Onni

I see that you have done a bit more detail work on the octopus stand;it looks fantastic! Mayflower doesn't look too bad either (looks great). Well done.

Looking good. Impressive height for the masts. Nice work!

Flipper 650DC made for a client.

Funnel goes in and then the main mast. Decided to leave off 'Daisy' and the cow shed as I thought the deck could look a bit too cluttered.( It's possible that I can add them later if I want to.) Main mast in place with no problems and then set in the foremast. The bowsprit gave me a few problems as the glue didn't set on the first attempt because the mounting hole inside is made up of a plastic and wood wafer construction, so in the end I used an epoxy glue to fix it firmly. Finally completed GB after several months work but unfortunately I didn't notice that the top flying jig rigging had tan

I can understand your reluctance to fit it into that nice bottle that came with the kit. I think you've made the right decision to set it in putty in the wooden case. Should look great!

All the hull parts fitted through the bottle neck relativity easily but I had tremendous trouble to lift the front end of the starboard top piece over the front lug to secure it (Second photo). It actually took me about an hour before it snuggly slipped in place (Third photo).Luckily I had already designed these pieces to fit together without being glued otherwise it would of been a disaster had they had glue on them. As you can probably see some of the fragile photo etched railings received some damage in my struggles but they are pretty easy to repair. I then put in the engine room and then

Yeah, I can thoroughly recommend the book Will, it's what got me started on this great hobby.

For some idiotic reasons after I had glued the main sail, it went into an inverted curve (looking like the wind was blowing from the front)The solution;I scrapped off the sail and re glued it the other way round so it now has a nice curve without even me trying anything high tech to get it looking like that!Constructed the lifeboats and all six are fixed (three each side)to a thin plastic strip which will then have to be fixed to the side of the hull of GB when she is inside the bottle.Made the 'red duster' flag from an old hankerchief of which I have inserted and glued very thin wire inside o

I'm not sure if this would help you Will;these illustrations are from 'Sailing in Glass' byJOOP VAN SCHOUTEN and explains where not to glue the sails until the masts are pulled upright and fixed inside the bottle.Pretty much the same applies to your main sail,only glue one end of the sail to the gaff;you can then glue the other end of the sail later on, inside the bottle; perhaps using a piece of wire, with a dab of glue on the end of it. I usually use ordainary white wood glue to fix the sails.

Completed all deck furnishings (the small skylights took ages)and moved forward to the masts and rigging. I am going to rig her with half sails up but no top sails as per the drawing at the begining of this build. As you may of noticed I made a new engine room skylight and cut out the space in the hull so that you should be able to get a glimpse of the engine room machinery through the skylight.Shrouds and ratlines I make on my little jig which are bonded with super glue and white wood glue to simulate the block and tackle.

Continued with some of the deck features.'Daisy' the Guernsey cow with her cow shed amongst other items. The two Trottman anchors are made out of wire and plastic.Not happy with the engine house skylight so I will probably make a new one.

Time for some bling.I actually hate that word but it's probably a good description for all the golden stuff that adorns GB. The trailboards illustrate the artisans work on the ship but is very difficult to reproduce on such a small scale. I cut shards of plastic and then painted them gold to try to imitate the scroll work. The Lion and Unicorn support the royal shield under the bowsprit;they didn't work so well for me as I coudn't detach them from the grease proof paper without cutting them out with scissors.Fashioned a couple of catsheads,they will be fixed later. The stern is made out of thr

Nice work so far and some interesting use of G clamps. I like that you are using scaled down drawings of Bluenose, it's much easier to get everything the correct size. The one thing that I find with painting,is that it does show up any inconsistencies but sometimes that depends more on the colour of the paint. Keep up the good work!

I have to admit that the stairs are actually photo etched.They are just cut out;bent into shape and then painted. In the past I have attempted to make them myself but the results have been rather under whelming.

Added the fake gunports which I think make the hull more attractive. Next the funnel gets more work and the bridge/viewing platform is added. Doesn't look that much but it amounts to several hours work. Just hope it all goes as planned as this is one of my builds that is a build log under construction;most of my other build logs were already completed before I posted them so I am a little bit nervous about the end result of GB. A long way to go before completion though....