Banshee II by Glen McGuire - FINISHED - 1/700 - BOTTLE

[Glen McGuire]

44 minutes ago, BANYAN said:

Hi Glen, she's coming along beautifully mate.  I am heading off on a three week holiday in a couple of days so will probably not get to see her completion as I will be on the road with only the occasional chance to catch-up.

Thanks, Pat!  I am always grateful for your support, comments, and suggestions.  Best wishes for a fantastic 3-week holiday!

[Glen McGuire]

I took a detour and decided to try making a small flag to fly from the stern as shown in the painting of the original Banshee.  The Banshee II painting has the flag pole, but no flag for whatever reason.  The Banshee II, like most blockade runners, was made in England and flew the Red Ensign flag of the Royal Navy. 

 

 

For my attempt at duplicating the Red Ensign, I cut a 7mm x 5mm rectangle from red shirt cloth.  Taking my finest tip paint brush, I drew some white lines and blotched on a bit of navy blue to make something that sort of resembled the familiar Union Jack in the corner.  Then I added some fly-tying thread for attachment to the flag pole.

 

 

Now, on to the running rigging.  One of my goals with SIBs is to get better with each build and figure out how to add more detail to the ship.  I’ve always wanted to incorporate blocks into the running rigging on my ships, but haven't been able to figure out a good way to do it.  Small beads were the first thing that came to mind.  Unfortunately, the smallest beads I’ve been able to find are 2.1mm in diameter.  While tiny, they look way out of scale on my ships.  So I’ve just been ignoring the blocks.

That all changed earlier this year when I was in Boston for the annual model show put on by the USS Constitution Model Shipwright Guild.  I met a guy there named Alex Bellinger who has been doing SIBs for 30+ years and is a true master of the craft.  I noticed one of his SIBs had blocks so I asked him what he used.  He had found these super tiny Venetian glass beads years ago and had bought a ton of them (he said he can't find them anymore). He was generous enough to send me what he promised was several lifetimes’ supply.  The smallest of the Venetian beads are 1mm in diameter.  The 2nd pic below shows the smallest venetian beads next to a few of the 2.1mm beads available at Michaels and Hobby Lobby.

 

 

 

I got them from Mr. Bellinger too late to try on my Ghost Ship Jenny, so I get to try them out on the Banshee II.  Having minimal sails and being an aft rigged ship with no yards, the Banshee II does not have a lot of places where I would want to put blocks.   So I think it's the perfect ship to make a trial run with these tiny beads.  At 1/700, the 1mm blocks are still out of scale, but not so much that they look horribly out of place.  

 

I got so focused on trying to work with these tiny things that I didn't take any in-progress pics.  So here's the Banshee II with her running rigging in place, sporting a few blocks on the halyards and sheets.  Also, the Red Ensign has been raised and flies from the stern.

 

 

I think the davits and ship's boats are the only things left to add.

 

   

 

Edited July 10 by Glen McGuire

[Knocklouder]

Awesome work my friend,  you're going to have your paddle boat done before  mine lol. 

Bob M.

[Keith Black]

 Glen, 0/24 is the smallest seed bead size. You can still buy 24's from Japan but below is a link for antique Venetian beads. The Banshee is incredible. 

 

https://www.treefrogbeads.com/product/size-24-0-antique-micro-seed-beads-in-mohogany-brown/

 

[Ian_Grant]

21 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

 Glen, 0/24 is the smallest seed bead size. You can still buy 24's from Japan but below is a link for antique Venetian beads. The Banshee is incredible. 

 

https://www.treefrogbeads.com/product/size-24-0-antique-micro-seed-beads-in-mohogany-brown/

 

Very interesting Keith; smallest I can find locally is 18/0 which is pretty tiny itself. \i planned to use beads instead of actual blocks higher in the rigging of Preussen, when I get back to it.

 

And Glen, your Banshee is impeccable.

