Bernard Kelly

I am always surprised by the durability of ships in bottles.  I have a 100 year old sib that I keep at my office that looks like it could have been built yesterday.  Its the one at the top of the screen under the website name actually.  I think thats part of why sailors built them.  Regular models left unprotected on a ship could easily break.  Throw a ship in bottle in a bag of clothes and she'll make it back to port.  
 
I'm very glad your sibs turned out alright.  That would be a scary thing to go through.  

Way back in 2011,first April (April fools day!) my wife phoned me at work and told me the house was on fire.
The main thing was she and the kids were safe and that we were insured.By the time I got back it was all over.House was still standing but all contents lost, bar for a few items...
Would you believe my ships in bottles survived,minus their stands and turks heads knots but after a clean up 

Started  4-5 weeks ago with the idea of building this frigate for a large 3 liter bottle but due to technical difficulties (built the split hull too large!) I left it and went with a small build in a whiskey bottle.
 I was not happy with the gun ports,(looked way too large) so made them much smaller and did a new paint job.

This was a quick build I did for a friend if mine.  He had been building a Blue Jacket Constitution for the past 30 years and recently completed it.  He asked for a mini sib to present to his wife at his unveiling party. 

The ship is 2 inches long.  

I have used both oil based paint and acrylic. I find the oil based slightly better but it can take a good while to dry off. Also it can leave an oily residue if you try to dry it quickly (in the sun or by a heater). The only real problem with acrylic is that it can scratch off if you catch some part of the ship on it. The bottles must be very clean and dry. I normally use a vinegar and water mix to clean the glass. Ammonia and water will also work. Just a small amount of either in water will do the trick.  Thinning of both of these types of paint may be necessary.  The antique models usually have the old rubber based paint on them. Good luck with your experiments. Let us know the results please. 
Bernard

Hi,I started building SIB around about 1985 but stopped about 1992 as family and children took up all my time! Restarted again in 2010 when I joined a local modelling club near where I live.
It was like starting from scratch and I am still learning all the time. "Sailing in Glass" was my main reference when I started and I have made all the examples in the book.Photo is from 2013 when I 
had an exhibition in the local Library of my work.   Onni.

I’ve taken in a lot from this forum but haven't contributed anything since I introduced myself months ago. Deep down I feel a little guilty about this. Especially after reading a thread the other day about the possibility of the forum closing down.
This is a very special forum and I’m glad it exists therefore I felt the need to contribute. 
This is not an actual build log I’m afraid but here are some pictures of my first SIB.
The model is of the Pwllheli built schooner Edwin. My aunt revealed that my great great uncle was a seaman aboard this ship. Sadly there were no photographs to follow but there was some useful information on the book Porthmadog Ships. With the help of the Porthmadog Maritime Museum I was able to figure out what she looked like. 
The lighthouse in the bottle is a small model of the Penmon Lighthouse on Penmon Point.

I make the deck
Artur

Continuation
Artur

All,
Thanks for your interest, kind comments, questions over the SIB and concern over my hand.
I was moving a large patio plant tub by tipping it on edge and rolling it like you do with a barrel and got my hand trapped between it and a wall. Bruised,swollen and stiff for a while. The stiffness lasted, making holding small bits hard, but its just the pinky now, not much use for modeling anyway.
I've uploaded some more phots, one with a ruler to show size. I basically measured the inside of the bottle and shrunk the plans to suit, so I haven't actually got a scale.

I've started the mainmast, but its only loosely put together to show a general make up, no glue as yet other than the styrene top. 
A trial cannon on deck - it needs to be  a bit higher
I made up a couple of jigs a few years ago for making Hinckley Hinges. There is a mast drilling jig in ‘Ship Models in Glass’ that allows accurate drilling. I adapted this so an off centre hole could be drilled. The male and female halves of the hinge are started in this. A line of holes are centre drilled in one piece (female) and then the offset is used to drill a line of holes, then the mast is rotated through 180 degrees and another line of holes is drilled producing the male half. The second jig is a piece of square section brass with a screw to hold the work piece and the end formed at 45 degrees. A 0.5 mm wide saw blade is used to clear out the female half with the jig guiding the cut to 45 degrees. The sides of the male half are trimmed down and the mitres cut. A bit of fettling to get the fit, I then used the sanding jig to reduce the thickness to 1.mm. If anyone wants the full article I wrote on this for Bottleship, PM me and I'll send it on. 

The cabin windows were cut from styrene sheet. I crosshatched a piece of thin clear sheet from a bit of packaging with a sharp blade, coated it with black dry marker, let it dry and then wiped off, leaving the scores black. Coloured the other side yellow, and glued to the window frames. The wheel is a watch cog.

