Bernard Kelly

This is the third quilt I have sewn, I'm giving this as an X-Mass gift to my Mom this year. Her mother sewed quilts for all us kids back in the 70's and so I am keeping the family tradition.

Yesterday whilst visiting our local library with my wife, I stumbled upon a new release by Sam Jefferson entitled 'Sea Fever.'
I thumbed through this book and was immediately drawn to this book as the author describes narritives of books by great authors such as:
Conrad Masefield Melville Hemingway and London to name a few There is some black and white, and some colored photos of the authors and their ships. This book is a new release (2015) and I a thoroghly enjoying it .... Jeff
 

 

 

 
 

32 feet to 1 inch.     Completed some years ago, from plans found in Deepwater Sail by Harold A Underhill.
Bob
 

Thanks for sharing John.
Beautiful 
Blessings to you and yours!
Merry Christmas ... and let's hope 2016 is a good year ... Jeff

Really good! Thanks for sharing.
Charlie

Greetings All,
 
Here is something I wrote years ago, but it's appropriate this time of year.
 
A Ship Modeler's Rhyme
 
'Tis the night before Christmas,
And out in the shop,
Not a creature is stirring
As I sit deep in thought.
 
I sit with hot cocoa,
Or coffee or rum,
While thinking about
All the work that's been done.
 
The frames are all glued
To the keel and faired,
While visions of me planking
Hang in mid-air.
 
I envision planking completed,
The hull looks so fine.
Then I get to check out
That new air brush of mine.
 
While the hull sits a drying,
I start on the spars.
I love this hand carving!
My hands bear the scars.
 
Then it's on to the details,
The one's no one sees.
Like framing 'neath decks,
And partners and knees.
 
Finally on to the rigging,
Those ratlines and shrouds,
Those forestays and backstays
For crying out loud!
 
There's no end to this rigging!
It just isn't fair!
I could have built modern,
And had time left to spare!
 
My late night "mind building"
Is at last all complete.
My cocoa is finished,
As I get to my feet.
 
I go to the door,
And turn out the lights,
I think Merry Modeling To All!
And to All a Good Night!
 
Anchor's A Weigh!
John Fox III
Ladysmith, WI

Beautiful work, as usual, I especially like the sea - I always struggle with this....

British four-masted barque Primrose Hill, 32 feet to 1 inch.     It was in this ship, that Charles Ligtoller, 2nd officer of the Titanic, began his sea career.
Bob
 

Just glad you and your family are safe Jesse. I hope things work out and you are not too inconvenienced. 
Bernard

Just glad you and your family are safe Jesse. I hope things work out and you are not too inconvenienced. 
Bernard

Oh - what a scare!  I too am glad you and your family are ok.  I hope you can find a alternative heat source soon.  
 
We hope the best for you.
 
Gwyl

I'm glad everyone is OK Jesse, that's the important thing.
All the best
 
Alan

Our daughter woke us up this morning very frightened. The house was getting smoky. Our electric furnace was on fire. I was dumping baking soda & flour on the flames the best I could while my wife was on the phone with 911 & everybody ordering me out of the house. When the fire department got there they found only smoke & heat. I believe a Higher Power put that fire out. I am upset because I know we don't have the money to fix/replace the furnace but I am so thankful our house didn't burn down. We do have a small fireplace for the colder nights. Will be extra thankful this Thanksgiving!
 
Jesse

Hi Bottled Squids and welcome to the Bottled Ship Builder.  
 
I have only heard of this type of project but have never seen it done. I look forward to what you come up with. 
 
Gwyl

I just finished uploading photos of my latest project into my photo album Dana's Bottle Projects. It's a Gingerbread House In A Bottle for the Saco Museum's Holiday Gala exhibit of incredible gingerbread houses and exquisitely decorated Christmas trees, now on display through their museum through the holidays in Saco, Maine. Now, back to making ships and lighthouses!

to show you care.
 
http://www.greenlightavet.com/
 
 
skip
USN Ret.

There was a post about finding a way to combine all the useful tips and techniques through out the site. I had commented on it and it posted twice. So I tried to delete my comment and it appears it deleted the whole post. Darn moderator tools. Any way my suggestion was to start a thread where we can combine all the tips and tricks people want to add.

Fifty years ago today, I joined this ship, the RMS Transvaal Castle, at Southampton. 
https://youtu.be/rrlNrl2Wvyo
I had been at sea for four years, serving in two cargo liners, two colliers and two iron ore carriers.       By that time, I had come to tolerate the sea, but was not over-enthusiastic about the life.     The Transvaal Castle changed all that, and it was the start of  a glorious era in a number of passenger liners large and small that extended until late 1992 when I finally decided to leave the sea.
This is an old publicity film that I found on U Tube.
Bob

Something made for local craft show, the pics aren't very good, I'm afraid.
Apart from the ship, which was assembled in the normal way with threads, everything else was built  outside then put together in pieces inside the bottle: the rocking horse in 3 bits, dolls house in 2,Spitfire in 2, workbench in 4, blahblah. Floor and walls glued to paper and rolled up to pass through neck.

