Billy 1938 by Keith Black - 1:120 Scale - Homemade Sternwheeler

[Keith Black]

3 hours ago, Paul Le Wol said:

Keith, very happy to see that Billy is out of the gate!

 Thank you, Paul. 

[BANYAN]

And... we're off and running.  Looking forward to your log as you progress this unusuall PS Keith

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, BANYAN said:

And... we're off and running.  Looking forward to your log as you progress this unusuall PS Keith

 Thank you, Pat. I'm glad to have you looking over my shoulder. 

[Keith Black]

 Thank you for the likes and your comments.

 

I'm almost done with the pilothouse. All that remains is the roof and the mystery object on top.

 

 On the inside I added the ship's wheel, my signature control arm, and a spittoon. Sorry, Bob, no whisky barrel. 

 The windows are glazed and the floor I almost forgot is in. 

 

 

 Which left the door. Looking at the press photo the PH door is the most elaborate piece of woodwork on Billy. It's pretty danged fancy for a sternwheeler especially Billy. I'm sure it was from one of the buildings Engel salvaged to build Billy. It had fancy trim, panel, and appears to have bene painted/stained two different colors.

 

 The doors in my other builds have been simple utilitarian and left open where one could see inside. I choose to keep the door closed as it is in the photo.

 

 I used one of my spare windows for the trim by removing stiles and rails and narrowing to fit the door.    

 

 I painted it in two colors and the jury is out. After living with this a couple of hours I think it would look better if was just the single brown color. What the door in the photo lacked was a doorknob which I thought strange but then I realized. this is Billy. 

 

 Thank you for your support and for following along.

 

   Keith

[Canute]

They could have used a wooden handle. Harder to spot. The PH is about the size of a caboose cupola, not much wiggle room. Billy is progressing nicely. 👍

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, Canute said:

hey could have used a wooden handle. Harder to spot. The PH is about the size of a caboose cupola, not much wiggle room. Billy is progressing nicely. 

 Thank you, Ken. it could have had a wooden handler maybe one of those door springs that allow a door to be opened from either side with a push and keep the door in a closed position. They're most often seen on restaurant kitchen doors. 

[Jim Lad]

Looking good, Keith.

 

I tried to clean up and enlarge your original image of 'Billy' (below) and I think your take on the door is correct - no handle. It also looks like the mystery object is a mushroom vent. That's my take, anyway.

 

John

 

[Keith Black]

10 minutes ago, Jim Lad said:

I tried to clean up and enlarge your original image of 'Billy' (below) and I think your take on the door is correct - no handle. It also looks like the mystery object is a mushroom vent. That's my take, anyway.

 Thank you so much for doing that, John. That was very kind of you.

 

 Okay, it's a dang vent! But now you gotta help me figure out how Billy made noise.   

[Knocklouder]

We had a swing door between the kitchen and living room,  lost my little  finger  chasing my older sister,  I was two, that made little Knocklouder make some noise.  Lol.

What did Billy have for an engine? Straight pipes off the manifold always has a nice sound to it.  

 I do see a little bell out the front window, pretty tiny  for a riverboat  I think.

Handle or not neat looking pilot house.

Bob  M.

[Jim Lad]

Maybe he just didn't bother with a siren, Keith.

 

John

[Cathead]

14 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Maybe he just didn't bother with a siren, Keith.

My impression (could be wrong) was that riverboats by this era were required to have some kind of warning noisemaker, though of course that may not have stopped this eccentric fellow. Though I have a hard time imagining he made this journey without being inspected at some point by authorities, even in that era. Maybe he's got something mounted on the starboard or forward wall of the pilothouse where we can't see it.

 

17 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

I think your take on the door is correct - no handle.

Although anyone who could cobble this thing together and take it downriver needed to get a grip.

 

Everything's looking great, Keith!

[Keith Black]

19 hours ago, Knocklouder said:

We had a swing door between the kitchen and living room,  lost my little  finger  chasing my older sister,  I was two, that made little Knocklouder make some noise.  Lol.

