USS Independence 1814 by Glen McGuire – FINISHED - Bottle – 1/500

[Glen McGuire]

Thanks, Mark.  I get A & C now. 

 

41 minutes ago, mtaylor said:

B would be hammock stanchions with netting to hold the hammocks in place. 

 

Are you talking about something like this below?  I found this picture from a post by _SalD_ under a topic called "Hammock Netting Question".  Supposed to be from the current Constitution.  

[mtaylor]

That would be it, Glen.  

[Glen McGuire]

Thanks for the guidance, Mark.  I went scrounging around the garage and found a finely woven mesh bag.  And since nothing is else matters when you need just the right thing for a model, I cut off a small piece of the bag and gave it a light dusting of black spray paint.  I think it will work perfectly.

[Landlubber Mike]

That hull with all the gunports looks really good!  Very nice job!

[Glen McGuire]

52 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

That hull with all the gunports looks really good!  Very nice job!

 

Thanks, Mike.  I tried to get them all the same size and as square as possible.  Not perfect, but not too bad.  The layers are still just dry-fitted so I can disassemble and paint the alternating black and white scheme.  I'm still not sure what I'm doing with the prow.   

[Ian_Grant]

1 hour ago, Landlubber Mike said:

That hull with all the gunports looks really good!  Very nice job!

Agree completely!

[Keith Black]

Glen. the hull is shaping up nicely. What type wood are you using for the hull? 

 

Edited March 30, 2022 by Keith Black

[Glen McGuire]

2 hours ago, Ian_Grant said:

Agree completely!

Thank you, Ian.

 

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

Glen. the hull is shaping up nicely. What type type wood are using for the hull? 

Thanks, Keith.  The hull and bulwarks are basswood pieces.  Each piece is 1mm thick except for the bottom layer which is 2mm.  That will give me some wiggle room if the ship needs to go on a diet to fit inside the bottle later.  That's been a problem for me on previous builds.  So I am determined to do a better job of planning during the construction phase. 

[Glen McGuire]

I got the hull layers painted so it's time to add cannons to the upper and lower gun decks and then squeeze the hull layers together.  The pics show the construction process:

 

1.  Five hull layers ready for assembly

2.  Cannons painted (.015" music wire)

3.  Cannons cut down to size

4.  Cannons in place

5.  Hull layers glued and clamped

 

Those cannons are hard to see in that last pic, but you gotta trust me that they are in there!

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by Glen McGuire

[Glen McGuire]

OK.  Here's a close-up where you can actually see the cannons sticking out of the gun ports.  Looks like beard stubble.

[Joe100]

Absolutely brilliant! 

[Keith Black]

 What a little gem, Glen. Of all your SIBs I like this one best and it's not even finished.  

[gjdale]

Outstanding Glen! What a fabulous job you are doing here.

[Glen McGuire]

Thank you, Joe, Keith, Grant, Ian, Mark, SH Johnny, Banyan, Roger, and John Fox III for the comments and likes.  I gotta be honest, when I picked this ship, I was really sweating how in the world I'd be able to do those gun decks and all those cannons and make them look halfway decent.  It came out better than I expected.  So far anyway.

 

But the sweating ain't over just yet.  I've started work on the spar deck cannons with these tiny little carriages.  Oh boy.  TBD on how those will turn out. 

 

I've also got to figure out how to add a quarter gallery on the stern.  I've never done a ship with one of those so I've got to go study some build logs.  If y'all know any build logs off the top of your head that have good posts on a quarter gallery construction please let me know.

 

7 hours ago, Keith Black said:

Of all your SIBs I like this one best and it's not even finished.  

 

Even without smoke or penguins or polar bears?  You just made my day, Keith!!  

Edited April 3, 2022 by Glen McGuire

[mtaylor]

Scratch area has tons of ships with quarter galleries but I don't recall any SIB's.  You might do a search  with just the key word "Bottle" and then drill down from there.   

