Wyoming by O.B.one - FINISHED - scale 1:1167 - BOTTLE - 3D printed - six-masted schooner

[O.B.one]

My third overall bottled ship, first scratch build of a ship that existed.  

 

I made the choice of a schooner because this would be the third go at it, and a 6 mast behemoth because of the bottle I have. It was a bottle of orange liqueur made by my brother-in-law. Passed down in his family, called Al Borducuan. Not something you'd find on the web. Which is why I wanted to use this bottle hoping he'll give me more of the stuff. 

 

At the same time I got a resin 3d printer at work. It occurred to me this thing gives way better accuracy than carving. With some self taught drafting "skills" i came up with this object below. I used Onshape, and not sure if the way I did it was correct. But the .stl could be generated from this. This is not my first attempt, I started out trying to keep deck furniture separate, but learned fine details print better if attached to the deck already. Anything less than 0.8mm does not really print well.

 

Considerable trial and error here

 

 But I finally have a workable model:

 

As you can see masts too short so reprint. I have to beef the masts and bowsprit up to where the resin is rigid. Too thin and it is very flexible. Hoping this doesn't make it look odd...

[O.B.one]

I'm not going to show paint work. I loathe any kind of paint job. So please don't look too closely. Used Timaya enamel on a standard grey primer. This is a recommendation of a friend, but I'm not convinced. Using Masking tape left somemarks and damaged paint that was left to dry 48hrs. So I free handed most of the model.  

 

One of the many advantages of doing split hull is the holes for the shrouds can be made at an angle for threading it in and out. I thought I would be so clever to 3d print the hull getting the holes through the hull perfect to 0.02mm. It was accurate, sure enough,  but it also causes some unforseen challenges when threading the shrouds. You have to start and stop at the mast joints. You can't start or stop hidden "below deck" like with the traditional approach. 

 

Something else I was trying to be creative about is not hinging the masts, but give it an easy hole in the deck, and peg at the bottom of the mast. The idea is to reach in with tweezers and fit the masts like an inverted lego. Not only is the fit "too accurate" I.E. not enough slop to make it fit easily, paint in the hole or on the mast makes the fitment worse. I already broke one mast fitting in the hull. But there is also the issue wit the thread that is not elastic enough for this. So I might have to turn back to a traditional hinged mast made of wood.....

 

The pinkn is a silicone base made of an expired silicone putty used in dentistry. I'll use this to come up with a silicone replica for the resin pour as well...

[O.B.one]

Some progress. Went back to reprint the masts eith a hinge. It's well hidden enough, but I can improve on it for the next model. 

 

6 masts is a lot of shroud lines. 

 

And booms, gaffs, sails etc. I was going to do fabric sails but decided on paper for this one. Made the mistake of choosing white thread for the rigging, it looks too white. So I simply painted it with tea. Not too bright any more. For the next model I'll get my own in stead of raiding my wife's sewing supplies. 

 

All ready and labeled 

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by O.B.one

[O.B.one]

I had a flop with the resin. I was hoping to pour the ocean in a bottle. One of the reasons for doing the hull in 3d printed resin is I could print a replica to use as a 'stamp'. You know, wrap in clinging plastic, position, pour resin, wait for curing, remove, trim plastic, and in theory have a neat hole in the resin that will accept the model. The resin must have eroded through the plastic or something. It was firmly stuck cant remove without breaking the glass. Now have to get a cheap Rosé in a clear bottle

[ccoyle]

I prefer a moscato.

[O.B.one]

This little piece of blue resin was the result of hours of deliberation and at least 2 failed experiments the notch was an air bubble I had to remove:

In the end I had to make a silicon copy of the hull, and an analogue of (what I think) the curvature of the bottle is:

 

 

I stuck them together with CE and filled the gap with blue resin. I hope to stick said resin in the bottom of the bottle, stick the hull to it. Erect masts and hoist sails and all that, then hopefully just pour the resin. The resin will hopefully engulf this and the lower half of the hull.

[O.B.one]

Everything collapsed, ready to go. Suddenly it looks way too large for the neck...

Will figure that out. But not tonight, had too much Rosé lol. Should've tried @ccoyle 's moscato, but have not come across that in New Zealand yet. 

[O.B.one]

Everything went according. Until I tried raising the masts. One has debonded below the hinge. Worse,  main stayline that draws everthing upright snapped when I put it in. 

 

😤😤😤*#@>

[O.B.one]

Realized there is another constriction in the neck of the bottle, for some reason. It's a screw cap bottle, not a cork. 

