Western Star 4900 FA plow truck

[Chariots of Fire]

Can I recommend a different method of sealing those light lenses?  Instead of CA which may fog or not give you any time to set them in place where you want them, use 2-part clear epoxy but first, coat the inside of the bezel with chrome silver and let it dry.  The epoxy will give some working time and a very little bit goes a long way in securing the lenses.  I use Bob Smith epoxy.  Does not turn yellow with age.

[BK9300]

52 minutes ago, Chariots of Fire said:

Can I recommend a different method of sealing those light lenses?  Instead of CA which may fog or not give you any time to set them in place where you want them, use 2-part clear epoxy but first, coat the inside of the bezel with chrome silver and let it dry.  The epoxy will give some working time and a very little bit goes a long way in securing the lenses.  I use Bob Smith epoxy.  Does not turn yellow with age.

Charles, I will definitely try the epoxy, and I do have some Bob Smith epoxy (also, good thing I have a few extra light housing pairs, in case I screw up!)  I do intend to do chroming of some type on the inside of the bezel, for sure.  Thanks for the suggestion!

Edited Saturday at 05:06 PM by BK9300

[BK9300]

Raining today, and too humid for me to trust myself painting anything today.  So, instead, had a look at something I was going to do after painting the hood, but which makes a lot more sense to do before any painting.  I have been delaying work on the headlights, for no good reason, other than I wasn't really clear about what I wanted to do.  Gathered up a few pieces from the two Western Star kits, and set out a plan for the headlights.

 

Going to use the headlights from the Alaskan Hauler kit, as housings, and the headlight surrounds and lenses from the Constellation kit -

 

The modified hood was from the Alaska Hauler, so the 'housings' fit in well -

 

The surrounds from the Constellation kit seem, to my eye, to look like the ones on the 2010 WS -

 

I shaved off the raised ring around the Hauler's headlights - this will give me a great surface area to glue the headlight surrounds to -

 

Kicking around some solutions for wiring, that will feed into the spring looms coming (eventually!) from the firewall -

 

I've also been struggling with all the chrome bits, generally.  I've test tried Alclad and Revell, the two I considered would give me the best results.  Not been excited about the test results from either, for the chrome on the cab and hood.  Based on a few topics I've read elsewhere in the forum, I bit the bullet and ordered Alsa's, Easy Chrome, Hobby Kit - have to wait and see how that tests out.  Take care!

 

 

[mikemodeler]

Been thoroughly enjoying the progress on this build and blown away by the details. This is truly a labor of love type build considering the amount of work and detailing that you have put into this. 

 

Those plow lights look infinitely better than what Revell and Moebius have put into their recent truck kits with plows, would be nice if those were readily available to those of us wishing to upgrade a build.

[BK9300]

52 minutes ago, mikemodeler said:

Been thoroughly enjoying the progress on this build and blown away by the details. This is truly a labor of love type build considering the amount of work and detailing that you have put into this. 

 

Those plow lights look infinitely better than what Revell and Moebius have put into their recent truck kits with plows, would be nice if those were readily available to those of us wishing to upgrade a build.

Thanks very much, Mike - really appreciate it!  Definitely not a regular build.  The plow lights I made up in Sketchup and @Bren printed them for me.  I'm couldn't tell you how to find them, but if you get in touch with him, I think he put some of my plow truck stuff up on his page in Cults.  I could also send you the .stl files for the housings and the lenses, if you print your own stuff.  Let me know!

[Bren]

1 hour ago, BK9300 said:

Thanks very much, Mike - really appreciate it!  Definitely not a regular build.  The plow lights I made up in Sketchup and @Bren printed them for me.  I'm couldn't tell you how to find them, but if you get in touch with him, I think he put some of my plow truck stuff up on his page in Cults.  I could also send you the .stl files for the housings and the lenses, if you print your own stuff.  Let me know!

Hi Mike,

I have spoken to Brian in the past about putting some of his excellent designs up on Cults website to share with all truck modellers and he was all for it. So I’ll be doing that - keep watching the site and I’ll try to get to it shortly. My screen name there is ‘Heavyhaul’. 

[BK9300]

Weather was good enough today, so warmed up the shed and finally got ready to prime the hood and re-prime the cab.

 

Yesterday, while getting ready to paint today, I was fussing about how I was going to handle the hood, to be able to prime it all over in one sitting.  I settled on making a little jig that would attach to the hood, through the holes for the signal lights, and give me something to hang on to while spraying.   After snugging up the two little nuts, it was out to the shed. This jig won't work for the top coat, because the inside of the hood will be masked off -

 

The jig is quite sturdy and the hood is very secure - I can turn the hood which ever way I need to, so all of the hood gets primed -

 

First light coat of Tamiya grey primer on the hood - second on the cab - and looks good from this pic.  Looks a bit washed out, because desk lamp is right over head -

 

Looking closer, though, I've got some work to do!  Front, left of hood has a bunch of little air bubbles in the putty - right side was worked up the same as the left side, so, go figure??!!.  There are several other small areas on the hood - sanding scratches and a couple divots in the putty, that need attention (hood looks darker because light angled lower, to see holes).  This was a very light coat of primer and I don't know if sanding the hood back will reduce any of the holes, but I'll see.  And, with the thin coat, I can still see the borders where puttied areas meet styrene.  Again, hoping next two coats of primer will cover that up.

 

Now that everything is no longer white, I like the definition that shows up better, in the hood brace and inner fenders -

 

Even with some work yet to do on the hood and cab surfaces, I'm happy to see them both the same colour -  also very happy with how the raised portion of the hood is turning out, too.

 

Going to let things set for the day and start some light sanding and a bit of putty work tomorrow.  Also need to get air cleaner and its mounts sorted before too long as well.  Overall, hoping for improved results with the next coat of primer.  Take care!

 

 

Edited Monday at 02:35 AM by BK9300
typo

[Biggu]

This is SO good ……

[Gary Chastain]

Just catching up Brian, this is looking soooo good

[BK9300]

7 hours ago, Gary Chastain said:

Just catching up Brian, this is looking soooo good

Thanks. Gary - hope your summer is going well!