Keith Black

Siggi Nice detail work making the port lids follow the hull profile, the Tiger is turning into a real beauty. The work crew must have had the day off?

Chris, I'm sorry but I laughed like #ell because it sounds exactly like some of my learning experiences. Has Acetone become your best friend?

I just love it when a plan comes together Keith, great work as usual. Is it possible to see a full length pic of the Germania as she currently sits, please?

Pat, thank you for taking the time to describe in detail source and information regarding the Rigging Warrant. Your post is the essence of MSW, the unselfish willingness to share information to the betterment of all who have interest in the hobby of model ship building. Your examples of both a willingness to share and your beautiful workmanship is inspiration to us all, myself foremost. Again, thank you.............KB

Thank you, Mark and thank you to all for the likes. As this is a temporary mounting board, I think the latest results are acceptable. I'll poly the surface tonight and call it good.

Thank you, Keith but the blue is stabbing me in the eyes. I'm about to head upstairs to get the holes drilled and play around with a lighter blue and then white. I'm going to see if I can create a wake effect. As I said, I can't screw this up as this isn't the final board so it makes for a good practice piece.

Rachel, Keith, and Pat, thank you for the nice comments and thank you to all for the likes. As I've needed to work on a particular section of the model, I've merely pushed or pulled the model across the worktable to the required position. During this time I've left the rudder off to keep from breaking it. With the rudder work at hand, when finished the rudder will no longer be removable. I need to mount the model to a board where I can push and pull the board and not the model. I had a 1 x 8 out in the garage, I cut a 41 inch piece from it and stained it blue. I made the stain by mixing Prussian Blue artist oil paint and paint thinner. The 1 x 8 isn't wide enough, it needs to be a 1 x 10 but this is a good test for the final mounting board and paint/stain scheme. I'm not a hundred percent sold on the blue, I'm not sure white wouldn't be a better choice but this will work for now.

A pair of silk stocking, a carton of cigarettes, and a good bottle of Scotch should get a ole bloke from Sussex across the border.

Back to the original subject for a moment, lighting conductors. Is this something that should be incorporated in builds after 1800?

Allan, It's too hot there for Keith. Keith would adapt much more easily to the climate here in Michigan.

Michael. no perhaps to it, please start a build log.

Bruce, thank you for posting. I thought I was reading a foreign language till I figured out that some words with a "s" were replaced with an "f". Anyone know why that was done? Fhortage of "s" type?

Mark, thank you the compliment and Gary, thank you for the like. Mark, no but after a couple of hours I do have to stop and give em a rest. I didn't mention the following in the skylight entry. I try to make white glass look opaque. I'm sure I'm not the only one to have figured this out but for those that haven't...... after painting what is supposed to represent white glass let the paint dry, then vigorously rub the piece between thumb and forefinger until almost all the paint is removed. Give it a second watery coat of paint and repeat the rubbing process. After several minutes of rubbing what's left is a opaque white sheen. To my eye it looks a lot more realistic than a natural white painted surface. Continuing work on the stern. Carved out the stern ports. Kinda like carving a jack o'lantern except pumpkins don't have end grain. This is my little step stool from when I was a small boy of two and a half years. Back then I used it to reach the sink where I could brush my teeth and comb my hair. Well, at least I still have the step stool. Now, seventy plus years later I'm still using it but this time to sit low to the model to carve out the ports. Port covers added. Under normal light shadow lines help define the ports. Next I'll be adding the rudder preventer chains and the alternate steering chains.

Guy I work in a upstairs bedroom so a real workbench was out of the question when I started modeling. I went with a 30 x 60 inch folding table. There are several styles to chose from, mine looks something like the one pictured. They're relatively inexpensive, sturdy, and can be easily taken down and stored away if need be. The one pictured is off Amazon, hope this provides you with a viable option, best to you.........Keith

Gary and Pat, thank you and thank you to all for the likes. Stern castle deck finalized

Gregory, I've found them to be the best and Sarah is a peach when it comes to helping you with you order. They're a bit spendy due more to the exchange rate. Michael, I can only guess at the delay time using Royal Mail and USPS but any order shipping Fedex or UPS should arrive in a timely manner.

My BD is March 23rd, easy for me to remember your timeline. Prayers going out.

