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Bottled Ship Builder

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I have a friend in the local club that attends a contest every year for in Manitowoc Wisconsin.  He's bugged me about entering a model into the competition for the last couple years and this year I finally did.  The competition is based on a point system for the model so you aren't competing against other modelers your competing on how good your model is based on their grading system.  Depending on the points earned a modeler wins bronze, silver or gold awards.  

 

20150520_212934.jpg

 

To be honest I entered in the novice level.  I didn't know how harshly they judged and since the rules are that if you win in the lower levels you can't enter in that level again I thought I'd start from the bottom and work up.  So next year when they hold the competition again I'll enter as intermediate.  I'll have to step up my game for the next competition.

 

 

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Greetings Daniel,

 

Congratulations!! I've entered that particular competition many times, and have even been one of the presenters for the symposium a few times. I always advocated that particular competition for the exact reasons you mentioned, not head-to-head but your work/skill/knowledge/research against standards. You do realize that you are no longer a novice modeler! <grin>

 

Anchor's A Weigh!

John Fox III

Ladysmith, WI

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A couple notes from the show I thought I would mention. First apparently a lot of people from the show associated the Turks had knot with hiding where I would have cut the bottle. This made no sense to me since even if I did cut the top off it wouldn't have changed the opening size so why would I bother. Also it's been a tradition of ship in bottle builders to add turks head knots and I've never heard of anyone using it to hide cuts. Hide cap threads maybe but not cuts.

Secondly a miniature ship builder said that I shouldn't add the white caps around the ship as it detracts from the model. They might appear heavy but it was consistent with photos I've seen. I like adding the white caps because it gives the ship motion. What does every one think of this idea?

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Congratulations, Daniel! Well done.

 

Re: the knot. Some people come up with ridiculous notions to look "smart" - no matter how illogical. I've even heard that we have the bottle blown around the finished model, never mind that these constructs of paper, thread and wood would burn up from the radiant heat just being within six inches of a blob of 1200F glass. They can't comprehend what can be accomplished with meticulous planning and careful work because they've never done anything more demanding than a computer shoot'em up. Take such comments as compliments because they come from people who are completely bewildered.

 

Re: the white water. I somewhat agree with the observation, boats like this one are surprising clean through the water. Perhaps less white would work as well to convey movement without distracting from the model. You're developing a good eye for what works and what doesn't - trust it. Some builders never see what they've built for what it is, but only see what they want to see. You've never been like that and it shows in your work through a steady and rapid improvement from each project to the next. Keep it up.

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Greetings Daniel,

 

You would be surprised at what people think of ship in bottle models. I attended that show for many years, won numerous gold awards, and still got absolutely no respect from any of the other modelers. Then one competition I brought a video of my Providence gallon jug model, showing how it was broken down, inserted and finished inside the jug. The video was shown during the Sunday morning round table meeting of most of the modelers.  I had the same people come up to me at the urinal in the bathroom, no kidding, and tell me how impressed they were with my work?? They simply looked at it as a static display model inside a container, with absolutely no thought to how the model had to be engineered and built to "work" once inserted into the container involved.

 

My proudest moment at Manitowoc though came when I won not only gold, but the McCallip award for the best miniature in the competition for my static display Newsboy model. There were a number of excellent static display miniatures entered, so I was surprised and thrilled at winning that particular award. That is the one sad part about this particular competition, there is no sib category, so your sib is considered exactly the same as a static display model, despite the many differences that HAVE to be made to make it sib to begin with. When you win a gold award with an sib, it's above and beyond just winning an award for a sib model, but for a miniature model period!! Again, congratulations!

 

Anchor's A Weigh!

John Fox III

Ladysmith, WI

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  • 2 weeks later...

Greetings Daniel,

 

While to a certain extent I do agree, there are far too few sib modelers entering most competitions to allow for any sort of special category. To me, it is more of a challenge that the particular engineering and building has to be different with sib models. It is one reason I build my models to look like static display models inside a glass container, i.e. no fake water/sea or anything other than a stand and the entire model, including the full hull. I perfefctly understand that my methods are not everyone's cup of tea, I've seen some absolutely awesome sib's that included "the works". That is another reason for the appeal of sib models, most "standard" static display models are expected to be of a certain scale, with certain building techniques and methods which are simply too restraining for those of us who revel in freedoms involved in building sib's! <G>

 

Anchor's A Weigh!

John Fox III

Ladysmith, WI

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I agree with John, too few ship in bottlers are active in ship model exhibits and events.  At the recent Northeast Conference in New London there were over 100 models from 5 (or 6?) ship model clubs, but there were only two of us with ships in bottles.

I have been fortunate to be well received by the USS Constitution Museum Guild and see a number of my models win awards.  Like John, I feel the basic responsibility to build a good ship model comes first.  The fact we choose to build them in bottles, well, that's our problem.  If some still can't believe there's a good ship model in there because it's in a bottle, that's their problem.

 

Alex

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Congratulations Daniel!  Now you just made things harder on yourself by raising the competition level in future events :)

 

Personally, I like the turk's head knot and the whitecaps around the ship.  To me they add a little touch of artistry (and motion) to the composition that you don't get from your typical static ship model (which is where most of my ship modeling endeavors have focused).  As captain with no plans on entering my work into any competition, I'll build my models the way I like them :)

Edited by Landlubber Mike
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Some good thoughts on contests and judging.  I would think that the bottled part of display is no different than a well constructed display case in the eyes of the judges.  If there were more consistent contest entrants from SIB'ers that may change for some shows.

 

I like TJ's comment above concerning judging etc.  I would think that knowledge what judges look for, would help us get better at our craft.

 

Gwyl

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The Nautical Research Guild holds a photographic model competition every 2 years. Here's a link to the entry information and competition rules for the most recent (entry closed in May). The only divisions in this competition are based on builders' skill levels. Entry requires NRG membership.

 

http://www.thenrg.org/resources/PhotoContest/2015%20Competition%20Rules.pdf

 

As far as SiBs go, it seems clear to me that poor glass would be very detrimental by obscuring the workmanship.

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