of wire. I use the same way to make the end of a rod flat, which is a difficult thing to make nicely at a 90° angle. For large diameter discs, I use a normal leather punch for making holes in belts. However for small things, like 0.5mm, 0.8mm or 10mm pieces or sheaves, I use following method. Drill a hole in a piece of styrene with the same thickness as the length you require. In the example below, I wanted a 1mm-diameter disc with a thickness of 0.5mm. So I drilled a 1mm hole in a 0.5mm thick piece of styrene. Then you insert the rod and just let it protrude. Later on, I put it on a flat surface and cut it off using the sheet as a knife guide. Then, while pushing the styrene down on a flat surface (steel ruler) I file along the sheet until the rod is flat with the sheet edge. I then punch it out using a piece of wire. If you want them thinner (in this case I went to 0.3mm thickness) I insert my small disc into a 1mm hole in a 0.3mm thick piece of styrene and I repeat the same process. In this way I ended up with 4 identical 1mm discs for use on the vessel. When making a flat surface at 90° on a rod, I use the same method, except that I don't cut off the rod. I simply let it protrude along a piece of styrene and file it flat against the sheet. In that case I often use a 2mm thick piece and pay particular attention to drilling the hole straight. Same works with 0.5 or 0.8mm brass rods.