Keith Black

Thank you to everyone for the kind comments and for the likes. I got the dinghy weathered and glued down, I still need to add a coil off rope around that sprue. You can barley see that sprue in normal viewing. I used a brown pastel to weather the inside of the dinghy but it's got a pinkish tint to it. I know not why and I'm not sure how to fix it other use a little black? I received a box of three cats today from an Etsy supplier. They're supposed to be HO scale but they seem smaller which is okay. The one sitting on the fire bucket box is 0.115 inches high. To see any detail it must be viewed under magnification. It snuck aboard and I'm really not in favor of it sticking around as I think it's bad luck to have a black cat onboard. I've temporally named the cat, D1. This cat sharpening it's claws on topping lift line I named Stump Grinder. It's more or less the lead deckhand's cat. It's a little bigger than D1. I couldn't get a good in focus photo of the cat laying on its belly beside the Derrick crane mast. This cat doesn't have a name yet. It's larger in girth than Stump Grinder. I may name it D8. If you think I'm procrastinating doing the handrails you are correct. Thank you to everyone for the support and for following along. Keith

Kurt and Eric, I am honored that both of you have taken the time to offer sage advise and answer my many beginner's questions. Your willingness to do so time and again is humbling and I am forever grateful.

Kamil, welcome to MSW. Glad to have you aboard.

Eric, thank you for taking the time to teach me. I can't tell how much I truly appreciate it. I was seeing sternwheelers without full hull length support not knowing or understanding the why of it. Now that I'm more educated I can view and appreciate what I'm seeing when observing sternwheeler images. For that, I again, thank you. Thank you, Gary. I hope I'm allowed the opportunity to work on that sternwheeler from the Hard Coal Navy days. She is truly an ugly duck.

Beautiful work, Bruce. The best to ya on the knee replacement, enjoy the fishing and your trip to France.

Do they have walk in models for us older folk?

Eric, below are examples of the lack of full hull length hog chains, I think? This looks to be a harbor vessel so she wouldn't count. I can see the timber/wheel chain support at the stern but I don't see it carried the full hull length. I don't even see timber /wheel supports for this one. Unfortunately I don't have a forward image of this vessel so full length supports could and we just can't see them. Triangular stern support (much how I envision the necessity for Lula to be supported) but no obvious full hull length support. No obvious full hull length support. Same as the image above, no obvious full hull length support. Eric, I quickly grabbed these examples and I could be dead wrong on all counts. Keith Edit... I see the full hull support for the one in the third photo, please disregard #3. the last photo appears to be a steal hull, disregard. also.

The hull looks very nice, Mark.

Thank you, Eberhard. The reason is obvious after your explanation as to the why. Lula's a bit different in that her hull construction is different. Lula's hull is built around a large water tank so she can deliver water to the pile drivers.

Too much is in the way plus Lula is getting to be a delicate little thing. Now, I hold my breath each time I pick up Lula to work on her. Eric, I think you and I are both envisioning the same thing and I agree with you. It's the easiest solution to the compromised situation I've created. All this all brings up a question I've had regarding the hog chains running from the ends of the cylinder timbers up and over the length of the hull anchoring at the bow..... on some sternwheelers. Not all sternwheelers had that lengthy hog chain run. It would seem that the lengthy run was unnecessary for just cylinder timber/wheel support? Was there another reason for that run the full length of the vessel? Was it also intended as a lighting rod or some other reason? As I said, not all sternwheelers were built that way so it doesn't seem as if it was totally necessary or all would have been built the same.

Thank you for the update, Keith. Good to know you're doing well even though inconvenienced. I look forward to seeing you once again in full control of your workshop.

After watching the three YouTube vids I'm emotionally spent! I don't know how in the world you manage this SIB business, Glen. I'd either be dead from a heart attack or at the very least have that bottle and model smashed into a million pieces. Congratulations on getting the Kentoshi-sen successfully inserted. What a story, thank you.

Thank you, Ken. When I built the engine room I splashed a bit of weathering about and was going to 'weather as you go' on the remainder of construction but thought better of it and decided to wait till all the construction was done before weathering. Thank you, John. Yes, thankfully we have MSW mates who are much better versed on the technical aspects than I. Thank you, Glen. It's a pink flamingo or nada. Thank you, Phil. Eberhard and Tillsbury, thank you. I messed up when I installed the stairways. I knew I wasn't going to route the cylinder timber supports as was seen in Lula the car ferry when I built the engine room. To account for the cylinder timber supports anchored end, I was going to run the chains underneath the stairways from the top to bottom edges. But I had a moment of unchecked exuberance when I installed the stairways and forgot about running the anchoring chains first. Once the stairs were glued in place there was/isn't anyway to run the chains. 😦 Soooo, we gotta pretend a bit. We gotta pretend there's ample metal structure in the port and starboard engine room walls to carry the load and act as anchor points for the cylinder timber chains attached at the top of the engine room's stern wall. Are you wid me or again me? I do apologize for waiting till now to bring clarity to the situation but I thought, "well, maybe they won't notice"...........yeah right, LOL.

Thank you to everyone for the comments and the likes. Thank you to all those that joined in on the Google AI discussion. Think I'm gonna go the old/new school route. https://www.britannica.com Scarier than the thoughts of AI dominating the world wide web was how easy the cylinder timber chain installation went, I expect that at any moment Lula is gonna completely unravel. I've never had chain go on this effortlessly, I am amazed! The list is down to handrails and weathering. Thank you to everyone for the support and for following along. Keith

Good on ya, Ferrus.