BK9300

The fit turned out well - always good to have a bit of luck involved! Thanks, Steve.

Thanks, Jeff. I don’t know about easy - it took a couple hours of fussing and fidgeting before brave enough to put glue to plastic! Have some more fiddly details before paint, but looking forward to that, too.

I agree, Jürgen, once you get a project underway, you make good progress right away! Will you be making a pass through in the front of your sleeper compartment?

Such amazing creations from your work bench - so many details. Even the tires look more rubber like than many I’ve seen. Wonderful results!

Had a good result today - this was the test of my plan to set hood/cab unit on the cross members, check final fitting, then glue the top of the cross members and re-set the hood/cab back down on them - all while having the hood's hinge bolts lined up in the hinges. Thankfully, it turned out well. I had to make a small adjustment to line hood and cab up, once I took the tape off, but looks good! The was the end result of setting the hood/cab back on top of the cross members, after applying glue. I can now easily set and re-set the cab on the frame and the hood will be lined up with the cab. I can now layout the few remaining cross members supporting the floor pan and cab. The hood is no longer taped to the cab and is free standing. Will still need to CA glue hinge bolts into hinge mounts, eventually. Very happy with fit of back edge of hood against cab - being supported at back edge by flange installed a ways back - no more tape on hood holding it to cab! Now I can figure out where to cut out hole for air intake plenum from air cleaner Also, need to get on with finishing the hood support mounts that come off the inner brace and line up with the other half of the supports on the firewall. Short update today, but sure relieved with how the day turned out. Take care!

Awesome scratch building, Steve - I can well imagine the difficulty of adding all that detail!

Wow - beautiful job! Your interior just pops.

Kind of an exciting moment early this afternoon - sitting at my bench when a kind of a low roar started outside and a couple seconds later the house is trembling a bit and a few seconds later, it was over. Was a 4.7 earthquake about 55 kms away - never experienced that before! My wife and I, and the two cats, a bit unnerved by that. Found a way to do the cab floor pan supports so the cab could be removed, for additional work, until the cab is finally ready to be glued in place. The pinned support at the top of the pic will locate into the top of the rear cab suspension; the parts in the lower left form the balance of the front cab/floor pan supports Rear floor pan cab support sitting in place; I will be painting the front cab supports and CA gluing them and the tubular cross member in place Once the front cab supports and cross member are glued in place, the front, rectangular tube cross member and the rear cross member will have solvent glue applied to them and the cab/hood/floor pan unit will be set in place, starting with the hinges up front, and the hood/cab/floor pan tilted back down onto these two cross members. I'm hoping to keep the rear cross member lined up properly until glue sets. Then, I should be able to lift off the cab with the front and rear cross members glued in place to the floor pan, and the cab/hood alignment all working properly as well. I will then be able to set the cab/floor pan unit back onto the truck in its final position as many times as I need to, to finish adding details to the cab and underneath it as well - that's the plan, anyway! Rectangular and tubular cross members visible - cross members not glued to floor pan yet! Tomorrow, should be able to test fit hinges/hood/cab assembly on top of cab supports and if all looks lined up, I can get the supports glued to the bottom of the floor pan. If all goes well, should be able to test if hood opens and closes ok and if so, then finish the other few crossmembers under floor pan. I remain very appreciative of all your comments - take care!

Bren, Jeff, Dan and Francis - thanks to all of you for these, well, humbling comments! Hadn't intended my earlier comment(s) to downplay the way the build is turning out - I am very pleased with the progress - just observations that stand out to me!

Thanks, Steve - reality check is always good! I’m my worst critic, but I am very pleased with the build. My comment about the real pics vs the model pics was not about being dis-satisfied, but an out loud, note to self about some things to be aware of for next truck. Thanks again, always appreciate your comments.

Good to see an update, Jeff - your prep work is really paying off, looking closely at the detail in your pics!

I appreciate that, Steve! Sometimes the little details sure take a long time, but making headway overall.

Thanks for that, Jeff - didn’t notice the bumper until looking at the pics later, and it hasn’t done any heavy pushing yet!

Thanks a lot, Scott - closer I get to being done, seems more small stuff to sweat instead of less!

