BonHomme Richard

as a Ship-in-Light-Bulb Model
. . . . .
by John Fox III

Figure 1.

I am on a mission to prove that ship-
in-bottle (or light bulb) models can be every
bit as historically accurate, and to scale, as
any other genre of ship modeling, to the
point of being museum-quality in every
respect. I have spent over thirty years on this
mission, with varying results, building models
of a variety of ships and boats, both histori-
cal and of modern design. The following arti-
cle will explain the basics of the general cat-
egory of ships-in-bottles, or light bulbs, and
my efforts to “raise the bar” on this genre.
Almost everyone has seen a ship-in-
bottle model at one time or another, proba-
bly in a nautical gift shop or local craft sale.
The majority of these models are considered
a craft, rather than an art, and usually cate-
gorized under the “folk” term in either case.

NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL 131

The basic ship-in-bottle model is, or was
built, for the most part, for the mystique
value of just how did someone actually get
that model into the bottle. The models
themselves are often quite crude, and often
depict just a ship type, rather than a partic-
ular vessel. Whether built locally by a craft
person, or by some business shop overseas
specifically for foreign sales, it is rare to
find a model in this genre worthy of the
term “museum-quality.”
Over the years working at building
ship-in-bottle models I have seen some
wonderful examples of just what a such a
model could be, and met some truly gifted
model builders in the process. It started me
thinking that there simply is no reason
that anyone should have to stop at building
such models for the mystique value alone,
when so much more can be done to make
them objects of respect and admiration by
any ship modeler. To that end I started
working on techniques and methods that
can be applied universally to any ship or
boat model, including those aspects specif-
ic to ships in bottles. My goal was to make
the methods easy to use and apply, in order
to encourage others to think more of their
models as ship models first, and let the
mystique thing take care of itself.
There are a number of methods of
building and finishing ship-in-bottle mod-
els, as one might guess. Note that I men-
tion building and finishing separately,
finishing in this case refers to the work
involved in getting the model, or all its
associated parts, through the narrow neck
of the bottle, or bulb, and then rebuilding
or erecting the model inside.
The two most basic methods used
are to build the model so that it comes
apart into pieces small enough to fit
through the opening, or building the model
in such a way that it can fold down, or be
knocked down to accomplish the same
goal. The first method is most often used
with non-sailing boats and ships, the sec-
132
ond with models that have masts and sails.
Some builders choose to use a hybrid of
both methods, the percentages of either
method used varies as much as the number
of builders.
My particular techniques and meth-
ods use a minimal number of separate
pieces; I attempt to design or engineer my
models so that as little as possible has to be
done from outside the bottle except for the
vital tightening of the rigging lines. I have
seen fine work by others who use methods
with much more “piece work,” but I have
found it much more difficult to get a good
model finished using such methods.
Personally, I find there are just too many
things that can go wrong when a model has
to be pieced together inside a bottle. I have
had to do this on occasion, due to con-
straints caused by the neck of the bottle,
but prefer to avoid many separate pieces
needing to be put together after insertion if
possible.
I will be using the BonHomme
Richard model in a light bulb that I built
over a two-year period to illustrate my
methods and techniques. The idea here is
to show how they apply to a single instance
of a ship-in-bottle model, but the methods
can be used for just about any sailing ves-
sel. (Figure 1)
My BonHomme Richard model was
built from information in the A.N.C.R.E.
publication, John Paul Jones and the
BonHomme Richard, by Jean Boudriot. I
purchased the book along with an entire
set of large-scale drawings for the vessel,
also by Boudriot.
