Keith Black

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.

Nice workshop, Hakan.

That'd be a great model, Eberhard. It could be working a Spanish wreck with the diver bringing up treasure.

I know the original idea of using the piece of wood would probably swallow the bottle but isn't that what a whirlpool does?

Thank you, Phil. I'll order flux and solder and see if I can teach myself to be better at the soldering process. Once upon a time I did a lot of soldering on PC boards when I was in the Marines but then we had the best wasteful money could buy. Were you in PCB design? I worked at QC Graphics in Dallas for several years. Thank you, Gary. I wanted to hit the like, thank you, and laugh button all at the same time. Great idea on using thread, I'll head upstairs shortly to try that. The knuckle dragger is the guy doing the building.

Your work always marvel's me, mcb.

Nice look, Glen. I like it though I also liked the piece of wood.

Roel, I love the detail you achieve at this scale. Remarkable stuff.

Thank you, John. I have an iron but I need to get better solder with flux or good solder and flux. The second problem and the most critical is, the handles have to be 90 degrees to the handle shaft and horizontal with the deck while aligning with each other in the horizontal plane. This pump is very tiny, the whole pump sits atop a US penny. Provided I had the solder and flux due to the size I'm not sure I could make connections with the proper alignment? Using wood and CA I have a lot of leeway to make those necessary alignment adjustments.

Thank you, Lynn. And thank you to all for your comments and likes, Lula now has a hand pump. I was frustrating myself trying to add the fancy frame work.....life's too short. I'm okay with the pump as is except for the handles, they're out of scale. I could leave them as is but I will try to figure out a way to decrease the size. The handles are easily removable if I come up with a game plan for replacements. I darkened the pump quite a bit due to the pump water and coal dust. It's good to see Lula's machinery take shape. I added the capstan but didn't darken it as much because it's at the bow away from most of the coal dust. Thank you everyone for following along. Keith

Nice looking mast work, Vossie.

You're making great progress, Ian.

Good on ya, Bob.

Welcome to MSW. Glad to have you aboard.

Really really nice work, Paul. I know you'll be glad to have this journey end but I've enjoyed the ride very much and will be somewhat sad to see it end.

Thank you, Eberhard. I think I read something regarding a "French winery" connection but it's definitely a firefighting pump. Thank you, Eric. I've had all the boiler and engine associated photos of your Arabia build saved on our screen files and your build log (along with Peerless) is in favorites bookmarks. What I'm doing is basically the same, just a tad bit different shape. I was somewhat loathe to copy your work even though the hand pump is in the museum. The era is perfect and fits with Lula's owner sourcing dependable used equipment. I figure most of the money went into the hull and boiler

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

Beautiful place to visit, sorry to hear about the ankle. Glad to hear you're all healed up, Lynn.