Western Star 4900 FA plow truck

[ShakyCraftsman]

51 minutes ago, BK9300 said:

Going to be off till later this week - have an opportunity to take some pics of a couple potential, 'next' projects.  Definitely back at soon!

Oh Boy!

 Can't wait to see what you dream up next.🍿🍺 save me a front row seat, got my pop corn & beer.

Ron G 

[BK9300]

8 minutes ago, ShakyCraftsman said:

Oh Boy!

 Can't wait to see what you dream up next.🍿🍺 save me a front row seat, got my pop corn & beer.

Ron G 

Too funny!  I'll definitely let everyone know what's coming next - I just need to be certain of which one!

[BK9300]

Back at it for a bit this afternoon, after a few days off taking pics for a coming project.  Still forming some ideas, so going to wait a bit to say what it is, but definitely another truck for my mini YRB highway maintenance fleet!

Started filling in all the holes in the cab for mounting things like the kit exhaust and mirrors.  The exhaust muffler and support I made some time ago, don't mount on the cab, and I am going to try to fabricate a pair of mirror brackets based on the real truck.  Also got started on some items to finish off the inside of the cab - the headliner and the door cards.  I'm going with the ones from the Constellation, but modifying them, to dress them down a bit.

Plugging all the cab's holes for exhaust, mirrors and handrails - hoping to make handrails and mirror brackets from Albion tubing (I can also see from this pic, that I missed the holes for the upper handrail mounts) -

 

The Constellation cab was a bit more 'deluxe' than the one in the plow truck.  The diamond tuft has to be dealt with -

 

Using a razor saw and X-acto knife, the diamond tuft was carefully cut away from the door cards and used as patterns for 1mm replacements.  I made a paper pattern to cut out a 0.2mm piece of styrene, to lay over top of the diamond tuft in the headliner -

 

Now, a few well placed rivets and all should look good under a coat of paint - looks much more like the plain, vinyl roof of the real truck.  The door cards aren't 100%, but look much better without the diamond tuft - I broke the tip of the styrene insert for the door on the right hand side of pic - will tidy up the repair tomorrow, before painting.

 

Going to work on cleaning up the plugged holes on the cab tomorrow morning and start transferring the holes in my temporary firewall, to the actual firewall, for the fuse box, electronic modules and some wiring harness clamps - needs to be done before I can prime and paint cab.  Also should be able to get some primer on the headliner and door cards.  Might to get to adding arm rests, door pulls, etc., as well.  Take care!

 

Edited June 10 by BK9300

[BK9300]

Follow up to yesterday's work - got the headliner and door cards painted today.  After a few hours, set about to finish the door card detailing - little things that they are took a good part of the afternoon.

Carrying on from yesterday, I carefully cut out the window cranks from the Alaskan Hauler door cards, salvaged the speaker fronts from the tufted area of the Constellation cards, and painted them and along with the door pulls a satin black.  After adding some rivets to the door panels, I'm quite happy with how they turned out - 

 

Always wanting to see a 'bigger' picture, I mocked up the passenger door card, close to its final location -

 

On the cab, I trimmed off all the hole plugs and sanded them down a bit.  I'll finish drilling the remainder of the holes in the firewall tomorrow, and then I need to primer the cab to see all the areas that will need tidying up before paint.  Take care.

 

[AmericanMuscleFan]

It's pretty rare that someone would remove details from parts in a kit, but I understand your goal to get the most realistic representation of the real truck, this matches everything you've made so far, it all makes sense and it gives us a good show! 😊

[BK9300]

18 hours ago, AmericanMuscleFan said:

It's pretty rare that someone would remove details from parts in a kit, but I understand your goal to get the most realistic representation of the real truck, this matches everything you've made so far, it all makes sense and it gives us a good show! 😊

Thanks, Francis!  The interior doors are a bit of practise - not very visible, but still a challenge to see if they could be improved.