Edited July 10 by Ian_Grant

[Keith Black]

 Ian, 0/15 is usually the smallest size available locally unless you have a dedicated bead shop in you area. Serious beaders don't normally buy beads at craft stores because of the quality and limited sizes. They buy from bead shops or online. Ask me how I know. 

[Ian_Grant]

14 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

 Ian, 0/15 is usually the smallest size available locally unless you have a dedicated bead shop in you area. Serious beaders don't normally buy beads at craft stores because of the quality and limited sizes. They buy from bead shops or online. Ask me how I know. 

Yes we have one nearby, called "McBead Creations".  I first found them when I needed to make parrals for my Heller Victory. Worryingly, they recently went from two units to one unit in their building.

Edited July 10 by Ian_Grant

[Glen McGuire]

Interesting discussion about beads.  Now if I could only find all the ones I sent flying in various directions while trying to hold them with tweezers.  Ugh!!

 

On to the ship's boats and davits.  Here's my "davit board" where I staged them for painting and tying on the threads that will attach to the ship's boats.

 

 

 

I pre-drilled tiny holes in the bow and stern of each of the ship's boats so I could insert the thread connecting them to the davits.  Here's what it looks like with all the little boats and davits in place.  Again, the boats rest on the bulwark instead of hanging from the side because that's the only way the assembly fits inside the neck of the bottle.

 

 

Here's the whole ship with all the pieces in place.  By far the most challenging ship I've tried to build.  But I fear a bigger challenge awaits when I try and put it all together inside the bottle.

 

 

 

In fact, word got out about the potential disaster that awaits and an expectant crowd has already begun to gather.  

 

Edited July 11 by Glen McGuire

[Knocklouder]

Glen that is so awesome,  I told the Canadain longhorns to get ready. The master is about to pull off a great success.They got so excited that I got to get the figure with the shovel ready lol. All the success in the world my friend,  no pressure but all of MSW is watching. Good luck my friend 

Bob n PGP.

.

[Keith Black]

 I can't wow and laugh at the same time, I'm emoji disfunctioninated.

[Glen McGuire]

17 hours ago, Knocklouder said:

They got so excited that I got to get the figure with the shovel ready

LOL!!!  🤣🤣🤣

[Javelin]

That sure is a challenge. Setting the bar higher once again. 

Assembly into bottles is much underrated given the blocking effect of the bottleneck on tweezers.

[FriedClams]

I haven't read all of your earlier SIB logs yet, but I've seen a few of them now and as great as they all are, Banshee II is fast becoming my favorite.  You mentioned that one of your goals is to get better with each build and in my humble opinion this model is elevated work - bravo Glen!

 

Can't wait to see it surrounded by glass.

 

Gary

 

[Glen McGuire]

8 hours ago, Javelin said:

Assembly into bottles is much underrated given the blocking effect of the bottleneck on tweezers.

You are absolutely right, Roel.  And the extra long neck of Ol Sailor Jerry's bottle is not gonna help!

 

2 hours ago, FriedClams said:

You mentioned that one of your goals is to get better with each build and in my humble opinion this model is elevated work

Thank you for the kind words, Gary.  As I suspect many of us do, every time I look at my work I see so many things I wish I'd done better.  But that makes me look forward to the next project even more!

[BANYAN]

Better watch that one at the bottle's mouth Glen, looks like it has its eye on the target.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Glen McGuire]

The last step before trying to assemble the ship in the bottle is texturing the water with some mild waves and a few whitecaps.  First, I built a fake ship that matched the real ship's footprint and inserted it into the bottle.  That would make it easy to texture the water around where the ship will rest.

 

 

 

I first tried dabbing around some Woodland Scenics Water Waves to give me some wave and ripple action.  

 

 

 

The Woodland Scenics product is supposed to hold it's shape while drying.  Unfortunately, it did not do that for me.  After I applied it, it self-settled into droopy puddles.  Not what I was looking for.  So I went back to the acrylic medium gel gloss that I'd used with success on several previous SIBs.  I know it will hold its shape.  The gel gloss goes on rather whitish as you can see below, but it dries clear (unless you put it on too thick).  

