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Bottled Ship Builder

What's on your workbench?


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There's another lesson I learned very early while building Esmeralda. There was a time when I felt overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of detail I had set for myself and was very discouraged. Then I remembered the punch line of an old joke about how to eat an elephant, "One bite at a time," and divided the project into many little mini-projects and tried to ignore the bigger picture. To use a different metaphor, I ignore the forest and focus on each individual tree. With my attention centered on making each tree as well as I am able, I find that my forest grows, seemingly all by itself.

 

 

 

Dave

Dave,

 

That is such good advise.  One bite at a time.  And you have to start eating to begin with!

 

Gwyl

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Hi Gwyl,

In this case I use the planks of the light and pink pear. A little earlier I ordered laths from different breeds of a tree (a pear, a hornbeam) and the different sizes (0.5x0.5, 0.5x0.8, 0.5x1, 0.5x1.2 mm). It is rather hard wood, but it allows me to do very small and exact details.

post-22-0-96837600-1427201045_thumb.jpg

Best Regards!

Igor.

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This is a project just back in the shop for a visit after an exhibit and back to her owner, who graciously loaned her for the exhibit.  She is the yawl Sandrala, an Alden designed "Off Soundings" cruiser, built in 1940 at East Boothbay, Maine.  Still afloat today, she has been lovingly restored by her current owners.  I was aboard in 2012 and was inspired to look up her lines and create this model in a 5 liter bottle.  The scale is slightly smaller than 1/8" = 1', which allowed working blocks in her rigging.  Rather than represent her as she appears today, this model shows her as she looked when first launched.  To avoid painting, I built her up of natural woods, using aspen for her pale topsides, redwood for her lower hull, boxwood for the boot topping and a variety of pines for her planking, cabin and rail.  The stand in the bottle is oak and the standing rigging is a fly tying line called "French tinsel".  It was a satisfying project that took 137 hours (including one abandoned hull) which I look forward to repeating when another suitable design turns up.post-23-0-09015100-1427207418_thumb.jpg

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post-23-0-97509900-1427286223_thumb.jpg

 

Thanks Igor, Gwyl,

 

This is detail of the deck.  The planking, cabin and rail are all pine, just the latter two are more seasoned.  The cabin roof is also aspen, same as the topsides. I got started on vertical models by editing an article on it by Paul Stanton of Port Dufferin, NS.  Haven't heard of him for years.  Does anyone else out there remember him?

 

Alex

Hi Alex,

It looks perfectly!

Have you more photos of this work?

Igor.

 

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Alex,

 

The detail on the deck looks very real.  The handrails on top, the companionway slide etc.  I like the way the different colors of wood (extra seasoning) comes together here.  It looks like I'm seeing winches on this also? Very nice.

Thanks for sharing this extra photo.

 

Gwyl

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  • 2 weeks later...

Greetings Gwyl,

 

Saw your divided hull photos, and looked around a bit to find two examples I've done similarly. The first was a commissioned model of a yacht, by the owner's employees as a surprise gift. The Romanza model's hull was divided into four parts, the lower hull was just a thin piece as it was a waterline type model. The lower hull had two vertical pins upwards, the middle hull was two separate pieces, split down the middle, with horizontal pegs to align them together, and holes for the pegs from the lower hull. Each middle hull side had a hole to accept pins from the cabin roof/sides piece, with had two pegs on the underside. The bottom and top hull pieces locked the two lower pieces together.

 

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post-26-0-94769200-1428058920_thumb.jpg

 

The second model was of the USCG Eagle, done is 1993. It has a vertical and horizontally split hull, horizontal split at the waterline, and vertical split just off center. The slightly off center vertical split allowed me to fasten the masts to the center of the upper hull, I used Hinkley style hidden hinges on all the masts.

 

post-26-0-31623100-1428059116_thumb.jpg

 

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I use the technique when necessary, but it does make for a lot more work and design differences.

 

Anchor's A Weigh!

John Fox III

Ladysmith, WI

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Nice work John.  Thanks for the pictures too!  I think that your USCG Eagle with multiple parts really adds to the realism.  More complicated, but worth it, if that is what needs to be done.

 

My multi piece hulls, are inspired from one of your CD's I purchased a while ago.  Each time I go through your's, or others tutorials, I always seem to learn more, pick a up a new technique, and enhance my overall quality.  

 

Gwyl

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Greetings Gwyl,

 

Thanks! The Eagle was quite the project, you might notice that the one in the photo is inside of a gallon jug, with quite a wide opening. The first, original, version of this model was put into a very much smaller liquor bottle, that required the hull to be in so many parts. My usual methods are to start 3 hulls of a model, once carved and sanded I will usually leave one hull as an extra, in case something disasterous happens to the other two during further work. I sometimes will finish both the other models, sometimes just the one I am mainly interested in making. A lot depends on how the first model finishes up, and how that meets with my expectations. I've been accused of using the Zen method of modeling, i.e. I actually visualize the finished model before I start building anything. <Grin>

 

I am glad to hear that inspiration was derived from my writings, it's inspiration that will drive improving efforts by those who are interested in going that direction.

 

Anchor's A Weigh!

John Fox III

Ladysmith, WI

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Greetings Dave,

 

Not sure how anyone else would do it, or what is normal, only know that at various shows it was considered somewhat unusual to see the finished model before starting work on it. Since it's the only way I know how, but seemed odd to some other modelers, just assumed it was unusual.

 

Anchor's A Weigh!

John Fox III

Ladysmith, WI

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John:

 

I spent my entire working life building things out of steel or other metals and not once did I build something that I did not have a good mental picture of what it would look like when my part was completed. Usually I got this image from the construction or fabrication drawings. I can't even comprehend building something blind.

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I think its not so much building blind but how far ahead people see things coming together.  Some people build one part at a time and add it to project and eventually a ship forms.  The advantage of seeing the whole project at once is seeing how all the pieces come together which can help efficiency and continuity of the build.  

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