Landlubber Mike

Hello, my name is Hafid. I am new to this hobby. I do not know much about boats but I love the way they look on bottles, I think it's a very beautiful art. I have some projects stopped because I have several questions about its construction and assembly. Thank you for your support and I am willing to help. My first project "RMS Titanic"

Hello,
My name is José medina and I live in Puebla, México. Puebla is about 2130 meters abobe sea level and about 3 hours from Veracruz, the nearest sea port. But even here I discovered the taste for the ships in bottle. Here is my first, the Hannah from Amati. Hope you like it.
Greetings from México
José
 

Putting together my first SIB in nearly 40 years, all of a sudden I needed a pair of long tweezers that I didn't have. I looked them up in Micro Marts online catalog and saw that they were $13 plus shipping, plus time. Well that wouldn't due. So undaunted, I thought to myself a trip to Home Depot, and I'll be back in business in no time.
These tweezers are 12 inches long, 3/8 inches wide, and 1/16 thick and tapered to a 1/8 inch square tip. They are easy to make, cheap and work great. Because aluminum is soft I can bend an angle or radius at the tip in the future if need be.
I picked up a 3 foot long piece of aluminum angle iron and cut 24 inches off of the 1/2 inch side on my band saw, (a hack saw will work too).

I cut that length in half, clamped the two pieces together with the sawed sides up in my vice and started filing till I got them roughly 3/8 wide the full 12 inches. Then I started filing a tapered angle, (starting 5 inches back from the end), one side at a time to bring the pieces to a 1/8 inch wide square pointed end. I buffed out the scratches from the filing with Scotch Brite pad.
 

Next I cut a piece of 3/16 x 3/8 wood stock I just happen to have for making deck furniture 2 1/2 inches long and five minute epoxied that between the two pieces at the ends. I scribed X's on the surface of the aluminum where it was to be glued so that it would take a better bond.
At this point I tried using them just like this but found that it was to difficult, for me anyway, to keep constant pressure on them while I was busy navigating inside the bottle, dropping stuff all the time and such. So I devised a way to keep them constantly closed with an adjustable sliding opener. I put a screw and nut on between the halves of the blades. I cut the screw off just long enough so it could easily slide back and forth. Then I peened the end of it over to insure that the nut wouldn't come off.

Because my nut was so much larger than the head of the screw I wound up filing the points of the nut down till the nut wasn't sticking out so much. I put a piece of electrical tape over the surface of the tweezers blade so the file wouldn't scratch it's face in the process.
Finally I slid the screw all the way next to the wood and using a pair of needle nose pliers firmly gripped the blade next to the screw and parallel to it.
Then pushing down on the butt end of the tweezers with one hand and twisting the pliers over to the right and down with the other hand I introduced an angle bend on each side of the blades. This keeps the blades permanently closed with some considerable pressure at the tip. To open the tip, just slide the screw towards the tip. To close down on your part just back the screw away from the tip. Easy.
So there you go. I hope this helps someone else out. I'm sure this concept will work fine for any length of tweezers you may need to make for your bottles.
I've only been a member of this forum for about six week now and I'm still reading all over it. I know you guys have put a lot of your knowledge and experience forward which has helped me tremendously with my current build. I'm doing things I never had a clue about before thanks to your generous input.
I'm happy to contribute to the forum and will continue to do so in the future.
Regards and sail on. Bruce Foxworthy
 
 

Greetings All,
Here are a few photos taken while adding the ratlines to the shrouds on my James Miller models. The jib was made from 1/16" thick maple veneer, holes drilled to match the distance between ratlines. The line used was 8/0 fly tying thread, rigged as shown in first two photos. 3rd photo shows the jig fastened to the shrouds with an insect mounting pin at the top and a pair of miniature clothes pins and a small piece of bamboo split down on the bottom. CA glue was applied to all points that the ratlines behind touched the shrouds. The shrouds for these models was made from 3 pieces of 8/0 thread made into rope on my miniature rope walk. The final photo shows the finished job, after cutting the ratlines at the outside edges of the shrouds.
Hope that helps!!
Anchor's A Weigh!
John Fox III

That looks great.  Your doing an awesome job.  I like that your not afraid to go small with your bulwarks, rails, masts and yard arms.  Gives the ship a more realistic look.  I sometimes think you can tell a good ship in bottle because you could imagine yourself walking around on deck.  I can do that with your model.
   I've never been on a real sailing ship either.  Biggest I've been on is a day sailing dinghy which isn't much.  It is kind of funny being from a land locked state in the US that I'd be so into sailing ships.  There's just a sense of adventure to them that I like. 
  The more you get into this hobby the more you learn.  I happen to be in a ship modeling club as well with people that build the big static models.  1:50 scale or bigger sort of models.  There is a tendency to get particular about historical details and scale in that group and I fall into that sometimes and build in that way but, my way is not THE way, it's just one way.  There is room for all types of building in the art though so I think people should be as technical or not technical as they like. Ultimately it's about having fun.  A great example is an Etsy shop I came across from a builder in Ukraine.  Brenner is the name he has on Etsy and he has some of the most beautiful ships in bottles I have ever seen.  They are artistically amazing.  They are not at all scale, or historically accurate and don't have a lot of detail. None of that matters, they are beautiful.  Here's a link. https://www.etsy.com/shop/Wardroom?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=696912513  Anyway that was a big tangent just to say build how you want, at your own pace, and have fun.          
    

