The Shipyard

3 September 2019

This is a kit from Authentic Models that is stated to be easy to build for ages 8 to 98. It's not clear what happens at the age of 99 to prevent continued construction, but I'll attempt to finish before then if possible.

According to Wikipedia, ships in bottles mainly date from 1860, possibly as a result of the introduction of mass-produced bottles with clearer glass. They were often a convenient pastime for bored and nimble-fingered sailors living in cramped quarters. They should also be suitable for those in roomier surroundings on land. We'll see.

The kit requires additional tools to be made, namely a bottle swab, reaching hook, reach-in-knife, bent knitting needle and miniature trestle. The knitting needle is to seat the clay that stands in for the sea.

It would have been Mum & Dad's 70th wedding anniversary today and I'll mark the occasion by showing Dad's completed project.

29 September 2019

Here is a stunning re-enactment of life aboard an ocean-faring clipper, filmed by my sister Ruth with stage-hand Keith and featuring my Dad's completed project. A real family production which shows what can be achieved on a relatively small budget.

11 October 2019

The ordered parts have now arrived, as illustrated. Highlights are the small Humbrol paints, pleasingly still supplied in those small metal tinlets. According to their website, Humbrol was founded in 1919 as the Humber Oil Company, aiming to supply bicycle oil for Hull's growing number of cyclists.

12 October 2019

The two cross-members for the wooden stand need to be profiled to fit the underside of the bottle. This is quite strange, as the lower profiles of the same pieces are a perfect fit. It is therefore a simple process to mark up the required profile, but it would have been more straightforward had they been machined so originally.

13 October 2019

Pop into the garage to shape the two stands to the profile of the bottle, using saws, files and glass paper. Sand the pieces smooth all over.

15 October 2019

Sandpaper the inner surface of the wooden stopper until it fits snugly over the bottle neck. There is quite a bit to remove, however using sandpaper wrapped around the tinlet of red paint and rotating this inside the stopper simplifies the task somewhat.

Sandpaper the wooden dowels to fit snugly inside the cross brackets, insert the inner four small dowels and then glue the stand together.

17 July 2022

The stand had been half stained in October 2019, and is now well dried. Apply a coat to the remaining half and leave to dry - this takes a few more days due to the heat wave.

18 July 2022

Mum would have been 98 today, and not sure what she'd have made of this hot weather.

Tackle the hull and decks - sand them smooth and use some Mod Podge to seal. This product is typically used in decoupage as a glue, sealer and finisher. It's water based, so easy to work with.

The next stage will be to mark the deck planks, but this requires a hard pencil and will need to wait a few days.

19 July 2022

While waiting for a pencil, skip to the bow sprit preparation stage. This, like the masts, is built from bamboo dowels that need to shaped, trimmed and drilled. The dowel should be held in a vice for this, however a satisfactory product can be achieved by holding it by hand.

There is an illustration in the instructions, that is meant to be full size, to help with dimensions and hole locations. Have already scanned this illustration and printed to the correct size, to more closely match the actual hull dimensions.

Also tackle one of the masts, but having delicately drilled the appropriate holes realise that I have used the foremast instructions on the mizzen mast - I blame the heat. Fortunately the kit provides spare dowelling for such eventualities.

Other than the drill and sandpaper, the other tool required is a junior hacksaw. Fortunately I had the foresight to make one during school metalwork classes 50-odd years ago. As illustrated, it's slightly age-worn but otherwise fully functional, although a shiny replacement blade would be helpful.

As a historical aside, sailing ship masts were made from a single conifer trunk (not bamboo!). According to Wikipedia, from the 16th century vessels often required larger masts than could be made from single tree trunks. To achieve the required height the masts were built from up to four sections (also called masts). From lowest to highest, these were called: lower, top, topgallant and royal masts.

20 July 2022

Make another mizzen mast, aligning the holes appropriately - unlike the foremast and mainmast it does not have yards for the sails. Instead it has three spars, a boom at the bottom and two gaffs above. These are attached via gaff holes aligned athwart ships the same as the lower hinge hole.

The yard holes of the other two masts are at 30° to the centre line to reduce the width required by the sails when the masts are lowered. As the mizzen sails are along the centre line they do not require this offset.

The hinge hole is dipped into wood glue for strengthening purposes. The kit is meant to include brass wire for the hinges, but in their absence the copper wire from a power cable provides a suitable alternative.

21 July 2022

A hard pencil arrives today, for creating the deck floor effect. In fact it's a whole tin of pencils with eraser and sharpener, as this purchaser was beguiled by the description on the website. Hopefully it will have other uses in future …

24 July 2022

The fore and aft decks are now glued on and the planking marked by pencil. A thin coat of Mod Podge helps to seal the decks - fortunately the messy job of caulking is not called for.

26 July 2022

It's now time for the gunwales. On a sailing warship these ″gun wales″ would have helped counter the stresses of firing artillery on the gun deck. On this model their function is to cause maximum hassle shaping, bending and gluing them.

Strangely, an old rusty bulldog clip is ideal for clamping the thin wood strips, as the patina of rust provides sufficient friction to keep the clip in place, unlike the shiny finish of the otherwise superior plastic clips.

27 July 2022

Finish gluing rear gunwales in place, followed by the transom at the stern.