At the time I was starting my work
this information was considered the best
available about that ship. I have since
learned that Boudriot basically just shrank
down his well-researched plans for the larg-
er French East Indiaman Berlin, and that
this could be an instance of not enough
research being done to provide an accurate
set of plans for my intended model.
Vol. 57, No 3 AUTUMN 2012
 My first task was to use a computer
aided design (CAD) program to redraft the
plans, which allows me total scale control
of the model. What I found during this
process reinforced the idea that it was sim-
ply a rehash of previously published plans
for another vessel. I only mention this here
so that anyone considering building a
model of BonHomme Richard might do a
little extra research to find newer material.
I always encourage ship modelers to
use CAD to redraw plans for a proposed
model. Not only does it expand the knowl-
edge base of what one is planning to build,
but it also allows one to draft each piece
separately and then literally construct the
model virtually by copying and pasting the
parts together. I can easily say that, for
nearly every model I have ever built, I
learned things from this method that made
things easier down the road.
The plans were drafted and double
checked, each view against the others, for
accuracy. The next step was to measure the
inside diameter of the opening I had cut in
the light bulb end, and to measure the
exact dimensions of the inside of the entire
bulb. The latter measurements determine
the scale of the model I will build, which is
why the scales of my models are widely
outside what is considered “normal.” My
BonHomme Richard model, for instance,
was built to a scale of 1:459. In all cases, I
wish to build the model to the largest scale
possible in order to fill as much of the bot-
tle, or bulb. Unless the width of the hull at
the largest possible scale will not fit
through the neck opening, the largest scale
is what I use to build my model. If the hull
width is too large, which happens only
rarely, then I have to decide if I will shrink
the overall scale so it will fit, or engineer
the hull to split along the fore and aft cen-
terline. The latter is an absolute last resort
for me; as mentioned previously, there are
too many things that can go wrong inside
the bulb using that sort of piece work.
NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
When I print my plans to scale, I
print out the half-hull outlines from the
body plan, one for each station. I include
only the outline of the hull, the waterline
extending beyond the outline and the cen-
terline for each paper template. I also print
out scale plans of the maximum hull width
at any given point, and another for each of
the decks. With all this material in hand, I
head out to the workshop and begin actual
construction.
The first of my particular methods
comes into play when making up what I
call a “hull block sandwich,” carved to
make the model’s hull. I use the same
basic principle for every hull I make, even
some much larger scale models, simply
because it makes it easy for me to carve
very accurate hulls. The basic hull block
sandwich comprises a solid piece of bass-
wood for an upper hull, a thin sheet of
styrene plastic to represent the waterline,
and a lower hull made up of three pieces of
basswood glued together. The lower hull
has two outer pieces that are glued to a
very thin center piece; together their width
matches that of the upper hull piece. All
pieces are as long as the longest portion of
the hull, with the upper hull piece made as
thick as the maximum height of the hull
above the waterline, and the lower hull
pieces as thick as the maximum depth
below the waterline.
BonHomme Richard had many
decks, so instead of simply carving them
from a solid upper piece, I shaped a thin
piece, from the waterline to the gundeck,
to the proper sheer on its upper surface and
then added several more thin pieces for
each of the vessel’s other decks. If the
model had been to a much smaller scale, I
would have retained the simple hull block
sandwich and carved in all the decks.
The key feature of my hull block
sandwich technique is that only the lower
hull pieces are glued together, all the other
parts are pegged together tightly. The pegs
133

