Western Star 4900 FA plow truck

[BK9300]

12 hours ago, Biggu said:

Every update is a gem, Brian. Great stuff !

Appreciate that, Jeff!  Painfully slow, but still moving ahead.

[BK9300]

Between the other stuff I'm occupied with these days, I did get to do a little more prep work for painting and eventually a bit of priming.  Done with the grey primer on the hood, cab and day panel and into the white primer, similar to what ended up being done with the sander, before applying the finish colour.  Still missed some glitches on the cab, that stood out worse with the white primer, so had to do something with them, too.  Also, got most of the cab's 'chrome' parts primed and ready for the Easy Chrome black undercoat.  Still have to do that test run with the chrome, first.

 

Had a good afternoon in the paint booth - not totally clear from the pics, but two coats of Tamiya fine, white primer now on hood and day cab panel (cab has one coat but is back in the house, to fix a couple more things).  Stripped chrome bits for the cab have been primed, along with the plow light housings, the two small sections of 0.2 mm styrene for the inner fender flaps, and the visor for the cab -

 

I thought I would be able to get the second coat of white primer on the cab today, after filling in some small gaps in the top edge of my firewall modification.  But, being a bit impatient and trying to fit too much into the time I had, I started to work the putty before it had hardened all the way through.  So, now I have to let it set up more, and then fix my fix!

 

I also got to spend some time thinking about the front grille and grille surround.  Had initially wanted to have grille bars detached from surround, like on the real truck, so grille bars wouldn't bump into front plow lift arms when hood is displayed open.  When I put everything together today, to look at how to do it, it quickly became obvious I had a problem.  Real truck has rubber baffles around the rad sides, and some very short angle brackets to attach the grille bars, just a bit proud of the rad.  I didn't pay close enough attention to how close the grille bars are to the rad on the real truck, and the way the engine, rad and hood assemblies come together in the model, that gap would simply be too much, if I made the grille bars flush with the grille surround.  So, I'm going to reattach the grille bars to the surround, and limit the hood opening so the grille bars stay just clear the plow lift arms.  The hood will still open most of the way, and there is a small bonus to this problem as the transmission cooler will now be visible when hood is open.

 

I just need to run three, thin strips of 1.5 mm styrene along the horizontal bars on the back of the grille, to reattach it to the surround.  Then this bit can be primed and chromed, too.  Was able to remove a few things from the list of outstanding items to finish, today, and only added one thing back, so, good day - take care, and hope the summer is going well for everyone!

[BK9300]

I got a bit more painting done today.  Second coat of primer on the cab and then I painted the inside of the hood.  Still looks like the grey primer, but its a bit darker, closer to the unfinished inside of the hood on the real truck.  After, I had some over spray to clean up on the outside of the hood and it made me realize I had better mask off the inside of the hood before I paint the colour coat.  I had wanted to not mask it off, to try and reproduce some of the colour coat overspray on the inside of the hood of the real truck, but, based on what happened when I painted the inside of the hood, I just might make too big a mess to recover from.  As it is, I will need to do one more coat of primer on hood, after I mask off the underside.  I might have chickened out, by masking off the inside of hood, but better safe than sorry, at this stage!  Maybe I can apply some over spray after all is painted, using low pressure on the air brush and well thinned paint.

 

My putty mess from yesterday has been fixed - at least as well as my patience allowed me to!  Cab is ready for colour coat -

 

Will need one more coat of primer on outside of hood, after masking off inside, to deal with sanding off the overspray from the inside.  Then it will be ready for colour coat, too.  I'm pleased with how the slightly darker grey shows up the inner hood bracing.  Still need to paint hood support pads a flat black or rubber black to finish them off, and add the inner fender well rubber flaps -

 

The little grommet on the front, inside of the hood (there's another one on the opposite side) will be to support the wire runs to the plow lights

 

Hope to get to colour by mid-week.   Take care!

 

 

 

Edited July 22 by BK9300
typo

[BK9300]

Paint pictures sure aren't the most exciting part of this build, so bear with me, as the pics will show me all the things I need to work on.  It must be said that I have had more than a few bad results, way back when, so, was quite pleased with the first colour coat for the cab, hood and day cab panel, today.  Have a good ways to go, yet, to improve the finish from where it's at now, but happy having some colour underway!

 

Just about too warm to be painting - never thought to check till after I was finished . . .