The forum is very slow but not dead.  There are a ton of different ratline methods.  I've seen people use lace, or even photo etching.  There's good and bad to all methods.  I agree that lace or screening doesn't look the best and metal being hard is harder to get into the bottle. 
I haven't tried all the methods but I can tell you what works well for me.  There's two parts ratlines and it maybe obvious but I'll point them out just so every one understands my terminology.  The lines connecting the mast to the ship and run more or less vertically are called shrouds.  The lines that work as ladders and run horizontally are called ratlines.  Since I usually use the folding method the tightness of the shrouds is important for setting the rake or angle of the mast.  So while some builders make their shrouds and ratlines separate and add them on to the ship after the two parts are combined, I put the shrouds on first then add the ratlines.  
  I like to make my shrouds with a single line weaving back and forth from the ship to the mast.  This makes tightening easy since I pull the line and move the mast back and forth to tighten the shrouds.  Once the shrouds are tightened I tie down and glue down the last line.  Then I move on to the ratlines.  With the mast pulled forward and shrouds tight I glue on the ratlines.  This can be done one by one or you can use a frame.  Place the frame between the mast on the shrouds and glue the ratlines to the shrouds.  I've used superglue and white glue.  Both work fine.  I will say superglue dries stiff so try not to use to much.  Also if you get to much on the line it may leave a white blob.  These can be painted over if needed. If you use white glue try using the frame to keep the lines in place while the glue dries.  That tends to work well.  Test the lines once the glue is dry to make sure they are secure.  Then cut off the excess with follicle clippers. 
I describe this method in more detail in my Bermuda sloop build log and there is more pictures. 
   

 
   

Hi all,
I know these are not models but we have been restoring these "Old Ladies" over the last 3 years , a Labour of love in some ways . I hope you like the photos
Niallmhor

My first SIB was the Amati Hannah kit which I completed last year.  I've been working on my larger non-SIB models since while reading a number of the SIB books out there.  I probably have most of them, which I generally got used for good prices on sites like Abebooks.com.
 
Along with Dave's recommendation, I would add "Sailing in Glass" by Joop van Schouten.  It's very well done with great tips and nice models with step by step directions.  This and the Needham book I think are very good for the beginning and intermediate builders.
 

 
 
If you really want to learn all the tricks in the trade from the masters out there, "Ship Models in Glass" by Hille and Young in my opinion is the must-have book.  In fact, I would say that if you only could buy one SIB book, this is the book in the hobby to buy.  The authors specifically note that the book is a compendium of tips and tricks of the trade from all over the world (see the long bibliography), which pretty much every topic covered.  It's really an amazing book in my opinion.
 

 
 
Don't buy the book on eBay or Abebooks, but buy it new directly from the publisher in the UK where it's much much cheaper, and brand new, even after international S&H.  If interested, you can buy the book here:
 
http://www.skipper.co.uk/catalogue/item/ship-models-in-glass
 
 
For my first scratch SIB builds, I am going to start with some of the basic builds in the van Schouten book, modified with some of the more advanced techniques found in the Hille and Young book.

And a few final photos...














 
 

Then I needed to do the wiring for all the rigging, fasten them and trim the ends.

Then I installed the mast...

The next stage is to place the surface of the case in the bottle, install it in place, bring the ends of the rigging out..





 

So, I put a cork in the bottle's throat. Now this job is complete ..

Oh, thank you, Mike!
I think that I'm still a student and continue to study

I like it a lot. Very nice!

Final product. I cut the port backstay trying to push down the stern into the sea, it was riding too high. I tossed the line over to the starboard side.(the not display side.)
i don't know if I'll ever go in and fix the line. I don't think I can.

Went from a ship in a bottle to be a SHIPWRECK in a bottle. 
Tried the parchment paper over the sea (clay) to keep it of of the sails in the event of a rollover. The paper wrapped up in the glue, the bowsprit snapped, by then the paper was hardened to the side of the ship, caught in the rigging. I had to remove the ship from the bottle, assess the damage and put her in dry dock, and remove blue sea and glue from the sides of the bottle where things got messy. 
 
I use a gel glue for final sea to ship glue in , scrapes away from the glass, if you can fashion a tool fast enough. 
No photos. Too upset.
Final photos after relaunch.
 