More soon
Alan
 

Dan,
I've done some more work and had a start on the masts. The hull is split, you can see the blocks in the photo above with the elastic bands, and in the enclosed phots. The little stand is only a temporary thing. The masts are 1.5 mm thick at present, although the perspective of the maco shot makes them look thicker.
Alan

Those are great plans!  I will definitely be following along with this one. Wish I was near enough to help you empty the rum bottle
Jesse

All,
I've started on my Black Pearl SIB at last. Its a gift for my daughter when she graduates this coming summer with a MA in Special Effects. There are a number of film series that are very popular with the students and Pirates of the Caribbean is one of them, especially with my daughters group.
I actually started last year with research into plans, not surprisingly there is very little of any use out there. I found a drawing (below) of the prop itself but nothing really helpful. So I set about drafting up my own. I used Powerpoint Draw facility as I know how to use it (and have promised myself to learn CAD this year) based on the prop drawing, sketches from stills and freeze frame of the DVDs. The rigging I put together from research into ships of the time. The actual powerpoint drawing is fairly detailed, but the one shrunk for inclusion below doesn't show this

 

 
It just has to go into a Kracken Rum Bottle. I know its not the first time this has been done, but its still a good idea. This dictates the size of the SIB, the neck internal diameter is 18 mm so the hull will have to be segmented.

I've got as far as preparing the hull blank. I've used Ramin, its similar to Obeche in use. Its pieces of 12 x 12 mm strip, drilled and pegged for location with a 1 mm strip in the centre for reference and the keel, etc.

 
Just waiting for a break in the weather (raining heavily) so I can set up my sander outside and start making dust to take the blank down to size.
This probably won't be a fast build, I want to try and get it as good as I can. There are some bits of the Pearl that stand out and I'll have a go at - the ridiculously large stern lanterns, the figurehead, the capstan centred around the mainmast (who thought of that!!??) and of course one 'Undead Monkey' - that will probably be a blob of paint.
All for now
Alan

Thanks! Now that I have a set of her original plans, I'm planning a 1/350 scale build of her sometime soon. I may continue this idea, however, and build the other two Shackleton ships Aurora and Nimrod, and perhaps others he was aboard. 

Then I proceeded to final assembly of the model on the slipway with the final installation of deck elements, fixing the rigging parts that should be fixed, drawing up the rigging wiring diagram and checking everything in general.

I concur she will look grand inside of a bottle! 

Looks incredible.  Shes going to be awesome in a bottle.  

Well done, Alan!
My congrats to you!

Hi All
A number of years ago, I bought the first copy of a part works magazine on building a 1/96 HMS Victory. The reasons were, it was only £1.99 (starter price) and it had some nice colour pictures for reference, some nice pieces of thin plywood (always hard to find in the UK) to be used as bulkheads. It also had a gun kit comprising barrel, carriage (in 3 pieces), trucks, capsquares, a length of brass rod for axels and some small brass nails to hold the capsquares on with. This has been sculling around in the bottom of my toolbox for a while now, so I thought I’d have a bash at a bit of a diorama in a bottle as a side project.
I used oak strip from www.stripwood.co.uk for the deck and hull, and the Salt Box. The Sponge Tub was made from 1mm wide strip cut from a piece of veneer (not sure what wood), coloured black on one side then stained Light Oak. Similarly the Match Tub, although this was easier as it has a solid wood former under the strips. The Handspikes were carved from dowel and stained. The Rammer was bamboo stick thinned down with the rammer part turned and stained, similarly for the Sponge, however the head was painted white to simulate fleece. The Powder Scoop was bamboo stick with the scoop fashioned from pieces of styrene tubing and then painted; the Worm was bamboo with a coiled bit of wire painted black. I turned the Cartridge Case from a bit of Elm, as I believe the originals were.
As to the gun itself, the carriage took a bit of rework to get the parts to fit and then be shaped so that it looked ok. The supplied trucks were enamelled metal, so I used them to get dimensions, and used these to turn some new trucks from Elm, as this was used in the real thing.
Brass wire painted black was used to make the ringbolts on the gun carriage and for the lashing points on the hull. I carved the blocks from a length of mahogany strip, used some thin brass wire to strop them and used thin thread for the rope. Once in place I soaked the thread with dilute PVA glue to stiffen them in place. I showed them loosened on the diorama.
The breeching rope was a thicker bit of thread; it was thick enough so that I could actually whip the eye (with a spot of glue just to make sure) after passing through the ringbolts.
The small brass nails supplied to put the capsquares on were far too big so were replaced with smaller ones.
The Capsquares were actually too big for the trunnions, (the barrel could fall out), so I shimmed them with some thin walled brass tube. All painted black.
The bottle is a small spirit bottle, probably quarter size, about 6 inches long overall. The inside is about 3 inches long, with a top to bottom taper that caused a bit of fettling to get the deck to fit. It then took a bit of trial and error to get the deck fixed in position. CA didn’t want to know, I tried UV cured glue, but that was curing too quickly in the bright daylight (it does happen in the UK sometimes) so I used a couple of bits of Milliput in the end – not the prettiest solution – I would rethink this bit if I ever try something like this again.
The stand is a bit of MDF covered in Oak Veneer, and the bottle supports are Oak strip.
Turks Head knot to finish off.
best Alan

Test fit with a bit of Blutac to hold in place

From the bad guy's point of view

All bits in place

From the other side

From the top

All in

Again
 
 

Thanks, finally fitted in the sea - Bob 

I am starting construction of the Norwegian ship Constitutinen.
Artur

Nice work Bob.  She is beautiful.

Here is continuation...