Bernard Kelly

Painted the hull and started construction of the fore  and aft ‘castles’.

Votive ship (model) is usually gifted to a church to grant safety to seamen and all others at sea.
They are quite common to see in churches in Scandinavia. I am attempting to replicate the one that is hanging in Porvoo church in Southern Finland. (See photo)
The hull I am making is carved out of birch with the bulwarks in thin veneer. Hull has been cut into quarters to fit through the bottle neck. Forgot to post a shot of the bottle (coming up later!)but it is completely round about the size of a man’s hand. Bottle opening is a generous 23 mm. I plan to have the ship hanging inside the bottle by a hook.

Thanks - Nowhere near that amount of time - I have very little patience.   
Gorsefiield - 60 hours      Melbourne Star - ?     Preussen - 117 hours
Primrose Hill -   66 hours   Braemar Castle - 69 hours    Miss Morris - 37 hours
I can't find the records for Melbourne Star!
Each build spread over a few weeks.    Completely scratchbuilt.    At the local ship model society, they hardly get a casual glance,. so I stopped taking them.   Just take a photograph these days.    Probably because they are not warships.   Collectors cannot get enough of them, but I do not take private commissions.   I just build what I feel like.     I time the builds on a stopwatch, and if I stop for any reason, I stop the watch, so the times are accurate.
 
 

With ship modelling, we are not stuck in any age though.     We can build whatever we want.    I personally find warships rather boring, as one battle is pretty much the same as another.    Merchant ships come in all shapes, colours and sizes from a few tons to more than quarter of a million tons, and life board always held variety, adventure and drama.     My facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1841532386133008/members
Has 4,699 members and is very active with all sorts of merchant ship models being displayed on a regular basis.
I do look in in here quite often, but next to nothing seems to be happening.   
I know a lot of modellers find the merchant navy boring, but the group seems to be attracting enthusiasts from all over the world -   All these models by myself -  
   

Even us ‘ship in bottler’s ‘need a holiday sometimes  hence the lull in our output!
Happy and safe New Year!

I got a ship in a bottle from my sister-in-law for Christmas.    Commercially made, and quite small.   Fairly attractive, but very basic.
Not something I would ever attempt myself.   Too much in the way of detail and accuracy has to be sacrificed to put a ship in a bottle - hence my regular absence from this site.    Even my cased miniatures rarely get a casual glance if I exhibit them anywhere these days - I guess the modern generation has moved beyond  ship models (or "boats" as they seem to prefer calling them🙄   
Even here, on a specialized forum, not a great deal seems to be going on.
Anyway - Merry Christmas to you all!  
 
 

This is my Sir Tristram showing how far I have progressed,the bottle has the sea added and the hulls removed leaving the depressions to receive the final products,on the hull I have added the wales once the glue is dry I will add the finishing touches and coat of paint ,still a long way to go before completion.

Really nice looking ship. Great work,well done👍🏻

And here we are, just need to finish off the bottle and build a stand!  With every build I learn something.  I still need to be neater with my glue work and find a way to make my spars more graceful, but I like the way the sea came out (I melted the plasticine this time instead of just pushing it in) and the smoke adds an exciting element to this one.  

After laying is aside for most of last year, I picked it up again and am making good progress.  After I stepped the mast I realized I made the ship about 4mm too tall for bottle I'd chosen. Luckily I had a few extra Scotch bottle paying around and the Aberlour bottle was just the right size ☺️. With any luck I'll be done in a few days.

The Insanity has been completed! I worked on this project off and on over the past 4 years. Life got in the way numerous times however I persevered. 'A mighty fortress is our God a bulwark never failing' is my motto under pressure. This is a Christmas gift for my youngest son!

Hung a few sails, made a few "blocks", placed a white thread at waterline and at the rails.

Covered the lifeboats on davits with "canvas", fairly happy with my bowsprit, though it appears messy with all the lines currently. Last night I hung up some silkspan and airbrushed it a yellow/brownish "aged" look for my sails.

Got a bit of rigging done and will soon start on her bowsprit, followed by sails.



 

Agreed! I think I just misplaced my patience for a minute there. I would have hated it had I left it.

I was just peering at my 1st of 3 sets of masts and decided on second thought, that it will drive me mad if I don't fix it. It just won't get fixed today. 

I started rigging her a bit. Since I got a bit prematurely excited and added deck details too early, I've had to remove some in order to rig her. I must have been quite tired last night since, as I look at the masts, the foremast is placed "bass-ackwards". The yards are tied to the rear instead of the front. In this case I am going to allow myself to be human and make mistakes rather than undoing what exists and starting over. I highly doubt anyone besides you folks and myself will ever know. Very frustrating though.

My pin vise has actually been here for a bit, it's just about time to use it. I need to paint my chain black, then start on her masts and yards.

Wow! You have quite the talent for miniature detail. This looks like a larger scale build.

I believe I originally said I wouldn't try to overthink this one but the scale is such that it allows a lot more detail, and using tips from the Labastour's book it's fun. 





 

She hit the bottle on the weekend! More fun to be had hooking everything up etc. What is the definition of insanity? Putting the Preussen into a wine bottle!

Now for the fun part, all of the rest of the rigging to get done! Also I have to make the jibs as well.

This is the way I do it.
To cross the yards, (attaching them to the mast) I use a loop of thread wrapped around the yard as shown below. Make sure it is long enough. The loose ends are fed through the loop, pulled tight and secured with a drop of glue. The loose ends are then is tied around the mast where required and secured by a drop of glue. This allows the yard to swivel when putting the ship in the bottle and when setting for the required wind direction.

Alan

I would recommend drilling a small hole through the yard and the mast with a pin vise or watchmakers drill and then thread the cotton through both and tie off with any knot. Just make sure that the yard can swivel so that’s it’s easy to insert through the bottle neck when the time comes.
Perhaps these illustrations from ‘Sailing in glass’ by Joop van Schouten may help to visualise better.