Figure 2.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
have to be tight enough to allow carving
the hull without the pieces shifting. The
principle is that, no matter where or how I
carve into this block, I have a readymade
waterline—the styrene sheet—and a dead
straight keel line—the center of the thin
134
piece glued between the two outer pieces of
the lower hull. One does not have to use
much imagination to see how much easier
this makes the carving process compared
to having to re-locate and re-draw in the
keel or waterline while shaping the hull.
Figure 2 illustrates how a typical hull block
sandwich is made. Figure 3 shows the lay-
ered upper hull parts as well as the entire
hull carved to the profile shape.
The printed half-hull templates were
used to check the shape of the entire hull
as I worked, placing them against it while
aligning them with the waterline and cen-
terline of the block. The station locations
were marked along the center of the keel of
the lower hull, which, once shaped to pro-
file, would not change during the rest of
the carving process.
One of the really nice things about
making up hulls in this manner is that,
after they are carved, one can fairly easily
take them apart again into separate upper
and lower hulls. Nearly all of the hulls I
make are separated in this manner only; it
allows me to air brush the finished hulls
more easily since most are differently col-
ored above and below the waterline. It also
allows me to build a slightly larger scale
model, as the two hull pieces can pass
through the bottle neck separately. Though
this may seem to go against my ideas about
piece work inside the bottle, it is a simple
matter to marry to the two hull parts
together inside the bulb, using the pegs for
perfect alignment.
Figure 4 shows two fully carved
hulls for my BonHomme Richard model,
plus another that has been separated into
its component parts. I actually made three
models, only two of which I have fully
completed as of this writing. From this
point onwards, all the upper hull pieces
were glued together, making it a single
piece for insertion.
One of the crucial benefits of having
the hull split at the waterline has to do
Vol. 57, No 3 AUTUMN 2012
with the differences between my ship-in-
bottle models compared with those usually
associated with the genre. Most ship-in-
bottle models have hulls that only go a lit-
tle below the waterline and are set into a
putty or clay medium shaped to form a
fake sea. This particular technique has sev-
eral advantages for ease of finishing, as any
lines that must be operated from outside of
the bottle can be glued, cut off, and simply
pushed down into the fake sea material to
hide them.
My finished models are much sim-
pler in one respect, I only put the model
itself and a stand to hold it in place into
the bottle or bulb. I tend to think of them
as static display models that just happen to
be inside a container. Since nearly every
sailing ship model will have some rigging
that must be operated from outside the
bottle, mine being way beyond the excep-
tion in this point, and since I have no fake
sea to hide my rigging lines, I developed a
technique of carving a cavity in the under-
side of the upper hull piece to run my lines
through. I exit my “control” rigging lines
through the hawse holes, for the most part,
and then can cut them off and hide the
excess in the cavity after they have been
glued.
Perhaps it is time to talk a bit about
rigging ship-in-bottle models. When work-
ing on my type of model, it is necessary for
the masts to fold backwards; the top of the
masts must move aft and downwards to
allow the entire upper hull assembly to fit
through the neck opening of the container.
For this to work, all but the shrouds and
backstays of the rigging must be control
lines that can be operated from outside the
bottle (the shrouds and backstays simply
fold down and double over, so they do not
need to be workable lines). The stays of
each mast must be control lines to allow
proper movement, of course, but all of the
running rigging lines also must be control
lines, since the yards and sails also fold
NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
down with the masts. All of this is accom-
plished by having the normal rigging end
points allow passage of the thread used for
the rigging to run through either the
bowsprit assembly or pin rails and then
through holes in the deck beneath them
into the cavity within the upper hull piece.
These normal end points are where the
lines are glued after erecting the model, in
most cases from above but occasionally
from below at the point the lines exit the
holes through the upper hull into the cavity.
Getting back to work on the model’s
hull, once fully carved and sanded, the hull
was separated and upper and lower hull
sealed with a thinned sanding sealer. They
were then reassembled and sanded again;
this process was repeated until the entire
outer surface of the hull was well sealed.
This hardened the soft basswood outer sur-
face, and prepared the raw wood for attach-
ment of detail and paint application.
Much of the detail work on my
hulls, and spars is made from varying
thickness of sheet styrene. I use styrene
because it retains a clean edge when cut
into thin strips and small pieces, paints
easily, and can be applied to the hull quick-
ly and fairly easily using cyanoacrylate
glue. This is one reason the hull must be
sealed well, it keeps the thin glue from
simply soaking into the wood. Styrene is
also very flexible and, therefore, can be
used where wood is quite difficult to bend
without breaking. Where pieces are larger,
or strength is needed, I use hardwood
instead to make up small detail parts.
The lower gun ports on my
Bonhomme Richard model were simply
shallow cutouts of the proper dimensions
and locations. The closed gun ports were
engraved into the hardened surface of the
basswood. Painting the inside of the port
depressions with dark gray paint and
adding pieces of black insect mounting
pins to represent cannons made them
about as realistic as one could achieve at
135
Figure 5.

