Western Star 4900 FA plow truck

[Biggu]

Beautiful !!

[cifenet]

Brian,

You don’t need those PE parts, I know you could have scratch built better ones yourself for sure.  😉  See how people start demanding more??  Haha.

Nonetheless, just awesome details you are putting into this plow.  
 

Somehow I am hoping you keep track of how many hours you spent building this vehicle.  It would be an interesting information when you finish the build; it should give us some idea on the effort and time required to produce this type of quality work~

 

[AmericanMuscleFan]

I see the big rigs world has many nice detail kits to offer for most situations, the latches are fantastic.  Plus, when you have your fabricator talent, there is no limit to the wonder!  Two thumbs up!!! 👍👍

[BK9300]

On 4/30/2025 at 10:54 PM, cifenet said:

Somehow I am hoping you keep track of how many hours you spent building this vehicle.  It would be an interesting information when you finish the build; it should give us some idea on the effort and time required to produce this type of quality work~

 

Many thanks for that, Steve.  I have been keeping track of the hours - kind of scary!  To date, I've recorded 980 hours of bench time.  I don't have any idea what amount of time it took me to make the initial, 3D model of the truck, or of the time spent doing research online.  Appreciate the interest!

 

 

2 hours ago, AmericanMuscleFan said:

I see the big rigs world has many nice detail kits to offer for most situations, the latches are fantastic.  Plus, when you have your fabricator talent, there is no limit to the wonder!  Two thumbs up!!! 👍👍

Thanks, Francis!  There are a lot of aftermarket goodies out there, to be sure.  My problem is, I keep finding more to add!

[Scott Eriksen]

On 4/30/2025 at 8:12 PM, BK9300 said:

Successful effort for the battery box latches - tool box latches will have to wait a couple days now!

 

Photoetch hardware attached to battery box and cover - the smaller rivets worked, and look, much better -

The latches aren't needed to hold cover down, but still put a bit of tension in the silicon rubber latch -

 

 

Should be able to mount the boxes on the frame this weekend - another big step, for me!  Take care.

 

 

Beautiful job Brian! 

[BK9300]

21 hours ago, Scott Eriksen said:

Beautiful job Brian! 

Hey, thanks Scott!  Still a bunch of tricky stuff to be done yet but getting there.

[BK9300]

Got the battery and tool boxes glued to the frame today.  Like I said earlier, this is a big step completed for me, because the boxes took more time than I had expected and because they needed to be in place to be able to get on with some wiring to the starter.  More pictures of those darn boxes, but things are still moving forward.

 

Bit of touch up paint to do where paint was scraped from frame to glue brackets to frame -

 

Test fitted cab with floor in place, to align the box(es) as the solvent glue set up -

 

I decided to leave the ground cable connection to the frame till later - there should be room enough to bolt one end to the frame and then re-attach it to the battery.  The other wires that run to the starter and ECM have also been left off, because I need to finish the other cable ends, once the correct length for each wire is determined.  Working space on the firewall/engine area is going to get real confined very soon!

 

Quick shot of the chassis - will leave the tape in place until glue sets up thoroughly.

 

Will get to the starter wiring early next week and then probably back onto the cab.  Need the cab to be painted, interior finished and cab mounted on frame before I can get back at the firewall wiring.  Still haven't thought how to best set the truck on it's side - or roof - to better route the wire looms under the cab and part way along frame.  Always more to figure out, it seems.  More, next week!

 

Edit - glue has set up enough to add the box covers for another mockup -

Edited May 4 by BK9300
Typo

[AmericanMuscleFan]

This is awesome Brian, who said a snowplow can't be sexy and manly at the same time? 😊 

I don't know if you use some kind of filter on your camera, but AGAIN, it's confusing with a real one... but in fact, yours looks even better! 😁

[BK9300]

On 5/4/2025 at 7:12 AM, AmericanMuscleFan said:

This is awesome Brian, who said a snowplow can't be sexy and manly at the same time? 😊 

I don't know if you use some kind of filter on your camera, but AGAIN, it's confusing with a real one... but in fact, yours looks even better! 😁

Thanks, Francis!  I'll need to figure out a better way to photograph it at completion - not very consistent with image quality!

 

Edited May 6 by BK9300

[BK9300]

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!

 

[Gary Chastain]

That’s a picture of a real truck, ain’t it.    😉😉

[BK9300]

3 hours ago, Gary Chastain said:

That’s a picture of a real truck, ain’t it.    😉😉

That was good for a chuckle - thanks, Gary! 

[BK9300]

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!

 

 

 

 

Edited May 10 by BK9300
Typo

[BK9300]

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!

 

[AmericanMuscleFan]

It's hard to believe you can improve on something that's already so well done Brian, but I admit the smaller bolts are an improvement indeed.

I guess there are several of us in the same boat, summer is not the best season for modeling, life's priorities take over! 😢

[BK9300]

20 hours ago, AmericanMuscleFan said:

It's hard to believe you can improve on something that's already so well done Brian, but I admit the smaller bolts are an improvement indeed.

I guess there are several of us in the same boat, summer is not the best season for modeling, life's priorities take over! 😢

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!

[BK9300]

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!

[Mopar - D]

Great progress Brian as usual.. 

[cifenet]

Brian,

Great process and I can already see the truck taking its shape to be massively beautiful at the end.  Good work~