Here on the blog, I’ve shared some incredible projects created by Myrtle fans, and we all know I can go a little overboard with my own makes. Today we’re having a look at some breathtaking fan art, quite literally a labor of love, created by Myrtle’s (and my) biggest fan: my husband, C.J. Bunce.
But first we need to back up a bit. Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries Book 4, In Myrtle Peril, was inspired in part by the real-life “ghost ship” Mary Celeste, a true Victorian cold case: a ship whose entire crew simply vanished into thin air.
Read More: Remembering the Mary Celeste
For In Myrtle Peril, I reimagined that deadly voyage with a new name and a different fate. A ship called Persephone goes down in foul weather, taking all hands with her. Or so it’s believed…
Inspired by the tale, and the model ship in the book, Husband C.J. decided we needed our very own model Persephone. So he built one, from scratch, in painstaking 1:100 scale (that’s tiny! For reference, a typical dollhouse is 1:12 scale, and model railroads are commonly 1:87 scale). He has documented his work at his website, borg, and we are sharing some of the details here today!
In pride of place with other original Myrtle artwork
Enjoy this excerpt from C.J.’s post:
I spent a year reviewing Elizabeth’s story, the single surviving image of the Mary Celeste, and brigantines from Myrtle Hardcastle’s era in England, in order to create a model of the Persephone. …Come with me on a voyage to build the Persephone, using classic books Charles D. Davis’s The Ship Model Builder’s Assistant (available here) and Colin Riches’ Ship Models from Kits (available here).
The brigantine Leon, a similar vessel of the era, has been preserved in this fabulous photograph showing details of the ship and its rigging.
I built the Persephone using the Zvezda 1:100 scale British brigantine, a plastic ship that I upgraded with wooden tackle, rigging, and fabric sails to match similar era vessels to the Persephone, using hundreds of photographs as resources, and one striking image in particular (above).
C.J.’s father’s magnificent Cutty Sark sits in my direct line of sight while I’m writing–and played more than a little role in my inspiration for In Myrtle Peril. (When it arrived, it was festooned with cobwebs from a few years in storage, and looked marvelously haunted.)
I studied details in stereographs and other images to get close to the look and feel of a vessel built in the 1870s. Many of the weathering ideas I incorporated originated with my father, who I watched build the classic Revell 1:96 scale Cutty Sark model 40 years ago.
If you haven’t painted a kit like this before, note that you want to paint as much as you can on the plastic trees before assembling. Weathering is the most fun and biggest part of a build like this (although the rigging is the most difficult and time-consuming). This project took five months to complete from the first day of painting to the final day of rigging.
C.J. tied every single one of those knots (and thousands more) by hand. This unit is called a “ratline,” and the Persephone has ten of them.
C.J. used reference photos like this one to add realism and detail to his model.
No detail was skipped or scrimped on: here you can see that he’s even added green deck prisms to light the hold below (made from tiny Makit & Bakit crystals).
Another detail view, this time showing the windlass (which holds the anchor)
The deck fully furnished, with lifeboats secured with rope.
A big upgrade to this kit is cutting thin, white linen to exactly match the kit-supplied plastic sails. After the stitching is applied to create seams to match the real thing (see the Leon detail), you soak each sail in water with a white glue mixture, then leave on the plastic “mold” overnight to dry. They slip off easily and mimic both the puff of the sail and wind impressions.
It takes weeks to get all the rigging done. You will create thousands of individual knots to create all your ratlines from scratch. When you start tying all the rigging together, it will look like a mess. That means you’re doing it right!
The ship’s name applied with decals and fancied up with decorative painting. (Fun fact: it takes several packs of decals to get enough Ps and Es to spell Persephone!)
Nearly done!
The final ship, on a desk like the model of the Persephone in the novel. For fun, I mocked up some vintage ephemera. Like the Persephone added to a vintage stereocard image:
… or added to a frame as a keepsake:
How sad that this image is only digital!
And that’s it–five months of hobbying! —C.J.B.
Isn’t that extraordinary? Watching this build evolve was mind-boggling, and the finished ship is a work of art. C.J. is now at work on another Myrtle model, in an entirely different medium. I wonder what’s next!
This was merely a survey. You can check out all the details—and dozens more photographs and inspiration images—in C.J.’s full article: Build the lost ship Persephone
…Since I know now you’ll want one of your own! Pre-order your paperback edition of In Myrtle Peril today!
Awesome model! Great job, C.J.!
Holy moo moos! That’s so cool! Your husband rocks.
You two are peas in a pod, both masters of miniatures!