 

 

 

After the gel gloss dried, I hit the wave edges with some diluted white paint to highlight the waves.

 

 

 

Now it's time to get that ship inside the bottle!    Let's   

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

[Keith Black]

 Hey, I'm taking deep inhaled breaths and channeling long tweezer empathy. 

 

After your "steaming donkey pile" comment I owe you this.

[Knocklouder]

All the success in the world my friend,  , I don't think my grin can get any bigger today, the Duchess of Kingston came to see me today.  But I am sure  you will be successful and the 43,370 odd memders here agree, and they are all watching.  .

Bob M.

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

After your "steaming donkey pile" comment I owe you this.

You gave us a whole new meaning to the term "build log"!  🤣

[Keith Black]

*Keith looks at the long tweezer empathy transmitter power cord, reads Glen's last post, looks at the long tweezer empathy transmitter power cord, reads Glen's last post, looks at the long tweezer empathy transmitter power cord..........

Edited July 15 by Keith Black

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

On 7/10/2024 at 3:50 PM, Keith Black said:

 Glen, 0/24 is the smallest seed bead size. You can still buy 24's from Japan but below is a link for antique Venetian beads. The Banshee is incredible. 

https://www.treefrogbeads.com/product/size-24-0-antique-micro-seed-beads-in-mohogany-brown/

  I accompanied the Admiral to a couple of bead shows, and found some neat 'demi-round' Czech beads in acceptable brown shades - and the sizes ranged (as I measured them with Verniers) 2mm, 2.2mm, 2.3mm, 3mm and 4mm  (with 1mm being about 40 thousandths - 0.040").  The demi-round form means that the beads are not spherical like most beads, but 'flattened' - albeit the wrong way for a pulley, but I still preferable to dead-round.   They vary greatly in numerical "size", as different countries use different nomenclature ... so measuring them gives their actual size.  I can't imagine how small your #24 beads are ...  There are a couple yellow beads in the picture that are larger - perhaps 2mm - so my guess is that the darker beads are around 1mm !  EDIT:  'Checked further up in your postings and found that, indeed, we're dealing with 1mm beads.  Incdredible !

 

   The intent to use these for a 1:96 model rather than to try and strop 'true scale' wood block or to give-in to the temptation of going way out-of-scale.  A 6" bunt block (aprox 150mm) should be 1.5mm 'true scale' at 1:100 (close enough to 1:96 for my purposes)  OK, my smallest bead is 2mm - which would be 8" at 1:100 - not too far out of scale.  I ordered some 2mm wood blocks just to try ... OMG the hole in it is tiny, and stropping that size is maddening - at least for me.  

Edited July 15 by Snug Harbor Johnny

[Keith Black]

 Johnny, try stropping and rigging the lanyards for 2mm deadeyes. That's much worse than a single block.   

[Glen McGuire]

39 minutes ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

I accompanied the Admiral to a couple of bead shows, and found some neat 'demi-round' Czech beads in acceptable brown shades

That is interesting, Johnny.  I had not heard of demi-round Czech beads before.  I agree with you that having a bead that was a bit flattened would look better for our application than round. 

 

Just getting the thread thru the hole in my 1mm beads is maddening enough.  I cannot imagine trying to strop it!  Nor would I want to try to rig 2mm deadeyes like Keith mentioned.   

[Glen McGuire]

It was Man vs Model again last night.  But this bout wasn't even close.  Man emerged victorious while suffering a minimum of mental wounds. 

 

The insertion and assembly process went surprisingly well.  Maybe it's because I actually put a lot of thought and planning into the process this time, instead of just charging in guns a blazing.  Regardless, I am relieved and very happy with the results.  For those that want to see all the steps in how the sausage was made, here's 3 videos.

 

Part 1 (9 minutes) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I10HQDJBoXI

 

Part 2 (9 minutes) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76UNcu8hvCo

 

Part 3 (4 minutes) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KX4MUFjlps

 

 

Here's 2 pics of the Banshee II after getting her secured inside ol' Sailor Jerry's long neck bottle.

