Zheng He's Treasure Fleet by Glen McGuire – FINISHED - 1/1000 - BOTTLE

[gjdale]

Can’t wait to see the miniature farm Glen!

[Glen McGuire]

While I work thru my anxiety issues on how I’m going to tackle that main treasure ship, I decided to try and alleviate another big anxiety issue - installing the masts (with sails attached) into the hull while the hull is inside the bottle.  That would be a first for me since all my previous builds used masts with hinges.

So before starting on the big ship, I decided to take the first 2 ships and do a test run.  I put ship #2 in the first bulb, added all the masts, and slid it into the middle bulb.  Then I did the same with ship #1. I had to put a custom bend on the ends of one pair of tweezers to make things work, but after that it was not too difficult 

Whew!  One less thing to keep me awake at night!  Now back to the main ship and trying to figure out what the approach will be.
 

[gjdale]

Looks like it might be interesting getting those two back out again..............

[Glen McGuire]

6 hours ago, gjdale said:

Looks like it might be interesting getting those two back out again..............

You are right, Grant!  Kind of like a cat - easier climbing up a tree than coming back down!  I got each mast/sail out of the hull without too much difficulty.  But to get the mast/sails to fit back thru the neck of the bottle, I had to carefully scrunch up the sails and angle all the battens relative to the mast.  Not easy to do inside the bottle.  It took a while, but the whole test assembly was worth it for the peace of mind that I can pull it off when the time comes. 

Edited July 21, 2022 by Glen McGuire

[BANYAN]

That is going to be one very interesting looking diorama (of sorts) when completed Glen; such an unusual subject.   Hopefully the test fit and unrig will go well.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Glen McGuire]

11 minutes ago, BANYAN said:

That is going to be one very interesting looking diorama (of sorts) when completed Glen; such an unusual subject.   Hopefully the test fit and unrig will go well.

Thanks, Pat.  I've still got a bunch of things to figure out with the main treasure ship, but so far so good.   In fact, I'm a bit nervous about how well things have gone up to this point.  Usually by now, I've screwed up royally a few times.  So I'm past due for a major fiasco!

[Keith Black]

50 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

Usually by now, I've screwed up royally a few times

But you've managed to make lemonade out of lemons and that's all that counts.  

[Roger Pellett]

Can the largest ship be assembled in the second “bubble” and then with long tweezers pushed into the third?  You might have to make some sort of homemade tool to reach that far.

 

Roger

[Glen McGuire]

6 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

Can the largest ship be assembled in the second “bubble” and then with long tweezers pushed into the third?

Hey Roger, you nailed it.  I think the only way I can pull this thing off is to assemble the boats inside the bottle and slide them backwards to their spot.  I'm going to try and do the assembly in the first bubble as I've learned that the further back I go in the bottle the less precise I am with the tweezers.  The assembly will take some precision since I'll have to keep the hull still with one tool while I hold the mast with long tweezers and try to poke the bottom of it into its proper hole in the deck.  

Using my highly sophisticated CAD-like software (aka PowerPoint), I’ve sketched out the basic build plan for the main treasure ship along with the dimensions for each part.  It’s going to require some unnatural acts on my part to make the ship as large as I think it needs to be and get it where it needs to be:  

1.    I’m going to do a split hull longitudinally so I can insert each side separately and then glue together inside the first bubble.  Never tried this before.
2.    With 9 masts, there will be a mix of hinged and non-hinged masts.  Because of the hourglass shape, I will have to hinge the 3 main deck masts so they fit thru the narrow waistline.  Even though the forward 3 masts are short enough to fit thru the waistline, they will need to fold down to make room for the folded main deck masts.

3.    I’m going to try folding the masts forward and push them up with a tool rather than folding backwards and raising them with a pull string. 
3.    For the hinged masts, I’m going to try and replicate the amazing wireless hinge that @John Fox III did for his Endurance ex-Polaris build.  I stole a picture from his build log and included below so you can see his incredible work.