this scale. Figures 5 and 6 show the stern
and bow detailing, mostly accomplished
with styrene.
Once I had completed the major
detailing of the exterior of the hull, work
continued with drilling holes through the
hull for rigging. The majority of the exteri-
or hull holes allow the addition of the
chains. At this scale, the chains are thread
and are not attached in the usual manner;

Figure 6.

136 Vol. 57, No 3 AUTUMN 2012

instead the thread ends run through the
hull into the interior carved hollow.
Initially, this space was 1/16-inch deep,
with a 1/16-inch perimeter. All of the chain
holes are rather high up the hull, so the
outer edge of the hollow needed to be
carved much deeper so that the holes could
reach it. (Figure 7)
Holes then had to be drilled through
the decks into the hollow for all the run-
ning rigging. In order to locate most of
these holes properly the fife and pin rails
were added prior to drilling these holes.
Quite a few running rigging lines were
going to put considerable pressure on these
belaying points, so all the fife rails were Figure 7.
made from thin brass, since styrene or thin
wood would not have withstood the strain. for the lines, even in the fife and pin rails,
The rail stanchions were made from pieces since there simply was not enough room to
of insect mounting pins, glued to holes in drill an individual hole for each line. Many
the deck and the rails with cyanoacrylate of the holes had to be used to run two or
glue. The pin rails at the very bow were three working lines. This, of course, led to
made similarly; the styrene cap rail was problems with lines running through each
replaced with a brass copy in order to give other as they were added. This complicat-
it a solid foundation against the strain of ed the rigging process as, after each line
the many lines that would pass through it.
Figure 8 shows the fife rail for the fore
mast and the many closely spaced holes
drilled through the deck at the bow.
I should note here that each of the
many hull holes for ship-in-bottle models
must be distinct and not “run” into, or
through, any other hole. This is critical
when running the rigging lines through
them later because all the lines are working
lines. They have to move freely in both
directions, upwards during the knockdown
process and back downwards again during
the erection process. Should individual
holes not be distinct, it almost always is
the case that one line will run through
another previously installed line, which
will limit both lines’ movements. For this
reason, all the holes at the very bow were
most difficult to drill.
For this model, limited space made
it necessary to limit the number of holes Figure 8.

NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL 137

Figure 9.
was added, all the lines passing through
that particular hole had to be tested for
movement in both directions to correct any
problems at that point. In some cases it
required considerable repetition of thread-
ing before all the lines would operate prop-
erly.
The hulls of my BonHomme
Richard models were then masked off and
airbrushed. At this scale using an airbrush
is necessary in order to apply as thin a
layer of paint as possible. I always use flat
paints on my models; I find that they pro-
Figure 10.
138
duce a thinner layer than gloss paints. In
anticipation of all their subsequent han-
dling during construction, the hulls also
received an airbrushed clear coat but, even
with this protection, things like the chain
plates and bowsprit ends eventually lost
both paint and protective coat and had to
be touched up at the end of the construc-
tion work.
The final detailing work was a
rather interesting experience for me. The
figurehead on most of my ship-in-bottle
models is usually so small that a crude rep-
Vol. 57, No 3 AUTUMN 2012
Figure 11.
resentation is all that is possible or neces-
sary. My BonHomme Richard models were
large enough that the lion rampant figure-
head was going to have to be more detailed.
I attempted carving lions from both wood
and styrene, but had poor results. I then
tried making up the figurehead from layers
of styrene, each cut to the contour at a
given distance from the centerline. Using
my CAD software made this fairly easy to
draw up, print to scale, and glue to sheet
styrene. The individual parts were then cut
out and glued together before attaching the
assembly to the bow. A little carving and
sanding rounded out the lion figurehead.
Figure 9 shows the lion parts and Figure 10
the finished figurehead on the model. The
latter also shows the brass rail at the bow
of the fore deck, along with the replace-
ment brass cap rail to hold it in place.
While waiting for the paint to dry, I
started working on the spars for my mod-
NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
els. The masts had to be constructed to
allow them to fold down for insertion into
the light bulb. There are two main methods
for accomplishing this; the simplest and
easiest is simply to drill a hole through the
mast near its base from port to starboard
and pivot it on an inverted “U”-shape wire
with the two ends glued into holes drilled
in the model’s deck. This works quite well,
but is unsuitable where there are decks
above and behind the mast, or when a
cabin or some other deck structure is
immediately abaft it, since the obstruction
will not allow the mast to be lowered
enough for insertion. There is also the
issue that it is nearly impossible to hide the
wire.
I prefer to make my masts “break”
for folding down some distance above the
deck in this situation. I use what is com-
monly called a “Hinkley” hinge, named
after a ship-in-bottle modeler who popular-
139

