White Western Star Logger

[Casey429]

As part of my resolutions for 2014, I promised myself I'd build more. Shouldn't be too hard, I finished just one for '13, my Road Boss. I started the Roadrunner trailer the same time I got the Road Boss, and originally intended on adding it to a built up Pete 359. I axed that idea after a while, so the trailer went back into the box. While working on the Road Boss, I stumbled on the Western Star reissue, and decided they were a perfect match. I didn't pick up the Star until a few days after Christmas, so it's been a long time coming. Here's where I'm at.

I started off with the engine. Pretty much the same way I built the one for the Road Boss. Cummins beige for the big part, Testors for the rest. I should've done a better job removing mold lines from the turbo housings, but these usually have a pronounced one on the real things. Not a huge deal to fix, so I might. Air cylinders are yet to be put on the transmission.

The chassis was done pretty straightforward. I didn't have any extra frame rails to stretch the rear properly, and I don't want to get to bogged down with the details. So, I just made a pintle plate for the rear, with some gussets. I based this on a dump truck we installed a similar setup on back when I wrenched for a living.

Since we're going for a heavy duty look, I pulled out these Italeri spoke wheels I've been saving for a rainy day. They popped right into the kit tires with no fuss. A quick bath to dechrome, and we're in business.

And last but not least, a glimpse of what's to come. I have a paint job picked out already too, but with the current temp here in SW PA a bracing 16 degrees, that'll have to wait. I don't want to reveal too much, but it will be inspired by a large company with an elephant for a logo. Speaking of companies, I'll be homebrewing decals for this one like I did on the Road Boss.

Feel free to chip in and thanks for looking!

P.S.

I have a question for you, Tim. On your green Star, how did you go about concocting the dual exhaust plumbing? I want to have dual stacks on this one, and this, like the Road Boss, has a pretty crazy looking exhaust system I'll need to work around.

Edited December 29, 2014 by Casey429

[Jim B]

Should be nice.

[Swamp Dog]

great start..

[Old Buckaroo]

Awesome truck to build. Looks really great and I wouldn't worry about those turbo seams. The factory doesn't .

Edited January 3, 2014 by Sean D

[tbill]

looks great so far, I have whats left of some frame rails from a diamond reo if you want them to extend your frame, I used part of them to extend the frame on my mack r and log trailer set up.

[Chris guthro]

I love what you did with the rear of your frame! I might try that to and add a pintle hook I think!

[Tesla]

This is looking real good!

[Swamp Dog]

looking good..

[Trailking120]

Very nice

[Casey429]

A long, long, looooooong overdue update on my Star.

I ended up deciding to kick it up a notch and go ahead and stretch the rear of the frame on this one. It just didn't seem right to have the tail still looking like a tractor. Thanks to tbill's generosity, he went ahead and sent me some Diamond Reo frame rail sections. However, they didn't match up to the Western Star rails. The Diamond Reo rails have a radiused edge, where the Western Star is square. So, if anyone else has a need for the Diamond Reo rail pieces, PM me and I'll pay the favor forward. I wanted to pick up another Western Star to pillage for parts, but my LHS didn't have one. So I picked up another Road Boss, since it shares most of its bits with the Western Star. This also gave me a matching set of spoke wheels for the trailer, and some other parts I'll use. I added about 1 1/2" to the aft end of the truck and redid the pintle plate. Then I doused everything in a nice coat of Valspar Classic Red.

I added these Italeri spoke wheels to the front. I removed some of the webbing (not sure if it's cause they're a European style wheel or supposed to be a brake drum, but it didn't look right) and painted them red to match. Black rims and a silver beauty ring and wedges complete the look. The hubs are actually the rear hubs painted to look like fronts, and I added the red oil cap from Plastruct rod.

For the rears, I did the same. Pretty much identical to my Road Boss, just red instead of orange. I'll put some baby moon caps on the drive and trailer axles, since I used rear hubs on the front. One thing I noticed too is there must be some mold alignment issue with the Road Boss tooling. The webs on a couple of the wheels are way off. I noticed this on my Road Boss build, and is why I wanted another Western Star as a donor. Too late to do anything about it now, so I'll live with it.

For the interior, I built it up just like the Road Boss. Krylon Mocha Brown for most of it, Testors black and silver for the gauge faces. I didn't spend too much time on details, since you won't hardly be able to see any of it.

I'm really liking how things are turning out so far. I'm still doing final prep and bodywork on the cab, hood, and log trailer. I need to make the most of this unseasonably warm weather, so paint will be flying soon.

