NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR
Ultimately, though, the lure of competition kept him in the NASCAR game, and although he has not made the dramatic impact on the track his father, and grandfather, did, he certainly has enjoyed some racing success over the years. With eight wins, he is tucked in nicely between Cotton Owens, with nine wins, and A.J. Foyt, Jim Reed, Bob Welborn, and Marshall Teague, all with seven wins each. And how many of those boys would be caught dead with a ponytail and ear rings, do you suppose?
In reality, it's Kyle's off-track personna that has made him a respected member of the NASCAR fraternity in his own right, and a highly popular driver with the fans. He's a straight shooter, doesn't take himself too seriously, and is generous with his time for charitable causes. In 1999, Kyle was named by WINSTON CUP ILLUSTRATED as NASCAR's Man of the Year, a well-deserved honour. Recent recipients have been Evernham, Gordon, and Darrell Waltrip; again, not a bad crowd to run with... Kyle marches to his own drummer, and NASCAR is the better for it.
The model shown here is the car Kyle drove in the 1999 California 500 at Fontana, and commemorates one of his biggest charitable efforts, the "Charity Ride Across America", in which huge numbers of participants, including NASCAR luminaries like Geoffrey Bodine, Bill Davis, Harry Gant, ride from Charlotte to the west coast, making fund-raising stops at hospitals and other service organizations along the way.
The starter kit was, fittingly, the Monogram HOT WHEELS Grand Prix kit. Decals were once again from the fabulous THREE AMIGOS, with Sam Lopez the artistic wizard behind the graphics, Alex Kung as the ever-patient Production Guy, and Yours Truly as Official Tryer-Outer and Whiner....
When this set of graphics arrived from Sam, I was truly excited. Here was a unique opportunity to build a model of what was a striking and elegant colour scheme. And Sam had the graphics nailed!
This was a surprisingly complex set of graphics to prepare for printing on an ALPS printer - especially the hood logo- and files flew back and forth for many weeks before we got it all squared away... The ALPS process, where you need to sub in a silver or white cartridge, and make separate runs for each of these, plus the three-colour and black runs, requires a bit of planning and experimentation to get it right! But that's where Alex shines...
My job was to figger out how to get it all on the car, and in general it went well. After sanding and priming, I applied a coat of Canadian Tire aerosol touch up lacquer, straight from a heated rattle can. The colour used was not a straight silver, but a darker charcoal grey metallic found on 1984-87 GM products. My perusal of what shots I could find, plus an initial attempt with a straight silver, convinced me the charcoal was closer to the 1:1 prototype. The second colour, on the hood, nose, top of front fenders, lower part of rocker and rear quarterpanels, and the TV panel, are black. After looking at several photos, and with input from Sam and Alex, I figured out the two tone colour scheme. I again used a black touchup lacquer from CTC...
The trickiest parts were figuring out how to mask the rockerpanel areas so the black rockers would blend into the "loops" of the side graphics. Ultimately, I used a photocopy of the side decal, cutting out the graphic, taping it in place and using a BIC black marker to denote the curved break/masking line, following the contour of the bottom of the "loops" on each side, and the bottom of the leading edge of the HOT WHEELS logo. The loops, side numbers, and HOT WHEELS rear quarter logo are all in one piece on the sheet; I found it much easier to position everything by carefully cutting the HOT WHEELS logo free of the loops, to provide adjusting latitude.
The roof, rear deck, TV panel, and rear quarterpanel decals are straightforward; that huge hood logo is real intimidating - but it went in place quite nicely, although I didn't know I could hold my breathe for five minutes... Note that the border of the hood star is Real Silver - something only an ALPS printer can do...
Sam had even provided all the white scripted contingency decals for the rear fenderwell areas, they went on over the side graphics no problem, with no bleedthru...
Believe it or not, the only decals on this kit that were not THREE AMIGOS-generated were the little "we Care" decals, and the front fender contingency decals. The fender decals came off the excellent SLIXX 1999 Grouped Contingency sheet. There is a set in the center of that sheet that EXACTLY reproduces the layout on the car as it ran at Fontana. The little "We Care" blue circle on each side in front of the rear fender openings near the numbers came from an older SLIXX contingency sheet...
The only glitch is the two stars on the rear decklid. These were not on the original graphic, and I requested their addition, which was dutifully done, except, I asked for red stars with a silver outline - the opposite of the real paint scheme. These have since been corrected, and I will replace those on this model.
The usual interior work, including the Earnhardt bar, seat belts, plumbed and wired engine, dual valvestems, radio cord coiled around steering column, etc, were added. I have yet to fully assemble the model, as I want to clearcoat it once I get the decklid stars replaced, and I still need to build more authentic exhaust dumps.
But even at this stage, it is a very unique and convincing model, representing an intriguing facet of the broad interests of the "Prince" - Kyle Petty.
Where to next, Sam??
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