BK9300

Really enjoying your current, tribute build, Steve. Also think your ‘41 is pretty special, too! Do you have a build thread for it you could link us to? New pics of it in your parking lot would be stunning.

Work today took awhile, for the result achieved but I'm glad for the progress. Carried on with the styrene control tower and then the mast for the monitors. Cut out the inner portion of the flange material I had added yesterday afternoon, and drilled some bolt holes Fabricated the monitor support mast and its base and drilled more bolt holes Next couple pics are the monitors mocked up in place, along with the plow control lever boots and a couple valves. Looking at the two mock up pics, I think the mast is too tall - the tops of the monitors should be just below the top of the dash Will put in some ribbed, 'rubber' flooring tomorrow, shorten the mast a bit and maybe do some work on the bracket that attaches the monitors to the mast. Good enough for today!

Apologies if I keep repeating myself, but everything always comes together better once primer/paint is on the frame - like your progress, Jürgen!

Gary, I’ve had some side conversations with Jeff about this along the way. Don’t know at this point if the goal for the next build will be to out do this one, but sure will be looking for something interesting to tackle! I don’t have a familiarity with trucks and trucking in general, like many builders here - I was the ‘numbers’ guy in our company. So, for the near future, likely going to stick with equipment I am more familiar with and that would, or could, fit in YRB’s highway and bridge maintenance fleet. In my time with the company, YRB didn’t build many new bridges, and many of those were smaller, forestry road structures. But, a crane truck was often needed to place girders or work on a Howe truss structure, so maybe something like that. Have often thought about something with a twin steer and extra axles, to carry a bigger crane and still be ok with load restrictions here in BC! Lots of other ideas, too. Appreciate the question, Gary (and Jeff) - good to get the ideas in clearer focus - thanks!

I did some work on the dash today, some of it a couple times - can't seem to avoid those do-overs! I found I needed to make a new control tower base out of styrene - the resin ones seem to be spreading apart a bit at the open edge on the back side for some reason. Sometime ago, I found a picture of an Allison automatic, dash mounted shift gate and handle. The shift gate is what I modeled into my right hand dash panel Using some 1.5 mm strip, and a section of a pin, I made a handle for the dash mounted shift gate Another view of the shift handle, but what stood out for me was how hard it was going to be to paint the ashtray and what's supposed to be the A/C and heater controls. I decided it would make masking off the dash panels easier, as well, if I removed the molded in ashtray and heater control and made separate ones I could paint and attach later I still have to do a bit of shaping on the ashtray and heater controls - they're a bit tall A new control tower underway - even though I had modified the design of the tower to have thicker walls for printing, the open back side is spreading on most of the towers I have. Must still be some stress and the easiest point to give is for it to widen? All the other parts of the control tower have been printed separately so, should be ok. Calling it a day - thanks, and take care!

Thanks, Steve - I like the look of the plug boots, too - should turn out good if I can keep the CA glue from showing! Not my favorite type of scratch building, but I am happy how it's turning out so far - thanks, Scott! Well, thanks very much, Germán - I'm glad you had a look! I've been a fan of many of your builds since last year - lots of detail in those engines of yours.

Beautiful real truck and well done with your build - it must be very impressive in person!

Welcome to the forum, Corey - I think someone is going to be asked to do a tutorial on flames!

Got a little bit more done on the dash yesterday, but now need to make a trip to hobby shop for some paint before I do more on it. Carried on with some work on the back of the cab. I needed to make the mounting plate for the pass through air lines that supply the valves on the main hydraulic manifold. Added the short styrene filler strip under the center dash panel and the button for the glove box; also added some brass rod, rolled with the edge of an X-acto knife, to simulate the hinges to open the dash panels; a bit more detail to add then will start painting Made the mounting plate for air lines to the valve manifold; then got a bit side tracked, stopping to figure out how this might look when finished This another pic of real plate and air lines - at the very bottom of the pic, you can see a couple of the air lines at the valve manifold as well I had planned to use some brass tube to simulate fittings, some silicone, R&B Motion spark plug boots and some plug wire for the air lines Put together a sample air line to mock it up on truck Pretty good idea what this will look like when finished - the air line at the valve manifold will also have a boot on it when I put this all together Have the heater on in the shed and will do a couple coats of colour on the test hood later this afternoon - not seeing any bleed through from the blue styrene to the white primer, so far! Might seem like I'm bouncing all over, but it is making some sense to me and progress still happening - take care!

Thanks, Steve - sure lots of time spent looking through the magnifying desk lamp!

You’ve really brought your paint job to life, Daniel - all that prep and polishing sure paid off!

