Dave Fellingham

I very highly recommend "Modelling Ships in Bottles" by Jack Needham, either edition. I have not seen a better "how to" book on the craft. Jack will take you through several builds from a simple two masted schooner through to a three masted square rigged ship. Then hang around here and ask questions while waiting for it to arrive and afterward as well. for #2 and #3 build as large as you can find a bottle for with a large diameter neck - both will make the build easier. Be most concerned about clarity and minimal distortion closely followed by the neck diameter. A bottle that has a usable internal space that is about as tall as it is wide work well for most two and three masted vessels. #4 absolutely, put sails on it. They can hide a lot of minor errors. #5 I wouldn't change a thing, I had Jack helping me. I only wish I had a place like this to learn from 35 years ago. Dave

Spending your children's inheritance on toys? Well done!

Gives new meaning to the expression "lip lock".

I am not so arrogant to believe that I can possibly improve upon the appearance of any historical ship, so I build as close as I am able to what is known. Viewers of models of historic ships naturally assume that the builder has exercised due diligence and that his or her models are reasonably accurate. Deliberate deviations and errors are, in effect, lies in three dimensions and I hold myself to the standard of being honest in my work. I recognize that our medium sometimes requires some adjustments, particularly in the rigging, but I make my best effort to keep those adjustments to a minimum and un-noticeable. I require of myself nothing but my best effort. I don't expect anyone to adhere to the standards I have set for myself. If someone does sloppy, careless and/or inaccurate work and they're content with that, it's fine with me, but I have the right to that opinion of their work and to view that person's work as lessons for myself of what not to do. Complacency is the enemy of excellence and "good enough" is not good enough in my work. And if anyone is somehow offended by expressing my opinions about my own work, that's just too bad. "Edited - Admin"

I have taken to tracing/redrawing plans acquired on the internet. Frequently these plans are distorted and pixelated. I start in a photo edit program and, after drawing a few horizontal and vertical guide lines, adjust the photo until it is close enough to square and straight then tinker with brightness and contrast to bring out the lines on the image, remove the guide lines, and save it. Then I import it into a drawing program and trace/redraw it. I use a vectored drawing program that does not pixelate the lines but keeps them true even at 5000X magnification. I use layers in the drawing program with the original on a layer and the redrawn lines on another so I can turn the layers on or off as work progresses to verify that the new lines match the original. After I've redrawn the plan I then copy it onto another page (the drawing program allows for multiple pages) and reduce it to the size I need. When I reduce I make a note on the plan what the reduction in percent is. This allows me to trace/redraw deck detail (for example) from the original plan, copy to the small scale plan and reduce using that percentage. I know this information may be more than many ship bottlers can use or are familiar with. I had pencil and paper drafting courses in college and later took courses in CAD drafting. I also worked with blueprints my entire working life. However, the basic idea can still be used by a beginner in digital drawing to prepare clean, fine-lined drawings to the size required with some practice and experimentation. I use two programs from Serif, PhotoPlus Starter Edition and DrawPlus Starter Edition. Both are free, sample-ware versions (with some reduced capabilities) of the programs they sell. I have upgraded the DrawPlus (when they had it on sale) but not PhotoPlus.

Placing the photo you want in your signature into a gallery (400 pixels x 100 pixels, or less) would work better than the way I did it. Just the same one I used elsewhere to remind me that I need to keep working on my model of her. I've been working on it so long it's almost embarrassing. Dave

I realized the same thing just a few moments ago. And will take the opportunity to attach my signature photo here. And it all worked in less than 10 minutes. Thanks for being so patient while I asked a lot of questions to suit my detail oriented personality. Dave

That explains it. 1000 pixels or 800 is fine. Like I said above, I resize anyway for internet publication and 1000 pixels should be fine. Dave

While we're on the subject of photos, I'm having a hard time getting a photo in my signature. The current set-up calls for a URL for a photo, but MSW allows uploading one in the same way we do photos in topics. Is that something you can tweak? Dave

After further reviewing all the photos I've uploaded here, I found that none are over 800 pixels horizontal even though the edited photos I uploaded to the forum are still on my computer at 1000 to 1280 pixels horizontal. I am unable to comment on the vertical limit since few of my photos have a portrait orientation. Dave

I answered my own question. It appears that no matter what the pixel dimensions of an uploaded photo are, it will be reduced and stored at a maximum size of 882(h) x 705(v). Of course, smaller photos aren't changed. Dave

I no longer see the bar graph and there is no mention of a limit so I assume the limit is gone. I would still like to know the maximum image size (in pixels) that the forum will post without reducing the image. I have to reduce my photos from 3472 x 2592 to another size anyway, it might as well be the largest the forum will display without reducing it. Dave

I believe you are mistaken, 20 MB is now the limit for the total of attached photos. I find this limit by clicking my name at the top of the page, then selecting "My Settings" then clicking on "Manage Attachments" where I then see a bar showing I have posted 2 MB of my 20 MB limit and all the photos I've posted.

I have used up about half of my attachment memory limitation (4 MB) and need to find an alternative method of posting photos. I know I can link to a url but that means I have to post photos someplace else on the web. I need help with this if I'm going to post photos after I reach my limit. I would find it very difficult to select and delete previously attached photos in order to post new ones. Also, what is the largest photo size the forum will post without reducing the photo? I've noticed that some photos are reduced and others aren't but haven't analyzed my attachments to find the pattern. I noticed that you increased the attachment limit to 20 MB and that helps. Dave

I saw those, it's a different guy. I'm still trying to get my head around hollowing out a bit of beard stubble.

I sometimes find myself intimidated by a project or a task because of my perceived limitations and doubts of accomplishing it to my satisfaction. A few months ago while browsing the web, I came across the remarkable work of Willard Wigan. "The Last Supper" in the eye of a needle. A motorcycle inside a hollowed out beard clipping. [Yes, you read that right.] Now I don't get intimidated so easily, and when I do, I remember these. Nothing is impossible.

I had been working on SiBs pretty much in a vacuum since buying Jack Needham's book in the late seventies and expanding on the lessons learned from him. It never occurred to me to search for other builders on the web until a little less than three years ago when I posted a project on Model Ship World. There I met Daniel Siemens who pointed me towards the Facebook and Yahoo SIBAA groups. I was also introduced to the miniature works of Donald McNarry and Lloyd McCaffery by someone who commented on my build log on MSW. The work of those two men, as it did with John Fox, inspired me to attempt that quality of detail in my own work. In the time since discovering there were other people interested in building SiBs, I have improved my work greatly - not just incrementally, but more like an order of magnitude improvement. I've learned more in a little less than three years from the MSW conventional ship model and from the SiB communities than I did in the preceding thirty-five.

I've used a similar technique with waxed paper to prevent damage to hull paint from rubbing on the inside of the neck. I've also used small pieces of waxed paper between collapsed masts and deck details that might poke holes in the sails and between masts to prevent, for example, getting a fore mast head from getting tangled in the main mast shrouds or other rigging. Dave