Landlubber Mike

I do not have any pictures of the deck going in because after I steam the veneer aft deck it has to go in very quickly. Unfortunately it splits a bit but luckily it is in a place that will be hidden. Fore deck (white 0,5mm plastic) inserts easily and is no problem.The funnel guides have a double function i.e. to act as a secure glueing place for the funnels and also for pinning the deck  in place.Flag staff fixed;it also acts as a rigging tie off.Aft mast and aft deck in situ.

Rigging completed and she is ready to go in! The ice/sea base will not go in one piece so I have to cut it in half.In the last photo is a breakdown of the ship which is ready to go inside the bottle.

Usually when I do the centre cut of the hull I cut it a bit off centre (1-2mm) so that the masts have somewhere solid to sit but in doing this it leaves one side wider than the other which in this case is the starboard side. Its a tight squeeze!

Port side goes in easily and I glue them together and then fix the base of the hull with epoxy glue at the bottom of the bottle because the plasticine ice will not hold it by itself.

Main part of the hull in place.Next will be the deck which is in two pieces representing steel deck at the fore and planked deck aft.

Made lifeboat davits,anchors and added some railings together with other bits and pieces. More painting. I cannot add railings to the ships deck because of the logistics of getting the deck in one piece through the bottle neck.

Bit more of the superstructure done in a raw form. This will not be a super detailed model especially as I want to complete it soon.

Well the cutting of the hull in four pieces did not go so well. Like some other people on this forum I belong to a modelling club where we pool all our resources,machines etc. I get to use a very fine bladed band saw for the cutting but unfortunately the blade breaks on the last cut,which causes it to go a bit askew as you can see in some of the pictures.Luckily as the hull is black it may not be too noticeable.Anyway had to do a new paint job.Started making some of the deck items,bridge etc...Modelled the ice scene;not much room inside the bottle for anything larger.

Next a bit of black spray paint and position the funnels and masts. After that comes the cutting of the hull into four pieces 

Added the business end of the icebreaker and made the hawse openings for the anchors.

A start;carved the hull with wood and then skinned her with styrene white plastic to try to make it look like steel plating.The hull will have to be cut into at least four different pieces to enable it to fit through the bottle neck. The cutting is going to be a bit nerve wracking as a mistake means starting from scratch again!

Good start, Onni!

Seeing as we still have snow and ice here in Finland ,even though it is spring; I thought that I would try to build 'Tarmo' a Finnish icebreaker constructed in Britain in 1907 and in operation until 1970.It is now a museum ship in Kotka and I had the good fortune to climb aboard her last Summer during the Tall Ships race staged in Kotka.

Greetings All,
Have been working on 2 models of the James Miller at 1:300 scale and thought I would share some progress photos and info. One of the models will be going into an 11" long sodium vapor street light bulb, the other in a wall mounted clock that resembles a pocket watch case, the latter will be static display. I've been working on the models for about 8 months now, on and off.
Both hulls are split at the waterline, to allow access to the underside of the upper hull, and to fit through the light bulb opening. I decided to try something different with these models, the hulls are carved from solid maple, instead of the basswood I have used for hulls in the past. It it a bit more difficult to carve to shape, but much stronger. The upper hulls were carved to the decks, then a solid piece was carved to match both the forward and stern decks, the forward longer section was pegged to the deck, the small stern piece was just held in place, then both were carved to the outer shape of the hull. Both pieces were then "hollowed out" to about 1/16" thick. Maple keel was added to the hull pieces, then the interior of the forward bulwarks piece had styrene frame tops added, along with a styrene pin rain added their entire lengths. A 1/32" forecastle deck was then cut to shape, and glued to the tops of the pin rail on either side. A styrene top plate was then cut and glued to the tops of the bulwarks of the entire hull.
The bowsprit was made from maple, the jib boom was made from glued maple laminates for strength. The light bulb model had laminated lower masts, to make it easier to add hidden hinges for that model. All the other spars I made from solid apple wood, which is different from my usual techniques. The apple wood is amazingly strong, even when cut and sanded to small diameters, and nearly grain free. Most of the spar attachment points for rigging were cut and filed from various thicknesses of solid brass,  thin brass shim material was used to make some of the attachments, like for the bobstays and boom sheet and topping lift attachments. The boom and gaff jaws were cut and filed from 0.20" thick brass, mainly for strength.
One of the reasons for the lengthy build of these models is my attempts to try different methods and materials. One of my better "finds" for these models was the use of electrical shrink tubing for the mast hoops. I used a wooden dowel a bit larger than the thickest part of the masts to shrink 1/8" diameter tubing to size, by heating the tubing carefully. A single edged razor blade was then used to cut thin sections of the tubing for the hoops. When I shrank down the upper mast hoops I found the shrunken tubing was too thick, so I used various grades of sandpaper to spin sand the tubing to take the thickness down.  I would have preferred to have used brown shrink tubing, but while there are a variety of colors available, brown was not one of them.
The cabins for the models were made from maple, started with a core building of 1/32" maple veneer longer sides, with 3/32" maple ends, and a similar thickness maple inner piece for strength. The door and window openings were then cut through the side panels. I then glued 0.010" thick maple "planks" to the outside of the cabin. Very tiny pieces of the thin maple were then cut and glued for the door and window frames. I decided to let one door partially open on each cabin, just to show the hollowness of the cabins, the doors were made similarly to the cabins themselves.
All the decks of the model were planked with the same 0.010" thick maple, the maple was hand sanded down from the 1/32" thick veneer that I have a good stock of. The planks were then cut and sanded to size, and a soft lead pencil was rubbed along one long edge and one short edge of each plank. The planks were glued to the decks with thinned white glue.

