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Hey Everyone, excited to be joining this group! I have always had a fascination with ships in bottles and have finally decided to build one. My other modeling subjects mostly revolve around wooden ship models of various scales ranging from 1/48, 1/96, and 1/128. I am hoping I can leverage some of these skills on this endeavor. What are some resources people would recommend for a first time ship in bottle builder? Also, what are people's favorite places to buy bottles?

Welcome aboard bsmith. I sometimes buy bottles from charity shops.I think you call them thrift stores in the states. Quite often you can pick up a nice specimen for a few bucks. Other than that I get them from friends or else bottle banks. Resources, well first delve into this site for some great tips; perhaps invest in a ships in bottles book and then set about deciding what ship or boat you really want to make. Get drawings from books or the net and size them to fit your bottle. The internal size of your bottle will determine the scale of the model .A lot of tools can be home made

Worked the "sea" a bit.

Greetings Jeff, Well, thank you for the honor of being recognized! Sounds like a plan to me, it's all here so just a notice pointing to the ongoing article should work fine. And, yes, everyone is suffering from the CV-19 pandemic, it's not like my classic 60'-70's soft rock is all that popular except for the few older people like myself. Most of that work is practice to keep in shape and remember all the lyrics and chords, but do make a few music videos for my friends. Thanks for the honor! Anchor's A Weigh! John

Welcome! Finding bottles is a fun part of this hobby. I always keep an eye out in thrift stores and antique shops. Hobby stores have some pretty good ones as well. Most importantly though tell all your friends who drink that you build ships in bottles. They'll show up with a ton of bottles. Usually they'll ask if the bottles are good enough. I tell them if they aren't I'll throw them away for you. My friends have brought me some really good ones.

Hi All, I've started on a SIB of the HMB Endeavour, which is a relatively famous ship in this part of the world. I started about a month ago, after I'd visited the replica of the ship, and taken heaps of photos. As it lives locally in Sydney harbour, it was a nice day out! So far, I've shaped the hull, carved out of some nice straight grained soft wood from an old office table, which was about 40 years old. I've also played with masts and spas, with mixed success! The hull is sliced at the waterline, and so far, I can fit it down the neck of my bottle. (Always bonus

I've been trying to get myself back into the swing of things. One thing I've found that helps is short easy projects like mini SIBs. I built this one in an hour.

Been a while since I've posted any of my work. Its been a bit tough to get to ships in bottles the last year or so. I've been studying and taking CPA exams but not passing them. They're no joke. So still fighting that fight. I'll get there. I also had an issue with pain in my thumb everytime I went to build. Probably from to much phone use plus model building putting a stain on my joints. So I've become more mindful of how do things. That seems to have helped. So now I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. I'm lucky to be working in healthcare in I have friends

Welcome to the group!

This is looking fun and really coming together. Great job.

Looking good...Moab

I've been intrigued lately when viewing build logs on the NRG web site, among other places. Decided I would give it a try and see how it all works. I started by viewing the vast number of CAD ship plans I've developed over 40 years of modeling sailing vessels. I was interested in something fairly simply, but one I had enough information already drawn up in plans. I ended up settling on the clipper Flying Cloud. I drew up the plans 27 years ago for a ship in bottle model at 1:750 scale. For a card/paper model I decided on a scale of 1:350, making the hull slightly over 8" long.

Fair enough John, yeah no commitment as an honorary member whatsoever. I just want to recognize you and your past and present involvement. As far as an article, I can just create a small submission on BSW and then link it back to here for any updates etc. Your suggestion makes sense. Too bad about your business as everyone is suffering these days due to CV-19.

Greetings Jeff, First, thanks for the kind words. The postings I have been making on the card/paper model experiments is written as a single article, as a MS Word document file. I simply copy and paste it into this and the NRG Model Ship World postings. I write it as I work and photograph, sometimes takes a while between writing sessions due to experiments that don't work out or simply take a long time to work out. At present the .doc file is 37 pages, nearly 35MB, including separate files of the photos. I am far from finishing the experimenting or the article, so have no no idea how lar

A motley crew for sure. I made 'em a bit shaggy so I could try and get a sensation of motion. The close up photo looks horrible as always, hoping from a distance it looks more like sunglasses than bug eyes.

