NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR

DALE EARNHARDT JR's 2001 FIRECRACKER 400-winning "BUDBALL" MONTE CARLO

Son returns to track father was killed on, finishes first, with "help" from team mate who he'd "helped" win on same track 5 months earlier, unaware his father had been killed on the last lap... NASCAR couldn't have scripted a more perfect ending to the saga of the Earnhardt tragedy. (And despite the many rumours from the conspiracy theorists, I do not believe NASCAR did anything to orchestrate this... it was a flat-out balls-to-the-wall driving style inherited from his Daddy that did this for Little E... Mike Helton was not on the "grassy knoll"... he's not that reckless...)

Anyhoo, step back a couple months...once the Three Amigos had gotten a look at the Charlotte car back in May, the idea of doing decals for it became very appealing. We began gathering the stuff we'd need... I noticed some Budweiser coasters in the Fitzrichard Pub just a few blocks from us, that had the correct script for the '01 car... a couple weeks later they were handing out MVP ballots at the Jays game.... oh, look! the Allstar hood logo! By about June 15, Sam had all the goodies he needed, and began to work his magic, and by the end of June, we had a pretty good decal sheet worked up, and I was about to start the model.

Then came the Firecracker... and the project took on a whole new life.

I was well along in the building of the model, when I stopped by the CIAstocks pages, looking for a bit of extra detailing info, and was mesmerised by the after-race celebration shots. Then and there, I decided the decals would need that little "something extra" to set them apart from the great offerings that are going to be coming from other decal makers.

So, here is the model, with "little E" in the famous arms-extended pose, and, I believe, for the first time in NASCAR modelling history, "historically-accurate" tire rubmarks for the right side of the car!

I also had decided to add some of the graphics needed to do up a reasonable facsimile of DE jr's uniform, so the allstar logo, Outlaw logo, "BUD" and a couple others were reduced to fit. (Being a Jays fan, I opted NOT to try and replicate the hated pinstripes for his driver's uniform... Note that figures are NOT my strong point... there won't be any close-ups of the 1/24th Little E"!)

Decals on the sheet will allow "prerace" (no rubmarks) or "postrace" (rubmarks) versions of the car to be built... for post race, build as per normal, using regular decals supplied (Prerace version pic below), then overlay the "rubmarks". Suggest they not be clearcoated, do all that first, as on prerace version, then lay on the rubmark decals.

The build of this car is straightforward. Remember, this is a Restrictoracer, so you need to build the "taxi" with the blade across the roof, and the big-assed rear spoiler.. Click Here to review the procedure I used for this model and the OREO car of Dale Sr.

Once body was modified, I laid on some PLASTIKOTE White primer, wet-sanded with 600-grit, then laid down some Chrysler White touchup aerosol lacquer, followed up by masking and painting VW Mars Red, from my favourite paint store... CANADIAN TIRE... (all warmed in hot tap water, of course, as per my normal practice...)

Decal application was straightforward, and after all had had a couple days to dry, I laid down a couple coats of TS13 aerosol clear from TAMIYA. A little rubbing out with TURTLE polishing compound, and I was ready to assemble, and apply the rubmarks!

All in all, it came out as a pretty neat model, and I was able to portray one of the more dramatic moments in recent NASCAR racing lore. Now all I need is to reproduce the infield grass logo, Dale tore up in his celebration... maybe the #15 NAPA special "FLAG"version Monte from that race? A Mikey Figure? hmmm....

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