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 June 21 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 June 23 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!

[BK9300]

On 6/23/2025 at 7:54 AM, Biggu said:

This is SO good ……

First off, sorry Jeff - I missed this - apologies (and thanks!).

[BK9300]

I've been distracted for much of this month, going over pictures for a couple new projects, and doing lots of idea work in Sketchup.  Not being evasive, but the 'vision' for what's going to be next and how to do it hasn't been totally worked out, so nothing to let you know about yet - it will definitely be another 'maintenance' vehicle, though!

Fun stuff, thinking about a new project, but I needed to put those distractions to the side and get the rest of the plow truck finished.  Did the final repairs to the top of the hood and fenders, and some on the cab, and re-primed them.  Now I need get on with the mirrors and air cleaner, figure out where to drill holes for locating pins and then get the hood and cab sprayed with final colour, and start the final assembly of the front end.

 

Have done this a couple times now - light priming, repair the pinholes I see, and light re-prime and sand to see what's left.  Like I said before, not my favorite part of building!

 

All seems to be good now - any remaining defects I find after colour is sprayed will need to be sanded out as well.

 

I had grand ambitions to do the mirrors from tubing, fasteners, etc., but I looked closer at the kit mirror parts - they look pretty decent and I may be able to save myself some work.  If I can clean them up, drill in some thin brass rod mounting pins, and get them re-chromed ok, all without any breakage, then I think I'll be ahead a bit -

 

A couple motivation pics, for the home stretch! 

 

 

Back in February, @Rockford asked me about issues with the cab being blue plastic and the hood being white plastic.  Didn't know about that, so did a test spray on a spare hood - with grey primer, then white primer and finally a Camel Yellow top coat - it turned out well then, and there has been no bleed through since.  So, after the locating pins for the mirrors and air cleaner are drilled, will carry on priming hood and cab with Tamiya white primer and then spray the top coat(s).  Striping of kit chrome, and re-chroming still to happen, Then, final assembly (lots of little bits) and a few decals to come after that - take care!

 

Edited June 30 by BK9300
typo

[Biggu]

She looks like she is ready for Bill’s paint booth at the New Denver YRB Shop!!  Can’t wait for the next update. This is just so good !!

[BK9300]

2 hours ago, Biggu said:

She looks like she is ready for Bill’s paint booth at the New Denver YRB Shop!!  Can’t wait for the next update. This is just so good !!

Appreciate that, Jeff - paint is coming real soon!

[Jürgen M.]

That looks so awesome! Endless details and top quality execution! Chapeau! 

[BK9300]

16 hours ago, Jürgen M. said:

That looks so awesome! Endless details and top quality execution! Chapeau! 

Thanks very much, Jürgen!

[Scott Eriksen]

getting real close to the finish line Brian!

[BK9300]

2 hours ago, Scott Eriksen said:

getting real close to the finish line Brian!

Yes, Sir - very close!

[Randy D]

Hi Brian,

  Spent some enjoyable time this afternoon getting caught up on this masterpiece !!!!!   The cab interior is flat out amazing. All the detail wiring, monitor, levers and gauges look spot on.  Can't wait to see your paint job.

Randy 

[k100]

Brian ,this truck is awesome ,all the scratch building is just amazing. 
Great job.

[BK9300]

17 hours ago, Randy D said:

Hi Brian,

  Spent some enjoyable time this afternoon getting caught up on this masterpiece !!!!!   The cab interior is flat out amazing. All the detail wiring, monitor, levers and gauges look spot on.  Can't wait to see your paint job.

Randy 

Thanks for the generous comments, Randy - much appreciated!  Hoping to get to the paint in a week or so!

 

 

15 hours ago, k100 said:

Brian ,this truck is awesome ,all the scratch building is just amazing. 
Great job.

Thanks kindly, Mark!  Having a bunch of pics and measurements has sure helped with the scratch building. 

[BK9300]

Going to be hit and miss for the next couple weeks - more things to do besides bench work!  Did start on de-chroming a bunch of little parts and hope to fit in some painting on those in the next while.  Will keep checking in, though - always good to see what else is being built in the forum!

[Gary Chastain]

Great progress

[BK9300]

I've never done any de-chroming of kit parts before.  Common knowledge to many out there, but sure was amazed at how well oven cleaner does the job!  Was able to spend some time today cleaning up the de-chromed parts for the cab - removing what I could of the parting lines on the thin mirror braces, and some injection pin marks, etc.  Because I opted to use the kit parts for the mirrors and hand rails, instead of making my own, I now had to re-drill all the locating holes for the kit parts - that sure felt like a step backwards!  Basically ready to do some test chrome painting and then on to the cab parts for real.

 

A few mock up pics of the mirrors and handrail/grab bars sitting in place on the cab -

 

(day cab panel not glued in place just yet. . .)

Once the grab bars, mirrors, etc, are re-chromed, I going to use some of the Tamiya Mirror Finish film to make the mirror inserts.  Still not going to get much build time in during the coming week or so, but will do what I can - take care!

 

[Biggu]

Every update is a gem, Brian. Great stuff !