Flying Dutchman/Black Pearl by Glen McGuire - 1/700 - BOTTLE

[Glen McGuire]

If you have been following my Constitution build log, thank you for taking a detour over to this one.  If you are just tuning in to this one, thank you for being a part of it.

My short attention span and ever-dwindling brain cells do not usually allow for simultaneous projects.  But I had to put Connie on a brief hold while I wait for delivery of some parts that I ordered.  So I figured I’d get started on another bottle project I’ve been mulling over for the past couple of months.  

When I was working on my Kraken SIB, @O.B.one made a reference to one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  So I did some digging on the movie series and came a cross an image that caught my eye and has been sitting in the back of my mind ever since.  It’s a scene from the third installment of the franchise, At World’s End.  Calypso summons a maelstrom and the Black Pearl and Flying Dutchman do battle on opposites sides of the whirlpool.  Here’s the pic:

 

 

 

Last month, I was wandering through the woods of my ranch, trying to find an ornery steer, and I spotted an interesting branch sticking out of the base of a cedar tree.  The branch had a sharp curve and grain that swirled around.  It reminded me of a whirlpool.  Then the lightbulb flickered in my head and I thought the branch might make the perfect backdrop for a project – recreate the scene from At World’s End with the Black Pearl, Flying Dutchman, and a whirlpool inside the bottle.   Here’s the piece of wood.  It was dead but had weirdly grown upward from the base, made a u-turn, and dove back into the ground.  Never seen anything quite like it.

 

 

 

To have room for all the action going on inside the bottle, I needed a bottle that was more wide than long.  A Paul Masson bottle of brandy had the perfect shape and it fit almost naturally into the piece of wood. 

 

 

The last bit of planning was finding good images of each ship to fashion my build after.  I decided to take on the Flying Dutchman first and use this pic as a basic guide.  I certainly won’t be able to match all the wonderful imagery and eerie ornamentation at my scale, but will do my best to give a good impression of it.

 

 

The biggest challenge I think will be figuring out how to make a realistic looking whirlpool inside the bottle.  Not sure how I'm gonna do that, but I'll build the ships first and give myself time to figure that out.

     
I will likely be bouncing back and forth between this project and the Constitution.  Hopefully I don’t get confused and try to put some of those humongous Connie parts inside the bottle here!
 

[BANYAN]

Great project idea Glen.  Now I fully expect to see the motley crew, especially Jack Sparrow, as part of this one

 

Look forward to seeing this one develop.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[GrandpaPhil]

Looking forward to this one!

 

 

[Kauz]

Plans Flying Dutchman by mellpapa

 

Plans Black Pearl by mellpapa

 

These might be of help. Sites are in Japanese, just click "translate" in your browser menu 

[Glen McGuire]

5 hours ago, Kauz said:

These might be of help. Sites are in Japanese, just click "translate" in your browser menu 

Thank you, Kauz!  I already found some for the Flying Dutchman but not the Black Pearl.  So that will definitely help!

[Glen McGuire]

On 10/1/2024 at 11:38 PM, BANYAN said:

Now I fully expect to see the motley crew, especially Jack Sparrow, as part of this one

I don't know about Jack Sparrow, Pat.  How about Jack Penguin?  😃

[Keith Black]

 Me and the penguin's onboard. 

 

Edited October 3 by Keith Black

[BANYAN]

15 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

How about Jack Penguin? 

Sounds good to me  looks like Keith has you covered

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Glen McGuire]

Where does Keith find these thing??  SMH!

 

My goal was to get the Flying Dutchman hull finished up before jumping ship (ha ha 🙄)  back to the Constitution.  I measured the inside of the brandy bottle and figured a ship length of 3.0" - 3.25" would work.  I did a crude test to see how things might look by pouring some Gatorade in the bottle and floating a couple of 3" dummy hulls inside, spacing them apart as they will be on opposing sides of the whirlpool.  I thought it looked reasonable.

 

 

 

For the ship, I like to highlight (or even exaggerate) the things that catch my eye and make the ship recognizable.  For the Flying Dutchman, I think these are the dragon's jaw and teeth on the bow, the prominent vertical and horizontal ribs on the side, the weird screeching faces surrounding the gun ports, and of course the color.  So hopefully when done, those features will stand out making the ship easily identifiable.

 

I started with a 7-layer laminated hull.  I cut the layers in rectangles, boiled them for about 10 minutes, then put them on very high tech a press to get the proper curvature from bow to stern.  

 

 

The hull is made with 5 layers of basswood and 2 of darker cherry.  The cherry layers will be the horizontal ribs and will protrude from the other layers.  For ribs like that, I find it easier to sand them down to fit vs adding small strips as separate pieces.  

 

 

 

Next, I added the vertical ribs and the weird screeching gun port faces.  The ribs are just slivers of cherry wood the I cut.  The faces are made from caulk.

 

 

 

Next was adding the rails and quarter galleries.  Like the vertical ribs, the rails are slivers of cherry.

 

 

 

Next, I carved little balconies out of basswood for the stern.

 

 

 

And then it was time for some fun - figuring out how to do the dragon's mouth bow head.  I tried several different ideas that turned out horribly (like using photo-etch sprues) but ended up going back to the simplicity of wood.  The upper and lower jaw were carved from basswood and the teeth are the snipped-off ends of toothpicks.  

