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Bottled Ship Builder

My first SIB: Dimond


DavidB773

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Here’s my W. H. Dimond SIB in progress. The hull is 4-3/4” long 1-1/8” wide and in two sections. It will go into a bottle that has a neck opening of 1-1/16”.

To secure the ship to the bottle, the hull will be glued to a wood strip base and this strip will be glued to the bottle using silicone.

This is going to be my method of inserting the two-section hull inside the bottle: attach one hull half to the base and then place it inside the bottle only just past the neck. The other half of the hull will then be added. The halves have short pegs for alignment. The lines for the rigging will come out below the bow where there’s a groove carved in the base strip. All this is because I want to keep track of and avoid pinching these lines. 

The three masts are pegged. They will go in one at a time, back to front, of course. I made a tool that holds the mast horizontally for passing through the neck then rotates vertically. Then after the mast is guided into its hole, the grip on the mast is released. Intrigued? I’ll post some photos showing how this works shortly. 

I haven’t been sure of an accurate the paint scheme to follow until I’ve discovered an online photo of a model that’s at the San Francisco Maritime Museum's library. So the cabins will be changed to white. This is my first SIB so I’m not going to attempt creating sails. I think the beauty of these vessels can be realized docked or in full sail. Thank you! David

SIB1.JPG

SIB2.JPG

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I'm very intrigued about your mast tool.  That sounds very interesting.  I'm also interested in how you do the rigging.  Inserting the masts one by one isn't something I have a lot of experience with.

I think leaving the sails off is a great idea especially for a first ship.  From old ships in bottles I've seen the earliest common ones in the late 19th century (Giovani Biondo bottles being an acception) didn't have sails.  They became more widely used in the early 20th century around around 1915ish.  There really is a beauty to rigging and leaving the sails off can bring that out.  Great work so far.   

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Thank you, all, for the encouragement! I just posted the mast tool in another thread titled "mast handling tool".

DSeimens, I'm giving and have given a *lot* of thought on how to put this all together. It exercises the mind, doesn't it? Just for discussion, I'm putting individual shroud lines in, considering the usual practice of tightening them through the plates (pardon my lack of proper terminology) on the hull sides and out the bottom of the hull. A lot of threads going on there. An idea: how's about securing them at the hull first and do the tightening at the mast instead, as a single group of lines cemented together? Have them attach at a single wire that goes through the mast with a loop on each end for each opposing shroud per mast. It would avoid drilling a weakening hole in the mast and involve only pulling on one "thread" to tighten. Of course, careful measurements outside of the bottle is to be done.

Thanks, again, everyone! David

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Hi, Igor.

I wish I knew myself what species of wood I used in the masts and spars because need more! It doesn't act like pine because it very workable at the 2 mm diameter foremast. It doesn't have a grain, sands without any fuzziness, and drills cleanly.

And BR to you, too!

David

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David - I'm liking the idea.  My only concern would be it's a lot of thread to pull past a lot of friction points.  I suspect it won't be as easy as just pulling the string tight.  How ever if you get a tool in there and pull the lines one by one and keep tightening them up it might just work.  It maybe worth a test run outside the bottle. I'm very interested in how it works out.  I might even try this on a future ship in bottle.  It's possible you could use the excess string as a forestay line coming down from what's called the mast top.  Not to be confused with the top of the mast.  (who made up these names anyway?)    

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6 hours ago, DavidB773 said:

Hi, Igor.

I wish I knew myself what species of wood I used in the masts and spars because need more! It doesn't act like pine because it very workable at the 2 mm diameter foremast. It doesn't have a grain, sands without any fuzziness, and drills cleanly.

And BR to you, too!

David

Hi, David!
You can try to use bamboo for making the masts,yards and bowsprits.
 

Best Regards!
Igor.

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I appreciate the kind remarks, everyone! 

I’m adding a photo of three channels (new term for me!) that I made out of plastic. They are 2 mm wide and not glued in yet. Used plastic so I could carve a peg for a solid connection. If you notice the group of holes in the hull at the mid and aft points, how the last ones on the right are up higher… a line drawing I’m referencing for this model depicts that. This thing looks like it’s been in a few battles and it’s only a merchant ship!

I want to add that the seam will not be noticed when this completed. Thank you! David

side1.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

I’m not going to use any type of putty for the sea for several reasons but here’s one. The oil-based non-hardening polymer clay would not have any gloss that would depict water and I couldn’t find any information about applying anything to make it glossy.

My idea is to create the sea outside of the bottle and place it inside in two sections. This would be one of the last steps to do inside the bottle. I applied paintable acrylic sealant to plastic wrap as a test to see if I could model waves. I like how it turned out; it’s to scale. The thickness is only 1 to 2 mm.

I’ll glue this sea to the wooden base, paint it, and divide the halves for the bottle insertion. I tested an adhesive for the plastic wrap and it’s good to go. The sea will only be 2 inches wide. We know how this goes… if it were wider, the sea would have risen and so would the ship. With this project right now, the tallest mast will only have 3/16” clearance when completed.

David

sea base.jpg

sea2.jpg

sea1.jpg

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The channel boards have been challenging to make at an acceptable scale. I found a black plastic that I’m very pleased with. I believe it can be worked to any practical dimension. It’s very tough, not brittle, and drills cleanly and since it’s black, a painting step is eliminated. The sample of one board in the photo is pegged, as they all are on this model. David

hullsb.jpg

aft.jpg

part1.jpg

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On 4/7/2017 at 8:57 PM, Chasseur said:

Looking Good!

Thank you, sir!

Here's some further progress. Epoxy was used only on the bottom one of the set here and only on one end of the short threads. Epoxy, being plastic, flares when cut. I'm going to continue with the diluted glue because it looks "cleaner".

shroud2.jpg

Edited by DavidB773
Changed comment about the adhesive.
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