Thanks for looking everyone!

Edited October 29, 2014 by Casey429

[Sam I Am]

Love it !! I came from the land of logging (Toledo,OR) and have been collecting a few log trailers to build up.

[Petetrucker07]

Very nice detail on the rims. Good job so far

[gotnitro?]

Good job so far, keeping an eye on this one!

[gotnitro?]

Just a note, gwtrucks sells cnc cut frame rails in various length. Makes a frame stretch much easier..

[Trucker Al]

Love the wheel detail! what color is it going to be! can't wait for the finished product!

Alex

[mackd]

Nice job

[kilrathy10]

Very nice work on the wheels....And everything else looks great, too.....

[Casey429]

A little update on the Star.

I got the chassis sitting on it's own 10 feet. Now its starting to look like a truck!

I've been doing a little experiment with some rear hubcaps. Some of those folding brass fasteners with some Duplicolor chrome looks like they'll do the trick.

Here you can see how the Road Boss wheels are a little off in the molding.

I've also been playing with some exhaust ideas. I want to run dual stacks on this but the kit muffler leaves a lot to be desired. I have this set from the Italeri truck accessory kit and they're miles ahead of the kit parts. I contemplated straight pipes, but wanted something a little quitter for running up and down the mountains. Tips are aluminum tube that I miter cut. They'll get polished before final assembly. Final height might need some adjustment, but that'll wait til later. They'll probably end up being a hair taller than the headache rack.

I also decided to add a spare tire. But, since I robbed all the wheels from the Road Boss, I didn't have any spare spoke wheel rims left. Easy fix. Take one old and bad looking aluminum wheel:

Slice off the hub...

Paint black to match, and we have a spoke rim. Still needs a beauty ring painted on, but that won't take long.

Thanks again everyone!

[Casey429]

Just another quick update. We had some unseasonably warm weather today in SW Pennsylvania so I took full advantage. Lots of red paint flew today. I'll let it sit for a while to dry so this will be it for about a week or so.

Red everywhere! Fuel tanks, battery box, trailer, and some other miscellaneous bits got their color. I like the results, but I don't think I'll be using Valspar again any time soon. It takes forever to dry and despite the can saying dry to the touch in 40 minutes, that isn't the case. I'll also never use this much red again lol. Everything needs to be prepped and primed exactly the same so it matches, and it ended up eating up lots of time. But it should all be worth it in the end.

I wasn't sure what to do for taillights, so I looked online at some 1:1 logging trucks. Most have them under the chassis, my guess is to prevent a mishap with a wayward log. With my pintle plate, I couldn't do that and at this point it's too late to redo it. So I took some 3/8 x 1/4 Evergreen square tubing and capped one end. .

And I got the mudflaps for the tractor done. They're from the trailer kit. Testors flat black and silver. I wasn't too thrilled with some of the boogers in them at first, but real rubber isn't flawless either. I then scraped the paint from the letters with an Xacto and colored them with a yellow Sharpie. I also stuck a small red lens on the end (this truck will have lots of extra lights). I'm pretty happy with the result.

It's getting to that point where it's a bunch of time consuming little details that will come together in a big in the end. I had a bit of a paint failure on the cab and hood, so those will need some more attention. With the weather slated to cool off big time, I hope I can get it redone before Old Man Winter sneaks up on me. Thanks for looking!

[gotnitro?]

looking good !

The mudflaps are great looking ! I like to use Testors Army Helo drab for the rubber..gives that aged appearance to tires and rubber parts.

[Swamp Dog]

looking good...flexible drinking straw's work great when duling out exzast heck they work good all the time..

Edited November 12, 2014 by Swamp Dog

[Casey429]

Just a quick update for you all. We had an unseasonably warm Christmas Day here in SW PA, so I took advantage of it. After multiple mishaps with my original paint idea, I wasn't sure what to do next. I wanted to paint the Star black, since I always liked the black/red combo. But try as I might, I couldn't get it to look even half decent. So after looking at the box art and grabbing some Krylon bright white, I have a white White Western Star. I'm also going to use the red stripes from the kit decals.

I'll give the paint a few good days to cure, and then I should be able to button this up. Maybe even before years end. Thanks for looking!

[kilrathy10]

This is some good looking stuff, Man....Great job on those wheels.....

[guitarsam326]

Kudos to you my friend, I cant get ANY light colored krylon paints to look even half way decent especially white, but yours looks great!

[knarf]

this is looking good! have the same kit on my bench and also a logger. and since i also have the italeri kit you mentioned, i'll be watching your exhaust work