Black Pearl Pirate Ship in a Bottle

Hi, here is Black Pearl pirate ship in a bottle, which I did for my son.

What you will need: pieces of wood, aluminum foil, toothpicks, thread, soldering wire, paper, epoxy and superglue, wood varnish, back and white paint, lot of patience and time. Tools - cutting matt, blades, hooks etc.

Step 1:

First of all you need to choose a bottle, print a picture of original ship, and draw basic design on a piece of paper. Design should be drawn in exact size as a final ship model. 

Take in to account three measurements - bottle width, height and bottle neck interior diameter. Here is no magic - all parts shall pass the neck of the bottle and later fit inside, so good planning is essential.

Superstructure on the back of the ship should be done as separate part and glued to the hull already inside of the bottle - together they just will not pass the neck.

Then start carving hull and superstructure from soft wood - any what you can find. 

Step 2:

Different size pieces of wood, toothpicks and matches are used. Glued together with cianoacrylate (superglue). Note that superstructure is not glued and placed only for general view. You can see soldering wire at the front under the bowsprit - is soft and easy to bend and file later.

Step 3:

little works for lanterns and figure

Step 4:

3D view for windows and other small details I do by cutting parts from piece of foil and drawing patterns by awl from the back side

Step 5:

Then foil parts are glued in place by superglue.

All wooden parts are getting wood varnish before painting. 

Step 6:

All ship is painted black. For painting I use hobby acrylic paints.

But plain black is not looking good, so we need enhance all details with drybrushing. 

Step 7:

It's very simple technique - brush is immersed in to white paint, then brushed on paper until almost dry. You can check in a thumb - should be leaving very little paint. Then easy go back and forward on the surface you want to enhance. 

Now ship looks much better

Step 8:

Masts are glued from few parts of toothpicks, wire loops and hooks are glued and wrapped with thread for better look.

Bottle-shippers may challenge this system with hooks - I agree that this is more complicated way, but by the size of ship everything together just can not pass the neck. Next time I will share another way of rigging too - both ways are OK

Step 9:

What a pirate ship without barrels of rum? :)

Step 10:

Here we are. 

Please note tiny copper wire loops where I will pass stays thread from each mast.

Step 11:

Now finish masts by positioning threads between middle and upper sections. Then place mast to each location on deck, pass stays thread through dedicated wire loop at front, and fix standing rig threads on each side of the hull. To make things easier I use small piece of masking tape to keep stay thread in place

Step 12:

This need to be done to align masts in positions. Note that mast not to be glued to hull! Almost done this step

Step 13:

Sails are done from pieces of thin paper - I used cigarette paper for that. Glued and threaded to pieces of toothpicks or soldering wire. painted in black and drybrushed

Step 14:

Here we are ready for bottle.

Now disassemble everything - all parts will go one by one.

Step 15:

Attach two threads through the first and second mast standing rigs, lower in to bottle and leave resting at a side, deeper that fixing point.

Then use transparent epoxy resin - apply fat drop of epoxy on tip of long stick and place on a bottom where we will be fixing hull of ship. Once it's done carefully lift hull and position in the right place, where epoxy was applied. Fix threads by masking tape or clamp and leave to dry completely for few hours or even day (depend on epoxy)

Step 16:

Now one by one installing masts - starting from most fore and going aft. Mast is lowered little bit inclined backwards, hook is passed under standing rig threads, mast bottom is placed in the hole on deck, stay passed through the copper loop for the mast and mast tensioned frontwards. Tiny drop of superglue is applied on the wire loop, and after glue is dry excess of stay thread is cut.

A, don't forget pirate cross bones on middle mast :)

Done. For me it took two months, but I'll be honest - I did not work every evening...