Lord Nelson

There was an article in Bottle Shipwright a while back on how to build a SIB the Japanese way where the ship goes in backwards. The lines on the bowstrip are secured at the bowstrip, through the masts and out the bottle. The masts are then pulled into the bottle one at a time and set in an indent in the hull. Once all lines are in the backstays are tied to a wire hook on the hull buy using a "sliding knot tool" that you make.

Excellent video Jim. It gives me a warm feeling knowing I'm one of those 200

As far as the build is concerned, I did something similar using a plastic ship from a game. When it came to the masts I used a hinkley hinge for the main and thread glued to the bottom of the aft mast which was then pulled into the hole in the deck.

I colored the silicone with blue acrylic paint while it was still wet and spread it out on a piece of paper that I had drawn a circle the size of the wood platform. The platform was made up of slats that fit the neck and were glued to a piece of cloth and unfolded in the bottle. Once the silicone was dry I painted white caps, cut the circle out, rolled the sea up and put it on top of the wood with white glue. I then painted the bulb below the platform with the same paint that I mixed in the silicone, adding a touch of Elmers at the edge of the platform to keep it from moving.

In order to cut down on weight you can build a platform out of sheet wood or plastic and build the waves on top of the platform. Paint the inside of the globe below the platform with the sea color. i used clear silicone with paint added for color. It's lighter than clay. .

I colored it with blue acrylic paint while it was still wet and spread it out on a piece of paper that I had drawn a circle the size of the wood platform. The platform was made up of slats that fit the neck and were glued to a piece of cloth and unfolded in the bottle. Once the silicone was dry I painted white caps, cut the circle out, rolled the sea up and put it on top of the wood with elmers white glue. I then painted the bulb below the platform with the same paint that I mixed in the silicone, adding a touch of Elmers at the edge of the platform to keep it from moving.

If you are on Facebook, take a look at a group titled Ship in Bottle Builders. also take a look at www.shipsinbottles.org and check out their links section

I used it for sea material on my most recent SIB for the first time and it worked fine

The ship is great. I would suggest that on your next build try to pick a bottle that fits your ship. You want to fill the bottle as much as possible. You could also scale up the size of the ship to fit the bottle you have. Mast height should be close to the top[ of the bottle and length of the ship should fill the length of the bottle. You can also add a lighthouse to help make up the length.

The Mayflower and one of Heather Roger's SIB

Other ideas