Carving the Hull

1. Start by transferring the ship’s profile onto your wood, the width of which has already been trimmed to the correct width to fit through the bottle’s mouth.
2. Now we commence the rough shaping of the hull.
3. Two things have happened here. First, the hull is too high to pass through the bottle neck and must be cut into a “layer cake,” two layers, if it is to fit into the bottle. This must be done because a steamer is more hull and less rigging than a sailing ship. Therefore, if the model is to be properly scaled to fit inside the bottle it must be more hull than can fit through the bottle’s mouth in one piece. No problem. Note the registration pins (1/8 inch dowel pegs) to align the upper hull (which has been drilled to accept the pins) with the lower hull. Also, note that bulwarks have been added to the hull by gluing carefully cut index card stock into the side of the hull. This will be carefully painted over with epoxy resin for strength.
4. Here we have the hull, top, and bottom layers, fit together.

Next, we will trial fit everything into the bottle and start building deckhouse superstructure and rigging.