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

[Keith Black]

2 hours ago, clearway said:

to be honest Keith i prefer the ugly ducklings of the ship/ railway genre- you wont find many passenger coaches or passenger ships in my collection- freight rules.

 Keith, you have built/are building beautiful models. Far far from ugly ducklings.

 

36 minutes ago, Cathead said:

Speaking of dredging, I'm coming up dry in my barrel of superlatives, having used them all up on your logs over time. So, you know, good job and all that! Models after my own heart.

 Eric, I'm glad you think this ugly little towboat is worthy. I think an ugly barge will tie the package together nicely.  

[Jim Lad]

Barge - easy. Dredged spoil - hard! 🙂

 

I'm looking forward to seeing your solution for the dredging material, Keith.

 

John

[Keith Black]

11 minutes ago, Jim Lad said:

I'm looking forward to seeing your solution for the dredging material, Keith.

 John, I'm thinking a thin mix of drywall joint compound and sand. It needs to give the impression of a wet slurry mix with hints of anthracite peeking through. I think getting the color right is going to be the make or break part of successfully replicating the dredging material.  

Edited Monday at 08:25 PM by Keith Black

[Javelin]

Hi Keith, 

 

This is the inside of my split barge Bengel. 

Might give you some inspiration. 

 

The rougher side dredge material is a mixture of acrylic gel with beach sand, the glossy wet look is caused by the glossy acrylic gel. You can add more or less sand for a rougher or smoother result. 

The watery inside is that same acrylic gel mixed with brown acrylic paint. You could add streaks anthracite paint in it as well. 

 

[mcb]

Hi Keith, 

 

You have captured the 'mood' of the thing.

Well done, you are going to have a fleet of these soon!

Thanks for posting,

mcb

 

 

[John Ruy]

On 10/4/2025 at 6:33 PM, Keith Black said:

Thank you so much for your support and for taking the time to follow this journey.

 

   Keith

No, Thank you Keith for taking us on this journey. Astoundingly Incredible work. 
 

 

[kurtvd19]

15 hours ago, Javelin said:

This is the inside of my split barge Bengel. 

Roel:

Do you have a build log of this barge?

Kurt

[clearway]

in the world of military modelling you can buy "wet mud effects" to add to your vehicles- not sure if it will look overscale as never used it myself- there always the sieved soil out of the garden method as well

[Javelin]

3 hours ago, kurtvd19 said:

18 hours ago, Javelin said:

This is the inside of my split barge Bengel. 

Roel:

Do you have a build log of this barge?

Kurt

To my own surprise it seems not. I thought it was one of my first shared builds, but it appears I've only put her in the gallery here: 

https://modelshipworld.com/gallery/album/2675-split-barge-bengel-1400/

[wefalck]

... you had a complete building log on www.shipmodels.info, if I remember correctly.

 

And yes, that is what I am doing for simulating wet sand, to play with acrylic gel and gloss acrylic varnish on fine-grained sand.

 

I was too lazy to go back to the beginning of the building log to check and wonder, whether loaded the whole dredged material into the barges, or whether there has been some kind of sorting on the (bucket?) dredger? I wouldn't want to know about the impact on the river flora and fauna of the dreging and the release of the tailings though ... The water must have been turbid for miles down the river.

[Keith Black]

 i'm sorry for being late to respond but a Covid booster put me out like Lottie's eye. 

 

 

On 10/6/2025 at 9:54 PM, Javelin said:

This is the inside of my split barge Bengel. 

Might give you some inspiration. 

 

The rougher side dredge material is a mixture of acrylic gel with beach sand, the glossy wet look is caused by the glossy acrylic gel. You can add more or less sand for a rougher or smoother result. 

The watery inside is that same acrylic gel mixed with brown acrylic paint. You could add streaks anthracite paint in it as well. 

 Thank you for post the photo, Roel. Beautiful work and a great idea to consider. 

 

On 10/6/2025 at 11:23 PM, mcb said:

You have captured the 'mood' of the thing.

Well done, you are going to have a fleet of these soon!

Thanks for posting,

 Thank you very much, mcb. I do play with Lula and the Susquehanna towboat, abreast and passing one another. 

 

19 hours ago, John Ruy said:

No, Thank you Keith for taking us on this journey. Astoundingly Incredible work. 

 Thank you for the kind comment, John. 

 

13 hours ago, clearway said:

in the world of military modelling you can buy "wet mud effects" to add to your vehicles- not sure if it will look overscale as never used it myself- there always the sieved soil out of the garden method as well

 Keith, thank you for the heads up. I watched a couple of videos and they provided great ideas but this is a one time deal. I don't want to spend money I don't have to if I can get away with using drywall compound. Hopefully I will be able to do some testing within the week.

 

30 minutes ago, wefalck said:

I wouldn't want to know about the impact on the river flora and fauna of the dreging and the release of the tailings though ... The water must have been turbid for miles down the river.

 Eberhard, mining of any type is very hard on our Mother Earth. The great paradox of making life easier.  

[wefalck]

As a minerals policy professional I would slightly diagree with the last statement, though historically you are right. Today, we have mining techniques and strategies that can result in minimal impact. Totally impact-free, of course, is not possible.

[Rick310]

This is a really great build Keith!!

Amazing detail at such a small scale!

Rixk