I got a chance to open up a light bulb yesterday. My buddy at work has collected various commercial halogen/incandescent bulbs for me. I used the method Greg Alvey talks about on his website to open a bulb with Muriatic acid. Because the inside is of a blown glass that seals a secondary bulb this was quite a feat! I had soaked the socket for 24 hours and then had to bust out the part where it screws into the fixture. Then re-soak to melt out the special glue that holds the socket in place. The glue was nasty, to say the least! Then once that was removed I used my Dremel with a dentist's diamond drill to go around the circumference to saw off the end.
Once the end was removed I had to carefully bust out the filament end and remove the guts. The result is the last picture of the bulb sitting in my lap! I'll have to fabricate a little wooden piece to build up the end of the socket (paint it black and then glue on the metal contact) as that part was destroyed in the process.

Here is the graphic of the ship with the sail from Warships and Naval Battles of the Civil War by Tony Gibbons.

Here is a shot supposedly of the real ship taking on supplies from the internet. Notice the funnel stack is quite different in height and design from the model above.

Last night I found my project for SIB Day. It's the HMS Wivern that was a commission for the South during the civil war. The photo is a 1:48 scale model so I will be scaling down to fit it into a commercial light bulb. I hope to finish it by my birthday which is October 4th and coincides with SIB Day so the Preussen is on hold for now. Lord willing I'll make my completion date as it would be a great birthday present to me.
I also have a nice drawing of it with sail and the bulwarks folded down next to the turrets to show how the ship enables a broadside salvo. I'll post that one tomorrow.
Description of a current model:
Scale: 1:48. A contemporary builder’s full hull model of the coast defense ship ‘
Wivern’ (1863) complete with tripod masts and rigging, deck hatches and skylights, capstan, steering wheel and a single funnel amidships. The whole model is mounted on keel blocks on its original wooden baseboard. After the successful appearance of the low-freeboard turret ship ‘Monitor’ in March 1862, the Confederate States, during the American Civil War, ordered two double-turret ‘rams’ from Messrs Laird of Birkenhead. To avoid any political difficulties on the account of British neutrality in the war, these ships were ostensibly sold to Egypt and were actually launched under the names of ‘El Monassir’ and ‘El Toussin’. However, they were later seized by the British government and renamed ‘Wivern’ and ‘Scorpion’. Measuring 224 feet in length by 42 feet in the beam they had a displacement of 2750 tons. The guns in the two turrets were exposed by lowering sections of the hinged bulwarks and the tripod masts replaced most of the standing rigging thus providing a clearer line of fire. The ‘Wivern’ was sent to Hong Kong in 1880, and later in 1901 it was removed from the Navy List becoming a distilling ship and floating workshop until 1919.

Thank you, Onni!
In this project, I used a two-component silicone to make the basis of the sea and a clear acrylic gel to simulate a slight ripple on the surface of the water.

In progress...
 

This model is in my living room She is the "Sovereign of the Seas" at some point I will have her restored but it is a wonderful model that is very beautifully detailed.

While working on the Dimond project, a threading loop on the port side bow was inadvertently yanked out. The loop was connected to a thread that exited at the base of the bow along with all the other threads. It was to be used for controlling a bowsprit brace from outside of the bottle. Here are two pics showing it beforehand.


I didn’t want to lose an adjustment point that loop provided so I decided to place looped wire there for attaching the brace to. These photos show how I carried the wire to the bow and placed it in the hole. This depiction was after the initial repair was made.
Here’s the stiff paper holder with the carrying wire being taped to it along with the wire peg and thread.

The wire peg is in place on the holder and held there by tensioning the thread that will be used as the brace. This causes the wire peg to pivot forward and it is then carried to the bow and placed in the hole.

Hi guys!
Believe or not, first idea to make a SIB came to me about 30-35 years ago when bought a book in Polish: Flota butelkowa. Means A Bottle Fleet. And started to do a three mast schooner at that time. Finished it two years ago. It nice and quite hobby which demands a lot of skills. I believe that you agree with me, don’t you? 
Well… few weeks ago finished my second model (see pic) and going to do next.
Hope that you will give advices along my job and we will have fun together. New project is a stage of crystallisation. ?
 

Thanks for the add to your great forum, been admiring all your great work and decided to have a go myself. So here is my first attempt, Bit rough round the edges but it’s been a head scratching experience to say the least! Bigger bottle next time I think!

CA reacts aggressively with water. If you ever get it in your eyes remember... it'll sting but... you won't go blind! The CA will crystallize on contact with your tear film and local tissues while possibly encapsulating your eyelashes rendering your eye closed. Don't fret! It'll hurt like heck because the hard CA chunk stuck between your lids will rub on your cornea and scratch it a bit. The optometrist or ophthalmologist will use topical anesthetic for temporary pain relief while they cut the lashes to access the eyeball. They will remove the hardened chunk of CA that has contoured to the shape of your eye and palpebral fissure. Then they will instill antibiotic drops and a bandage soft contact lens. In the morning the contact gets removed and you will be as good as new! Except for truncated eyelashes, that is!  My advice is don't get CA in your eyes. Personally, I rarely use the stuff... it makes my nose 'run' (allergic to it). How do I know all of this (and then some)? I am an eye care provider!