So for the first time ever, the moment of truth will not be squeezing the boat thru a tight bottle neck.  Rather it will be the assembly process inside the bottle.  Anxiety awaits!! 

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, Glen McGuire said:

 It’s going to require some unnatural acts on my part

 You young boys and girls may wanna switch the channel. 

[lmagna]

Will #8 and 9 need hinging, or will they fit through fully upright?

[gjdale]

Wow Glen, that is ambitious. I’m sure you’ll pull it off though. For myself, I find that I all too often confuse ambition with ability.🥴

[Glen McGuire]

5 hours ago, lmagna said:

Will #8 and 9 need hinging, or will they fit through fully upright?

Hey Lou - good question.  8 and 9 will fit thru full upright, but unfortunately they will need to fold over so that there's room for 4, 5, and 6 to fold and lay on top of them.  I'd prefer to try and make as few of those delicate hinges as possible but I could not think of any easier way to make it work.  

[Glen McGuire]

11 minutes ago, gjdale said:

I find that I all too often confuse ambition with ability.🥴

You may have just written my epitaph for this project, Grant!!  😃

[mtaylor]

7 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

You may have just written my epitaph for this project, Grant!!  😃

I think that one is perfect for almost all of us.

[Glen McGuire]

Before starting work on the main treasure ship, I decided to do a test run on a few of the things that were causing me concern. 

 

First, I made a crude version of the John Fox III hinge to see if I could pull that off.  It came out ok for a rough draft.  I'll take more time on the real ones, but at least I know I can do it now. 

 

Second, I wanted to see if I could install the hinged (and folded) mast into a practice hull in the 1st bulb and then raise it in the 3rd bulb.  That went ok as well. 

 

Third, I wanted to get a feel for what it would be like trying to put the 2 halves of the hull together inside the bottle.  Due to the hull's width and how narrow the waistline of the bottle is, I found I need to put the 2 pieces of the hull into the 2nd bulb, press them together, then pull it forward into the 1st bulb for mast insertion.  The practice run also helped me determine final hull dimensions and mast heights that will work.   

 

So now, I at least know the concept works in practice.  However, with 9 masts and full sails to deal with for the real ship, I think it's going to be quite the challenge.  And oh by the way, I told my son he was no longer allowed to suggest new subjects for SIBs.   

Edited July 26, 2022 by Glen McGuire

[Keith Black]

 Glen, rooting for you to pull this off, it looks like preforming heart surgery through a kneecap. Needless to say it boggles my mind.  

Edited July 27, 2022 by Keith Black

[Ian_Grant]

Good approach to it, Glen - like NASA testing a new rocket in baby steps. I have to ask - how will you press the hull halves together and get no glue squeeze-out in the mast holes?

[mtaylor]

2 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

And oh by the way, I told my son he was no longer allowed to suggest new subjects for SIBs.   

Now would be time to teach him how to do it.     Good idea on the testing.  I'm glad it all worked out.

[Glen McGuire]

3 hours ago, Ian_Grant said:

how will you press the hull halves together and get no glue squeeze-out in the mast holes?

That's a good question, Ian.  Probably why a real engineer should be doing this instead of a Holiday Inn Express one like myself.  😃

 

Not only do I need to keep the glue from squeezing out into the mast holes like you mention, I also must prevent the glue from squeezing out underneath the hull.  Otherwise, I'll glue the dang ship to the water in the wrong place!  So my plan is to have a couple of small horizontal dowels coming out of 1 side of the hull with somewhat oversize receiving holes in the other side of the hull (oversize so I don't have to be too precise when I press the 2 halves together initially).  I'll need to be very sparing with the glue application with a little bit in each receiving hole and then 2 or 3 dots on the hull mating surface.  I definitely will do a test run on that.   