 

Probably the easiest way would be just to carve it to shape and paint. I suspect any stern "artwork" would have be a just a "suggestion" of what's there.   

[gjdale]

10 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

Even without smoke or penguins or polar bears? 

What? No smoke? I feel used! 🤣🤣🤣

[Joe100]

You know, that is a brilliant method. I’ve never considered adding the gun ports in that manner, and I’m interested in trying that myself!

[Glen McGuire]

On 4/5/2022 at 6:22 PM, Joe100 said:

I’m interested in trying that myself!

 

Let me know if you do, Joe.  I'd love to see how yours would turn out.

[Glen McGuire]

For the spar deck cannons, I tried a few things that didn't work too well and ended up in the scrap heap.  I finally settled on a 2-layer carriage to give it a little bit of that stairstep look.  

 

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by Glen McGuire

[Glen McGuire]

Speaking of fails, I had this brilliant idea for the quarter galleries of blobbing some wood filler in place and sanding it to shape (1st pic).  Horrible idea.  Didn't work at all.  Not sure what the heck I was thinking.  So I chipped it all off and carved out little pieces of walnut scrap for the galleries.

 

The 2nd pic shows the finished work on the prow, the hammock netting, and the better version of the quarter gallery.  I've got some white fly-tying thread on order to try for the gallery windows.  We'll see how well that works.

 

The netting is a little sloppy on the far side.  I may pull it off and redo it.  However, it's the non-display side and also will be hidden somewhat by the ship boats when they are added so I may just live with it.  I'll revisit it later and decide what to do

[Landlubber Mike]

Coming along great Glen - this is going to be fantastic!

[Keith Black]

 Wow, Glen, I love the way she's looking. The walnut galleries look great, much better than the first attempt. Great idea for the carriages. 

 

  For future reference you might try working off ship using polymer clay for making galleries and such. 

[Glen McGuire]

48 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

this is going to be fantastic!

Thank you, Mike.  I appreciate your optimism!

 

25 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

For future reference you might try working off ship using polymer clay for making galleries and such. 

 

That sounds like a great idea!  Thanks, Keith.  

[gjdale]

Looking great Glen.

[Roger Pellett]

Glen, 

 

Coming along nicely.

 

I hope that you will not mind a friendly suggestion.  I would remove the. Hammock netting’s; they are way over scale.  I would substitute a strip of wood with a rounded top; like a loaf of bread.  Painted off white it would simulate stowed, rolled hammocks.

 

Roger

[Glen McGuire]

21 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

I would substitute a strip of wood with a rounded top; like a loaf of bread.  Painted off white it would simulate stowed, rolled hammocks.

 

Hey Roger, thanks for the suggestion.  Are you talking about simulating something like this?

[mtaylor]

I think Roger is suggesting more like this... The canvas covers the tops of the hammocks.  On some ships, it' starts at deck level and then over the top and down the side.   

[Roger Pellett]

Glen,

 

Yes, exactly like what you show, except just a white strip, no actual netting. At the very small scale that you are working to, less detail is sometimes better.

[Keith Black]

 Glenn, I agree with Roger, sometimes less is more. But I was looking for micro mesh and found the below. This is some pretty small stuff or so it appears plus the color works. 

 

 https://www.ebay.com/itm/80-304-Stainless-Steel-Filter-Coarse-Dense-Gauze-Woven-Mesh-13-x-40-/393850633101

Edited April 9, 2022 by Keith Black

[Glen McGuire]

Thanks, Mark, Roger and Keith for the comments and suggestions.  I just ordered some of that micro mesh.  I really like the idea of having some kind of netting look.  Unfortunately, the micro mesh won't get here till June.  I'm too impatient to wait that long to finish this build, but it will be a nice addition to my box of stuff for future work.  So I'm going to play around with some things based on the collective input and see if I can come up with something I like that has a good look.  I appreciate the creative help from y'all!!