Western Star 4900 FA plow truck

[Straightliner59]

9 hours ago, BK9300 said:

Finally, received my last order of chrome paints today - SMS's Hyperchrome, 'Cold Tone' and FusionFirm's, 'Liquid Chrome'.  I have five chrome paints to test out tomorrow, weather permitting - I know many have posted results of these paint comparisons online, but nothing beats looking at the results up close, so I'll follow the products' instructions, let them cure, make a choice and get on with finishing this off!

 

As far as I am concerned, one can never have too many different shades and sheens of metallic finishes! A little difference can go a long way, in creating realism. I'm hoping to pick up some Fusionfirm chrome, in the next couple of months.

[rustybill1960]

Oh, My Goodness! Sir! This has got to be the most immaculate example of precise detailing of a model that I have "ever" seen to date! I am in awe of Your skills in scratch building! Never have I witnessed such skills! I just finished the journey of this build and was I ever amazed! WOW! It is remarkable what You have done with the plastic in making the parts for this build, I am just overwhelmed by the work! Your precision and detailing on this truck build is, well, I am at a loss for words, I mean what can I say that hasn't already been said? And "YES," I agree that this "IS" a museum piece! You Sir have something there to be very proud of. My hat is off, I applaud Your work and skill! Thank You so much for having taken the time and effort to share this build with all of Us here! I must add that I am looking forward to seeing the finished piece, albeit sadly, this has been one fascinating build for sure! Later

[BK9300]

8 hours ago, rustybill1960 said:

Oh, My Goodness! Sir! This has got to be the most immaculate example of precise detailing of a model that I have "ever" seen to date! I am in awe of Your skills in scratch building! Never have I witnessed such skills! I just finished the journey of this build and was I ever amazed! WOW! It is remarkable what You have done with the plastic in making the parts for this build, I am just overwhelmed by the work! Your precision and detailing on this truck build is, well, I am at a loss for words, I mean what can I say that hasn't already been said? And "YES," I agree that this "IS" a museum piece! You Sir have something there to be very proud of. My hat is off, I applaud Your work and skill! Thank You so much for having taken the time and effort to share this build with all of Us here! I must add that I am looking forward to seeing the finished piece, albeit sadly, this has been one fascinating build for sure! Later

Thanks very much, Russell.  I appreciate your time (and patience!) for having looked in on this - there is definitely a lot to go through!  I’m looking forward to the finish, too, with only a bit more to go.  Thanks again!

[BK9300]

A bit of a heads up on progress - 

There are lots of online, suggested procedures for applying the different chrome paints I have.  This is all new to me so I have settled on the following plan.  For test panels, I'm using the four sides of the WS, Constellation's sleeper.  I've primed, then painted the test panels Tamiya Gloss Black lacquer and will let them cure for a week.  Then, three panels will be painted with Tamiya gloss clear and cured for another week.  These three cured, clear coated panels can then be painted - one with FusionFirm, Liquid Chrome; one with SMS, Hyperchrome - Cold Tone; one with Revell Chrome.  The fourth panel, the Alsa Easy Chrome one, needs their specific, clear base coat applied and a further 4 days of cure time before applying their chrome paint, which must also cure for a couple days before touching.  Key to all of the paints seems to be to get as smooth a surface as possible before applying the chrome paint and having to wait for all this curing to take place!  Each of the test panels is big enough that I can test half of each one to see how well/poorly the chrome paints reacts to a final, paint specific, protective clear coat.

Meantime, I'm going to carry on with making the air cleaner and possibly some of the plumbing from the air cleaner to the intake turbo, to get things all lined up (and make sure the hood can still open and close!).   Also, I can likely do remaining work on the few work and backup lights that need to be installed around the truck's frame.  And, I need to do a final check of all the parts to be chromed, and make sure their locating pins are thin enough to go in their holes in the cab without extra effort.  I can't make those adjustments after the parts have been painted!

I've been thinking about leaving the hood hinges unglued and being able to display the truck with the hood off as well as tilted open.  The reason for that is because the hood will likely rest on the front plow lift arm when open, because of my need to leave the grille bars attached to the grille surround, unlike on the real truck.  Still more stuff to figure out!

 

Edited November 5 by BK9300

[Biggu]

Time’s Ticking , Brian …. Snow on the Coq today !😉🤭🤣Got to her operational!!  

This is such an awesome tutorial and I am really watching your chroming techniques and what you come up with.  Excellent stuff. !! 

[BK9300]

1 hour ago, Biggu said:

Time’s Ticking , Brian …. Snow on the Coq today !😉🤭🤣Got to her operational!!  

