Western Star 4900 FA plow truck

[Biggu]

That underbody lift ram …..🥰🥰🥰🥰 yowza !

[BK9300]

Jeff, that ram won't be seen by many, but I'll know it's there!

Edited December 14, 2024 by BK9300

[Biggu]

1 hour ago, BK9300 said:

Jeff, that ram won't be seen by many, but I'll know it's there!

So will I and so will Ken. He is speechless…. 

[RoninUtah]

Man! That level of detail is absolutely insane! Wish I had that kind of patience (and knowledge)!

[BK9300]

11 hours ago, RoninUtah said:

Man! That level of detail is absolutely insane! Wish I had that kind of patience (and knowledge)!

Thanks, Ron, I appreciate your comment!

[BK9300]

Managed to work on a couple different areas of the truck today, catching up on some loose ends and continuing on with a bit of new stuff.  Finally got the warning lights fitted into the wing plow and ran the wiring to it.  Finished painting the hydraulic pump and its fittings yesterday and got them put together today.  Also managed to attach the pump in place on the plow lift group crossbar - good day today!

 

Mock up of the wing plow, and its hinge attachment, with the 'plastic' light housings in place (and the added lifting hook!)

 

Wiring run to light housing - brass pin needs to be painted yet - the hydraulic lift arm attaches to this pin

 

Pic of the rear flashers

 

 

This is a pic of a real truck's 'Vickers' vane pump (not the truck I ended up modelling) and part of the lift group

 

Replica I made in Sketchup and printed by Bren

 

Fittings in place (weird how the light changes from one pic to next - didn't think I did anything different!)

 

Pump mounted in place on the plow lift group

 

Hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend!

 

 

Edited December 15, 2024 by BK9300

[Pete68]

More impressive updates enjoying this build as well as the other high end talented modelers on here. 

[BK9300]

1 hour ago, Pete68 said:

More impressive updates enjoying this build as well as the other high end talented modelers on here. 

Thanks again, Lee - a bit slow going this month.  Hard to get more than a couple hours in a row at the bench, but still carrying on!

[Scott Eriksen]

The pump looks great all painted up Brian! I have seen that same style Vickers pump used as a power steering pump on a lot of trucks,,,at least back when I was working on them

[Scott Eriksen]

On 12/13/2024 at 5:16 PM, BK9300 said:

Big one off my list - sending unit and vent line are in - fuel tank is finished, finally!  Few quick pics and out to the paint shed momentarily, to brighten up that hydraulic pump!

 

That 'blue' vent line is actually clear tubing- maybe the fluorescent light from the desk lamp doing that.

 

'Split wire' loom from sending unit heading down into frame rail

 

Split wire loom routed into frame rail (not going to pretend - the loom just ends 'out of sight') and vent line terminates by underbody plow lift cylinder.  Put a wear protector sleeve on fuel lines - thanks for the reminder, Jeff!.  Driveshaft paint took a bit of 'damage' during loom routing (the mechanic did his best to avoid any damage!) - will probably leave the aluminum tubing peeking through, as is. . .

 

Painted the two hydraulic fittings at the trans cooler but I've decided to leave hooking up the cooler lines until I get the front plow lift group mounted - don't want to make a mistake on not having the hoses clear the lift group.  Off to the shed - thanks for having a look!

 

 

Nice chafe guard on the fuel lines !  Really really nice Brian ! above and beyond!!

[gotnitro?]

Excellent work on the plow! I was surprised to see lights on the wing, our DOT would wipe those out on the first street of mailboxes...

Very nice little pump too

[Rockford]

The detail is off the scale. Unbelievable. 

[BK9300]

7 hours ago, Scott Eriksen said:

Nice chafe guard on the fuel lines !  Really really nice Brian ! above and beyond!!

Thanks, Scott!  Am very pleased with the parts that Bren printed and the pump looks its part there on the lift group.  Jeff made a good point about the hoses for the front lift needing some wear protection, which I will do, so also needed to go back and finish that for the fuel lines!

[BK9300]

2 hours ago, gotnitro? said:

Excellent work on the plow! I was surprised to see lights on the wing, our DOT would wipe those out on the first street of mailboxes...

