Western Star 4900 FA plow truck

[BK9300]

20 hours ago, redneckrigger said:

The details are amazing.  You have a real knack for it.  I think the window rubbers came out great.  On my crane, I’m going to have to make the actual rubbers and make them overlap the window opening. I then paint them black and assemble to the cab with the glass going in behind it.  Kind of a pita but it works.  I like your work better!   Looking at your build, if photographed with a realistic background it would be about  impossible to tell if it were real or a scale model.  Cant ask for much more than that!!

Thanks, Tom - generous of you as always!  Don't know what to use for a background when the time comes - have an idea, but would be a project in itself.

[BK9300]

Not big progress today, just carrying on!  Was raining today, too humid to spray the chrome test, so an opportunity to try something a bit different, from the 'list'.  (before doing that, I did brush a coat of grey enamel on the interior of the cab and day cab panel)  What I worked on today was a possible solution for the small flags that are mounted on each end of the front plow.

The front plow flags I saw were made of plastic and were a bit stiff.  I settled on using a piece of semi-transparent plastic film from a water bottle label.  I tried to CA glue it to the brass support rod, but didn't take.  Fortunately, the plastic did stick using a bit of epoxy -

 

Once the epoxy set up, I used an old hair dryer on High setting and a bit of 'flag' shape was achieved -

 

I have some experimenting to do, and think I can improve this initial flag, but the idea looks like it could work - 

 

With lots of rain for next few days, I might be a bit stalled, because I need to chrome the cab door handles before assembling the cab.  Apparently, the Easy Chrome can be brush applied, too, so I'll have a go at part of the parts tree this afternoon and see how that goes!

 

Edited Friday at 10:29 PM by BK9300

[Jürgen M.]

That flag looks cool. Great idea!

Is a chrome pen an option on the door handles? I like using them for these small parts!

Edited Saturday at 04:53 AM by Jürgen M.

[Straightliner59]

Brian, I love the cab interior. Looks just like an office! Different equipment than any of mine have had, but, it looks as it should. Excellent work, sir!

[Wolf]

Brian,

I’ve had a chance to read through your entire build thread. What a magnificent build and show of scratch building skills. Most impressive indeed Sir!

Cheers,   
Wolf

[Gary Chastain]

Every part gets the Brian touch, well done professor, that interior is a work of art. 

[Biggu]

You guys have NO idea how accurate this whole build is. I drove these trucks and Brian has NOT missed one detail. This is as exact as a scale model can get. It is nearly 100% correct. It is more astounding than what meets the eye. A true world class build. Museum quality. 

[BK9300]

14 hours ago, Jürgen M. said:

That flag looks cool. Great idea!

Is a chrome pen an option on the door handles? I like using them for these small parts!

Thanks, Jürgen!  Couldn't think of anything else that I could make work for the flag.  You and Jeff have both suggested the chrome pens.  Although I don't have any I like at the moment, I think I need to look at them for the future - for now, I going to just press on with the paint I have already and get this thing done!

 

13 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:

Brian, I love the cab interior. Looks just like an office! Different equipment than any of mine have had, but, it looks as it should. Excellent work, sir!

Good to hear from you, Daniel, and thanks.   Most of it will be out of sight, unless a person looks at the build book I want to make, but everyone here will know about the details!

 

10 hours ago, Wolf said:

Brian,

I’ve had a chance to read through your entire build thread. What a magnificent build and show of scratch building skills. Most impressive indeed Sir!

Cheers,   
Wolf

I appreciate you checking this out, Wolf - thanks for the kind words!  Based on what we've seen so far on your International, and Jeff's testimonial, really looking forward to seeing where you take it.

 

6 hours ago, Gary Chastain said:

Every part gets the Brian touch, well done professor, that interior is a work of art. 

Thanks, Gary - I need to stop 'touching' and get this project finished!

 

4 hours ago, Biggu said:

You guys have NO idea how accurate this whole build is. I drove these trucks and Brian has NOT missed one detail. This is as exact as a scale model can get. It is nearly 100% correct. It is more astounding than what meets the eye. A true world class build. Museum quality. 

Much appreciated, Jeff!  Doing what I can for the details, and, thanks to that experience of yours, I've been able to add in a few things along the way, that I hadn't considered.  Thanks, again!

[Straightliner59]

10 minutes ago, BK9300 said:

everyone here will know about the details!

 

Most importantly, you will!

[BK9300]

Everything can't be a milestone, but it felt like it today - got the headliner and interior 'tub'/floor pan glued inside the cab!  Also spent a good bit of time making the brass fittings (basically just brass tube bits) that pass through the cab for the air lines from the control tower to the air over hydraulic valve manifold that sits beside the hydraulic tank.

 

I used epoxy to set the headliner in place and the epoxied the front wall of the interior tub to the back of the firewall - a flange on the dog house enclosure has always been the main locator for the interior to the firewall.  I didn't epoxy the back edge yet to the cab edges - that will be done when the day cab panel finally goes in.  Used more of the RC heat shield tape for lining of the dog house-

 

 

For some 'fittings', I cut short, brass sections from .7mm tube, all the same length, and epoxied them from the back side, locating them flush with the inside pass through plate, so each tube section was the same length on the outside -

 

From back on page 24, this is a sample of the air lines that need to be fabricated and attached to the valve manifold -

 

The Auslowe day cab panel didn't come with glass - I found a decent section of some thin, plastic packaging, cut a templated piece out and epoxied the rear window in place -

 

I want to get going on the firewall attachments next - the hood supports, coolant overflow tank, fuse box, etc,.  I will still need to do just a bit more work on the engine, before I can glue the cab to the cab supports.  Still haven't been able to do the chrome test yet either, so that's on a wait list.  Once the firewall attachments are on, and the chrome done, the cab and sander can be glued in place.  Then, I will need to work with the truck on it's side (hoping not to break anything else!), to be able to run the various looms/air lines under the cab and hide their termination along either side of the frame.  Some of the lines from the sander will need to be routed under the cab and up into one of the pass through tubes in the floor pan.  So close - yet lots of little stuff to do!