BK9300

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!

Good solution, Jeff!

Great progress, Ron - will look amazing when all the units are all hooked together.

Really like the detail, Charles - looks very sturdy, too. I need to improve in that area of my suspensions.

Still not back at the bench for any extended periods - still other 'stuff' taking priority! This hit and miss time has made me think about some things I could do that don't take very long, but are still outstanding and will need to be done eventually. If I have a half hour, or hour, in between, I can start to knock off some of these little things. Today I took a bit of time to replace the 00-90 brass nuts/bolts on the front plow lift arms with some 1.0 mm Scale Hardware bolts and nuts. These fasteners are a little smaller than the 00-90 fittings and do look that much better for scale. Comparison of 00-90 hardware and 1.0 mm bolts - the 00-90 hardware has been replaced on the end of the lift cylinder arm and at the end of the lift arm All lift group fasteners now replaced with smaller ones - also, finally, hooked up the hydraulic lines from the lift cylinder to the bulkhead fitting Same thing with front plow support arm - smaller fasteners in place now. Will fit in other little things, till I can get some more dedicated time at the bench to carry on with interior and cab - take care!

Very cool, Anton - looks super aggressive!

Looking awesome, Dan - like the worn areas on the ramp treads from all the 'traffic'!

You’ve really been going the extra mile (or two) with the body work - impressive results!

Very small update - been doing more work outside, so not much going on at the bench. In between, did get a bit of time to CA glue the starter in place, and re-connect the cables from the starter to the battery, put the box cover back on and put the truck back in the display case till some spare time comes up!

That was good for a chuckle - thanks, Gary!

Good progress, Jeff - goes without saying, but the added detailing sure stands out! Going to be a cool truck.

Your outdoor photographs really make the blue paint pop - well done, Ron.

Well done, Steve! The ‘aluminum’ parts of the trailer stand out, very realistic.

Today was more progress with the battery/starter wiring - little thing that it is consumed most of the afternoon! So, the morning started off with a bit of a panic - the driver side front tire/wheel was sitting seriously tilted in. Turns out my handling and posing the steering for the odd pic, caused one of the brass bolts to back out of the top of the king pin. Needed to get the tire and rim off to re-tighten the bolt and then I couldn't get the rim to slide back on to the studs. Had to re-size the holes a tiny bit and now the rim slides on much easier. Will still need to fix the king pin better - both sides - to keep that from happening again. Got the battery ground cable attached to the frame, and hooked back up to battery - Bunch of stuff assembled to have a go at the basic starter wiring - Battery cables attached to Scale Hardware studs, along with the power supply to the Power Net Distribution Box. I used a 0.7mm Wave spring for the loom carrying the wiring to/from the alternator - Starter just sitting in place for now, because will need to figure out where the loom from the Electronic Control connector on the firewall will terminate, because I can't really get down to the ECM on the lower engine anymore. Guess I'm working on stuff that should have been done at the very beginning - an improvement needed for the next project! Once the starter is fixed in place (will also need a bit of touch up painting), the alternator wiring attached and the cables hooked back up to the battery, I will get back onto the interior and the cab. Thanks again for having a look in along the way!