Sternwheeler From the Susquehanna River's Hard Coal Navy by Keith Black - 1:120 Scale

[Keith Black]

20 minutes ago, Cathead said:

I mean, I'm regularly floored by your work, so I might as well floor along!

 Danged keyboard! It outta know when I mean following. Thanks for making me laugh, Eric. Golly knows I needed that. 

[Keith Black]

 Thank you to everyone for the comments, laughs, and the likes. 

 

 

 I repainted the pilothouse and got it weathered. There is enough weathering on the engine room, I don't think it needs any more. Weathering requires a light touch and I'm prone to be heavy handed. I really have to reign myself in to keep from going overboard. I also do better in natural light as artificial light cast shadows. My worktable lights wash the weathering effects so these are actually a bit darker than pictured. 

 

 I added the pilot. This particular resin figure was perfect for the pilot but both hands had broken off. These figures are so small (the tallest is 0.60 inches) and fragile that the extremities are easily broken off. I removed the hands from two other figures that were badly damaged for the pilot figure repair. I did my best job yet sculpting away the navy uniform and I think the figure turned out pretty okay. He looks the part of the pilot in the original photo.

 

 

 Time to quit messing about and start on the hull. I've been dragging my feet because the amount of space between the furnace and the wheels is unknown but I've got to go with my best guess. Between the furnace and the wheels is the furnace's automatic coal feeder, the coal crib, and the twin cylinder steam engine and shaft to the wheels. The water pump/pumps and gas engine are all on the port side. 

 

 Thank you for your support and for following along.

 

    Keith

[Jim Lad]

Looking good, Keith.

 

John

[John Ruy]

Very Nice Keith…

John

[Keith Black]

49 minutes ago, Jim Lad said:

Looking good, Keith.

 Thank you, John.

 

36 minutes ago, John Ruy said:

Very Nice Keith…

 Thank you, John. 

[tmj]

About the weathering. I have to go back to one of your first images. It appears as though the pilot house is darker and dirtier than the deck house/engine room. Could this be from soot and winds/breezes up high blowing that smoke more onto the pilot house walls than onto the engine room walls? Other than this one tiny observation, I think your weathering looks 'GREAT' and close to 'PERFECT'! It could be the light also. You've already mentioned that the photos of your work look different than the real thing, due to lighting. 

Looking at the location of that 'smokestack'... that pilot must have been hating life if the wind blew in the wrong direction! 🫤 

 

Edited July 11 by tmj

[Keith Black]

15 hours ago, tmj said:

About the weathering. I have to go back to one of your first images. It appears as though the pilot house is darker and dirtier than the deck house/engine room. Could this be from soot and winds/breezes up high blowing that smoke more onto the pilot house walls than onto the engine room walls? Other than this one tiny observation, I think your weathering looks 'GREAT' and close to 'PERFECT'! It could be the light also. You've already mentioned that the photos of your work look different than the real thing, due to lighting. 

Looking at the location of that 'smokestack'... that pilot must have been hating life if the wind blew in the wrong direction!

 Thank you, Tom

 

 I agree, the pilothouse was more coal sooted as it was higher up and it was worse on the aft side. The engine room was more of a tan color because of the dredged material being primarily on the side and fore walls.  If anything, I think I need to add just a whisper of tan to the pilothouse side and fore walls. 

[FriedClams]

Good progress, Keith and everything looking very nice!  The changes to the searchlight and bell are a big improvement.

 

Gary

[Keith Black]

3 minutes ago, FriedClams said:

Good progress, Keith and everything looking very nice!  The changes to the searchlight and bell are a big improvement.

 Thank you, Gary. 

[Desertanimal]

Beautiful work Keith. Looking great. 

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, Desertanimal said:

Beautiful work Keith. Looking great. 

 Thank you, Chris. 

[Keith Black]

 Thank you to everyone for the comments and likes.

 

 There is a hull in the action. 

 

 I added some color to the bow. In the original photo the decking on the bow runs fore to aft but the decking aft of the engine room fore wall runs from side to side. The only reason I can think of for that being the case is another layer of decking was laid down on top of the old decking at some point as the bow decking takes the most beating. 

 

 I also added a little color aft of the engine room. More will be added as the build progresses. 

 

 I've let the aft run wild till i know exactly where to make the cut out for the wheels. 

 

 Thank you to all for your support and for following along.

 

   Keith

Edited July 14 by Keith Black

[Paul Le Wol]

Keith, she’s looking more amazing every time I see her.

[Keith Black]

1 minute ago, Paul Le Wol said:

Keith, she’s looking more amazing every time I see her.

 Thank you very much, Paul. 

[Glen McGuire]

Great work continues, Keith!

[Keith Black]

11 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

Great work continues, Keith!

 Thank you, Glen. Hey, when's that "TBD" gonna change? 

