Western Star 4900 FA plow truck

[k100]

This is awesome build , great attention to detail .

[BK9300]

21 hours ago, cifenet said:

Looking very good, Brian!

As usual, this is another fun update and great showing us several outstanding implementations. 

And lastly, the use of the punch and an old hair dryer, they are definitely the correct application! 😄 

 

 

Thanks, Steve!  Yes, Jeff have a good idea about the punch and I've had success with the dryer in the past, so all worked out well!

 

10 hours ago, Gary Chastain said:

The details just keep coming, soooo cool

Thanks a lot, Gary - don't know how you do more than one build at a time - I wouldn't have room or be able to keep things straight!

 

1 hour ago, k100 said:

This is awesome build , great attention to detail .

Thanks very much, Mark - I appreciate you having a look!

[BK9300]

I've not stopped work on the dash, but as is happening more frequently, I'm needing to jump around to get all the finishing to come together.  I need to paint the cab, finish the interior, and wire the firewall, which includes a bit of wiring from the engine.  I will need to finish the starter wiring and that led me to the battery boxes and my distraction from the dash!  So, my list is good for what's left to do - not so much for the order in which to do things.  

I finished cutting out all the pattern pieces for the battery box / tool box steps and taped them all down to a 0.5 mm sheet of styrene.  In the past, on this build, I've cut out the pieces with a razor saw.  I read somewhere, recently, of someone simply scoring the plastic and snapping the plastic along the score, like I've done with gyproc.  I'll have to give that a try on some of the longer, straight cuts, to see if it will speed up the process a bit!  Not much accomplished today, and choosing to cut out parts in this manner has, overall, certainly added lots of extra time to the build, but I get to end up with a custom part and will be certain of having finished battery/tool boxes that are solid and represent the real Western Star boxes. 

 

lots more cuts to make. . .

 

I've seen some examples of photo etch battery cable ends available online, but they are very small and I don't always have good luck applying CA glue.  So, looking at lots of truck battery pics online, I'm going to modify some resin batteries I have, into bolt post batteries and use some of the Scale Hardware fasteners to bolt the battery cables in place.  If I use 0.5mm brass rod, I can use pliers to flatten about 1.0mm of an end, shape it a bit and drill a bolt hole in it.  Then I can cut off the flattened section, with a bit of extra length, and insert it into a suitable size wire for the battery cables and bolt them into place.  That's the goal anyway.

This has become a much more involved project than I first imagined, but it's been a very rewarding experience - both the project's modeling and the opportunity to see all the great work going on in the forum.  I very much appreciate all your comments along the way, so, hopefully you can endure to the end - it is in sight!  Take care.

Edited April 16 by BK9300
typo

[AmericanMuscleFan]

Very well organized, I am not really surprised that you deliver such good results Brian, the calculation (and preparation) is worth the work as they say! 👍

[BK9300]

9 hours ago, AmericanMuscleFan said:

Very well organized, I am not really surprised that you deliver such good results Brian, the calculation (and preparation) is worth the work as they say! 👍

Very kind of you, Francis.  And about results, sure looking forward to your upcoming posting(s) of progress on your machined engine for the Demon!

[BK9300]

Yesterday afternoon, after taping down the pieces to a piece of 0.5mm sheet, I started cutting the pieces out and soon decided that the 0.5mm stock would look too thick, so I transferred all the cutout patterns to a sheet of 0.25mm sheet and carried on.  I did get all the pieces for the battery and tool boxes cut out late yesterday afternoon, but still have more to do for the covers.  Did a bunch of sanding and edge truing this morning, then spent the rest of the morning and afternoon solvent gluing all the box pieces together, with wait times in between for joins to set up.

 

I used my aluminum miter box as a line-up tool, to square the starting seams as best I could.

 

Some more hardware to be used - those tiny, aluminum and brass hex rivets from Top Studio will 'bolt' the mounting flanges to the box as well as the supports for the perforated steps from Auslowe.  The diamond plate will need to be cut to make the top layer of the covers for the boxes.

 

The basic boxes have been assembled, with some of the pieces for the covers in the background - definitely much happier having used 0.25mm stock instead of 0.55mm - looks more to scale.  Managed to cut the metal steps to length using several careful, pressure cuts with an X-acto blade.  'Bolts' are only in temporarily - will need to be trimmed to length and CA glued in.