Ritchie Bros Auctioneers sold one in Edmonton in 2023 that had a 420 in wheelbase - I’d say you’re spot on.

Very happy, and relieved, to see an update from you, Gary! Your truck looks amazing with the cab and hood now painted. Don't over do it, but again, glad to see - take care!

Beautiful scratch building - another very detailed build.

You’re making significant changes to the way you design and print out your parts. It shows up in the improving quality of the finished parts. Well done, Jürgen!

Great progress, David - the blue is a striking colour. Your improved chrome parts should really stand out next to that colour!

Started in on the dashboard late yesterday afternoon - cutting out the flat surface where instrument decals where meant to go. I did manage to carefully scrape away at the line around the panel area and get it out as one piece. Lots of fussing later, this morning and afternoon, and I had the 3D printed panels back in the dash. At this point, the panels had been temporarily spot glued onto dashboard insert that I had cut out yesterday - the dash board insert is held in place with tape from behind I used the back of an X-acto blade to scrape around the dash board insert, and after cleaning up the opening and the edges of the insert, I needed to add a 0.5mm styrene strip around the perimeter of the insert to fill the gap I had originally thought I was going to need extra strips behind the dashboard to support the insert, but the styrene strip and some fine shaving of the opening to make the insert fit properly, meant it was a tight enough fit that solvent glue was all that was needed to secure the insert in place. My main reason for going for 3D printed dash panels was because I needed a shift gate and shifter in the right hand panel for the Allison automatic transmission. Once I had designed that panel, it only seemed right to carry on and do something for the other two panels. Still some cleanup (always!) and a small strip to add underneath the center dash panel, to the left of the steering column opening. Regardless, I'm very happy with how this turned and now I can make that shifter! Going to carry on with mocking up the steering, mounting the dash board onto the interior tub, test fitting in cab, then onto the floor, do a bit of painting and maybe get to the control tower early next week. Have a great weekend!

Very clear to follow your process - excellent results!

Very detailed build - well done! Really like the freight pallet in the back - taking parts to the field for an on-site repair job.

Test painting of spare hood still looking ok - I'll put the colour coats on tomorrow. Spent last couple days mostly thinking about how to tie the remaining build items all together and in what order to do them. Most everything, it seems, requires something else to be done first, so started making a list - I'm a couple pages into it and more items keep popping up! I did start laying out some of the 3D printed parts, in an effort to refocus, and I've settled on doing the interior next. For the plow lights, this bracket is what needs to be fashioned - First though, I laid out the plow lights, to consider how best to replicate mount, and to check fit of lenses and decide how best to make the bracket thin enough for scale, and strong enough to support the lights; will paint inside of housings chrome or chrome silver Exterior of light housings will be painted Tamiya Rubber Black and the turn signal lenses with clear orange; I'm hoping the clear resin lenses of the main lights will show better once inside of housings are painted bright But the interior is what I want to concentrate on next - I'm going to remove the flat instrument panel sections of the kit dash board as one piece. Then, hopefully the resin printed panels can be glued to that section and the combined instrument panel fitted back into the dash with some additional bracing in behind the dash, if needed. Then comes the control tower - I had previously received the main body of the tower as a single unit, but I found it too difficult to properly detail paint the component pieces. I was fortunate to get @Bren to reprint some of the various valve controls as separate pieces, to paint them easier. Will also need to make some very small control levers/handles to mount on top of the 'rubber' boots for various plow controls. The drawing is the template for the 2mm x 2mm mast to mount the two monitors on. I had thought early on that I would open the driver's door, but not going to go through with that. Even though all the interior detail won't be visible, I still think I can, with the right lighting, see inside well enough and also get a few decent pics once the interior is finished. As far as getting the finished interior back into the cab, I may need to revert to Italeri's instruction sheet and do it through the back of the cab. Not my preferred way, as I hope to paint the entire cab before putting the glass and interior back in, but I'll make sure I can do that before gluing the day cab panel to the back of the cab! Like I said some time ago, I tend to bog down a bit when my way forward isn't totally clear. Past couple days there has been a lot of model building going on, but all in my head! Anyway, the list will help. Some more test panel painting tomorrow and a start on the interior. Take care!

Great prep work for your weathering - looks like it's a bit sun faded even now!

The body work on your tanker sure looks smooth under your paint - great job!

Really beautiful looking car - well done, and superb engine detailing, too.

Nice job, Scott - always like your engine compartment details - and nice little added touch with the open sun roof!

I know very little about real trucks like this, but I sure can appreciate the care that went into your build of it - very nice, indeed!