I wouldn't want to meet them on a dark night tho'. 😁

Crew selection has been made.

I am trying to make some little sailors to sail the Hobie's and it is turning out to be more difficult than I thought. since they are so small. Oh well, thus the life of a bottled ship builder. I found some 2 part epoxy for this purpose and formed some 24 gauge wire to put the epoxy putty on. Obviously with anything new there is a learning curve so consequently, I have numerous partially done sailors that just wouldn't make the cut. I tried to pose them doing what they should be doing when they should be doing it but still a work in progress. I

Have you thought of printing your own waterslide decals for the numbers. I've used this a couple of times for ship's names. A pack of A4 sheets is only about £5 in the UK. I get the right size by printing out different fonts and sizes on paper plus any other suitable detailing, cutting out and trying for size. When correct I print the decals, a couple of copies in case of mistakes. I still have about 4.5 sheets so its going to last. The windows and name on the Colvic Watson 28 SIB in the phot were made this way Alan

Greetings All, Work on the second hull continued with the start of a first layer of planking. This time I used well saturated cardboard that was thinner than that used on the first hull. These planks were stiffer, but also much more brittle. I also changed things up a little by using a white card stock, also saturated with thinned poly varnish, to delineate the waterline. The following photos show this work in progress. One thing to note is that this time I did not fill in the bow and stern areas with solid card stock, not sure if it was a good idea or not, it make planking mu

Hi-- thanks for adding me. I've been building all kinds of things for over 60 years; model planes, plastic model ships, musical instruments*, etc. I'm currently building a 1/64 Baltimore Clipper from the Pride of Baltimore II kit. I'm building it as a more generic Baltimore Clipper, leaving off all of the modern stuff like propellors,radar etc. The real Pride has a LOT of stuff on deck that would not have been on a real period ship. Much of that is for safety,which is terrific for the real ship but it makes for a much more cluttered deck than a real working Baltimore Clipper would have. I

Greetings Omni, Yes, twisting of the keel is a problem with any bulkhead type of model. I had previously made one in styrene plastic, but there I made the bottom of the keel, center piece, deeper than needed, and used a wooden board with a slot to keep it all straight. Patience, as I often tell people who comment on my models in person, is something you need when you are doing something you don't like, I LOVE what I do so time doesn't matter. Anchor's A Weigh! John

I've seen some of the modelers who scratch build from styrene use right angled metal blocks and magnets to hold the styrene sheet in place while the glue sets. It would probably work with card as well. Similarly, when I used to build balsa wood planes and boats years ago, pins hammered into the building board were used to keep things aligned until the glue set. Merry Christmas to all and wishing you a better New Year than the one we've had. Alan

Greetings All, Before continuing with this build article I would like to review some of what I've learned, and how it affects the work as it progresses. First of all I have learned that I need to soak/saturate the card stock from packaging much better. Originally I only used multiple painted coats of thinned poly varnish to do this work. I was only saturating the uncolored side, which is in effect sealed off by the printing. I have since learned to sand the colored side of the card stock, using 320 grit sandpaper and a small wood block, to roughen up the surface and remove as

Greetings All, The work on the card and paper clipper model continued with quite a few more sealing and sanding, with small amounts of Bondo. Once I had a decent hull I made up the keel, stem and stern posts out of multiple layers of board. After reading more online about card models I learned to saturate the card stock with thinned down poly varnish, in order to make it stiffer and less prone to fraying when sanding. It also made cutting a wee bit harder, but worth the effort as it shapes up nicer when saturated. I did this by using a large art paint brush an