I started this log on MSW some time ago and never really completed it.  With the Scavenger commission I brought it back out to test some new techniques.  My object really was to take a kit that I received and build a really good ship in it.  At least better than what I think the kit makers intended.  Over all I like the Wood Krafters kits as beginning ship in bottle kits.  They are simple and their bottles are clear with huge openings that gives you a good idea on ship in bottle techniques with out it being overwhelming.  As far as historical or actual ship quality goes they aren't that great.  I think they are meant to appeal to kids.  In this case it's what the pirate reenactment community would call a polyester pirate ship.  IN any case I was given the kit and asked that I show it off when I completed it so that's what I'll do.  
 
Here's the kit and everything that comes in it.
 
  
 
I started by reforming the hull.  Ships in the early 18th century had a more rounded hull with pointed bowsprits.  I also widened the weather deck and added another deck on the stern.  This gives it a more East Indiaman look.  Probably a ship pirates liked to plunder more than sail but it fits the kit piece and falls in line with the polyester pirate theme.  Also on a side note has any one else noticed how many pirate ship build logs there are here?  I think it's a lot of fun.  Almost like an inadvertent community build.   
 

 
I then planked the ship using a new technique.  I had experimented with planking a ship with paper before and honestly it wasn't great.  A miniature model builder in my local club introduced me to a company call Cards of Wood that sells sheets of wood that are .015 to .025 inches thick.  Definitely thin enough to plank a ship this size with actual wood.  He gave me a few sheets and I did scribing for the deck planking and then stained the bulwark planking with a dark stain.  
 

 
More planking completed.  
 

 
At this point I started adding more details still using the cards of wood sheets I received.  I tried drilling through the keel to add the lashing to the bow and it ended up snapping off.  The wood in this kit is very hard and brittle.  It seems like pine to me but I could be wrong.  Any how I got a piece of bass wood and replaced the keel.  
 

 
For cannons I used wire out of an old cell phone charger cable.  They are about the right size and hollow if you pull the wires out.  I painted over them since getting the wire out turned out to be a real chore and no one looks that close to see hollowed out cannons anyway.  
 

 
So that's where I'm at so far.  
 
 

Scratchbuilt 32 feet to 1 inch.
Bob

I have already melt plasticine in a bottle, in an oven. When everything went cool again (room temp.) I was surprised to find OIL on top of my plasticine. A yellowish kind of fat! Beurk! I've had to get all the oil out little by little, it was very time consuming and boring to do since not every part of the bottle was easy to reach. Be warned!!

I've tried this a few times there's a few things to watch out for. Plasticine melts at 150 so it doesn't take a whole lot. What you got to watch out for is breaking the glass. If the temperature goes up or down to quickly the glass can break. Also most bottles aren't made to be heated so there's always a possibility of breaking.
I've put bottles in the oven up to 250 with out a problem but I've actually found using the burner works better. I put a rod into the bottle and hold it over a burner until the plastacine is melted. In small bottles I've been able to get it completely flattened out in 5 minutes. Be careful not to let the bottle roll when you set it down though or you'll have clay going up the sides.
If all you need is to have the clay stick to the glass hold it over a burner for five seconds. This will melt the bottom of the clay enough to get it to stick well. Then shape the top.

That depends on the type clay you're using. Daniel talked about Plasticine clays; I assume the temperatures he listed are Fahrenheit rather than Centigrade.
 
The polymer clays (Fimo, Sculpey, etc.) will bake and harden at 130F. All consumer bottles have to withstand near boiling temperatures since they are washed and rinsed with very hot water (or steam) prior to being filled with some liquid and sold. These bottles should withstand an oven set to its lowest possible temperature to soften Plasticine or bake polymer clays. It just occurred to me that bottles with Plasticine or polymer clays can be set up in a water bath using running hot water from the tap. Your hot water should be over 150F (too hot to put your hand in for more than a second). Just turn off the water running into the bath and don't touch the bottle until it has cooled. 
 
Daniel mentioned that rapid heating and cooling can cause bottles to crack and break. Glass with very thick bottoms or generally un-uniform in thickness (which shows up as "wavy") are more prone to breakage from rapid heating or cooling because the different thicknesses don't heat or cool - and consequently don't expand or contract - at the same rate which can cause the glass to crack or break. We often see where a builder has used acrylic or epoxy resin for a sea material and cracked the bottle from the heat generated by the resin as it cured which caused uneven heating and cooling.
 
Borosilicate glass (Corning/Pyrex is one brand), used in laboratory glass, is much more resistant to heat. It is also much more uniform in thickness than consumer glass which aids its heat tolerance. This uniformity in thickness, which results in minimal distortion of the model inside, is the reason many builders favor these bottles and flasks for SiBs over most consumer glass. 

Diorama in a 5 litre demijohn, made for our local annual craft and produce show...
Sorry about the photo quality.
The ship was made as usual, threads raising the masts etc.
Spitfire,dolls house,tables,bench rocking horse were assembled from pieces inside the bottle, floor was the usual strips of veneer stuck onto paper and rolled up to pass through the neck, as were the back and side walls.