[BK9300]

Was doing some last minute prep on the cab, before priming and saw I hadn't yet cut the hole in the driver side firewall apron, for the air intake tube from the air cleaner.  Had to temporarily put interior back in cab, so I could set the cab and hood in place and mark the center for this hole finally.  Before I put everything but the cab back in the cabinet, I set in the door cards and took a few pics - getting excited imagining it put together once and for all!

 

 

door card sitting little lower than their final position -

 

 

Going to give the cab a scrub down, dry it off, and give it a coat of primer later this afternoon.  Hope everyone has a good weekend - take care!

 

[cifenet]

The truck is looking mighty good right now and all the details you have constructed are nicely showing off.  Kudos!

[Chariots of Fire]

That's got to be one of the most detailed models I have ever seen.  And superbly done to boot!   Don't forget the key for the ignition!🤣

[Jürgen M.]

And the original "Western Star" key chain! 😉

Great job! Can't imagine this getting better! Impossible!

[BK9300]

22 hours ago, cifenet said:

The truck is looking mighty good right now and all the details you have constructed are nicely showing off.  Kudos!

Thanks, Steve!  Getting very close now to being finished.  What’s next on your build list?

 

20 hours ago, Chariots of Fire said:

That's got to be one of the most detailed models I have ever seen.  And superbly done to boot!   Don't forget the key for the ignition!🤣

Thanks, Charles - I appreciate that.  Funny about the key - after some kidding from Gary, a key set was added - just a bit hard to see but it’s visible in some of the interior close ups!
 

 

20 hours ago, Jürgen M. said:

And the original "Western Star" key chain! 😉

Great job! Can't imagine this getting better! Impossible!

Thank you, Jürgen!

[Scott Eriksen]

On 6/16/2025 at 3:07 PM, Chariots of Fire said:

That's got to be one of the most detailed models I have ever seen.  And superbly done to boot!   Don't forget the key for the ignition!🤣

Charles,,the keys were easy,,,,have Brian open the glove box and let him show you the Western Star owners manual  😉

[Scott Eriksen]

.................and packets of ketchup from McDonalds too ,,,,lol

[Biggu]

8 minutes ago, Scott Eriksen said:

Charles,,the keys were easy,,,,have Brian open the glove box and let him show you the Western Star owners manual  😉

Page 64 , 🤭

[Chariots of Fire]

Funny thing about keys.  I have 2 keys to my GMC Canyon.  Tried the spare today and it would not start the truck.  Turns out the key itself has to be programmed!  No simple info in the owner's manual.  Had to go to the GMC dealer to find that out.  Started truck with older key, turned it off, inserted the spare and it got programmed immediately and the truck started.  Talk about overkill!!

[BK9300]

Got the cab primed a couple days ago and did some of the final work on the hood today - I needed to put the raised central section on top of the hood.

 

Prep work turned out better than I thought it would - a few spots I can see in picture will get some needed attention - 

 

Sample, central hood section I needed to add on -

 

The raised section is 1 mm thick and the sides are tapered slightly, from about midway, through to the front edge - 

 

Rounded the sides slightly before gluing the section down -

 

I now need to taper the depth of this added section, to thin it to almost nothing at the rear edge.  Will also need little bit of sealing along the edges.  Some final sanding on that and a few other spots on the hood, and it can be primed, too.

 

Been busy last few days working in Sketchup, getting a few things sorted from all the pics I took last week for the next project.  Still have lots to do, to finish with the pics, so will let you all know soon as that process is completed - take care!

Edited Thursday at 03:48 AM by BK9300

[Chariots of Fire]

Hey, Brian.  What has been your learning curve for using Sketchup?  I'm familiar with 2-dimensional CAD, having used it in my engineering business but the third dimension and how to position things is an altogether different thing.  Not ready to start printing in 3D but would like to learn the design aspect of it first.  

[BK9300]

3 hours ago, Chariots of Fire said:

Hey, Brian.  What has been your learning curve for using Sketchup?  I'm familiar with 2-dimensional CAD, having used it in my engineering business but the third dimension and how to position things is an altogether different thing.  Not ready to start printing in 3D but would like to learn the design aspect of it first.  