 

Perforated steps mocked in place - boxes will be painted satin black

 

The underslung cross member and the battery box mocked in place 

 

This pic looks like a lot of room between the back edge of the fender and the edge of the battery box.  It's that way on the real truck, too - maybe needs to be that way because of the cross member?  Don't know the answer to that!

 

The batteries I have are from CTM, but are listed as 'European truck' batteries, with both posts on same end.  I also don't know if there are North American batteries like this, but I am converting them to bolt posts, or threaded terminals, and will put the posts on opposite ends of the batteries.

 

Will hopefully get the covers made tomorrow!

[cifenet]

Beautiful execution, Brian!  The box looks sweet.  All these details parts are candy to my eyes. 😁

[Jürgen M.]

Undescribable what you're doing, Brian! 

I always get the feeling that I'm watching the manual manufacturing of a real truck!

Ever thought of resurrecting Marmon and building the real thing by hand? 😉

[BK9300]

18 hours ago, cifenet said:

Beautiful execution, Brian!  The box looks sweet.  All these details parts are candy to my eyes. 😁

Thanks, Steve - glad you like all the 'stuff' - I know you're a stickler for the details in your builds, too!

 

18 hours ago, Jürgen M. said:

Undescribable what you're doing, Brian! 

I always get the feeling that I'm watching the manual manufacturing of a real truck!

Ever thought of resurrecting Marmon and building the real thing by hand? 😉

Thanks, Jürgen - well, definitely some manufacturing going on, but the production line isn't going very fast!  As far as the Marmon - the 'Rolls Royce' of trucks - I don't know if I could make a cab and hood from scratch.

Edited April 17 by BK9300

[BK9300]

Had a bit of an anxious moment at 4:30 am today - I found myself quite wide awake, wondering if the battery box would be in the way of the underbody plow.  So, that was first on the list for today and all turned out ok.  Got some more done on the boxes - made the covers that I will now need to see if I can cover with thin, diamond plate from CTM.

 

 

Set the truck up with the underbody plow in place and mocked up the battery box again - lots of clearance.  (step tread looks a bit warped but I think it will lie straight once epoxied in place)

 

 

 

More patterns for the covers - scored the cover lids where the bends are needed -

 

 

Covers are made - I added 'cleats' at the inside, back edges of the covers that slip over the back edge of each box and hold the cover in place.  I still hope to attach sets of those little photoetch and rubber hood latches from CTM - more small holes to drill!

 

Once the diamond plate has been epoxied to the top surface of the covers, I will need to add two brackets and a step to each box.  Again, the boxes will be painted satin black and I'm leaning towards painting the cover/step assemblies aluminum - there is a bit of room between the covers and the boxes so paint won't bind the covers.

 

I'm hoping to end up with the boxes looking close to this - 

Thanks again, to all who have a look and thanks, too, for the generous comments along the way!

 

Edited April 17 by BK9300

[Biggu]

Brian , this is such a magnificent highly detailed build. It is quite thrilling to watch. All the angst and sleepless nights are really paying off.  Absolutely fabulous. 

[Jürgen M.]

7 hours ago, BK9300 said:

Thanks, Steve - glad you like all the 'stuff' - I know you're a stickler for the details in your builds, too!

 

Thanks, Jürgen - well, definitely some manufacturing going on, but the production line isn't going very fast!  As far as the Marmon - the 'Rolls Royce' of trucks - I don't know if I could make a cab and hood from scratch.

Actually Brian, I'm sure you could!

I don't have by far your knowledge about trucks and your experience in modelling but I think if you used a KW W900 cab and put Western Star fenders on a scratch hood it would look absolutely real with your abilities! 👍

[Gary Chastain]

Impressive building, those battery boxes are top notch. 

[BK9300]

13 hours ago, Biggu said:

Brian , this is such a magnificent highly detailed build. It is quite thrilling to watch. All the angst and sleepless nights are really paying off.  Absolutely fabulous. 

Thanks, Jeff, and I’ve appreciated all your observations along the way, from hands-on with these trucks.  And who’d of thought that wondering about clearances on a model would wake someone up at night !
 

 

9 hours ago, Jürgen M. said:

Actually Brian, I'm sure you could!