 

I took the model out, that wrecked it good and proper. Do over.

 

I reprinted the ship in 2 parts this time. I also redesigned the masts to collapse 3 degrees or to the starboard side. When they go in a straight line, the foul on the hinge behind it.

I am kind of glad about the failure. Wasn't happy with the proportions of especially the bowsprit. Or the color of the rigging. I can also try and improve on painting details...

 

Nice thing about printing is it can easily be sliced. I was also able to quickly come up with a clamping analogue. Note the one in the middle with a block printed into it. 

 

[Glen McGuire]

Very unique project.  I will follow the rebuild with interest and hope for the best!

[O.B.one]

Perhaps too unique. I am making a  lot of it up as I go. Especially drafting the hull to get a .stl for printing. I am not a draftsman at all, and have very limited knowledge of stuff like Solidworks. I am currently using Onshape (plus a ton of Youtube tutorials) to come up with a basic shape for the hull. Deck furniture are drafted separately, and digitally assembled. For instance the white railing is about 16 copies of the same component added to the hull afterwards. Hopefully the attached screenshot would show what I mean. I only realized after that failure last year that I can digitally stick the mast hinge into the deck, and then print it in one go. One very good advantage of drafting my own rather than trying to obtain the .stl online is I can put holes and hollows exactly where they need to be. The accuracy is unsurpassed. Sounds good, but that comes with a downside. I have no idea what the tolerances are. For instance the mast hinge. I left  0.2mm slop in there, and it was still too tight. Holes for needles have to be 0.7mm diameter. Luckily the resin print can be sanded easily, so these can be corrected .I'm also going to  carefully sand that bowsprit down. Looks way too thick. 

 

 

Edited January 16, 2023 by O.B.one

[Glen McGuire]

By the way, I did not realize till a couple of days ago that you had posted a question at the end of my Zheng He Treasure Fleet build log a while back.  Not sure if you found a suitable answer yet, but I went ahead and answered your question regarding adding waves on top of epoxy resin.  Here's a link to the last page of that log where you can scroll down to the bottom and see my explanation.  Hope it helps.  Happy to answer any other questions you may have.

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/32318-zheng-hes-treasure-fleet-by-glen-mcguire-–-finished-bottle-11000/page/7/

 

Also BTW, I am fascinated by your use of a 3D printer for this stuff!

[O.B.one]

@Glen McGuire thanks for posting, I will look into that.

 

 

Some progress. I printed the new hull top with some challenges. I was having issues with the resin delaminating. Those who work with resin printers will agree details is great, but they are prone to misprints. At least mine is. I can elaborate if someone wants. 

 

Good news is I now have the top of the hull with the hinge bottom printed into the deck. Printing is so clinical, it does not give the maker the joy of shaping the ship out of a shapeless piece of wood. But I do enjoy the CAD design thereof. All the pictures of the Wyoming is black and white. The only color guide I could find was of a display model at a museum. This model is dark blue, with a blood red bottom. I went for brown. By mistake, but I like it better. I can revisit the rigging and resin pouring now...

 

 

[O.B.one]

Some progress over the weekend. I'll be rigging it loosely based on Jack Needham's technique in his book 'Modelling ships in Bottles'

Back staylines and shrouds are up, along with the main stayline. Not the best way to show rigging, on a white background 

 

 

Resin poured after the base was glued in. I added some texture with acryllic gel medium as per @Glen McGuire recommendation. It takes days to cure in the bottle. So I taped a thin tube to my compressor outlet. I closed the valve on the pressure switch enough to let a little air out. Dried in less than 60 min

 

Still have to add some white. Unsure if it's choppy enough. What do you guys think?

 

 

Thanks for reading

 

Obus

[Glen McGuire]

7 hours ago, O.B.one said:

It takes days to cure in the bottle. So I taped a thin tube to my compressor outlet. I closed the valve on the pressure switch enough to let a little air out. Dried in less than 60 min

Brilliant idea!  I'm gonna have to try that out.   

[O.B.one]

I should've taken a pic before collapsing. Sofar it's ok, but the fore mast hinge snapped a small piece. Hopefully I can manage without

[O.B.one]

Went in with difficulty,  but then a click and it was easy. Not positive, hoping it's not something crucial. I can deal with a broken mast hinge...

[O.B.one]

What bloody else will go wrong. You wouldn't believe but just after I was applying epoxy to the lower half of the hull, starting to align the top. Earthquake 

 

 

6.1 only about 70km from was enough to make stuff fall and children cry. Had to dash out for that. Net result is there is a little gap between the two halves. Aaargh. 