Coming along nicely, Steve! Try Spot Model, for Top Studio rivets, and Model Motor Cars for scale bolts. Can’t seem to post links without getting an error

Fine looking engine you’ve shoehorned into your pickup - looks very fast just sitting still. Really like the nice finish on fenders/firewall joints - very smooth!

Got some time back at the bench after a couple days away. I soon had myself going in circles, trying to figure out a way to mount the cab/hood in place, temporarily, so that I could place, remove, and then replace them, consistently, while adding on other details prior to final assembly. I did settle on a plan for doing that, and figuring that out had me going back and forth between pics of real truck and the model. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but sure seems like there are a lot of differences between the two. Made me think about how to do things differently for my next build - I have an example of that below. What little I got done today all began with me starting on the final portion of the hood supports and then figured I couldn't do that until the cab and hood were set reliably in position. And along the way, while positioning the cab/hood, I also just had to do a few more mock up pics of the truck with sander on! An example of the differences I was talking about - the subject truck, and.. some things I noticed when looking at pics of the model with the hood open, compared to the pic of the real truck - first chance I've had to do that! model's rad is too small - front to back and top to bottom - never paid close enough attention to proportions all those months ago engine is too big, or sits too high, or a bit of both model's fan pulley bracket is too low - raising it and the fan, adjusting the fan opening in the shroud and making the tank above the fan opening bigger might have gone a ways to filling up some of the space at the front of engine compartment next build, will need to do a few more checks along the way! I have a spacer block between the back of the cab and the air bag suspension - this will eventually be replaced with a floor pan crossmember that sits on top of the cab suspension The cab cross member is now just sitting in place - needs to be pinned for temporary placement Bottom of cab is now sitting parallel to frame rails - once I have all the under cab supports in place with pin locators, hood can tilt freely, and both cab and hood can be removed/replaced for the remainder of their detailing The cab and the sander body are reasonably aligned - might need a thin shim on driver's side front of sander frame (or not?); I can also see that I made the bumper assembly a bit out of level as well. To correct that, well, it's going to need to stay that way! A final three-quarter shot before taking it back apart again I'm also working on a plan for some better pics once it's ready for 'Under Glass' (a ways off yet!). The lighting on the bench is not great but works OK to show the progress. Need to go finish the rear cab floor pan crossmember, and a few others underneath there. Lots of fiddly little items going on, and I never did get to finishing the hood support. That will have to be tomorrow - take care!

Well, if such a project ever came to be, and, to the extent you think I could help, I certainly would. I do think, though, that there are lots of builders here who have far more technical experience from their days as operators or mechanics. These plow trucks have always been a favorite of mine; I have a thumb drive full of reference pics and several pages of hand drawings with measurements, plus my 3D model, to guide the build. My next project will need just a much research to fill the many gaps in my limited, first hand knowledge!

Killer detailing on your wheels, Luke - right down to 'Forgiato'!

Great work on your rad and grille, Steve - the shutter(s) should be visible behind the mesh. 'Devil's in the details' and it's looking good!

Geez, Victor, the primer looks awesome - could be an expensive (very!) vinyl wrap job in real life!

Very detailed boom truck, Lewis - is your boom modelled after a particular real life version?

Your shifter and shift tower are incredible - very good work, Steve!

Francis, thanks for your always generous comments, and I’d certainly sign up to watch you build a truck (I’ve seen the rear ends you make for your quarter mile beauties - I’m imagining something similar in a tandem version!) Appreciate that, Steve - sometimes a little luck is needed to get things to work as hoped and I think I got a bit lucky with the hinges! It does feel really good, Steve - was definitely some ‘agony’ for a time, though, waiting for everything to set in place! And I’m definitely getting one of those mini-vacs. Carl, I’m really glad you had a look - you’re such a positive supporter of builders in every forum - thanks again for stopping by! Thanks, Gary - very glad to hear from you and looking forward to seeing you back at your bench in due course!

Some fine paint work going here! Your fuel tanks are very smooth and shiny, as evidenced by the reflection of the rad in one of them. I know what you mean about the shine looking dark in photos (I’m guessing the ‘dark’ tank is reflecting a darker part of your space, off to the side of your light source - at least that’s what I thought was going on when something similar happened in photos of my chrome tank straps).