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Hi all, Here is a question that I've been mulling over. What sort of glue or approach is best when gluing sections of hull together in the bottle, when the hulls are aligned by dowels in one piece that fit into holes in the other. I ask this, because I had two problems. The first was when I used dilute white glue, but this expanded the hole or post or both, so that the fit was very tight, and I was very lucky to get the two hull pieces together. The second problem was when I used 5-min epoxy, which I thought would not absorb into the wood, but then I think a touch of it got out of the holes, and between the two hull pieces, leaving a small permanent gap between my hull peices. I like a ship in the bottle, because the optical distortion of the glass is pretty forgiving for the odd imperfections, but what sort of glue do people usually use? Best wishes, Andy

I use white glue as well but haven’t really had any problems with it except that the hulls have to be joined together pretty quickly. I have never used epoxy to join them, that sounds a bit scary! To avoid expansion of the holes or dowels (cocktail sticks?) you could try using metal dowels cut from metal coat hangers. They are a slightly larger diameter than cocktail sticks but not greatly so. I’ve used them a couple of times and they work okay. onni

Hi Dan, Thats a nice looking ship. Everything looks nice and crisp, and I like the detail on the foresail. Let us know if you find a good clear resin and way to color it. I used a resin I had around from a canoe repair, but it started off sort of brown, and the result was not great. I'm not sure where to get the clear stuff. Andy