 

I'm using an Iwata Neo, siphon feed with a small bottle, so didn't have to stop and refill along the way.  Some colour unevenness showing up after first coat, but that can be remedied 

 

Looks more like the real truck's paint, in sunlight -

 

Colour unevenness more evident under the desk lamp - will have to take note, for next coat.  I may need to rig up a holder so I can paint them both at the same time, maybe.  Will see after second coat tomorrow _

 

In spite of much fussing with prep work, priming, sanding a bit, priming,  there are still some sanding marks to clean up.  Also, once cured a bit, will start in right away with the orange peel.  I noticed with the sander, after sanding out some dust spots between coats, the following coat(s) were much smoother - that process might be well known to others, but was a nice surprise to me.   I'll try to be more thorough and intentional with the light sanding between coats this time.

 

I am, however, quite happy with how the work on the top rib on the hood and the fender to hood skirt repairs look under paint.  That was another big concern I had for today - grateful how it has turned out, so far!

 

Going to let things set up for a day, or so, and then get to some light sanding.  Meantime, I can work on re-chroming the bits for the cab.  I won't have much of an opportunity to sand out any problems with those tiny pieces, so, once chromed, they may just 'be what they will be'.  Take care!

Edited Thursday at 12:12 AM by BK9300
typo

[Biggu]

Wow. That is nice. Almost like a show truck. Flagship of the fleet. Your paint is way better than anything I do. Are you using lacquer paint? Sure looks smooth to me. Lovin this. 

[BK9300]

18 minutes ago, Biggu said:

Wow. That is nice. Almost like a show truck. Flagship of the fleet. Your paint is way better than anything I do. Are you using lacquer paint? Sure looks smooth to me. Lovin this. 

Appreciate that, Jeff!  I'm using a lacquer - Tamiya TS-34, Camel Yellow - a pretty close match to Wheatland Yellow, without mixing in anything else.  I did decant a couple spray cans, to use in the air brush.  Paint looks ok, if no light reflecting off a flatter surface, but close inspection shows lots of smallish orange peel.  I didn't sand final primer layer, so maybe that's why?  Hoping to improve on it with prep for next coat.  Thanks, again!

Edited Thursday at 12:33 AM by BK9300

[BK9300]

Bit of a regressive event today.  I got the second coat on the cab, hood and day panel this morning and set it all aside to cure for a day, before prepping for third coat.  I started thinking about how I was going to be able to work with the frame, and move it around, when time comes to start some of the final assemblies.  Got a little careless, though, with my handling, and broke the tie rod arm off the driver's side spindle.  So, this post is a just a bit of a side story about me fixing my screw up.  Mostly similar pics to what you seen before (except for the broken bits!), but it was interesting to me -

 

Made most of the frame about 13 years ago, before I set it aside, and thankfully, most of steering components come apart reasonably easy.  Need to remove the driver side spindle and the broken part of the tie rod arm, so they can be pinned and CA glued together -

 

Removed the air line to the brake pot and unbolted the king pin -

 

Unbolted the drag link from the steering arm, unbolted the tie rod arm from the tie rod and removed the spindle

 

Drilled out the stub of the tie rod arm on the spindle as well as the other broken part of the tie rod arm, and pinned them together with a piece of 0.5 mm brass rod and CA glue -

 

All back together again, but have to get some paint back on the fittings.  Apart from looking better, the paint also keeps the brass nuts from backing off when the steering is posed -

 

 

 

After all that, I'm still not sure how to maneuver the frame while doing final assemblies, and not break anything else, but will figure something out.  Anyway, thanks for indulging this little side trip!

 

 

Edited Friday at 01:57 AM by BK9300

[Firebuilder]

Amazing! The level of details is that of a master model maker!

[BK9300]

2 hours ago, Firebuilder said:

Amazing! The level of details is that of a master model maker!

Very kind of you, Dom.  Thanks for that, and I appreciate you stopping by!

[Scott Eriksen]

 "broke the tie rod arm off the driver's side spindle."..................didn't even get delivered to the customer yet and down for repairs! ,,,lol   looks great bro! 

[BK9300]

1 hour ago, Scott Eriksen said:

 "broke the tie rod arm off the driver's side spindle."..................didn't even get delivered to the customer yet and down for repairs! ,,,lol   looks great bro! 

No kidding - repairs already!  Sure didn't take much of a screw up to break the spindle - if that's any indication, I'll likely have more repairs to do before I'm finished the final assembly - thanks, Scott!

[BK9300]

Only have one more colour coat to apply to cab and hood and the colour evenness is much improved, after the second coat.  While getting things ready for the third coat - a couple dust bits to sand out and the back of one fender needing some more sanding - I had another realization about something I had not done in the needed order.  I was supposed to have drilled out the inner fender splash guards for some Top Studio rivets, before I did any colour painting - so, another bit of a backtrack to correct that today.

