Queen Anne's Revenge with Greek Fire by Glen McGuire - 1/400 - Bottle

[Glen McGuire]

Time to get 'er in gear and start work on another SIB.  I was tossing around a few different ideas and I just could not get rid of this one image that was floating around in what's left of my mind.  In the 4th installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie (On Stranger Tides), there is a scene where Blackbeard is captaining his Queen Anne's Revenge when a mutiny breaks out among Jack Sparrow and the crew.  Blackbeard appears on deck and raises his sword, bringing the rigging to life which begins roping and hanging crew members from the yards.  Blackbeard decides to spare the crew but make an example out of the cook.  He sets the cook adrift on a small raft, points the Revenge at the raft, then unleashes a ball of Greek Fire from the bow, engulfing the cook and raft in flames.  Here's a 5 minute video of the scene from the movie:

 

https://youtu.be/fO4ZLQmcXMU

My idea is to capture the moment where the Revenge is spewing out the Greek Fire.   Here's a screenshot of the moment from the video.  The scene is so dark that you don't get a good view of the ship, but you get the idea.

 

  
 

 
And here's my crude artist's rendition of the SIB concept.


 
Now, to bring the SIB to life, I want to actually light up my fireball.  So I'm going to try and incorporate some flickering LED lights within the fireball and run the wiring thru the bottom of the bottle and into the base where it will lead to a battery and power switch.   I think I've been reading too many of @Ian_Grant's build logs, which is why I can't get this crazy idea out of my head.

Obviously, this is going to require doing some things that I haven't done before - making a fireball, drilling a hole in a glass bottle, rigging up some electrical stuff, etc.  So put your helmet on and buckle up.  This is probably gonna be a rough ride!

Edited 5 hours ago by Glen McGuire

[Glen McGuire]

Before fully committing to this project, I wanted to see if I could actually drill a clean hole in a glass bottle.  After watching several youtube videos, I found a technique I thought might work.  I bought these diamond coated, hollow drill bits off Amazon for $15.  

 

 

The suggested technique is to run cooling water over the bottle and start the drill at a 45-degree angle till you get a small notch cut into the glass.  Then slowly work the drill into a horizontal position.  Once the vertical orientation is established, you gently rock the bit back and forth while applying light pressure letting the bit do most of the work till the hole is fully bored.  It only took about 10 minutes.  Afterwards, I had a pretty clean hole with no cracks and just a very tiny amount of chipping.  The hole is 3/16 inches in diameter, so the chipping is only noticeable in these closeup pics.  

@Keith Black wants me to try and fit the ship thru this hole, but I’m not even going to try! 

 

 

 

 

I got some small, flickering LEDs from Amazon that run on a 9-volt battery.  One or maybe 2 of these will go inside the fireball to bring it to life.  

 

 

 

Here’s the LED wire extending thru the hole and out the bottom of the bottle.  When the time comes, I will be making the epoxy resin water a dark blue to hide the wire.

 

 

 

Now that I’ve got a good hole in the bottle, we are off and running.  Here we go!!
 

Edited 5 hours ago by Glen McGuire

[Snug Harbor Johnny]

  'Guess a 3D fireball (actually, there were two - port and starboard) will have to be something filamentary ... so it can catch and reflect light along its length emitted from LEDs mounted in the bow.  There are also illuminating flames along the ship.  I suppose tiny 'grain of wheat' bulbs used in HO train layouts might work for them.  'Should be awesome in a darkened room !

[Coyote_6]

First to follow!  Standing by!!

[Knocklouder]

Great Balls of Fire 🔥.  Lol it had to be said. Your going to light up MSW with this build , following along for morel support. 

 

 Knocklouder 😁 

Kurt ⚒️ 

[Paul Le Wol]

Glen, I’m all buckled up!

[Keith Black]

 I'm in.  

 

[Glen McGuire]

3 hours ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

There are also illuminating flames along the ship.  I suppose tiny 'grain of wheat' bulbs used in HO train layouts might work for them. 

Hmmm.  I was not even gonna try to incorporate any lighting beyond the Greek Fire.  Never heard of "grain of wheat" bulbs, so I will have to look into those and see if they might work.  I hope they are very small!  Thanks, Johnny!  

Edited 1 hour ago by Glen McGuire