The Hair technique

The HAIR Technique: (my own creation)

I started building SIBs as a kid, and progressed along the traditional sailor method known as the 'pull thread'. The original art started in the clipper era, and so the traditional SIB looks like one. The hull itself long and narrow seems perfectly fit to get through the bottleneck. But the bulky galleons and carracks where more appealing to me, with all their elaborate rigging with crowfeet and bowlines. This posed the challenge to split the hull in sections, and further to begin from scratch with the rigging method, should the finished model really look like the original. It was then when I begun testing with hairs (taken from paint brushes, and developed the hair technique, which was brand new and never seen 27 years ago. The hairs are very thin and can be shaped with the right sag such as seen on real rigging. In fact, many traditional modelers looked at my models and said they were no true SIBs. For me, although it is true they ressemble more to the original monks' pieces of art called Geduldsflaschen, they are true SIBs in the essence, which is simply putting a ship model inside a bottle..

My method has since been adopted by many, even commercial serial production modelers, which makes me happy of having originated a postmodern evolution of the art. Please have a look at one of my first HAIR TECHNIQUE models in 1981, compared to a conventional model of that same time, both in the same scale:

Captions: Photo on the left, modeler J.Binikowski, taken from his book Flasche und Schiff: Buddelschiff (see Bibliography).made with the standard technique. Photo on the right, modeler Eduardo Raffaelli (myself) applying the HAIR technique.

But, still, there is a moment of truth. There is a bottle, with a narrow neck, waiting. There is a man, with his bare hands ready...

Will 'YOU' take the gauntlet?

Please, if you would like to see some models, head towards the photo gallery.

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