 

These next two pics are what I was trying to create - rubber splash guard with rivets on inside, and colour coat overspray on splash guards inside fender wells -

 

 

Needed to unmask splash guards from inside and drill through the pilot holes in the fenders, to make holes in the splash guards - I missed doing that earlier - 

 

Rivets in both splash guards are now CA glued in place - I'll re-cover the splash guards from the inside and the overspray from the last colour coat will cover the exposed ends of the rivets a bit.  Might need to dull down the shine on the overspray in the fender wells, too -

 

Good thing to have a check list of remaining things to do - but not so good if the list isn't in the order things need to be done!  More stuff happening next week - take care!

 

Edited Saturday at 09:45 PM by BK9300

[Biggu]

Your attention to detail is second to none, Brian. I love that you have a ‘checklist’. I think that is something I should have done with my tank truck. Easy to forget the little things. I may have to seriously consider that for my next conversion.

I bet you can see the end of the tunnel on this build now as it is getting closer every day. Still a world class build. 

[vincen47]

A masterclass in model making. Simply amazing.

Edited Sunday at 05:44 PM by vincen47

[Gary Chastain]

You got some serious skills, amazing to watch

[BK9300]

8 hours ago, Biggu said:

Your attention to detail is second to none, Brian. I love that you have a ‘checklist’. I think that is something I should have done with my tank truck. Easy to forget the little things. I may have to seriously consider that for my next conversion.

I bet you can see the end of the tunnel on this build now as it is getting closer every day. Still a world class build. 

Thanks a lot, Jeff!   Definitely been a long go - I passed the 1,000 hour mark back in early June - maybe your estimate of 1,200 hours way back when won't be too far off!

 

7 hours ago, vincen47 said:

A masterclass in model making. Simply amazing.

I appreciate that very much, Victor - kind words indeed!

 

5 hours ago, Gary Chastain said:

You got some serious skills, amazing to watch

Thank you for that, Gary - if I recall, a post from you was the first response I had to this thread, way back when, and I'm glad you keep checking in, after all this time!

Edited Sunday at 11:06 PM by BK9300

[BK9300]

About that checklist, Jeff - it was 9 pages long at the end of March and now it's down to just 4.  The list might be shorter, if I wasn't so long winded (like my posts!) but I try to list as much detail as I can to make sure I don't miss anything I want/need to do.   Don't have final coat on hood and cab yet, but I'm including a quick mockup - some inspiration for me to get this to the finish line! 

 

Just for the hell of it, a pic of part of that 'long winded' checklist of outstanding work to do -

 

'Motivational' pic - 

 

Ipad camera sure doesn't like this colour in this light - need to ultimately get some good pics out in natural light.  Hope to be painting again tomorrow.  Take care!

Edited Sunday at 11:07 PM by BK9300

[Biggu]

Breathtaking !!

[vincen47]

10 minutes ago, BK9300 said:

About that checklist, Jeff - it was 9 pages long at the end of March and now it's down to just 4.  The list might be shorter, if I wasn't so long winded (like my posts!) but I try to list as much detail as I can to make sure I don't miss anything I want/need to do.   Don't have final coat on hood and cab yet, but I'm including a quick mockup - some inspiration for me to get this to the finish line! 

 

Just for the hell of it, a pic of part of that 'long winded' checklist of outstanding work to do -

 

'Motivational' pic - 

 

Ipad camera sure doesn't like this colour in this light - need to ultimately get some good pics out in natural light.  Hope to be painting again tomorrow.  Take care!

A checklist is a must for a build of this magnitude. I have a Word Doc on my computer for my Pete RV build, as well. It’s a parts roster with sources, divided by major component (engine, chassis, cab, body, etc) and build process checklist. An organizational necessity.  Nice to see your detailed list. It reflects your precision and creativity. 

[OldNYJim]

Brian; I never really comment on your threads and updates because I don’t have much knowledge of the subjects, or much to add but an ‘attaboy’ or ‘GREAT work!’

But…that said…attaboy, you do GREAT work - really inspiring craftsmanship!  

[BK9300]

16 hours ago, vincen47 said:

A checklist is a must for a build of this magnitude. I have a Word Doc on my computer for my Pete RV build, as well. It’s a parts roster with sources, divided by major component (engine, chassis, cab, body, etc) and build process checklist. An organizational necessity.  Nice to see your detailed list. It reflects your precision and creativity. 

Thanks again, Victor - good to know more lists are out there!

[BK9300]

12 hours ago, OldNYJim said:

Brian; I never really comment on your threads and updates because I don’t have much knowledge of the subjects, or much to add but an ‘attaboy’ or ‘GREAT work!’

But…that said…attaboy, you do GREAT work - really inspiring craftsmanship!  

Thanks, Jim!  Made me chuckle a bit, because I can relate to not having much knowledge about some of your builds, like the Monogram Midget, but I sure can appreciate all the excellent work that you put into it!

Edited 15 hours ago by BK9300