KLINGON BIRD of PREY in a bottle

After building the two (normal and enlarged) card models of the Klingon Bird of Prey, I realised that its length to width ratio was perfect to resize and fit exactly in a one gallon bottle so that it would be suspended in the bottle and appear to float without a stand!

Using MS Paint and Google images, I made a circular Galaxy, the size of the internal base of the bottle.

I added the USS Enterprise and two planets and printed it out on 240gm card.

The inside base of the bottle was covered with a thick layer of 24hr two part epoxy with a few drops of matt black mixed in.

To prepare the disk for insertion, the ends of 2 long threads were glued with Pva glue to opposite edges of the underside of the disk. A third thread was inserted through the centre of the disk and glued to the underside. When the glue was fully dry, the centre thread was fed through a long tube and the disk was rolled up, printed side facing out. The disk was then inserted into the bottle, holding the 3 threads and the tube so that the disk did not touch the base of the bottle. Once inside the bottle, holding the centre thread tight in the tube, the 2 edge threads were pulled up so that the disk flattened out and then it was located centrally onto the epoxied base using the tube to guide it and gently pressed down onto the epoxy with a large piece of dowel and then the tube was removed.

When the epoxy had set, the threads were cut.

HERE IS THE FINAL CLOAKED VERSION.

NOW FOR THE UNCLOAKED VERSION.

 Similar to my previous card to bottle models, the parts were made from Jelutong and then clad with the card parts suitably resized.

Each wing comprised of 3 parts. The inner wing piece (1) had an additional print of 80gm paper glued onto its top and bottom. After the outer wing piece (2) was glued to the inner wing, this would be glued with pva to cover the join between the two pieces.

The outer wing piece (3) was then glued in place and the process completed for the other wing.

The two parts of the wing roots were then inserted and glued together.

The main body of the spaceship was now inserted and temporary held in place with a length of 3,2mm piano wire inserted through a hole drilled from underneath the front.

All its parts were now attached in sequence. Additional pieces of printed parts were glued on to cover any construction joins.

One of the wings was now attached and then, when fully cured, the other wing was attached.

The model was then rotated and jammed between the sides of the bottle.

Finally, another planet was inserted into the neck of the bottle and the inside of the neck coated with more black epoxy.