BK9300

Good to see another project from you, Jürgen - this cab has some nicely curved surfaces that show up well in your design!

Thanks, Gary! Appreciate that, Jeff - not sure, but I think the reference pic was from a truck built in Vanderhoof.

Superb engineering, Claude - awesome concept!

You're very kind, Ron - just know that I think you have some serious skills, too - I keep going back to one thread you have, some pages back, of a Jeep, lowbed and stinger. Fabulous scratch building - can see lots of effort made to 'get it right', for sure!

Carried on today with work on the mast that supports the monitor and sand conveyor speed control. I needed to make the bracket assembly that sits on top of the mast, that the monitor and controller mount to. This is another tiny little bit that consumed lots of time, but am glad to have been able to make it work. This monitor mounting plate with adjustable bracket, and swivel mount for the top of the mast, was the goal - Started with 0.2 mm aluminum - holes drilled for monitor's electrical connections to pass through and for mounting hardware. Will need to bend the tab on the left hand side ninety degrees - there is a tab on the right of the cutout that has already been bent - The adjustable bracket and swivel mount were made out of 0.25 mm styrene - the aluminum would be more to scale, but likely wouldn't have stood up to my needing to move the monitor wiring around into its final position - Top of the mast drilled to accept the pin on the swivel - all this will be glued into place, but the 1/16" styrene pin into the mast, offers some additional strength to the bracket assembly. The fasteners will be CA glued, once I have set the final angle for the monitor, and then the bracket assembly will be painted satin black - had thought about leaving the bracket aluminum, for some contrast, but haven't decided yet - Passenger side view of the bracket assembly (also added some valve control 'labels' to control tower, using some thin strips of Tamiya Yellow sticky film) - Driver side view - Monitor temporarily mocked up in place - will set driver's seat on floor pan to make final adjustment for monitor angle - When I get the bracket assembly painted, I should be able to attach the wiring to the monitor and controller and permanently attach them to the bracket. I can then add another Wave, spring 'loom' to the mast, feed the wiring into it, glue the mast and control tower to the floor pan, and have the loom terminate in one of the tubes in the floor pan under the control tower. Another day that was not good for the blood pressure - take care!

It certainly is a tough looking truck, for sure. Nice progress, Ron.

You're ambitious! And the tudor is looking pretty special, too.

Wicked looking truck, Warren - well done!

Wonderful progress - the engine is such a major part of your builds - looking forward to more.

Hinging the hood turned out well, Scott. Paint job is really going to pop on this one!

Thanks for the generous comment, Jeff - truth be told, not much gets glued, or painted without the arms and wrists braced firmly on the bench, so nothing but the tips of the fingers can move (maybe stop breathing, too!) or else there'd be quite a mess!

Looks good, Seth - did you add the cord to your CB or did it come with it?

Nice to see an update on this - looking good, Mike. The fender change suits the truck!

Thought I was done for the day a couple hours ago, but decided to press on a bit further. Got the two sets of air valve control handles and another switch attached to the control tower - good way to end a weekend of hit and miss time at the bench! Recalling from the truck pics, the yellow valves controlled the dump boxes - The other set of air valves were also resin printed, but were too fragile and fell apart during handling. A pair of straight pins were subbed in! I think these two valves controlled the dump box tail gate and the other was for the sander diverter Going to try to add a few decal strips that would represent labels for the valves - we'll see how that goes in a couple days - take care!

Thanks, Jeff (was good to see the update on your Payhauler!) Appreciate the comments, Francis. No living to be made here! Even at a modest hourly rate, though, I think the 'cost' of this model is approaching that of a used 2010 plow truck.

Been raining a good bit here, so spent the afternoon and this morning doing more with the interior bits. Some detail paint and some more small items fabricated. Started in on the plow control handles - chucked a piece of 1/16" rod into the drill and shaped the handle knobs a bit, and drilled them for 0.5mm brass pins - Knob shafts bent to fit beside each other and ready for painting Also got some detail painting done on the control monitor and the sander conveyor speed control - Levers set in the 'rubber' boots - Thanks to @Randy D for directing me to these little gems for the top of the control tower! Levers CA glued into place on control tower Two toggle switches added to tower - the pictures I have of the real truck shows these switches to be for a pup trailer cover and pup trailer gate lock. Working on detail painting the two different sets of air valve control handles that mount on the tower as well. These are small updates, but like I said awhile back, they are all big steps towards me finishing this project. Take care!

Thanks, Gary - that was a tough one to get off the list!

Decals look awesome, Jeff - great added touch for the engine!

Great scratch building, Graham - what do you plan to use for decking?

Much appreciated, Dan - thanks! Thanks, Steve - progress will be slow for a little bit yet, but back soon, I hope!

Looks impressive, Ron - theres a whole lot of tires in that setup.

Very steady, if you painted the white walls freehand! Looking good.

Great paint effects, Jim - excellent ‘how to’ portion of your WIP - good techniques to learn.

A bit of time spent at the bench, off and on, in the last couple days - worked on some of the outstanding things for the dash. Have been wary of clear coating the dash, to set the gauge decals better, so I bought a crafter's UV, resin curing light and some clear resin. I still had a couple spare dash panels that @Bren had printed up for me and I was able to do a few test gauges - turned out very well, so on to the full dash. Gauge 'lenses' are clear, hard and seem to my eyes to have made the decals a bit clearer (maybe wishful thinking!) I sourced some keys from Detail Master's 'Cab Junk', and set about to craft an ignition for the dash. Used some 0.2mm aluminum for the plate and some more rivets. The 0.2mm nickel rod is going to be used for a key ring Some tense moments with drilling and CA glue, but turned out well - no cigarette lighter for this truck, though! Will be hard to see inside cab, but the pics show the keys! Painted the air valve knobs, and a couple warning lights. Finally glued the shifter to the dash, added the printed Western Star logo and some panel line accent to fuse panels and glove box - more I tried to tidy up the panel lines, worse I made it! Again, going to look ok, from the outside looking in Good to have some time here and there, to get some of these little items out of the way - they've been nagging at me for awhile now. Finishing the interior and getting the cab painted are still the next big things I need to work on. Take care!

Thanks, Francis - I'm definitely happier with the smaller fasteners, and yes, there seems to be endless chores to do when the sun is shining!