Very nice little pump too

I appreciate the comments, Jeff and I heard a few stories other way around, about some mailboxes taking a beating from our plows, mostly in rural areas, and the angry calls to let us know about it!  All our trucks had some version of warning/flashing lights on the wing plows - this is a pic of the real truck I’m modeling

 

Edited December 17, 2024 by BK9300

[BK9300]

22 minutes ago, Rockford said:

The detail is off the scale. Unbelievable. 

Thanks for the kind words, Steve!  

[Biggu]

9 hours ago, gotnitro? said:

Excellent work on the plow! I was surprised to see lights on the wing, our DOT would wipe those out on the first street of mailboxes...

Very nice little pump too

Not to highjack Brian’s thread , but surprisingly those lights were quite resilient , and they were well needed, as when cutting a center pass on a 3 lane with dry snow the wing became invisible and people would actually try and pass on the right , we had several wings hit like that. I never understood why people would pass a working snow plow on the right.  ……. Now back to Brian’s spectacular build…..

[BK9300]

Another good step taken today - got the front plow lift group attached to the frame, along with the two support braces that bolt to the frame.  End result looks good, but created a bit of a mess that needs to be addressed.  That will have to wait till tomorrow now, while everything sets up.   Hopefully, tomorrow sees all but two of the loose hydraulic hose ends attached to their fittings!

 

Front mud flaps attached - wouldn't have been able to do this as easily if I had waited until lift group attached to frame;  two frame braces ready to be installed as well

 

 

So, this was a bit of back and forth - had to scrape some paint away from the part of the lift group that slides into frame, but over did it and now some touch up painting needed.  I prefer styrene glue instead of CA glue when attaching styrene to styrene and just over cooked the paint scraping.  Same thing when locating the frame braces for the lift group - while scraping away paint from the frame, managed to damage the paint on the springs (both sides!), so more touch ups needed.  Still, very happy to have these pieces set in place!

 

Better shot of excessive paint scraping damage; two bigger bolt heads need to be added to each frame brace

 

Can see where frame brace attaches to bottom of lift group (and paint damage to the front spring - more touch ups!)

One of the reference pics I used in the fabrication of these pieces

 

Remaining work for frame braces, apart from bolt heads, involves making top and bottom shock mounts, making shocks, re-drilling frame brace plates for pass through air lines to front brake pots and re-doing the air lines.  Apart from finishing the hydraulic line connections, I can now also carry on with finalizing the plumbing for the air conditioning condenser to the receiver/dryer mounted on side of rad.  And maybe, might be able to get this truck up on its wheels and tires this week - that would be a milestone, for sure!

Edited December 18, 2024 by BK9300

[Gary Chastain]

Outstanding building my friend 

[BK9300]

2 hours ago, Gary Chastain said:

Outstanding building my friend 

Thanks very much, Gary - was a bit bummed out about the paint scraping screw up.  Maybe an opportunity for a bit of rusting.  As new as most of the real truck was, lots of bolt heads for the attachments were already rusting, as well as some of the weld beads.  Maybe paint it a different colour yellow for the ‘spray paint' mechanics used to cover up other repairs!

Edited December 18, 2024 by BK9300

[Pete68]

On 12/17/2024 at 10:06 AM, Biggu said:

why people would pass a working snow plow on the right

Why they would pass one in the first place when the Highway is covered and he’s making a clear pass. I learned that lesson the hard way and never done it again. 

[Pete68]

On 12/17/2024 at 5:44 PM, BK9300 said:

Better shot

That Condenser in front of the Radiator is so off the charts and convincing. Wow 🤩 

Edited December 19, 2024 by Pete68

[Jürgen M.]

Very impressive! Don't know what else to say! 

[gotnitro?]

Outstanding work 

Yeah don't sweat the paint scratches, the mechanic will touch them up !

[BK9300]

6 hours ago, Pete68 said:

That Condenser in front of the Radiator is so off the charts and convincing. Wow 🤩 

Thanks very much, Lee - took a couple goes to get it looking right!

[BK9300]

4 hours ago, Jürgen M. said:

Very impressive! Don't know what else to say! 

Thanks, Jürgen!