 

 

 

As a final touch, I added some froth from the paddle wheel and also along the hull's edge where it hits the water.

 

 

 

Wait, "final touch"?  Did I hear someone say "what about the smoke coming from the funnels???"

 

 

Edited July 16 by Glen McGuire

[Desertanimal]

First like! Haha 

Love it! Such a wonderful build. Truly amazing work. 

[Rick310]

Wonderful!!  What a fun build!!

Rick

[Keith Black]

 That was 22 minutes of pure stress and that's from a viewers prospective. Glen, I could certainly feel your stress. 

 

  Congratulations on a successful insertion! The Banshee is a real beauty sitting in her new forever home. 

[Ian_Grant]

Glen your models just keep getting better! I'm in awe, it was stressful watching your videos. Banshee looks wonderful in her bottle......

 

It was nice to hear your voice; you know how you imagine someone's voice when you've never met, or have a picture in your mind of people on the radio?

As always you sounded nothing like my imagined Glen. 😊

[Knocklouder]

Shazam, Pile is ringing the bell and blowing the steam whistle he says, ,Congratulations as do I.

  very amazing work. !!!!

Bob M.

 

Edited July 16 by Knocklouder
Guessing typos lol

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

18 hours ago, Keith Black said:

 Johnny, try stropping and rigging the lanyards for 2mm deadeyes. That's much worse than a single block.   

  'Had a look at 2mm deadeyes among my misc. components ... those holes for the lacings are Sooooo small, that my smallest scale rope (so far made of three twisted single strands of Gutermann poly thread) will not go through - so only a single thread could work.  And even then, I might have to ream the holes with a wire drill.  Arthur Godfrey - Jack DANiels, that's tiny work.

 

  That having been said, you've nudged me to try a method of stropping a 2.2mm demi-round bead with my small scale rope (aprox 0.010" , representing 1" rope at 1:100 scale).  I might try twisting only 2 threads on the Rope Rocket and see if the resultant size is closer to 0.006".  Step one is to put the line through the bead block, seen below (slightly out of focus) - easy enough to do.  ('Bought a new little camera, but haven't tried it yet.)

 

  Step two is tying a taught line hitch ... my 'go to' slip knot for Scouting.

 

Step 3 is to snug the hitch to the bead.

 

Then a small bit of CA is applied with a pin point to 'set' the hitch so the loose end can be trimmed flush (or nearly so) with a beader's flush cutter.

 

  That doesn't look too bad, and there is plenty of room for a line to pass through the sheave.  Hmmmm, now I'm thinking that perhaps a 'genuine' hangman's noose might look a little better, at the expense of being harder to tie at this scale versus the taught line hitch.  I dug out a few 2.5mm single sheaves (from the Crafty Sailor - they are similar to H.I.S. Models laser cut walnut blocks) to try.  I note that these blocks are far superior to the ordinary sort one gets in many affordable kits, but the cheaper ones can be improved with a little shaping as shown elsewhere on the forum.

First, tie the noose.

 

  Then pull the noose around a block ... a little tricky with so small a piece - and the block will often twist so the knot part of the noose is on the side of the block (versus the end).  But that is fixed by twisting the block within the tightened noose with tweezers.  A tough of CA and trim the short end.

Side view ... again, the rope could be finer.

 

  The front view of the block ... the top hole of the sheave (there are two holes provided as made) is still small, but not as small as the holes in a 2mm deadeye.  The top hole will be easier to ream, as needed.

 

  This is 'proof of concept' for stropping bead or wooden blocks with your line-of-choice, without the need of any holding jig, although It does take some dexterity and patience.  'Guess if I want a becket on the bottom of the block, a single link of the smallest chain available would be threaded on the line before tying the knot-of-choice, and positioned once the knot is fixed (then dabbed with CA).

 

  Thanks, Keith, for the 'nudge'.  This will help from here on out.          Johnny