Keith Black

You've done lovely work on the model, Siggi. When finished will you be placing her in a case? 

3 hours ago, KeithAug said:

Hmmm! - stuffed up - a good engineering term - as in "I stuffed up the stuffing box and that stuffed up the ship, which sank.

 Oh man, I gotta laugh at myself. I'm sorry, please insert scuffed......danged old people.

Beautiful work, Greg, 

 Clovin' on up, to the port side.

 Fantastic recovery on replacing the wave break diverter, Gary. I looked hard and couldn't see any signs of replacement and repair and considering the textured surface, you did one heck of a job. Marvelous work on the stovepipe, great realism.  

So radical, really fun watching this come together. 

1 hour ago, Knocklouder said:

Awesome work my friend.

 Thank you, Bob. It was great seeing you grandson and his first fish, wish you'd gotten a picture of your other grandson holding his first fish. 

9 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Your supply boat is looking great Keith.  I'm playing catch-up so trying to type fast and get caught up.

 Thank you, Mark. It's great to have  you back.

9 hours ago, FriedClams said:

The water and steam piping turned out very nice, Keith. Tricky indeed and fiddly as well, especially in 1:120.

9 hours ago, FriedClams said:

I mostly use phosphor bronze wire now instead of brass because it’s harder and resists kinking and slumping. Tichy Train sells the stuff in 8” and 3’ lengths - .008” up to .04”.  Just an FYI.

 Thank you, Gary. And thank you for the heads up regarding the bronze wire from Tichy Train.

  Thank you to everyone for your comments and likes.

 A quick update. 

 There are no more deck element paper cutouts, all items are now in place and glued down with the exception of the derrick crane mast which is just loosely placed. The crane requires a lot of work before being permanently installed. I also added the steel floor with bumpers between coal bin and the furnace. 

 Little Lula has lost most of her resemblance to a car ferry. In the below phot you can see where I stuffed up the knee faces. 

 Thank you folks for for you support and following Lula's journey.

   Keith

 Welcome to MSW. Glad to have you aboard. 

1 hour ago, Rick310 said:

Really coming along nicely Keith 

Really enjoy following your build!!

 Thank you, Rick. 

 I like it, Greg, I like it a lot. Much better. 

 A lot of good work there, Brian. 

10 minutes ago, wefalck said:

So no condenser fitted? Or a boiler feedwater pre-heater? 
 

Do the steam-pipes get some insulation? I could imagine, that in winter one would get a lot of loss of pressure and condensation.

 Eberhard, condenser system requirements are much too costly for a gyppo operation like Lula and no preheater either. The white painted wire represents insulation. 

10 hours ago, KeithAug said:

What is the plan for the fore deck Keith. It looks like a great space for stack of piles.

 Directly fore of the boiler is the coal bin and fore of the coal bin is a derrick crane. Pilings were barged to the site, at some point I'll need to add a pile barge to the fleet. 

On 3/7/2025 at 7:01 AM, KeithAug said:

Ah! I now understand, you are building the debugged version.🙂

 Thank you, Keith. Trying to. 

On 3/7/2025 at 6:17 PM, BANYAN said:

ou are being too kind to the crew Keith - a good flogging to drive them up steeper ladders/stairs should be the order of the day  

 

Seriously though, Lula is coming along nicely, great work.

 Thank you, Pat. I'm a pretty easy captain, I like a happy crew.

 Thank you for your comments and likes. 

 Everything seen in the photos below is attached. Lula is 90 feet from bucket edge to knee face.

 I added cleats, fairleads, and bollards. In the original Lula photo the only deck fitting seen is a white painted cleat so I painted all the deck fittings white. I scraped up the wales and knee faces, no photo of the knee faces this time round. 

 I plumbed water lines and ran the steam pipes to the engine room. 

 What a tricky bit of nonsense that was, 24 GA brass wire deforms so easily. It's 1.20 inches from the foremost steam pipes to the engine room fore wall

 The water lines are visible in the next two photos

 I was going to run the exhaust pipes forward but after thinking about it, having the exhaust forward might cause visual complications for the pilot. It makes more sense to run the exhaust out the top corners of the engine room aft wall which I'll add at some later point in the build.  

 Thank you to everyone for your support and being part of the journey. 

   Keith

Lynn, is building the Phantom making you happy? That's what it's all about, having fun while making something with your hands. If it's not fun and making you happy, it is time to put it aside.

 Each build is a step, you make mistakes, you have victories, you learn, and you move on to the next project. With each build you acquire more or better tools, you gain knowledge, and your skills increase. I've been modeling for eight years and I still struggle. There are so many layers to this modeling onion, the more I peel away the more layers I find. Perfection is an illusion, we may chase it but we'll never catch it.

 Your chainplates aren't horrible, in fact they're pretty stinkin' good for the first time. Paint em black and move forward. Above all, do that what makes you smile.....

 Good call on the frame, Greg. What is up with that prop, it looks like some sort of KitchenAid attachment. 

1 minute ago, Glen McGuire said:

I started thinking about @Ian_Grant and the way he's been using 3-D printing on his WW1 Battle Cruiser Restoration.  Hmmmm! 

 Hu oh, the cows are gonna have to get used to a new hum coming from the main house. 

7 minutes ago, MAGIC's Craig said:

we are grateful to tuck into the library, by the fireplace while Ballou, the cat, sleeps atop my sextant case.

 Made me smile, Craig. 

33 minutes ago, TBlack said:

the flu which caused all kinds of ancillary issue

 Tom, I caught the flu the first week in January and finally fully recovered the third week of February. It was crazy, I thought that I may have caught Covid but never got tested. Whatever it was it was nasty so my heart goes out to you. 

Tom, I like the ratlines but I hate hearing about your health issues. My prayers go out dear brother. 

3 hours ago, KeithAug said:

Not withstanding the angle debate, the stairs are very nicely made but on the photo of Lula they go up the side of the deckhouse. I have clearly misundersood something along the way.😕 

 Thank you, Keith. The stairs are off the shelf plastic ones I bought from Cornwall Model Boats seven/eight years ago and I have used them on both the Tennessee and the pile driver. My apologies if I hadn't made that clear years ago.

 It's true that in the original photo of Lula the stairs went up the side of the engine room but if on the model I ran the stairs up the side of the ER a crew member couldn't get around them to get to the stern. And you say, "use the maintenance doors". I always look at crew having to get somewhere fast in the case of an emergency. I try to create direct paths to all parts of the ship as much as possible, Thats the reason why the stairs were moved the the fore ER wall. 

47 minutes ago, druxey said:

I presume that you counted the number of ball-bearings to match the original, didn't you?

 And they're so evenly spaced. Terrific bit of work, Keith. The freed hull looks neat.

1 hour ago, SaltyScot said:

I can only second that!!

 I third that!

 Craig, that last photo is killer. I love that shot, beautiful work.