I don't have by far your knowledge about trucks and your experience in modelling but I think if you used a KW W900 cab and put Western Star fenders on a scratch hood it would look absolutely real with your abilities! 👍

You’re too kind, Jürgen.  I suppose anything is possible, but there are several other project ideas already in line!

 

1 hour ago, Gary Chastain said:

Impressive building, those battery boxes are top notch. 

Much appreciated, Gary!  I sure seem to rely on those templates from my digital model.

[AmericanMuscleFan]

You killing it Brian, the step and battery boxes combo are very well made, who would be surprised?

But there's no reason to stay up at night, everything is so well organized and executed, your references are abundant, I would be most surprised in the world if anything on this superb truck wasn't representative of the original! 👌

[BK9300]

2 hours ago, AmericanMuscleFan said:

You killing it Brian, the step and battery boxes combo are very well made, who would be surprised?

But there's no reason to stay up at night, everything is so well organized and executed, your references are abundant, I would be most surprised in the world if anything on this superb truck wasn't representative of the original! 👌

Thanks a lot, Francis - appreciate the comments - and didn't stay awake very long early yesterday morning, so all is good.  I am a bit surprised (and thankful!), though, that moments like that often lead me to solutions for problems about how to fix something or make the 'next step' clear!

[BK9300]

Just about there, with the battery/tool box fabrication, and I got to use a new tool today, for the first time!

Had this in the cabinet for awhile, thinking I was going to be making a set of the photo etch boxes from I had purchased from CTM - they weren't deep enough, though.  But, turns out it was very handy for bending the diamond plate covers.

 

Taped everything down, so I didn't mess up the scribe/cut line on the diamond plate.  A few passes and some decent pressure on a fresh X-acto knife blade, and the thin plate was cut apart -

 

I cut a small, test section, to get the spacings right for the bends on the actual covers - scribed a couple fold lines on the backside of the test plate and gave it a try.

 

Test cover held in place with tape

 

Covers bent to shape and held in place with tape.  I wasn't sure how much the cover plate length might shorten from the bending, if any, so I left the lower and back edges of the plates a bit long - I'll trim them to their final size before I epoxy them in place.

 

Tomorrow, need to do a bit of clean up sanding on the boxes, trim and epoxy the cover plates in place, make two sets of upper step brackets and steps, epoxy and 'bolt' the upper brackets through the cover plates, and set them aside to let the epoxy cure.  Hope to get some paint on them sometime this weekend - take care!

 

 

[Mopar - D]

Awesome progress Brian! Looking forward to seeing your next update. 

[Gary Chastain]

Geez…….wow……nailed it again🏆🏆

[AmericanMuscleFan]

That's promising, Brian! 😁

Just kidding, you know, this is another success story in the making, the diamond plate gives them the "real look", it's like wrapping paper on a gift.  I also have a photo-etched bender but from a different brand, it's very useful for bending thin aluminum or brass, it creates super straight and precise bends, plus nimble hands, you can never have too many tools, right? 😉

[Scott Eriksen]

On 4/16/2025 at 8:49 PM, BK9300 said:

Yesterday afternoon, after taping down the pieces to a piece of 0.5mm sheet, I started cutting the pieces out and soon decided that the 0.5mm stock would look too thick, so I transferred all the cutout patterns to a sheet of 0.25mm sheet and carried on.  I did get all the pieces for the battery and tool boxes cut out late yesterday afternoon, but still have more to do for the covers.  Did a bunch of sanding and edge truing this morning, then spent the rest of the morning and afternoon solvent gluing all the box pieces together, with wait times in between for joins to set up.

 

I used my aluminum miter box as a line-up tool, to square the starting seams as best I could.

 

Some more hardware to be used - those tiny, aluminum and brass hex rivets from Top Studio will 'bolt' the mounting flanges to the box as well as the supports for the perforated steps from Auslowe.  The diamond plate will need to be cut to make the top layer of the covers for the boxes.

 

The basic boxes have been assembled, with some of the pieces for the covers in the background - definitely much happier having used 0.25mm stock instead of 0.55mm - looks more to scale.  Managed to cut the metal steps to length using several careful, pressure cuts with an X-acto blade.  'Bolts' are only in temporarily - will need to be trimmed to length and CA glued in.

