Keith Black

Thank you, Craig. Thank you, Eric. Thank you, Pat. being a coal bin I'm surprised it's not completely black. For awhile I worked in a coal yard. The belly dump coal cars were parked under a roof and during the winter the ice/snow would melt and drip down into the cars. This caused the coal to freeze to the belly dump and and sides of the cars. I had to dig out/break off the frozen coal inside the cars into the dump pit. At the end of the day I would be totally black from coal dust. Speaking of Lula's coal bin, I failed to mention that the reason I made the chute door so large was where a man could get down on his hands and knees and crawl into the bin if need be. Caregiving and snow removal kept me from working on Lula yesterday but today i plan on turning American football games on the TV and escaping into working on Lula's wheel wall.

No, Bob, that ain't it. A helmet wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

Very nice, Vossie.

Regarding the bowsprit, Bob. You need to make yourself a used pieces parts workbench guard that you can fit around both sides of the bowsprit. Nothing elaborate, just something that when your hands or forearm touches it you immediately stop you arms momentum. I'm thinking a 1x6 base 14 inches long and the two side pieces made from scrap 3/4 ply as long as the base and 12 to 14 inches high. Capiche?

Thank you, LJP. I look forward to a review on the rivets.

Nice micro detail work, LJP.

Go ahead and break off the bowsprit now, Bob. It'll be a lot easier to fix before you get a bunch of line attached to it. I'm looking forward to your new journey.

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

That looks terrific, Craig. I can visualize all the preplanning you did to do the cabin structures.

Eric, thank you for posting the link above, neat thread. Thank you to everyone for your kind comments and likes. The coal bin before taking on it's first load of coal. After the first load. My camera really picks up on black pastel. It's not this dark as you'll see below. The chute door is plate with a handle. I decided not to incorporate the coal bin along with the boiler, hand pump, and beam engine. In fact, I'm going to try plumbing the three without them being on a 1/64 inch piece of ply. Iron plate that size would represent a great amount of needless weight, The sand worked just fine representing coal (thank you again for the offer, Eric) ,once I have the boiler plumbed and set in it's final position I'll tun a piece of the 1/64 ply for the coal bin door to under the boiler and spill more sand out the chute opening. The coal bin really has shown in the above photo. This is its true darkness. I think the coal bin fits in well. The bin is loaded on either side, access is made by lifting the hinged four foot roof sections on either side. The boiler and coal bin from this angle is what I saw in my mind the first time I saw this photo of Lula. On to the steam engine room. Thank you for your support and being part of the journey. Keith

Lynn, most likely is the #61 drill bit has dulled. As much as we would like for you to have magic fingers I'm betting the bit has dulled. Is the 61 the smallest you have?

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

The planking is coming along nicely, Jacques. Yeah, it'd be a shame to try random widths and mess up the beautiful work you've done thus far.

You're doing a great job, Ian. I'm starting to learn to live with imperfections by embracing them and utilizing them in some fashion. Nothing we build is perfect.

Thom, welcome back.

Thank you, Roel. Thank you, Pat. Thank you, Lynn. No, I've not made it to the Arabia museum but Eric, @Cathead, shared photos of some of the museum exhibits in his Arabia build. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/17090-arabia-1856-by-cathead-finished-scale-164-sidewheel-riverboat-from-the-missouri-river-usa/

She looks fantastic, Bob. Have you ever considered a rubber bowsprit?

Glen, this photo of your SIB is the best and most incredible SIB I have ever seen, I am absolutely blown away.

Thank you, LJP. Archer sells S scale (1:64) rivets. 1:120 is between HO and N scale so I'll probably go with the N scale. I learned of Archer through mcb's Blairstown build, see his rivet images on page four. https://modelshipworld.com/topic/32170-blairstown-by-mcb-1160-plastic-steam-derrick-lighter-ny-harbor/

Gary, what an understatement that is. You've gotten tons done and it looks fantastic! The rubber roofing is superb. I'd love to pull up a chair next to you for a couple of months to sit and learn.

The boiler looks great, LJP. The below won't help you with this build but at least you'll have the information for next time. Yesterday I became aware of transfer rivets by Archer, they sell several patterns in five? different scales. https://www.archertransfers.com/pages/surface-details-n-scale Example image of one of the patterns.

Thank you, Glen Thank you, Eric. That is so very kind of you. I've got some sand left over from God only knows what project that I'm going to try to use. I'll have to paint it and then glue it in a pile and see if it makes acceptable coal. If it doesn't, I'll take you up on your generous offer.

Thank you, Vossie. Thank you, Mark. Glad to see you back in the saddle. Thank you, John.

Thank you, Bob. A tooth pick is larger than the original handles. This pump is a little delicate thing. Thank you everyone for the support. Your comments and likes inspire me to make Lula as interesting as possible. The thread for handles worked great, thank you again, Gary. To answer your question about how much the hand pump will be seen......the sides will be open and I think some of the pump will be visible from above as the upper deck forward of the pilothouse will only extend about halfway past the boiler. Hand pump on a penny and on Lula's deck. These handles are much more to scale. They are 0.30 inches wide and 0.020 inches in diameter. With that I'm calling the hand pump done, it's time to start building some structure. I'm going to start with the coal bin. i'll build the bin on a thin plywood base that will be narrow between the bin door and the boiler's firebox door. It will then widen where where the boiler will sit comfortably on the starboard side and be wide enough on the port side for the hand pump to sit. It will extend aft just past the beam engine. The plywood will represent iron plate and I want to be able to have the coal bin, boiler, hand pump, and beam engine on the plywood as a single unit where i can adjust all four elements as a whole when I create the space between the beam engine and the steam engine room. It will also allow me to plumb the pump, boiler, and beam engine without trying to lift the three individual units plumbed together when placing them on the deck. Thank you for your input and for following Lula's journey. Keith

Great post, Bob. Your joy in modeling is infectious, thank you.