This is such an awesome tutorial and I am really watching your chroming techniques and what you come up with.  Excellent stuff. !! 

Thanks, Jeff.  'Tutorial' is generous as that assumes I already know what I'm doing, which I don't - I just hope that a clear (no pun intended!) winner shows up at the end of the testing!

[Gary Chastain]

14 hours ago, BK9300 said:

Thanks, Jeff.  'Tutorial' is generous as that assumes I already know what I'm doing, which I don't - I just hope that a clear (no pun intended!) winner shows up at the end of the testing!

Looking forward to your test results and opinions, chrome in my book is still a hit and miss challenge. 

[BK9300]

1 hour ago, Gary Chastain said:

Looking forward to your test results and opinions, chrome in my book is still a hit and miss challenge. 

Will definitely post my results, regardless of the outcome!

[Pete68]

Me too I’m interested how your going to pull it off with magic touch you have. I’m sure it will be impressive. 

[grodudulle77]

I have never seen a work as complicated and neat as yours,it’s simply outstanding !! I’ve been making modeltrucks for a few years now and i’m taking a great lesson !! Great respect Sir !!👍👍👍

Edited Tuesday at 07:32 PM by grodudulle77

[BK9300]

On 11/10/2025 at 3:33 PM, Pete68 said:

Me too I’m interested how your going to pull it off with magic touch you have. I’m sure it will be impressive. 

Tomorrow is test day for three of the four paints, so will see what happens!  Thanks, Lee.

 

 

5 hours ago, grodudulle77 said:

I have never seen a work as complicated and neat as yours,it’s simply outstanding !! I’ve been making modeltrucks for a few years now and i’m taking a great lesson !! Great respect Sir !!👍👍👍

I appreciate you having a look, Philipe - thanks very much for your generous comment!

[Gary Chastain]

Watching😉😉😉

[AmericanMuscleFan]

Dear Brian, I'm back on the forum today (just passing through at the moment) and my absence since mid-June will leave me a lot of catching up to do in the coming weeks, but I really wanted to see where you were at with this fabulous project.

It's breathtaking how talented you are and how you constantly amaze us all with these incredible details. This should one day be displayed in a museum so that as many people as possible can see your masterpiece. Thank you for continuing to share this with us! 🎩

[BK9300]

7 hours ago, Gary Chastain said:

Watching😉😉😉

Coming soon…if I stop with the distractions!
 

25 minutes ago, AmericanMuscleFan said:

Dear Brian, I'm back on the forum today (just passing through at the moment) and my absence since mid-June will leave me a lot of catching up to do in the coming weeks, but I really wanted to see where you were at with this fabulous project.

It's breathtaking how talented you are and how you constantly amaze us all with these incredible details. This should one day be displayed in a museum so that as many people as possible can see your masterpiece. Thank you for continuing to share this with us! 🎩

Terrific to hear your summer hiatus from modeling may soon be over, Francis!  As always, very generous comments from you.  Hoping to be done soon, but no certainty about where it will ‘live’ when finished - for the moment, I think it would be very hard to part with!  Looking forward to coming updates on your Demon!

[BK9300]

Been raining for several days now, and a bit too humid to paint - even in the heated shed.

One of my issues, from way back, was the kit air cleaner cannister being too big - in a mock up, the bottom edge of the driver's side fender was hitting the cannister.  A long overdue problem to solve, so I finally made myself tackle it.  Gathered a few items to work with and made some progress!

 

The air cleaner in the pic below is from an old kit - thought I could clean it up.  But it wasn't close enough to resemble the Donaldson cannister on the real truck and too much work needed to be done for it to look smooth under chrome paint.  I had a replacement screen from an old Braun, electric shave I thought I could use, to better look like the Donaldson -

 

This is what I wanted to get closer to -

 

The outer cannister scaled to 1/2" in diameter and I wanted to use the next smaller size, to attach the mesh to and slide that assembly up into a piece of the 1/2" tube - had a small sketch to keep me aware of proportions needed -

 

Pieces cut out and squared up.  I cut out a piece of paper to determine the size of the mesh section I needed to cut out of the shaver's screen.  Once cut out, I needed to wrap the mesh section around a small dowel, so the mesh would retain a curved bend smaller than the inside tube, allowing it to stay in place until CA glued -

 

I had glued the mesh section to a lower inner portion of tubing and to an upper, 2 mm section.  Once glue had set, I was able to slip the 1/2", upper and lower tube sections over the inner tube/mesh, sealing the mesh in -

 

I still need to close off the ends of the cannister and make those end pieces smooth.  Plus, will need to make two, simple mounting brackets with straps and add the outlet pipe.  I tried to be careful not to scratch the cannister body, so it would still look smooth under the chrome paint.  Should be able to get most of this work done tomorrow.  I appreciate the continuing patience as I get closer to getting this done - take care!

