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

[Knocklouder]

Keith you Nailed it my friend,  I was going to going to put a  like on @clearway last post , but being a Neanderthal I like shinny things,  to me it looks like braided cable in the sun 🌞.  Don't know if they had braided back in Billy's day or not. But yes that looks good and shinny   

Knocklouder 😁 

Edited Thursday at 07:18 PM by Knocklouder

[Keith Black]

1 hour ago, clearway said:

does look better keith - maybe a wash of gun metal? Regards pilot Keith, he did drop a comment on my Erebus log a long time back but that has been it.

 Thank you,Keith. I missed pilot Keith's message, I need to go back though your Erebus log. I'd love to do a gun metal wash..........what material/paint would I use? Birchwood Casey would just make look black, I think? I've got some wrought iron craft paint I think I'll whip up a thin wash and test it on some scrape thread. 

 

1 hour ago, Knocklouder said:

Keith you Nailed it my friend,  I was going to going to put a  like on @clearway last post , but being a Neanderthal I like shinny things,  to me it looks like braided cable in the sun 🌞.  Don't know if they had braided back in Billy's day or not. But yes that looks good and shinny 

 Thank you. Bob. I really like the way the metallic thread resembles stranded cable, I think it looks more so than braided but I can see where it could resemble braided cable as well. Ahh, another use, thanks, Bob.

[John Ruy]

19 hours ago, Keith Black said:

Stays 2.0 are done. You the viewer may not be able to tell the difference but I sure can. I am much more pleased with 2.0 than 1.0. 

This viewer can certainly see the difference. Excellent work Kieth!
 

IMHO

Cheers 🍻

[Keith Black]

2 hours ago, John Ruy said:

This viewer can certainly see the difference. Excellent work Kieth!

 Thank you very much, John. I wish you were here to help me with these wheels. 

[clearway]

13 hours ago, Keith Black said:

Thank you,Keith. I missed pilot Keith's message, I need to go back though your Erebus log. I'd love to do a gun metal wash..........what material/paint would I use? Birchwood Casey would just make look black, I think? I've got some wrought iron craft paint I think I'll whip up a thin wash and test it on some scrape thread. 

i was thinking along lines of enamel paint gun metal colour - Humbrol 53 being one example which is a greyish colour which can be made to look like galvanised wire if mixed with a little dark grey.

[John Ruy]

22 hours ago, Keith Black said:

. By the by, I've started on the wheels. 

Great 👍 Can’t wait… No pressure 😆 

[Canute]

Tamiya and AK interactive make gun metal paints. I think they are acrylics. And if you can find it, Testors makes an enamel gun metal. So you have options for the Billy. 

[Keith Black]

2 hours ago, John Ruy said:

Great 👍 Can’t wait… No pressure 😆

 Thanks, John. I've got a couple of frames completed testing my procedure. It has gone well and I'm confident we'll see Billy with paddlewheels in the not too distant future. My process is no different than yours or anyone else, just smaller scale. 

 

8 minutes ago, Canute said:

Tamiya and AK interactive make gun metal paints. I think they are acrylics. And if you can find it, Testors makes an enamel gun metal. So you have options for the Billy.

 Thank you, Ken. 

[Keith Black]

 Thank you to everyone for the likes and the comments.

 

 The original Billy's wheels were twelve spoked, because of the small amount of gluing area I can only make eight spoke wheels. Using eight spoke wheels on waterline models is easier to fit than twelve spokes so the eight spoke wheels work out well.

 

 The hubs are 0.26" in diameter and are cut from 1/64 inch birch ply with a hole punch. As close to the hubs center as possible a hole is drilled. My working templet is drawn on my worktable with the same size hole drilled at the center point. All corresponding work is done in relationship the worktable hole so if the hub hole is a little off center it won't matter other than looks. To the right of the main vertical line is the cutoff line for the spoke lengths. From the worktable hole center tom the cutoff line is 0.35" for a 0.70" total spoke length.

 

 The first step is to place a 24 GA piece of wire through the hub into the worktable center hole and then the  hub is glued (CA) on one edge to the worktable.

 

 All the 0.037" basswood spokes are glued to the hub.

 

 The hub and spoke assembly is freed from the worktable and both sides sanded to remove excess CA. The worktable center is scraped clean with an X-Acto chisel blade. The next step is to pin the hub and spoke assembly the the worktable center hole where it rotates freely and the each spoke is rotated into position at the cutoff line and trimmed to length with an X-Acto chisel blade. 

 

 All spokes cut to length. 

 

 This completes this part of the process which is pretty easy peasy. Making and attaching the buckets will be the hard part.  I think I'll have to make the buckets from the 1/64 inch ply because a hole has to be drilled at each end to make the outside edge brace. The most desirable would be to use 0.10" x 0.037" basswood for the buckets but holes drilled close the edge of basswood have a tendency to breakout even when CA is applied to the edge before drilling. Even though thinner the ply allows holes to be drilled close to the edge without breakout. 

 

 A little peak at what Billy is gonna look like with wheels with just one hub and spoke assembly in place, very exciting to get to this point. 

 

 

 And a look at the dummy stack stays after applying  "my" gunmetal acrylic craft paint mixture of silver and wrought iron. I don't know if one can tell if it looks like gunmetal but It doesn't look like Christmas tree lights anymore. 

 

 Every now and then a sparkle of the silver metallic thread can be seen which looks like when the sun glints off metal. 

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

 

   Keith

[Knocklouder]

Fantastic  Keith, I don't know about you but I am glad I am moving up a few scales on my next build. 😀  Incredible work , 👏 

Knocklouder 😁 

[vvvjames]

Great work Keith! I've been looking forward to seeing the wheels.

[John Ruy]

2 hours ago, Keith Black said:

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

Thank you Keith for inspiring me to continue working in small scale. 🙏

[Jim Lad]

Aha! Some wheel construction. That's looking really good, Keith - as are you stays after the re-paint.

 

Eagerly looking forward to more of your miniature magic.

 

John

[Keith Black]

19 hours ago, Knocklouder said:

Fantastic  Keith, I don't know about you but I am glad I am moving up a few scales on my next build. 😀  Incredible work

 Thank you, Bob. I don't want to build at a larger scale, I want to work on a larger model, i.e., the Tennessee and let my fingers breath. 

 

19 hours ago, vvvjames said:

Great work Keith! I've been looking forward to seeing the wheels.

 Thank you, James

 

16 hours ago, John Ruy said:

Thank you Keith for inspiring me to continue working in small scale.

  Thank you, John. What scale are you considering moving to? 

 

13 hours ago, Jim Lad said:

Aha! Some wheel construction. That's looking really good, Keith - as are you stays after the re-paint.

 

Eagerly looking forward to more of your miniature magic.

 Thank you kindly, John.