I actually started in Sketchup, a few years ago, to model a few things for a home improvement project.  Lots of Youtube videos were watched, to get started!  Looking back, it didn't take that long to get past my mistakes and start making cupboards and countertops, etc., that looked like something realistic.  Additional rendering software is needed to see a Sketchup project in a more realistic view - I use V-Ray, from Chaos and the latest version has a lot more textures, like paint, metal finishes, etc., and lighting, that can be applied to the surfaces of the Sketchup model to render it more realistically.

I still haven't overcome the design difficulties of making something like a truck cab or hood, and that's why I purchased the digital Western Star 4900 cab and chassis from Hum3D.   Geometric shapes - circles, cylinders, flat panels, like much of the rest of the plow truck - were much easier to produce .  Knowing what I know now, I think I would have learned to model in Blender - much better design tools for organic, or curved surfaces of vehicles, although I understand the learning curve to be a bit harder than Sketchup.  Many people use Fusion 360 too, but I know nothing about that software.

I've still got lots to learn in Sketchup, but for now, it's really helped me to see what it is I need to model.  Given a background in CAD, I wouldn't think it would be difficult for you to master 3D software - just that learning curve to get past!

 

Edited Thursday at 05:34 PM by BK9300

[Chariots of Fire]

HAH!  That curve can be a sharp one to get around!!😆  Thanks for the info.

[cifenet]

The panel lines look sharp on the cab!  And the hood has the shape that looks correct based on the photo.  Nice work on that and great progress so far going into the last stage...

 

 

[BK9300]

23 hours ago, cifenet said:

The panel lines look sharp on the cab!  And the hood has the shape that looks correct based on the photo.  Nice work on that and great progress so far going into the last stage...

 

 

Thanks for that, Steve - saving the hardest things till last - body work and painting have not always been kind to me.

[BK9300]

I keep finding last minute things to do before priming the hood - was just about to do the priming this morning, and remembered the plow light mounts that need to attach to the hood.  Making those was the the task for today!

 

Fabricated the various parts that make up the light brackets - I'm going to glue the brackets to the hood, use a couple bolts to firmly secure the plow lights and then attach short pieces of bolts to the bracket before painting the hood (the plow light housings are drilled for a bolt shaft, and for the future wire runs from one of the control modules on the firewall) -

 

Tape guidelines to make sure I glue the brackets in the same location on both sides -

 

As a concession to a bit of added strength, I added a short piece of 'angle iron' under the light support legs - this isn't on the real ones, but the legs were too fragile otherwise -

 

Finally get to see what the plow lights that @Bren kindly printed for me look like on the model's hood!   Will have to carefully CA glue in the lenses after the light housings and reflector areas are painted.

 

After painting, I'll have a short window of time, with some 20 second CA glue, to get the lights to sit level, and square with the front of the hood.  

 

Looks like I still need to do a bit of beefing up on the light brackets - one of them broke while I was taking the plow lights back off.  I think I'll use a length of threaded bolt (minus the head) and drill hole through the hood, lined up with the inside corner of the angle iron and CA glue the bolt to the inside of the hood and the inside edges of the angle iron.  The bolt won't be visible from the front, and hopefully not too visible from the backside, once the hood is painted.  Take care!

Edited Friday at 10:35 PM by BK9300

[Biggu]

So precise ! Changed a few of those over the years , always in the dark and usually during a snow storm.  Just excellent Brian !

[BK9300]

57 minutes ago, Biggu said:

So precise ! Changed a few of those over the years , always in the dark and usually during a snow storm.  Just excellent Brian !

Repairs are never needed when you're actually at the shop!  Thanks, Jeff.

Edited Saturday at 12:52 AM by BK9300

[BK9300]

Quick update to earlier post - got the little bolt shafts added in under the angle iron - hoping this helps with stability of the light supports - I feel better about it in the meantime!