Landlubber Mike

Hey Daniel, that's the kit I started with to get into the hobby (I might have a log on here). It works into a nice kit, but be very careful about the masts and the bowsprit - they are so thin, the bowsprit broke on me a couple of times. I would consider replacing at least the masts with brass/wood rods - they will be more stable, and be more three dimensional. Good luck!

Very cool - welcome!

Congratulations! Fantastic SIB!

Amazing work! And very cool bottle!

Thanks John - that makes sense. Not sure why I didn't think of that ?

I happened to come upon this old picture of what looks to be the Challenge. Interestingly, it seems to have a slightly different shape and color design than the plans which I found in the Chapelle and Lazlo books. Challenge - photo from stern in harbor.jp2

Wow, it's been two years since I last posted. Between work, kids and working on my larger models, time has really flown. So when I dusted the Challenge off, I decided I wasn't happy with the hull. The shape was a little boxy, and when adding the decks, I realized I didn't carve the hull deep enough so my bulwarks were non-existent. I also thought that the red stripe (which I made from redheart) was a bit out of scale. After sleeping on it, I decided to redo the hull... It took a few weeks, but I like the results. I set up a second blank to do two at once and have the option of just picking the best one and use the other for practice or trying out techniques (or bottling both), but the first one came out pretty nicely so I might just stick with it.

That was cool - interesting techniques with the rubber, Q-tip approach to hingeless masts, etc. Thanks for sharing!

Looks really good Onni. For the planking and bulwarks, did you just use a single piece of styrene per side? I thought about taking a similar approach with my current build, but I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get the piece to lay flat against the hull with all the compound curves.

Thanks Igor, I was thinking that's what you meant. At least on my 1:64 scale Charles Morgan build, I think those upright pieces are called "stanchions." I'm amazed that you are able to add actual construction details at such a small scale!

Hi Igor thanks so much for that explanation. It sounds like you glue the bottom edge of the 0.5mm plank to the top of the hull? How do you ensure it keeps the curve without using pins along the edges of the curve? Or are you saying as you plank the hull, you let the top planks extend above the hull to form the bulwarks? Also, can you explain what you mean by “racks”? It’s probably a translation but I’m not sure I understand what you mean. Thanks so much!

Great work Daniel, thanks for putting together this tutorial. It's nice to follow along "in real time" to see the steps in action. One question - I see how you carved the lower hull from the deck level down. For the bulwarks, do you just glue the strip on top of the lower hull/deck? Or do you glue it to the side of the hull, and then sand it at the connection so that it feathers into the lower hull? I decided to redo my Challenge because the bulwarks ended up being non-existent. I carved a second hull, this time carving the upper hull with the bulwarks in one piece. On my first attempt, I used 0.4mm plywood and feathered it in. The problem I found was that in trying to glue it, being so thin the plywood almost got like wet paper and lost integrity. I wasn't sure about creating the bulwarks by gluing a strip directly on top of the lower hull, but that seems to work out really nicely.

Amazing Igor - the fish and shark look amazing, and the Old Man came out incredible. Very nice job!

Agreed - slight bias here towards sails, especially if you put sea in the bottle. Otherwise, looks really nice without sails!

Wow, such amazing detail at such a small scale! Very nice Igor!