Figure 12.
ized this technique. The advantage of this
type of hinge is that when the upper por-
tions of the mast is raised to its upright
position, the hinge itself is almost entirely
140
invisible.
The basic hinge is made by cutting a
mast blank at a 45-degree angle at the
point above the deck that one wishes the
mast to break. The bottom end of the
upper mast section then has the outer
third of its diameter carved away on each
side, leaving the center third as a sort of
tine. The top of the lower section of the
mast has the middle third removed, leaving
two outside portions, making it into a fork.
The areas are removed at an angle opposite
that of the original cut dividing the mast
parts. A bamboo peg is then inserted into a
hole drilled through both mast pieces while
holding them their assembled straight
position. Figure 11 shows several exam-
ples, one of them before assembly in order
to show the parts.
One important point when working
on models at the miniature scales I use is
that keeping in mind the qualities of vari-
ous materials. This is very important when
making up spars. Solid wooden spars below
a certain size become too weak or brittle.
In many cases, spars for ship-in-bottle
models have to have holes drilled through
them, which weakens them even more. For
this reason I make all of my wooden spars
by laminating together thin sheets of
maple veneer. The glued seams of a two-
piece veneered spar make it much stronger,
and holes drilled at 90 degrees to the run of
the seam usually do not split the spar.
I use the same basic process to make
up all the wooden spars for my models,
varying the number of layers of veneer to
match the final diameter of the spars. I cut
slices from the laminate and spin sand
them down to their maximum diameters,
using a Dremel tool and various grades of
sandpaper pinched around the rotating
blank. I then hand sand any tapers, drill
any necessary holes, and sand any required
flat areas to get to the final shapes. This
laminated spar method also really helps
when making up “Hinkley” hinges. I use a
Vol. 57, No 3 AUTUMN 2012
Figure 13.

three-layer veneer, making it easy to deter-

mine the one-third divisions for making
the hinges.
All the wooden spars were sealed
and sanded, for the same reasons as for the
hull exterior. Almost all the spar detailing
was styrene, including the mast caps and
tops. The mast banding, for instance, was
from 1/64-inch wide strips of .005-inch
thick sheet styrene, wrapped around the
mast and glued with cyanoacrylate. Figure 12
illustrates a complete mast assembly for
my BonHomme Richard model and Figure 13
shows all the smaller spars for one mast on
all three models I constructed.
Figure 14.
The smallest spars on my
BonHomme Richard models were simply
too thin to be made even from wood taper for one end of the spar, but the other
veneer, so I used insect mounting pins of end of the spar had to be tapered by hand.
the appropriate diameter instead. Often, it These pins come with a black enamel coat-
was possible to cut sections from a pin so ing, of course removed when tapering for a
that the natural taper of the pin formed the spar. I used black magic maker to blacken

NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL 141

Figure 15.
the spars throughout. All the wooden spars
and the appropriate sections of the masts
were airbrushed black and then clear coat-
ed to protect them.
Most of the detail work on the decks
was added to the models next. Nearly all
these details were made from sheet
styrene, sometimes laminating it to get
proper thicknesses. Very small diameter
electrical wire insulation was used for the
barrels of the guns on the upper decks,
mounted on styrene carriages. I added
wooden side rails, using insect mounting
pins for stanchions.
The gratings used on the models
were made using thread and a special jig I
constructed for the purpose. It consists of
pieces of fine toothed razor saw blades,
with their kerfs filed off, attached to all
four sides of a block of hardwood so that
the teeth aligned evenly above the top sur-
face of the block. (Figure 14) Threads of
various sizes were wrapped around the
block, and over the blades, on opposite
sides of the block at any spacing desired.
These threads then were saturated with
cyanoacrylate, using a fine piece of wire to
apply the glue along their lengths almost to
the point they passed over the saw blades.
142
Another wrapping of threads then was
wound on at 90 degrees to the original
threads. Cyanoacrylate again was applied
to the top threads, and at the crossing
points. It was painstaking work, but I was
able to make some very fine grating mate-
rial with this method. I used the jig to
make all sorts of items for my models,
including tiny railings, such as that around
the stern balcony, and to make up the
deadeye lanyard arrangements for the
shrouds and backstays.
One of the really fun things to work
on for miniature models are the ship’s
boats. I am constantly attempting to find
ways to make the tiniest boats as realistic
as possible, and to make it relatively easy
to make many nearly identical examples. I
developed a system for making my boats
that seems to work well, and have used it
in a number of larger scale ship-in-light-
bulb models.
I started out by carving a solid wood
blank of the hull shape, sanded and sealed
multiple times. This sealing process is crit-
ical for later work with the blank. An
extremely thin brass plate was epoxied on
top of the blank,, and cut down to the out-
side edge of the top. A hole was then drilled
Vol. 57, No 3 AUTUMN 2012
 Figure 16.
through the brass and into the top of the
blank, and the end of a toothpick glued
into this hole.
The boat blank was then mounted
in a spring clip clothes pin so that the
toothpick was holding the blank upside
down. About one half of a cigarette paper
was soaked in a half-and-half mixture of
water and wood glue, then draped over the
inverted blank. A wetted toothpick end was
used to carefully flatten the paper onto the
blank’s outer surface down to the brass
top. A rolling motion was used with the
toothpick tip, and very light pressure, con-
tinually pressing the paper as tight to the
surface as possible. Near the ends the
paper was folded over to one side or the
other and flattened. After leaving it to dry
overnight, the hardened paper was cut off
at the brass plate; the paper is fragile, so
great care was taken during this process. A
second piece of paper was then applied in
the same manner, with the folds at the
ends on the opposite sides from the first
layer to minimize the additional thickness.
For the BonHomme Richard boats, I used
five layers of paper.
After the last layer of paper had
dried, the ends of the hull were sanded very
NAUTICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL
lightly, to even out the overall thickness of
the paper by removing the added thickness
where it was folded over. The entire out-
side of the boat hull was then saturated
with cyanoacrylate. This hardened the sur-
face, stiffening and sealing the outside of
the hull. I than very carefully pried the hull
from the blank and saturated the interior
surface with the same glue. The resulting
hulls were very strong considering their
thickness. Figure 15 shows the finished
basic hulls for one model, along with the
blanks used to make them.
I added much detailing to the two
boats for each of the models. All of it was
made from various thicknesses of styrene
plastic. Ribs were added, keels and thwarts
for the upper boat, plus .005-inch thick
styrene cap rails. I have not mentioned this
previously, but I always make extras for
almost everything when building my
miniature models. The larger and more
complex the parts, the fewer of them I
make as extras, but they allow me to pick
and choose the best examples for the final
models. The ship’s boats were no excep-
tion to this, though, due to their complexi-
ty, only a single extra of each boat was
made. Figure 16 shows all four of the fin-
143
Figure 17.
ished smaller boats for my three
BonHomme Richard models. The boats
were hand painted before placing them on
the models.
The final bit of “ditsy” detail work
was now begun, making the deadeye and
lanyard parts for the shrouds and back-
stays. I wanted to include them in an
attempt to make the models as realistic as
possible. At this scale, though, one cannot
make them as one might on a larger scale
model, one has to fake them to some
extent. I did this by using that grating jig I
mentioned earlier.
I started out by drawing up a paper
pattern giving me the spacing between the
deadeyes and placing it on top of the jig’s
bed. I punched the deadeyes out of cyano-
acrylate-soaked construction paper, using
the sharpened barrel of a veterinary hypo-
dermic needle of the proper diameter. Dark
brown thread was wrapped around the jig
144
in one direction, in closely spaced pairs,
and saturated as noted previously. Then,
drops of glue were applied to each deadeye
location and, very carefully, deadeyes were
picked up, using the very tip of a Number
11 blade, and set in position on the closely
spaced threads, repeating the process for all
the deadeyes. Then, a second layer of
threads was wound on the jig over the top
of the deadeyes. This last layer was satu-
rated with glue, paying special attention to
the points it pressed down on each dead-
eye. The threads were cut from the jig at
the edges, and each deadeye and lanyard
unit was trimmed so that its threads ended
at the outside edge of each deadeye. It was
tedious work, but the process yielded many
nearly identical items, nicely detailed for
their size. Figure 17 shows a number of the
deadeye and lanyard pairs on the jig used
to make them.
To be continued.
Vol. 57, No 3 AUTUMN 2012