Part of building an airplane in bottle is the fun of explaining how I do it. The process doesn't involve cutting the bottle or blowing it around the model. The tall-ship-in-bottle technique, where you hinge the masts back and pull them upright once inside the bottle is inapplicable. The truth is that I assemble these models entirely inside their bottles.

On this page, I put together a step-by-step illustration of the process. These pictures are from 1998; they document one of my last bottle builds. Original photo quality is marginal, and I find significant deterioration in the negatives after 10 years.

This sequence follows a scratch build of a 1:144 scale IAI Kfir. Oddly, I don't have a photo of this bottle that shows the neck. I do have a photo of a very similar Dassault Mirage in an identical bottle.

Clearing Bottlenecks

A key step in building an airplane in bottle is cutting it into small enough parts to fit through the neck of the bottle. There are three competing observations:

• Parts must pass through the neck.
• The larger the parts are, the fewer of them to assemble inside.
• Cutting along existing lines to makes seams less prominent.

In this case, I choose to cut off the trailing edge of the wing, including ailerons and flaps to allow wing panels to pass through. In both photos, I set the caliper to the inside diameter of the target bottle's neck.

Assembly in Bottle from Open-Air Subassemblies

I like to build as much of the model as possible outside the bottle. This includes all of the painting (pretty hard to get inside a bottle with a paintbrush). This can also mean assembling parts out of logical sequence, e.g., mounting landing gear on wing panels before attaching wings to fuselage, if the assembly will clear the neck. If I make a mistake outside the bottle, it is easy to correct; once a piece is inside, the only way to fix a problem is to break the bottle and start over. One part I always mount before insertion is the simulation "jet column," a transparent or semi-transparent plastic rod. This is my nifty way of unobtrusively mounting models.

Insertion

When I explain that I assemble models in bottles, people often think I use long tweezers or forceps, but I amo not aware of tweezers that are long and thin enough to reach inside a bottle. In reality, I use much simpler tools--a cardboard tube and a copper tube I describe below. The cardboard tube is from a roll of fax paper. I friction-fit a fuselage inside the tube, and then use that to position the fuselage inside the bottle. Once the glue is dry, I carefully twist the tube off.

Alignment

I use 10-minute epoxy for all work inside a bottle. Other glues either don't have enough strength, especially in holding plastic to glass, or don't give me enough working time, or give me too much working time and my hands get tired holding parts in alignment. With regular models, I can use tape or rubber bands or pins for scaffolding while parts are drying. That doesn't work with a bottle. So I need a glue that sets relatively fast, and I need to make sure I position the parts correctly before it sets. You may note an "X" on the bottle's bottom in left picture: it's on a piece of magic tape I stick to the outside. The "X" makes it easy to see my target and doesn't mark the bottle. Right photo shows a final check after removing the tube--model's nose is in exact alignment with the bottle.

Small-Part Tool

The other tool I use is a foot-long piece of 1/8" copper pipe. It has a slot in one end and a pin that sticks out of the other. Copper is flexible enough to bend into any form, and the two ends make it possible to hold and move small parts. With the slot, I can hold flat parts, and with the pin, I can pick up small parts by stabbing them. Here, I'm holding the fin. Photo below shows how I use this exact grip to inset this part into the bottle.

Insert Fin

The more work I can do outside the bottle, the easier it is to work inside. In left photo, I'm bending my copper tube into shape that will put the fin in its correct spot, at the right angle. I'm making these adjustments with the part already in the grip. For some parts, this is a tricky process, especially if I have to go around other parts that are already on the airplane. Epoxy has a way of curing gradually. There is a stage in this process when it's solid enough to hold the part, but is still flexible enough that I can still correct small errors in alignment. In the right photo, I'm making adjustments using the pin in the other end of the copper tube.

Insert Remaining Parts

The process is essentially the same for other remaining parts. Generally, I like to build from back to front, otherwise I have parts blocking my way. Some parts are too large to pass though the neck in the right orientation--for instance, the Kfir's trailing edge. One solution is to drop the part in and let it fall, then align it the way it should sit, and finally lift it by stabbing it with the pin.

Another Example: Fokker Dr.I

Here's another example of cutting a model into pieces, this one a plastic kit. This model has more parts, but the decomposition follows the same guidelines. I paint the subassemblies, except where glue comes between parts (red areas are paint-free styrene). I complete the largest subassemblies that can fit through the neck and cut parts that are too large to fit (horizontal tail in this case) along existing lines (elevator hinge line)