You can try Cornwall Model Boats in the UK. https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/

Ken, here's wishing that the time passes quickly, that the surgery goes smoothly, and that you regain full vision. I'll be thinking of you as time nears, please keep us informed........Keith

Thank you to all for the likes. I was never happy with the stern castle particularly the skylights. All the elements seemed to be crammed together with a lack of uniformity. With the forecastle and main deck furniture mostly completed the stern castle really became the ugly stepchild. The skylights are now uniform with more space between all the stern castle elements. I moved the fresh air intakes inboard a tenth of an inch. The only element not glued down at this point is the rudder chain access hatch. I continue to work on other areas of the stern castle. Before And after.

Roger, thank you. Pat (BANYAN) also provided great information sending me in the right direction.

Eberhard, the pump was made for 22 GA wire, two brass beads (one larger that the other with a small brass disk sitting atop the large brass bead to create the body profile), and a very small brass eye. One piece of wire starts from the base through the two beads and disk and is then bent to form the handle. A second piece of 24 GA wire is glued to the handle piece that extends vertical above the handle. For the spigot a piece of 22 GA wire is bent to shape with a tail that passes up through the smaller brass bead terminating inside the larger brass bead and glued in place. The small brass eye is glued opposite of the handle and trimmed to length. All is painted black except the 22 GA wire above the circular brass disk and where it is bent to form the handle. I left this part unpainted to represent the piston rod.

See the following link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporator_(marine) Roger, the following from Wikipedia...... At first, only larger warships and some exploratory ships were fitted with distilling apparatus: a warship's large crew (the Tennessee's crew total was 480) naturally needed a large supply of water, more than they could stow on board in advance. Cargo ships, with their smaller crews, merely carried their supplies with them. Early boilers used seawater directly, but this gave problems with the build-up of brine and scale.[20] For efficiency, as well as conserving feedwater, marine engines have usually been condensing engines. By 1865, the use of an improved surface condenser permitted the use of fresh water feed,[21] as the additional feedwater now required was only the small amount required to make up for losses, rather than the total passed through the boiler. Despite this, a large warship could still require up to 100 tons of fresh water makeup to the feedwater system per day, when under full power.[22] Attention was also paid to de-aereating feedwater, to further reduce boiler corrosion.[21] The distillation system for boiler feedwater at this time was usually termed an evaporator, partly to distinguish it from a separate system or distiller used for drinking water. Separate systems were often used, especially in early systems, owing to the problem of contamination from oily lubricants in the feedwater system and because of the greatly different capacities required in larger ships. In time, the two functions became combined and the two terms were applied to the separate components of the system. The first distilling plants that boiled a separate water supply from that of the main boiler, appeared around 1867.[15] These were not directly heated by a flame, but had a primary steam circuit using main boiler steam through coils within a steam drum or evaporator.[23] The distillate from this vessel then passed to an adjacent vessel, the distilling condenser.[23] As these evaporators used a 'clean' seawater supply directly, rather than contaminated water from the boiler circuit, they could be used to supply both feedwater and drinking water. These double distillers appeared around 1884.[15] For security against failure, ships except the smallest were fitted with two sets.[23] See the following link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporator_(marine)

Thank you, Mark and thank you to all for the likes. After making the water cask I started thinking about how fresh water was delivered up to the main deck. They sure didn't haul pails of water from the condenser tanks up the companionways two decks below and they sure weren't going to be hauling pails of water through the Admiral or Captain's quarters out to the main deck. I suspected that there had to be a freshwater hand pump someplace on the main deck. I spoke with Pat (BANYAN) and he confirmed there would have been a FW hand pump located somewhere on the main deck. Pat provided valuable information and insight into my decision making of a hand pump and it's location. Thank you, Pat I also went through build logs hoping to find something on FW hand pumps and their location but couldn't find anything. If anyone knows of a build log/model showing a freshwater hand pump, please advise. I used this photo as a model for the pump. Pump made. The pump placed in position. I located the pump here for three reasons. It's somewhat protected from being snagged by an errant line, it would have received radiant heat from the stack to help keep the pump from freezing during sub freezing temperatures, and it's somewhat above where the condensers and tanks would have been located in the engine room. The fourth photo shows I need to give the pump a slight tweak to port.

Thank you, Brian. Lots of room on the front, I'm delighted you stopped by. This was a folk art model I purchased off eBay in 2009 that needed restoration. I chose to restore the model from folk art to as historically accurate as possible given the hull limitations. The deck planking looks like mahogany which I lightly sanded and sealed with poly.