An elastic band is ideal for keeping everything in place. Wikipedia informs us that the rubber/elastic/lacky band was patented by the English inventor Stephen Perry in 1845.

28 July 2022

Prepare the main and fore masts from the bamboo stock - drill holes for the lower hinge, yards and rigging, trim to size, chamfer the top end and dip the lower end in wood glue for strengthening.

Now that the body is complete decide to stain it rather than use those Humbrol paints I bought. This is because in my view the wood is enhanced by using stain rather than being hidden underneath a coat of paint. Another consideration is that I'm a lousy painter. Not sure which was the stronger argument, but the body is now stained.

8 August 2022

Cut the various mast yards to length and slim down the smaller, higher ones to improve their scale next to the masts. Apply stain to match the hull.

9 August 2022

Cut out the sails for the 3 masts, and glue main and foremast sails to the freshly stained yards.

10 August 2022

Have to remake the upper gaff, as the enlarged hole was too close to the edge.

Use needle and thread to attach boom to mizzen mast.

Test fit the spanker sails - Wikipedia defines these as gaff-rigged fore-and-aft sails set from and aft of the aftmost mast.

The main sails on a square rigged ship are square on (ie perpendicular to) the keel line while the spankers are parallel to the body of the ship. As previously stated, the main sails of this model are rigged 30° less than square, to allow for the limited width of the bottle.

22 August 2022

Those spanker sails are now glued on and the upper gaff spar stained. The boom is not glued to the lower spanker yet, as this would interfere with hinging the mizzen mast backwards.

The main mast and foremast sails are now all fitted, using two strands of thread through each yard and the corresponding mast hole. The threads are glued at the rear, leaving the yards themselves free to swing sideways.

Finally have another look at that stand. As mentioned in October 2019, the original lower curves are a good match to the bottle profile so decide to turn the stand upside down to benefit from this. Trim the outer edges to reduce the top-heavy appearance. The photo below shows the new arrangement compared with the approved method Dad used.

24 August 2022

Create a hinge for the mizzen mast using copper wire, and push into holes drilled into the hull. The mast can pivot rearwards without being impeded by the aft deck.

27 August 2022

The blue plasticine supplied with the kit is rock hard. Tried various remedies such as warming it up and blending with Vicks nasal decongestant (a pleasant way of adding vaseline, eucalyptus and turpentine oils) but to no avail. Order some online.

This is a cautionary tale for anyone building a similar kit a decade or so after purchase.

28 August 2022

Have a go inserting some plasticine sea, but the substance sticks to my tongs in preference to the bottle surface. The instructions suggest using a bent knitting needle, so Linda provides me with a redundant size 5, and after bending this works well. It still sticks to the fresh plasticine, but a smear of the aforementioned Vicks does the trick.

The instructions give alternative methods to attach the ship to the bottle - either press it down on the plasticine or glue some wood to the bottle and secure the boat to that. Both approaches seem problematic - it would be difficult create a flat channel in the plasticine while providing sufficient grip to support the hull securely. And a wooden platform stuck to the glass would be visible from outside. Decide to adopt a hybrid approach by adding a platform on top of the plasticine and then gluing the ship to that. The platform can be pressed down more easily than a fully rigged ship would.

The final piece of the jigsaw is to fashion a sliver of wood to the shape of the hull, and use this as a template for building up the plasticine at the edges.

30 August 2022

Create hinges for the remaining two masts and glue all three hinges into holes drilled through the hull.

*** Spoiler Alert ***

The masts can now be folded back to allow the boat to be inserted into the bottle.

31 August 2022

Use yesterday's template to undertake buoyancy tests.

In the afternoon we visit Hanson Fabrics in Sturminster Newton. Although not a chandler, the shop lady insists that the thread I have chosen would be suitable for rigging - it certainly appears more robust than the thread supplied in the kit.

The instructions describe how to build a supporting trestle to help the rigging process. However a plastic clamp and elastic band provide a far simpler solution.

The instructions also dictate how the upper rigging line should be glued at the mizzen mast only, feed through a hole at the aft deck and continue forward under the hull for remote operation. However decide to glue the line at the aft deck instead, and also glue the line to both the main and mizzen masts. Time will tell if a nautical novice knows better than the model manufacturers.

2 September 2022

Fit remaining two rigging lines, one to the main mast and one to the fore mast. Cut out and attach the 3 jib sails.

Cut out two flags and attach to the masts so that they are blowing forwards (which assumes the wind is coming directly from behind).

Lower the masts and prepare for launch - align the masts, spars, yards and sails to the thinnest possible profile. It's quite a squeeze to insert the ship, but she's now inside and hopefully intact.

There's no going back now.

3 September 2022

The tightly furled rigging proves difficult to unfurl, especially as some of the masts are no longer square on their hinges. The various prods and pushes are penalised by an unglued bow sprit and dislodged main mast flag. The bow sprit is reaffixed and the flag will need to be hoicked out at a later stage.

Eventually the masts are freed and the hull glued to the base. Because the main mast hinge is seated slightly too high the mast will not stand fully upright, but the slant is within acceptable bounds.

8 September 2022

Sad news today, with the passing of the Queen. This project started in the Elizabethan era and likewise concludes today.

Since the last posting the sea has been completed, the masts secured in position and the sails fettled. There are still some cosmetic tweaks, but the project is substantially complete.