That looks great!! Paper is an interesting method. I did one similar a long time ago and at a much smaller scale. Had a guy in our club show us how to make long boats with a wood mold. He put a bit of wax on the mold and placed paper over the top brushing it with water downed white glue. After it dried it could be removed from the mold and you'd have a hollowed out hull. I took the idea and made a version of the Queen Annes Revenge. The rigging wasn't great but the hull looked good. Having done a few minis since I should try it again. The part I found interesting was you need to b

Greetings Bernard, Thanks! And, yes, it is fiddly for sure. Because this was an experiment, I did not photograph the really fiddly parts, like cutting all the bulkheads and such. I am already working on an improved plan, and have photographed all the bulkheads and other pieces, but that is all for future posts. Anchor's A Weigh! John Fox III

Hi John. A couple of years ago, one of the members of the European Association of Ships in Bottles (EASIB) had an article published in Bottleship, EASIB's 1/4ly magazine on making SIB hulls from card and paper. This was to introduce young children to the art safely by only having to use scissors and not sharp blades. The technique was to make a card laminate hull, the 'layers' being cut to shape using reducing sizes of deck outline or hull lines and using PVA glue to stick and harden. This block when dry could be sanded to final shape and drilled as required for masts, etc. Photographic

Continuing on with my card/paper Flying Cloud model build. The next step was to fill in between bulkheads and keel at the bow and stern with layers of board cut to fit as I added them. Photos below shows the results after cutting and shaping them a bit, and applying CA glue to harden them. I also started sanding the bulkheads edges to fair in the hull shape. What I found was that in many places the weaker inner parts of the board would splay the outer harder parts outward as I sanded. I continued sanding and fairing the hull, had to apply CA glue between each sanding session.

Dam Dam! Plan "A" didn't go to as planned! Just have to sort out a few threads, and figure out Plan "B"!! Cheers, Mick Just a quick update, I've almost sorted them all out, and at least no damage was done, inserting or un-inserting!! Mick

She's Launched!!!! It's been a while since I've been here, but slowly bits have come together. There is a photo of the ship, rigged, (almost), sitting on the table, one of my launching tool,(launch ramp??),which is modelled after the Amarti tool I used for Hannah, and one of her in the bottle, with the air pump going to get rid of any fumes from the glue. I have the mast handling tool sorted out, it seems to work on the dummy runs, and a few suitable Swann Morton blades in the post, due very soon, which clip onto an extended handle. Now I just have to rig her! Cheers

Hi All. I hope everyone is well, and getting over this Covid thing. I've been playing with the ratlines. With no success! I tried several jigs, copied or adapted from others on this forum, but I couldn't get the ratlines to cut flat with the shrouds, using nail trimmers, knives ....., and they looked terrible. So I have decided to go without them. Sometimes, less is more! I've also changed my gluing technique. I use thin CA to initially fix things in place, a bit like tack welding, then use ZAP thick CA to hold it all permanently in place. The thick might take a whi

Hi All. A bit more progress! The Main and Mizzen are now on deck, at the moment just sitting there. I think I'll do the lower shrouds at a later date, mainly so they don't get damaged, and more importantly, they don't get tangled! I've put the sheets on the gaff sail, and they are becoming a nightmare, so those bits and pieces of thread which will end up hanging out of the bottle come launching time will be sorted out later. Still a bit more to do! Cheers, and stay safe. Mick

Hi All. I've done the hand-rails,(Gunnels?, Capping rails?, Bannisters?, Not sure of the correct terminology.) Made from polyester thread, wiped with super-glue (CA), then wiped with a rag. Makes the thread quite rigid. Then glued with CA. The canons aren't loaded yet, but they are made from styrene. Cheers Mick

I appreciate that Daniel. When your ready to take on the challenge of building a ship in bottle at this scale let me know and I can send you one of the hand-blown bottles I use.

I have to disagree that mini ships in bottles are easy. Most of the miniatures I decide to build are in bottles with bottlenecks that measure 2.0mm and smaller