[Glen McGuire]

16 hours ago, Keith Black said:

Thank you, Glen. Hey, when's that "TBD" gonna change? 

The answer to your question is TBD!  😃

[clearway]

looking awesome Keith😁

 

Keith

[FriedClams]

22 hours ago, Paul Le Wol said:

Keith, she’s looking more amazing every time I see her.

 

Yes indeed - Ditto!

 

Gary

[Jim Lad]

Keith, when it comes to ship models you are the master of the commonplace. You choose a very ordinally and shabby work boat and turn it into a beautiful and authentic looking model.  A great skill.

 

John

[Keith Black]

10 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

The answer to your question is TBD!  😃

 Okay, okay. I'm just sayin' I'm ready to see another one of your beautiful SIB projects come to life. 

 

6 hours ago, clearway said:

looking awesome Keith😁

 Thank you, Keith.

 

5 hours ago, FriedClams said:

Yes indeed - Ditto!

 Thank you, Gary.

 

4 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Keith, when it comes to ship models you are the master of the commonplace. You choose a very ordinally and shabby work boat and turn it into a beautiful and authentic looking model.  A great skill.

 John, how very kind of you to say.  

 

 I do believe I've found my niche. I've enjoyed, am enjoying creating models of vessels most wouldn't give a second glance. Not all boats come off the ways with beautiful lines but if one looks hard enough at those that don't, one comes to appreciate their persistence to keep moving forward in their work a day world.   

[Keith Black]

 Thank you to all for the kind comments and the likes. 

 

 A bit of play and a bit of progress. 

 

 Nothing is glued to the deck as I'm still trying to determine the exact hull length. I'm close and I'm thinking 67 feet is going to be the magic number. I need to get a rough boiler in place and start trying to get some idea of the coal auto feeder shapes and dimensions. If anyone has photos or drawings of large scale auto feeders for vertical boilers I'd be forever grateful, please post anything that might be helpful. I think it was either belt or bucket fed because the wire rope blocks hanging above the coal crib as seen in both the bow and stern original photos. 

 

 I did some preliminary work on the deckhand, sill more to do but he looking the part. The chain winches need to lowered a tad. 

 

The stairs are glued to the roof of the engine room, much more work on the stairs is required.

 

 The coal crib and support for (this is where the wire rope blocks hang from) the auto feeder's tail. I don't know of it was belt or bucket that took the coal to the crown table. Did the crown table shake and then coal went onto the slide or did gravity alone get the coal onto the slide?   

 

 The top right group single is what I see hanging from the support. 

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

 

   Keith

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 10:13 PM by Keith Black

[clearway]

interesting catalogue page Keith - a single 3" wooden block for $1.50 !

 

Keith

[Keith Black]

8 hours ago, clearway said:

interesting catalogue page Keith - a single 3" wooden block for $1.50

 Cheap price and probably a quality block as built in obsolescence hadn't been invented yet. 

[Dr PR]

Keith,

 

Search the US Patents for coal auto feeders or something like that. If there was a patent (and there probably are many) it will have drawings and an explanation how it works.

 

Never underestimate what you may find in the patents!

[Keith Black]

On 7/17/2025 at 11:53 PM, Dr PR said:

Search the US Patents for coal auto feeders or something like that. If there was a patent (and there probably are many) it will have drawings and an explanation how it works.

 

Never underestimate what you may find in the patents!

 Phil, thank you for the suggestion. I quickly tried after your post and got nowhere. Not sure what I was doing wrong but I plan on going back and trying agin. 

 

 Thank you to everyone for the kind comments and the likes. 

 

 The boiler is roughed in and I'm close to being finished with the coal crib. 

 

 A piece on the starboard side wire rope block came off when I was running the lines. I'll see if I can fix while it's hanging, if not I'll have to make a new block.

 

 The blocks are a diamond shape made from a 0.10 inch square piece of 1/64 plywood and my fav tiny photo etched eye pins. 

 

 The lines that hold the coal feeder conveyor belt tail at the correct height are temporally crossed and glued to aft bottom board. Once the coal feeder is in place the lines will be cut and attached to the belt tail. 

 

 The coal crib is 8W x 6L x 5H feet and it doesn't look like it would hold much coal. Allowing for the conveyor belt and for making ease of operation, a space of 4 x 4 x 3 feet would hold two and a quarter tons. From past research a boiler under moderate use would consume 100 lbs an hour. Even 150 lbs per hour and for 12 hours would = 1,800 lbs. I think this all works out dandy. 

 

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

 

   Keith

[wefalck]

These vertical boilers seem to have been very economical on coal (and space), which is one of the reasons they were used in various maritime and industrial applications. The volume of water was quite small, allowing to raise steam quickly (important e.g. for fire-engines and donkey-engines), but had little inertia and needed constant freshwater supply.