Edited 11 hours ago by BK9300
Typo

[ShakyCraftsman]

10 minutes ago, BK9300 said:

Been raining for several days now, and a bit too humid to paint - even in the heated shed.

One of my issues, from way back, was the kit air cleaner cannister being too big - in a mock up, the bottom edge of the driver's side fender was hitting the cannister.  A long overdue problem to solve, so I finally made myself tackle it.  Gathered a few items to work with and made some progress!

 

The air cleaner in the pic below is from an old kit - thought I could clean it up.  But it wasn't close enough to resemble the Donaldson cannister on the real truck and too much work needed to be done for it to look smooth under chrome paint.  I had a replacement screen from an old Braun, electric shave I thought I could use, to better look like the Donaldson -

 

This is what I wanted to get closer to -

 

The outer cannister scaled to 1/2" in diameter and I wanted to use the next smaller size, to attach the mesh to and slide that assembly up into a piece of the 1/2" tube - had a small sketch to keep me aware of proportions needed -

 

Pieces cut out and squared up.  I cut out a piece of paper to determine the size of the mesh section I needed to cut out of the shaver's screen.  Once cut out, I needed to wrap the mesh section around a small dowel, so the mesh would retain a curved bend smaller than the inside tube, allowing it to stay in place until CA glued -

 

I had glued the mesh section a lower inner portion of tubing and to an upper, 2 mm section.  Once glue had set, I was able to slip the 1/2", upper and lower tube sections over the inner tube/mesh, sealing the mesh in -

 

I still need to close off the ends of the cannister and make those end pieces smooth.  Plus, will need to make two, simple mounting brackets with straps and add the outlet pipe.  I tried to be careful not to scratch the cannister body, so it would still look smooth under the chrome paint.  Should be able to get most of this work done tomorrow.  I appreciate the continuing patience as I get closer to getting this done - take care!

Neat idea Brian. Polish the tube with some 4,000 or higher sand paper before painting.

Ron G 

[Straightliner59]

Nice work, my friend! There are so many times that it's just easier to scratchbuild something, rather than modify a kit part--they always look better, too!

[Gary Chastain]

Air cleaner is looking spot on

[Biggu]

Your scratch skills are off the clock. Just fabulous. The air cleaner looks perfect. 

[RoninUtah]

Great idea for the air cleaner! Might have to buy a Braun shaver- and I wear a beard!

[BK9300]

14 hours ago, ShakyCraftsman said:

Neat idea Brian. Polish the tube with some 4,000 or higher sand paper before painting.

Ron G 

Thanks, Ron - I’m liking how it’s turning out.  I have a set of finishing sanding pads, up to 10,000 - I’m just leery of leaving any streaks at all in the smooth plastic.  Maybe I’ll have to do some fixing if primer shows any flaws - just trying minimize the handling at this point!
 

9 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:

Nice work, my friend! There are so many times that it's just easier to scratchbuild something, rather than modify a kit part--they always look better, too!

Yes, I wasn’t getting anywhere fast on the old kit cleaner!  Just took awhile to decide to scratch it.  I’m my own worst enemy, though - if I don’t know how to do something, I tend to think, then overthink, too much before just doing it.  Thanks, Daniel.
 

 

3 hours ago, Gary Chastain said:

Air cleaner is looking spot on

Thanks, Gary!  Bit more to go on it, but most difficult part of it behind me now.
 

1 hour ago, Biggu said:

Your scratch skills are off the clock. Just fabulous. The air cleaner looks perfect. 

Thanks a lot, Jeff!  Like I said above, too much time spent thinking about how to do it - this should have been made several pages ago.
 

35 minutes ago, RoninUtah said:

Great idea for the air cleaner! Might have to buy a Braun shaver- and I wear a beard!

Thanks, Ron - appreciate you having a look!  By accident, I found a few of those screens for sale, tucked away in a box in a second hand store.  Maybe you won’t need to buy a whole saver!

[ShakyCraftsman]

Hey Brian 

 These are what I use for all my sanding. Infini Sanding sponge stick.

I use these 4,000 ones to polish clear plastic to get rid of scratches and cloudy spots. 

 The rest of the line goes from 250 to 4,000. They also have there zebra sticks which are great for rough sanding. They go from 100 to 800.There all I use now.

Ron G 

Edited 1 hour ago by ShakyCraftsman