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Bottled Ship Builder

Gluing hull to putty


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I have a question for those who use putty for sea. Does glue actually bond to the putty? I was afraid it wouldn't so I stuck some wood in mine to glue the ship to. What do others do? I was afraid it wouldn't hold when I pulled up on the rigging & standing the masts. I haven't found any info on this online.

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Hello Jesse Lee,

 I have always used white glue the kind that kids use in school for glueing my ships/vessels to the putty which I make my seas out of. have been doing this since 1969 and have not as yet had any loosening or unglueing of a hull. I have always been able to after letting the the ships/vessels hull sit in the glue for about a day and a half to two days to allow the white glue to set up/dry firmly tug/pull on the lines exiting the bottle etc. whithout any foreward movement whatsoever. Mind you too powerfull a force will most likely result in ship/vessel being pulled out of the putty sea or a mast breaking,  the line itself breaking. Please excuse my spelling.

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Yes do glue the ship to the putty it will hold. I ran into a similar problem when I built my first out of state commision. I wanted to make sure my ship stayed in place while being mailed. I was told to use epoxy. I found some marine epoxy that dried white so it added to the wake look. The ship went from Colorado to Michigan then to Florida and was gifted to some one and went to Utah. The epoxy held.

The other good thing about epoxy is it doesn't fume like other glues. I highly recommend it.

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Hi Jesse Lee

I think a lot can depend on where the ship will be displayed. I made a ship for a man who placed it on a shaded window ledge. After about 12 years the putty had hardened to such an extent I think it had shrunk. The ship had worked loose and was adrift in the bottle. I was able to re-glue it without any problems as the ship was undamaged. Since then, however, I have always stuck a piece of wood, the shape of the hull, to the bottom of the bottle using a two part epoxy. I then put two wooden pins in the bottom of the hull and they sit in two holes in the wood. This seems to do the trick and I have had no problems with the ships coming loose. I can also put information eg, ships name and location on the underside of the wood which can be seen when the bottle is turned over. 

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