What did Billy have for an engine? Straight pipes off the manifold always has a nice sound to it.  

 I do see a little bell out the front window, pretty tiny  for a riverboat  I think.

Handle or not neat looking pilot house.

 Ouch, I bet that did make little Knocklouder sound off. Unfortunately there's no bell, I wish there was. Thank you, Bob.

 

19 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Maybe he just didn't bother with a siren, Keith

 You maybe right, John. This was such a bare 'legged' (it's a family show) operation. Heck Engel didn't even have nav lights. 

 

4 hours ago, Cathead said:

My impression (could be wrong) was that riverboats by this era were required to have some kind of warning noisemaker, though of course that may not have stopped this eccentric fellow. Though I have a hard time imagining he made this journey without being inspected at some point by authorities, even in that era. Maybe he's got something mounted on the starboard or forward wall of the pilothouse where we can't see it

 One would think he would have gone through some sort of inspection process, isn't that a registration number, 12-A-855, on the port side of Billy's bow? 

 

4 hours ago, Cathead said:

Although anyone who could cobble this thing together and take it downriver needed to get a grip.

 

Everything's looking great, Keith!

 That made me smile. Thank you, Eric. 

Edited Saturday at 07:13 PM by Keith Black

[Keith Black]

 Thank you to everyone for the comments and the likes.

 

 

 The pilothouse is finished. I wish I was really good and I could make a realistic looking bicycle horn, as a tongue in cheek gesture I'd hang it on the starboard side. 

 

 I'm leaving the door as is for the time being, the brown grew on me maybe the door color will to. I've added a bit of weathering and will probably revisit weathering once the PH is attached.

 

 

 

 

 And with that done, it's on to the hull. 

 

 

 Thank you for your support and for following along.

 

   Keith

[KeithAug]

Very nice start Keith. I'm sure I remember that at one stage Ole Bob was planing to hang up his sea boots at the completion of the last build. I'm pleased he had a change of heart.

 

Correction - I may be talking about the last build but one. My I am out of touch.

Edited Saturday at 07:45 PM by KeithAug

[Jim Lad]

Keith, the fact that he didn't have navigation lights would indicate a somewhat cavalier attitude to the regulations. Did he even have electricity?

 

John

[Keith Black]

6 hours ago, KeithAug said:

Very nice start Keith. I'm sure I remember that at one stage Ole Bob was planing to hang up his sea boots at the completion of the last build. I'm pleased he had a change of heart.

 

Correction - I may be talking about the last build but one. My I am out of touch.

 Thank you, Keith. I placed ole Bob on administrative leave when the 3-D printed crew showed up. Instead of making him retire I put him in charge of spares. I wish you had been able to  be here earlier and had brought up ole Bob. I would have sealed him inside Billy's pilothouse and let ole Bob float the Mississippi ever after. If I get to the mystery sternwheeler I may put an apron round his waist and place I'm in the galley. 

 

 Yes, you missed the Susquehanna build in which I had a few moments of glory. 

 

5 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Keith, the fact that he didn't have navigation lights would indicate a somewhat cavalier attitude to the regulations. Did he even have electricity?

 

 John, Billy doesn't appear ready to weigh anchor. Maybe nav lights and a horn were items still not crossed off Engel's 'to do' list?

 

 I don't see any indication of electricity, very few of Billy's secrets are open to the viewer. Most have to be gleaned by deduction and speculation. 

[Geordie Tyne]

Billy is looking mighty fine already. Lovely bit of weathering as well.

 

Regards

[TOM G]

23 hours ago, Keith Black said:

I wish I was really good and I could make a realistic looking bicycle horn,

Melt & stretch plastic sprue from model kit........ like making a antenna for a model tank....... bingo you have your horn.    the horn would look sweet on it.

[tmj]

23 hours ago, Keith Black said:

I wish I was really good and I could make a realistic looking bicycle horn, as a tongue in cheek gesture I'd hang it on the starboard side. 

