Creativity and curiosity can lead you into weird places...
After my last ship in a bottle I started to think about what else could be put into glass. Then I thought "instead of a sailing ship, how about a STARSHIP?". Here we are - the USS Enterprise in a bottle!
This project can be summed up with two words: perseverance and flexibility. It really was a grand experiment and presented a whole bunch of challenges. During construction the stand I built inside the bottle snapped, which resulted in me having to remove it and then reconfigure the inner display. Once I got that figured out, the neck connecting the upper and lower hulls wouldn't connect with the plug system I configured it with. The upper hull had to be built outside the bottle, cut into smaller pieces, then put back together once inside. This forced me to actually make tools using sticks, wire and whatever I had on hand in order to get things set up (which is ultimately the point of this type of project). It was a total basement project, meaning I bought no materials for it (it's dowels, scrap basswood and the base is a simple piece of plywood painted up). Had to take several breaks from it to make sure I didn't destroy it (or my sanity), but had a breakthrough yesterday morning and here it is!
It's far from my best work (to me the upper hull looks like it has gout), but given how unorthodox the whole idea of it is I can't say I'm unhappy with it. Based on internet sleuthing I couldn't find evidence of anyone trying this idea anywhere on the planet (or in the Federation for that matter), so based on audacity alone I'm very pleased with it. And because it was done once, that just means it can be done again and improved.
Now to slug some Saurian brandy to celebrate...