JesseLee

I have been asked in a private message about the size of the hull so I thought I'd share it here. It is approx. 2 1/8 inches (5 1/2 cm) long (without bowsprit), 9/16 inch (14mm) wide, & 4/16 inch (6mm) thick. Using the 3rd glass ornament after 1st two broke. A year ago I asked Daniel for some advice on this build. The sea surface will be over an inch higher than the bottom of the ornament. Filling it up with putty or resins would be much too heavy to hang on a Christmas Tree limb so I was stumped on how to pull this off. Daniel told me about another bottle builder who used a method painting the space below the sea level to hide the empty space & make a thin solid "floor" that would rest higher up that would be the sea surface. I cant remember where he referred me to but I knew it was the answer to my problem. Now how to make it. I used the same way I did the disk for the bottom label, make a folding disk using paper as hinges . I measured the inside of the globe by inserting a round paper cut out trimming it until it fit right. Then made the wood base out of tongue depressor sticks.

Absolutely wonderful! What method/materials do you use to make your sea?

Good to see you over here too Danny- (I'm used to Dan over at MSW). Love the Longboat bottle build. You guys are gonna love this one when he posts the pictures!

I ran across it by accident doing searches on Google. I forgot to say the it was a Schooner. Painted the hull, drilled hole for bowsprit, scored the deck planking & stained deck, constructed the bowsprit & started adding deck furnishings.

Thanks Gwyl & Jim. Jim, that is Lucy, one of 4 dogs we have & a neighbors dog who comes over every day who seems to want to be ours too. Lucy follows me over to the workbench & lays at my feet or sometimes crams herself up under the bench as I work on my models.

Cutting out & shaping the hull...

Thanks Gwyl, Charlie & Lord Nelson- love the bi-planes! I colored the back of the drawing with pencil so it would transfer to the wood like carbon paper.

First attempt to test fit folded base disc resulted in the first broken bulb. This one broke at the neck.

First thing was to make a folding hinged bottom wood piece with a label with a brief description of the ship. Glued paper to shaped strips of wood to make it hinge & fold up to fit through the opening.

I'm pretty excited to post this build log. I tried to do this one last year & had so many problems with the glass bulbs breaking I gave up on it till this year & tried it again. This build is actually already done. I saved all the pics so that if it finally worked out I could post a log. Well after two years & 6 or 7 glass Christmas globes it eventually got done. I will post a lot of last years pics showing all the progress & failures. Some steps will be repeated as it had to be de-done many times. It all started with these glass Christmas ornament globes my wife picked up last year. I looked online for a ship that could be put in it & discovered the Rouse Simmons. It carried Christmas trees across Lake Michigan from rural to urban areas. It sank in Lake Michigan Nov. 23, 1912 delivering Christmas trees to Chicago. Pics of the glass globes & the drawings I made for the build

Great job!

I have used the flat stick like holder before. On my last build I used a different kind. The tall part wedged into the base in a cut groove & a wood pin held it in place. At the top the ship hull was held on by 2 wood screws from underneath.

I've seen some SIBs with ratlines. How do you add them at this scale without stiffening the shroud lines?

I am too Charlie. It is a fancy carved briar. Something I got many years ago, don't remember exactly. Jesse

I have a question for those who use putty for sea. Does glue actually bond to the putty? I was afraid it wouldn't so I stuck some wood in mine to glue the ship to. What do others do? I was afraid it wouldn't hold when I pulled up on the rigging & standing the masts. I haven't found any info on this online.

Pics of the finished SIB.

Ship goes in the bottle. Forgot to take a picture as it was passing through the neck. Glued it down, raised masts, glued the lines & cut them off.

Will be finishing up soon. Having a health setback right now. For those of you who don't know I suffer from chronic lyme disease. I go through spells where it is real bad & spells where it eases up a bit but I never feel very good. Last night was real bad with pain, shakes, sweats, etc. much like malaria. Hope to be back building soon.

Cool!

Glued sails on & doing the rigging. Since viewing is going to be limited to 2 sides from this bottle I am not getting as detailed as I could with the rigging. Maybe on the next build I can do better detail on everything.

Glued thread on sails for a little extra detail

Thanks for the input everyone! Brushed out bottle to make sure it is all clean. Painted the whitecaps on the waves. Pressed a strip of wood in the putty because I wasn't sure how well the glue would hold the ship own to the putty when pulled on to raise everything up. Cut out the sails. Stained them with coffie. Did a few baking soda washes to neutralize the acids.

I have Build A Ship In A Bottle by Capt. Dan Berg. Don't know how it compares to the others- something I picked up cheap on ebay one time. Jesse

Yes, toothpicks & mini wood dowels a little smaller than toothpicks. They split so bad. I am disabled from chronic lyme disease & I am on a very limited income so I have to use whatever I am able to get which is scraps a lot of times. I have built a lot of ships just not SIB's. I am having to scale down now because I don't have room for more large builds like the Syren I'm building now. Figured bottles were the way to go!

Yes, that is a Syren in the background. I have a build log for her going over on Model Ship World. I know the masts are out of scale. This is only the 2nd SIB I've ever done. (there is a 3rd one that was never completed) The 1st one was way back when I was 19 & it was awful. Been thinking about tearing it out & re-doing it sometime. I have a lot to learn. I have made small ships at this scale before but not any that had to fold to go in a bottle. I always broke the mast if I made them thinner & drilled holes. They always break at the hole. Decided to proceed with what I have for this build while I learn to do better for later ones. The wood I'm using wants to slit & splinter a lot too so I need to find something better.