Maybe you could flare a small brass tube and glue a black bead on the end?

Edited Sunday at 04:49 PM by tmj

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, Geordie Tyne said:

Billy is looking mighty fine already. Lovely bit of weathering as well.

 Thank you very much, Geordie.

 

1 hour ago, TOM G said:

Melt & stretch plastic sprue from model kit........ like making a antenna for a model tank....... bingo you have your horn.    the horn would look sweet on it

57 minutes ago, tmj said:

Maybe you could flare a small brass tube and glue a black bead on the end?

 Tom and Tom, I've never added  a tongue in cheek item to a model out of respect to MSW. In this case, even if I wanted to, scale would be the killer. A 6 to 9 inch bicycle horn to scale would be 0.050 to 0.075 inches in length. It would be so tiny one couldn't make out the detail in normal viewing regardless of how exacting it was made. Sometimes you have to take what Mr Keith says with a grain of salt. 

[TOM G]

How about just making a horn that is in perspective of the structure.

[Keith Black]

 That's a possibility, Tom. I'd have to mount it on the starboard side as there's nothing in the photo that supports a horn. We'll have to hold tight till the build gets further along. Thank you for the suggestion. 

[tmj]

On 11/16/2025 at 11:58 AM, Keith Black said:

A 6 to 9 inch bicycle horn to scale would be 0.050 to 0.075 inches in length. It would be so tiny one couldn't make out the detail in normal viewing regardless of how exacting it was made. Sometimes you have to take what Mr Keith says with a grain of salt. 

Hmm... The scale is obviously a bit smaller than what I was thinking it was! 😕 I didn't think of 'that'. Makes sense to me now. Maybe you can just add an electronic 'bicycle-horn' sound effect for your "tongue in cheek" representation, LOL

[Keith Black]

1 minute ago, tmj said:

Hmm... The scale is obviously a bit smaller than what I was thinking it was! 😕 I didn't think of 'that'. Makes sense to me now. Maybe you can just add an electronic 'bicycle-horn' sound effect for your "tongue in cheek" representation, LOL

 The horn or lack thereof is the least of my problems right this second, Tom.

 

 

 The photo doesn't show access from the main deck to the boiler deck. There had to have been a ladder or stairs to get between the two decks. Because there was no walkway around the main deck structures, how did one access the main deck structures?

 

 I'm thinking there had to be a ladder or stairs along with a door on Billy's starboard side bow. I've been sitting here looking at the photo trying to think what that configuration looked like. I can't proceed with the hull till I have those bow details worked out.   

[tmj]

I'm going out on a limb again. Could Billy have possibly had 'two' doors for the pilot house, one forward and one aft? I see what must be a handrail, and also some curious carpentry in the aft end of the pilot house. Could that irregular open panel on the port side be a door? Maybe there was a stair coming up from 'inside', not on the outside. One entered the pilot house from the rear end and came out on the upper deck from the forward door.

 

Edited Monday at 11:42 PM by tmj

[Knocklouder]

Looks  like a stairwell in front of the pilot house, I see what looks to be a hand rail.

You'll  come up with the answer 

Bob  M.

[tmj]

This appears to be a really low 'knee-rail' as well. Very dangerous, unless it's just to keep junk from blocking the pathway into the pilot house. Who knows. I'm just stabbing in the dark! LOL

 

[tmj]

Knee-Rail

[Knocklouder]

I thought the same thing  @TJM, but as for inside  the pilot hose, that's the bar.‼️

 

Knocklouder 😁 

Edited yesterday at 12:25 AM by Knocklouder
Guessing typos lol

[tmj]

Something 'else' just caught my eye on this curious boat. What could 'this' be? The angle of its projection suggests that it's not just a 'wooden' feature nor a photographic anomaly, but rather something like a bent 'pipe' running forward out of the pilot house. Could this have anything to do with the indoor 'bar'? LOL