 

Wyoming doesn't want to be bottled.

 

Waiting for epoxy to cure. I'm going ahead regardless. I'm at the point that I'll finish it even if it looks crap

 

 

 

 

[John Fox III]

On 1/30/2023 at 8:06 AM, Glen McGuire said:

Brilliant idea!  I'm gonna have to try that out.   

Greetings,

For many years I've used an aquarium pump to air out my light bulbs and bottles, no need to refill a tank or run a major compressor.

Anchor's A Weigh!

John Fox III

[Glen McGuire]

7 hours ago, O.B.one said:

What bloody else will go wrong. You wouldn't believe but just after I was applying epoxy to the lower half of the hull, starting to align the top. Earthquake 

 

Seriously???  OMG.  That is unreal.  And the worst timing.  I hope everyone and everything is ok around you.

 

As for the gap between the halves of the hull, I would not worry too much about that.  Every single one of my bottle projects has flaws that I think are egregious at the time (including gaps like yours).  But by the time I'm done, there's so much going on visually with the entire project, nobody ever notices them.

 

Regardless, congratulations on getter her inside the bottle!  Huge accomplishment!  Fingers crossed that the small click you heard was something easily repaired.   

Edited February 15, 2023 by Glen McGuire

[ccoyle]

8 hours ago, O.B.one said:

6.1 only about 70km from was enough to make stuff fall and children cry. Had to dash out for that.

I used to live near the Mendocino Triple Junction in Northern California. We had quakes all the time. But since I moved away from Southern California (still awaiting the "big one") in 2003, I've only ever lived in seismically quiet areas. Haven't felt a quake in twenty years now -- seems strange when i think about it.

[O.B.one]

5 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

Seriously???  OMG.  That is unreal.  And the worst timing.  I hope everyone and everything is ok around you.

 

As for the gap between the halves of the hull, I would not worry too much about that.  Every single one of my bottle projects has flaws that I think are egregious at the time (including gaps like yours).  But by the time I'm done, there's so much going on visually with the entire project, nobody ever notices them.

 

Regardless, congratulations on getter her inside the bottle!  Huge accomplishment!  Fingers crossed that the small click you heard was something easily repaired.   

Not serious, everyone just a bit shaken, pun intentional.

 

Luckily the buildings here are up to it, and tall furniture anchored. The dog got the biggest fright 

[O.B.one]

and @Glen McGuirethanks for pointing out it doesn't have to be perfect

 

[O.B.one]

Right. I declare this one finished. It's not quite, but as near as makes no difference really. Don't look too closely. 

 

It's a passable result, but if I ever run out of space this'll be the one that goes in the bin

 

 

The 3d printing was as fun as it was frustrating. I really enjoyed the digital drafting, generating the .stl, slicing and printing. Details are great. However I'd not recommend it for masts and rigging. The lack of fibers makes them really prone to breaking I lost two mast hinges, luckily I was able to put the masts in position on the broken remains in the bottle.

 

The idea of slicing the hull in Meshmixer or similar works well in principle. However if the parts are too thin, the strain of the rigging wil deform it. I suspect that stopped the two halves from fitting as it was supposed to. I recommend that if anyone else is going to 3d print a SIB make sure either

1. You use a very rigid resin. 

2. Or monobody hull, not split

3. Or simple rigging ships that dont need a lot of tightening on the rigging. 

4. Non load bearing figures and details are fine. With fine details comes careful painting mind you

 

I already have my next project in the pipeline. For the sake of being thorough,  I'll take a final photo with the wooden base.

 

 

Thanks for reading

 

Edited March 9, 2023 by O.B.one

[Glen McGuire]

The final result looks great, O.B.one!  Congratulations! 

 

I hope you always have adequate space and this does not end up in the bin!  This has been a really cool project to follow.  I always find it interesting to see someone try new techniques like this! 

[Knocklouder]

Looks really good, I too hope you don't  chuck it. It will grow on you, I did one for my niece . many mistakes and a few broken pieces, but when she seen it she loved it. And I was sorry to see it go. Would I do another one NO.  lol

 But you did a great job.   Was fun to follow along , Nicely Done,     

[O.B.one]

Mounted. Still have to put a cap on it

[Glen McGuire]

Fantastic work, O.B.one!!!  I love the floating bottle effect with the base you chose.  Well done, sir!