 

Greetings All,
In my attempt to get realism I have been working on some ideas for sails. Rather than printing seam lines on paper, my usual method for making sails, I tried out the idea of using thread sandwiched between layers of very thin paper. It took a number of attempts, using different threads and various papers, until I came up with something I think works quite well. The photos below show first one of the hulls with the stern bulwarks added, with the boat davits, and painted black along with the top of the cap rail. Then for the sails, there are several shots showing my sail jig, with bamboo pins spaced where I want my seam lines to be, then strung with 8/0 white fly tying thread. I kept the thread under some tension, while stringing the jig. Beneath the threads is first a small sheet of .003" thick clear acetate, then a folded sheet of .003" 100% cotton drafting paper, with half the paper under the threads. I found it easier to add threads to the jib after the layer of acetate and paper, rather than slipping them under the threads. I then thinned down PVA white glue with water, and using a soft paint brush I laid down a thin layer of glue over nearly the entire paper, leaving 1/4" unglued near the outside edges. The paper warped a bit, and I had to be careful as the wet threads stretched a little, too much brushing moved them around and out of place. I then folded the other half of the paper over the first half, pressed it down by hand, then added another acetate sheet and finally a couple of "C" clamps to hold it all together. Over several attempts I found that too much clamp pressure flattened it all to the point where the ever so slight height difference over the threads completely disappeared, which ruined the effect. I finally found just the right clamping pressure to get the desired results.
The last few photos show some completed sails, not easy to detect the seam lines on those, but the later photos show some of the sails installed, and the running rigging added, and here the seam lines seem just right to me.
Anchor's A Weigh!
John Fox iII

Greetings All,
Today I share the latest work on the James Miller models. I have completed adding the bobstays, jib boom shrouds and jib boom backstays to both models. The bobstays and shrouds are made from miniature rope, made on a mini rope walk I built a year or so ago, using 3 pieces of 8/0 fly tying thread. The backstays are fake miniature chain, made from 8/0 fly tying thread tied around a #80 drill bit with double overhand knots. To keep the "chain" fairly straight I tied a second piece of thread to the first loop tied, after removing the drill bit from the hole in an 9" long piece of wood, then passing this second thread through a rubber band tightly wrapped around the far end of the wood. Before each new double knot was added, the second line was pulled slightly, so that as the first knot was tied to the next knot it would pull the second line, keeping the knots tied opposite each other to keep the chain straight. As each double knot was tied, the bit was removed from the hole in the wood, and the whole thing repeated endlessly.
Second photo shows the completed forecastle area, with everything permanently in place. I also wanted to share that I found some really nice, super fine, fly tying thread. It is labeled and sold as 20 DEN line, and is finer than a human hair. I've used 8/0, 10/0 and 12/0 threads, but they are nearly identical in overall size, but this 20 DEN stuff is a lot smaller/thinner. According to the info at the J. Stockard fly tying company online this line is equivalent to 19/0 thread. It is quite a bit weaker than the other threads mentioned, but works great for wrapping.
Anchor's A Weigh!
John Fox III

Back to it after a bit of a break, (after trying to fathom out whatever posessed me to make it so small and fiddly!) 😂 it's time to 'try' and rig it. Off to a slow start, but it's a start nonetheless! 😂 

Good morning from sunny Bristol, yesterday was two inches of snow today blue sky and sunshine.
I'm Bob and have built three ship models going smaller and smaller in size - Santa Maria from my Grandad (decorative model from around 1936) that I completely restored. Next Billings Dana altered with living quarters, readers etc and in its last stages Heller Sinagot. This one I only used the plastic hull, decks, masts all wood.
Looking forward to my first S I B after searching through the web site for tips, hints, tools.
Cheers Bob

For some of the next parts I'm going to use what called a thread block.  John Fox III has created an excellent video demonstrating how this works.  
This thread block is part of how I get away with thinner, somewhat closer to scale masts and yards.  The smaller the dowels get the harder it is to drill holes and the holes compromise the integrity of the mast and yards.  Tying thread blocks creates places for lines to pass with out compromising the strength of the mast and yards.   

To give a better idea on this style of rigging, the following link is where I first discovered it.  Jim Goodwin shared it a long with a lot of other tricks on the PBS show the Woodwrights Shop.  
https://www.pbs.org/video/woodwrights-shop-ship-bottle/
Honestly the ship he demonstrates in this show maybe a better beginners model than this Bermuda Sloop.  

Got some time in the Man Cave to work on the base for the bulb and started on the masts and support for the hull. The masts are small wire and sewing needles soldered together. If you look closely there is a gold patina dry-brushed on the base and support structures for the bulb. I made a special little tool to measure the contour of the inside of the bulb as well. Enjoy!

All, 
Thanks for the likes and comments. Much appreciated.
It started life as my first attempt using one of the set of plans ( the Collier Brigantine)  in Leon Labistour's Book; Making Ships in Bottles - I started to add and change things as I went for practice. As John said, more of an upgrade. The deck planking is drawn in Powerpoint and printed. I've attached it below if anyone wants to us it - just shrink and grow as required. I now use scored wood or cut planks. The sea is plasticene 'varnished' with several coats of diluted PVA glue to give it a shine, however I studied photos of waves, wind direction and wakes plus my own observations when I was at sea. I was trying to get the wind and sea coming from the port quarter, can't have too big waves or the sails would be reefed/furled or the ship would be right over. But it was time to retire it to a happy life in a bottle, and use another as a practice SIB.
All the best for the New Year to everyone.
Alan
Planking.pptx