 

Perforated steps mocked in place - boxes will be painted satin black

 

The underslung cross member and the battery box mocked in place 

 

This pic looks like a lot of room between the back edge of the fender and the edge of the battery box.  It's that way on the real truck, too - maybe needs to be that way because of the cross member?  Don't know the answer to that!

 

The batteries I have are from CTM, but are listed as 'European truck' batteries, with both posts on same end.  I also don't know if there are North American batteries like this, but I am converting them to bolt posts, or threaded terminals, and will put the posts on opposite ends of the batteries.

 

Will hopefully get the covers made tomorrow!

Everything looks great Brian,,,those batteries from CTM are close to a Group 8D 12V HD truck battery ,,  I've used them also

[BK9300]

On 4/18/2025 at 5:53 PM, Mopar - D said:

Awesome progress Brian! Looking forward to seeing your next update. 

Thanks, Dan - it's getting there, and quite a few more updates likely needed!

 

On 4/19/2025 at 8:15 AM, Gary Chastain said:

Geez…….wow……nailed it again🏆🏆

Thanks, Gary - thankfully, I've been getting lucky with a bunch of 'firsts' for me in this build!

 

On 4/19/2025 at 12:56 PM, AmericanMuscleFan said:

That's promising, Brian! 😁

Just kidding, you know, this is another success story in the making, the diamond plate gives them the "real look", it's like wrapping paper on a gift.  I also have a photo-etched bender but from a different brand, it's very useful for bending thin aluminum or brass, it creates super straight and precise bends, plus nimble hands, you can never have too many tools, right? 😉

Much appreciated, Francis!  About those tools, every time I go to the hobby store, I come back with more paint, and tools, than I intended to buy.  If I was 10 (or 15) years younger, I'd sure like to have a try at the type of machining that you're so accomplished at.  But, I think I'll just 'stay in my lane' and carry on with tools for styrene!

 

On 4/19/2025 at 1:06 PM, Scott Eriksen said:

Everything looks great Brian,,, those batteries from CTM are close to a Group 8D 12V HD truck battery ,,  I've used them also

Thanks, Scott, and with posts like yours, I'm continuing to learn about trucks - didn't know about all the different groups of batteries out there for trucks!

[BK9300]

So close to being finished the battery boxes - a little more work, and then paint!

 

I had made the brackets for the upper step a few days ago, and now had to attach them to the box.  I'm not confident about the epoxy holding the diamond plate to the covers - a corner of one lifted while I was trimming the lower and back edges of the plate.  I used thin CA glue to hold the corner back in place, but not as sure as I would like to be how well the diamond plate is secured.  I wasn't going to epoxy the brackets to the diamond plate, or use CA glue because I'd make a mess around the brackets, so I decided upon actually bolting the braces to the cover, like the real thing.

Taped the brackets in position and used a 0.6 mm bit to drill through the plate/styrene cover;  the bolts and nuts in the pic are from Scale Hardware -

Brackets with the bolts spotted in place - 

With some (lots!) of difficulty, and a pair of tweezers in each hand, I did get all the nuts snugged up into place.  I nipped off the bolt ends, and applied some thin CA glue the nuts and threads that should, hopefully, keep the nuts from backing off.

 

Then, I cut a couple lengths of the Auslowe metal steps to fit in the upper brackets.  Same problem here about how to attach both sets of step treads.  Might rough up the inside ends of the steps, and the styrene perches, and just go with CA glue.  Seems a bit of a shame to paint over the metal parts, but the real ones are aluminum so that's what's needed!

 

One more mockup of boxes on truck -

 

Next, to completely finish the fabrication, I need to have a go at those CTM hood latches, for the sides of the boxes, to hold the covers in place.  Would be great if I could attach them so they could be unhooked - the rubber latch is a tiny bit stretchy - and the covers remain removable.  After that, need to paint, then onto batteries for the driver's side box, then onto the wiring to the motor.  Take care!

 

Edited April 20 by BK9300
added mockup photo

[Scott Eriksen]

Those Auslowe steps are nice I used them on the FDNY Wrecker

[BK9300]

On 4/20/2025 at 5:05 PM, Scott Eriksen said:

Those Auslowe steps are nice I used them on the FDNY Wrecker

Yes, they are definitely a step up from some kit parts.  I have to go back to your build and see what you used for a fuel tank - I recall that it was a square sided, diamond plate tank in combination with the steps.