JesseLee

Thank you Gwyl. I wasn't sure about the sea. Thought maybe I overdid the white caps but it is supposed to be rough seas. Jesse

Different angles of the finished build......

Never heard of that one

View of the bottom label with ship info, a finished shot & close-up of Christmas trees on deck. More finished angle shots coming....

Thanks Daniel & Gwyl. Funny you ask Gwyl, the next posting is just about that! Used epoxy glue to repair the broken neck then added the cover & hanger wire back on. The glued seam is completely hidden. Completed project pictures to follow......

Folded everything down to go through the neck opening. Inserted into Christmas ornament, glued down, masts raised, sails straightened, pulled all lines tight & glued them. Taped a narrow hobby knife blade to one of the tools to cut the lines off after the glue dried.

Made the lifeboat & added it to the back of the ship. Added the flag.

Now that's tiny!

Got a lot of the rigging done. Tried adding ratlines after looking into it. It just about drove me crazy. I used Fray Check to hold them all in place then went back & used very tiny amounts of CA on the ends of each one so that nothing would come loose when folded down to put through the neck. As I posted before my silicone sea didn't work out. I have been told that you can mix the color in it when applying. If I had know that then I would have used that method but since I didn't know it at the time I used Platalina modeling putty. I used as thin a layer as possible for 2 reasons. 1: in the past I found out that the pressure of putting it in & wave forming was enough to break the thin glass sides, 2: Weight. Putty is heavy for a Christmas Tree ornament so I wanted to keep as muck weight as possible out of this. Got a thin layer laid in. Put it in between our double paned windows on a sunny day The sun melted the putty down to the base & softened it so I could form the waves, ripples without much pressure so I wouldn't break through the thin glass sides. I did a lot of white aps because this ship sailed in the rough waters of Lake Michigan & these waters even sunk the ship in the end.

Looks great!

That is a good idea Howard. I'll have to try hinging a bowsprit some time. Jesse

I made a mistake in my post above. I have melted Platalina not Plasticine. Jesse

Another thing I did different was I didn't make any kind of jig or base to hold the ship down while I worked on it. Just wanted to try it to see easy or hard it would be this way. I was able to do it but I highly recommend not doing it this way It was much more irritating- especially doing the rigging. After gluing the sea baser in. The !st bulb out of the pack of 4 bought this year was found broken open one morning much like the picture before showed. That was now 5 bulbs broken. Got the 6th one out & for the 6th time started it all over again. Began to wonder if this would be possible at all, Repeated all these steps again & was now needing to figure out what I would do for the sea. After test fitting the ship in the neck - you guessed it- another break. This time it was just the neck itself. Very frustrated I was about to give up. Then I looked at the thin metal decorative cap that goes over the neck that holds the wire for hanging the ornament. When this piece is on it would completely hide this break. I decided I would finish this build & epoxy the neck back on & hide it all with the cap afterwards. The opening was still the same except it had a sharp edge I would need to be very careful with. I went with it......

Got a set of Christmas bulbs made by different company from a different store this year. Began the process over again. glued the bottom label disc in. Painted the space between, got the sea bed base in. The Rouse Simmons carried Christmas trees so I wanted to show some on this build. Made some Christmas trees to put on deck by trimming the tip of a pipe cleaner- (being a pipe smoker I've got these laying around). Clipped them off & painted them. They were shipped bundled by tying them up with ropes so I rapped some very thin thread around them.

I have meted Plasticine on a burner set on med-low & I have also done it in in the sun in a hot windowsill.

Thanks for that Alan. I have always loved Scottish history. (this turned out successful too)

Cut out & formed the sails. Dipped in coffee to age them. Washed them in baking soda & water to neutralize the acids. At this point the glass bulb broke. This was the 4th one from a pack of 4. This is where I stopped the build last year. Sometimes the glass would break while I was working with it & sometimes it would just pop when it wasn't even being worked with. The picture shows what a typical break was with these glass bulbs. Was very upset it didn't get done so I could hang it on our Christmas Tree. These bulbs were bought at Wal Mart. decided to pick some up from a different store the next season & try it again. A whole year later (a few months ago tis year) I got some more from my local Hobby Lobby store hoping they wouldn't be as thin as the other ones. The next posting will be where I picked this build back up this year.

Constructed the masts & spars. Experimented with an old method of hinging the masts on this build. Forgot to take the pictures of this step but thread is fed through a hole in the mast & through 2 holes in the mast hole & knotted underneath the hull. Adding some rigging as I went along....

Did some experimenting with this build some didn't work out. Wanted to keep it at light as possible. Tried making the sea out of a thin layer of silicone. Painted it blue. It was the best looking sea surface I ever made- much like a slightly choppy sea. The silicone bed would roll up to go in the glass ornament & open up flat for gluing down. It didn't work because nothing sticks to dries silicone & the paint eventually started peeling up & flaking off in spots. I was disappointed because it looked so good & met the requirement of being so light. I hope I can find a way to make this work for future builds. The silicone formed the perfect shaped wave caps. I had 1st tried having the base underneath it painted but it looked too clear at the higher spots so that's why I tried painting the silicone itself.

Glad you started this thread. I need help in this area!

Re-did bottom label disc. the 1st one was a little bit oval. Made another one round like it should have been from the start. I also made a wood tab on the side that will be hidden. This was so I could hold it with locking tweezers making much easier to insert & glue in. Glued it in. Painted blue paint inside glass between bottom label & the sea base disc.