[Glen McGuire]

4 hours ago, Keith Black said:

it looks like preforming heart surgery through a kneecap

That's a great comment!!  I'm dying laughing!!!

[Ian_Grant]

Glen, maybe you could split the hull not along the keel line but to one side of the mast holes. Might be harder to conceal the join though.

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Ian_Grant said:

Glen, maybe you could split the hull not along the keel line but to one side of the mast holes. Might be harder to conceal the join though.

Hey Ian, I thought of that as well but based on the width of the ship each half of the hull barely fits thru the opening when they are of equal size.  So I'd have to reduce the size of the ship quite a bit to pull that off.  To get the overall visual effect of the fleet, I need the main ship to be as much bigger than the other 2 as possible.  So I'm kinda walking a tightrope here and pushing tolerances to the limit.  We will see how the test glue goes.  To your original point, if glue squeezes into the mast holes, then I won't be able to insert the masts nor will I be able to get the full hull back out of the bottle for repair.  That would be game over!

[Keith Black]

 Glen, this maybe a case of the less glue the better. I thought of putting a piece of saran wrap under the two halves before joining but as I think more on it that could be a recipe for disaster. This is really crazy but instead of cutting the ship along it's length could you cut the ship across its width between the mast in three or four pieces?

[Glen McGuire]

18 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

Glen, this maybe a case of the less glue the better. I thought of putting a piece of saran wrap under the two halves before joining but as I think more on it that could be a recipe for disaster. This is really crazy but instead of cutting the ship along it's length could you cut the ship across its width between the mast in three or four pieces?

Hey Keith, I totally agree on less glue the better.  There will be no outward stress on the glue joint so it should not take much glue at all to hold the 2 halves together.  I'm thinking a 2 very small, carefully placed dots of glue.  Plus, when the ship is later glued to the water in the 3rd bulb, that should add some additional strength to the joint.  

 

On your "crazy" suggestion, that's an interesting idea that I had not considered before.  I think the downside would be that I'd have to cut the hull into 4 pieces based on the bottle opening size.  One horizontal seam down the middle of the deck would not be very visible, maybe even lost under all the sails and masts (and Shiloh's corral 😃).  Four vertical seams on the side would probably stand out too much.  But I love the out-of-the-box thinking! 

 

Here's an illustration of glue plan:

 

[Keith Black]

 I don't know how visible the seams would be, you'd have to do a test run OTB. Cutting it in cross sections you might not have to glue the pieces together. Before cutting you could drill two small holes the length of the ship on either side of the mast. Then glue two  miniature captive nuts at the back of the stern piece. and then screw the four pieces together. I hope you're able to picture what I'm trying to describe. 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Keith Black

[Glen McGuire]

I did some tests and I am fairly confident my glue plan for the main treasure ship will work.  So I moved forward with the hull build.  This was an interesting exercise and quite different from my previous builds. Part of it was because of the split hull, but mainly it was because the quarterdeck and forecastle are not solid pieces.  They are separate decks with open ends as you can see in the first pic.  So that was what I attempted to replicate.  The series of pics illustrates the build process.  The last pic shows the 2 halves of the hull inside the middle bulb where I pressed them together.  Each piece has to be pushed thru the bottle neck with a bit of force so I am confident they are as large as they could possibly be (which was my goal).          

[Glen McGuire]

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by Glen McGuire

[Keith Black]

i'm excited, Glen. Coming together nicely!

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

i'm excited, Glen. Coming together nicely!

Thanks, Keith.  BTW, I was thinking about all the teeny ladders I need to build for the quarterdeck and forecastle and a thought popped into my head.  I remembered that fine stainless steel mesh you found on eBay that I used for hammock netting on the Independence.   It occurred to me if I had a larger weave of that same stuff, I might be able to cut ladders out of it.  That would be much easier than piecing together music wire and copper wire like I did for the 2nd boat here.  So I found a batch on eBay that looks like it might work and ordered it.  For future builds, it also might work for rails at this scale.