 

 

And finally, it was time to paint this thing.  I played around with some swirls of gray and black to give it an uneven and weathered look.  The picture of the Dutchman in the first post has some brown splotches scattered about.  I may go back later and add a little of that, but for now I'm ok with how it looks.  I went with a lighter shade on the deck to give it comes contrast.

 

 

 

Now I gotta flip my magnifying glasses around and get back to work on the Connie!

 

 

    

 

 

Edited October 4 by Glen McGuire

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow, another fun project Glen - looking forward to following along.  Nice start!

[Paul Le Wol]

Glen, l see you’re on track for another great build!

Edited October 4 by Paul Le Wol
Grammar

[Keith Black]

 That's slick, Glen. 👍
 

 Maggie and I took a little drive after going to the store earlier today and we came across a herd of longhorns. they were some very large animals, I'll have to go back with the camera and take some snaps. .  

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

Maggie and I took a little drive after going to the store earlier today and we came across a herd of longhorns. they were some very large animals, I'll have to go back with the camera and take some snaps. .

Definitely send me some pics.  I'd like to see what Michigan longhorns look like!

[mtaylor]

Wow... great idea and and great start. I'm in also.

[PvG Aussie]

Best wishes Glen. I'm on board for the build.

Peter 

[Canute]

Sign me on, Glen. Off to a great start.

[Ian_Grant]

Glen, I'm a little late here, but I'm happy to see you off on another imaginative build. Looks great so far!

 

Nice to see the RR track put to use again. Must get some. They've been building light

rail lines in this town for years, creating many detours on the cycling paths.

[Glen McGuire]

41 minutes ago, Ian_Grant said:

Nice to see the RR track put to use again. Must get some. They've been building light

rail lines in this town for years, creating many detours on the cycling paths.

Glad to have you along for the ride, Ian!  Yes, those pieces of RR tracks come in handy more times than you would believe!  You'll see another piece on the latest post of my Connie log!

[gjdale]

I’m late to the party again Glen, but sign me on for what should be a fascinating journey. Can’t wait to see what Jack Penguin gets up to!

[Glen McGuire]

28 minutes ago, gjdale said:

I’m late to the party again Glen, but sign me on for what should be a fascinating journey. Can’t wait to see what Jack Penguin gets up to!

Glad you are here, Grant!  It wouldn't be the same without you!

[Keith Black]

8 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

Glad you are here, Grant!  It wouldn't be the same without you!

 Agreed!

[Old Collingwood]

Im here also,   how could I not be after  my  rather Longgggg   Black Pearl   build.

 

OC.

[Glen McGuire]

13 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

Im here also,   how could I not be after  my  rather Longgggg   Black Pearl   build.

Welcome aboard, OC!  I need to check out your Black Pearl before I dive into mine.

[Old Collingwood]

1 hour ago, Glen McGuire said:

Welcome aboard, OC!  I need to check out your Black Pearl before I dive into mine.

 

1 hour ago, Glen McGuire said:

Welcome aboard, OC!  I need to check out your Black Pearl before I dive into mine.

Its quite a  Longgggg    read    -  

 

OC.

 

 

[Javelin]

I've following for a while as well, just being very slow in showing myself. 

Been pondering about ways to make that whirlpool... Really can't come up with any ideas. I'm really curious how you'll do that!

[Glen McGuire]

Dang, Roel!  I was hoping you had an answer for me!  A fairly easy solution would be to use clay.  I've seen a lot of SIBs that use clay for water in the bottle.  But I like using epoxy resin or something similar that has transparency because it looks so much more like real water.  One idea I've got is using Woodland Scenics Water Waves product.  I've used it in the past to add texture to a layer of epoxy resin and it works very well.  Another idea is clear silicone.  I need something that I can swirl around but will hold it's shape while it dries.  I'm going to experiment with some things.  Glad you are following along!

[Javelin]

I've actually thought about drilling a hole in the center bottom of the bottle, then plug it. Fill with epoxy and while it is gelling, remove some epoxy by syringe trough the center hole in order to create a through. Not sure if that's feasable and it would definately require very precise timing. And practice of course! 

 

Clay is indeed an option, but much like you, epoxy or anything else transparent, looks waaaay more realistic. 

The problem with transparent substances to build up in layers us that you will see the edges of the layers. Certainly with silicone...

Acrylic gel could be an option, but it shrinks too much and takes ages to dry when applied too thick.

[Glen McGuire]

33 minutes ago, Javelin said:

I've actually thought about drilling a hole in the center bottom of the bottle,

That would make me a cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater!!  😲😲😲   I'm sure it would also violate something in the SIB builder's Pirate Codex and I know what happens in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies if anyone does that!   

[John Fox III]

Greetings,

What about using some sort of funnel inserted in the bottle, held in place while the clear water substitute is added. One could possibly then use something to create swirls and waves to the entire water surface?

Anchor's A Weigh!

John Fox III

[Javelin]

I've actually been thinking the same, make a cone out of several pieces to insert in the bottle, but make sure you can disassemble it. Coat it in something like vaseline or use transparent foil that can stay inside the epoxy. Then pour and remove the cone once set. 

I do believe removing the cone once the ships are in, would be a challenge... 

 

Not sure on the cheater brand, I've actually thought about it being cheating as well, but just an eenie-weenie- bit 🤏, it would be only a tiny hole at the bottom after all 😄