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Ahoy everybody! My name is Brendan O'Rourke, I hail from the state of Missouri in the United States, and I've been "hittin' the auld bottle" for a little over a year now, perhaps a bit of an irony since I've been a lifelong teetotaler and I've never even seen the ocean, much less a ship, in person before. I caught the bug by watching Jim Goodwin, a professional SIB modeller, demonstrate the craft one fine Sunday morning on television, and after seeing him go through the motions, I thought to myself, "I'm going to have a go doing that. How hard can it be?" and then I embarked on making a SIB of the RMS Queen Mary. Famous last words! In short, I found out it's actually quite hard, and the end result of my first foray into making fleets in a flask was quite crude, but nonetheless I hunkered down and stuck with it, and with each one I make, I seem to get a little better each time. Although, I don't consider myself a professional by any means, I have had a modicum of success selling my SIB's online on Etsy.com, where I run an online shop selling them as well as other little knick-knacks I make, and I also like to make SIB's as special presents for friends and family. To date, I've made about a dozen ships, most of them steamships, especially ocean liners, as I'm a bit of a steam nut and the liners are my favorite kinds of ship, but I've also enjoyed making more unusual things, such as a submarine in a bottle (USS Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine, to be exact), a school bus in a bottle, a vintage fire engine in a bottle, even a small recreation of the sea battle scene from H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds". In all this time, I've yet to actually make a traditional sailing ship, the sort of ship everybody thinks of when they think of the ship in a bottle, not for want of will, indeed I'm getting ready to have a stab at making a few to change things up a little, but mainly I've shied away from making them because there are so many out there already... In any case, I'm delighted to have come across this forum, and I look forward to hearing from you all! Yours sincerely, Brendan O. (AKA Shipwright1912) Where it all began for me...(R.M.S.Queen Mary) My All Time Favorite of all the SIB's I've made, S.S. United States (may she be saved from the scrappers!)

Then I have painted the old man's clothes. I wanted to get an imitation of simple clothes from the canvas.

Two new parts - two variants of an anchor and a harpoon. P.S. I made these details are not too good, so I was going to make them later again.

Then I installed these details on their places. I also try to make this boat a very old

Then I continued to work with the Fish - plaster, processing, making of "sword"

Next, I found a few photos marlin and mako sharks in the Internet, again have read "The Old Man and the Sea" to refresh in memory details and started this project. The first step is the making basis for Fish and I also began to remodel the existing figure of the captain Smollett in the old man.

But about one year ago I got the kit of the figures in the scale of 1/72 based on "Treasure Island" by R L Stevenson and the another kit with the set of boat's rowers ... My thoughts began to move toward the crew manning the boat ... So, too, is nothing special ..

Now the building is almost completed. I'm going to put on the deck of a few bunches of firewood. And I need to come up anything with the stopper and the stand. And now you can see few total photos of the model.

Thanks! But I think I get more enjoyment out of building small dioramas. I'm working on Franklin's ships now, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. Similar diorama to Endurance. I think this summer's theme will be Explorers and their ships

Finished!