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NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR Kenny Wallace's 1998 SQUARE D "Lightning" Taurus

Rusty was driving the "ADVENTURES of RUSTY" Miller Taurus (remember those ads?) which I built using RaceScale (Sunset Graphics?- can't remember now...) decals a few years back. I had always hoped to build the second-place car of Kenny, but decals were not forthcoming. Be careful what you wish for... about two years ago the graphics arrived in my email from Sam Lopez. I looked at them... hoo boy... and filed them away to work on. For the next year and a half, I'd peek at them every once in a while.. those lightning stripes were scary!! - then go on to a friendlier-looking project. Then, on Randy's Board, in about September, this Challenge thing came up, thanks to Pat Redmond, and in a sudden masochistic fit, I posted these as one of my challenges... and I was into it!

The basic graphics for the car were pretty simple, it was them lightnin' graphics that scared me! But I took Sam's images, did some cutting, pasting and resizing, and finally had what you see to the left, printed on a regular inkjet. Believe it or not, at this point I was convinced this model was doable!

I scanned the cutouts you see here, then used the scan as an electronic template, overlaid on the original graphics, to crop and resize them to fit. (My original idea had been to just rescan the cutouts, but too much image quality was lost in doing that...)

Once I had developed some lightning graphics that would conform to the body, I went ahead and printed those, plus the rest of the numbers, sponsors, etc. The model I started with was a Johnny B. Cheerios/Pop Secret Taurus from Monogram. I had to stop and remember the "tricks" needed to improve this model: hog out the grille, cut the chassis side fillers in half, put some little clips on the inside of the front spoiler to "hook" it to the chassis...

Painting the body was simple... grey PlastiKote Primer, wetsanded with 600-grit, followed by three nice fat coats of TAMIYA TS14 Gloss Black. Both prime and black aerosols heated in hot tap water, of course... don't forget the rear window "parcel shelf" needs to be red to match the chassis. And I was ready for the decals.... hoo boy...

The decaling of this car is a two-step process: First apply the "lightning" graphics, give it a day or two to dry, then a few LIGHT coats of TAMIYA TS13 clear, followed by the numbers, and other graphics, then more clear... The lightning graphics come in seven pieces: the decklid, roof,tv panel, then left and right rear and left and right fronts. The left and right rears cover the rear quarters, area in front of rear wheelwells, and b and c pillars.

I quickly determined they could NOT be applied as one large sheet, due to their size, and the complex curvatures of the area. I cut the rear decals into three parts: one for the b and c pillars, one for the area above and in front of the wheelwell and one for the area behind the wheelwell. Cuts were made in the white areas of the graphics. (Will likely include a diagram of this with the sheets for anyone interested..) That made it easier for them to conform. Similarly, I cut the front decal into two pieces, one to lay on the front fender behind the wheelwell, up onto the hood/cowl, and back along the door; and one (small) for the area in front of the front fenderwell. This was repeated for each side. I was very pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Like a fool, I did not take any pictures at that point, but went on to the rest of the graphics, after clearcoating as noted above.

The tricky part in part 2 is that the rear bumper yellow is included as one large yellow block, which needs to be massaged into place on the bumper, de-wrinkled, then trimmed after it is dry. This avoids having to match up the yellow to the Square D hood graphic. A similar yellow block is supplied for the front spoiler, but it is relatively easy to install...

It also takes a bit of "eyeball engineering" to get those blue/yellow checker stripes cut correctly, to conform to the side numbers and the rear bumper side profile. Be sure to do those AFTER you have the rear bumper yellow decal, and the side numbers, in place!

The rest of the graphics were SOP, and with a bit of clear and polish, the body was finished. The chassis (red) was built out, with modified exhausts, and my CHALLENGE was completed! This came out as a VERY striking model! Once again, Sam had provided all the elements needed for some excellent decals. I was afraid that the ALPS would have problems providing a realistic fade effect, and in fact I was nearly reported to the SPCAP (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to ALPS Printers) for running this one thru it! The lightning bolts are not EXACTLY as those in pictures I have, but unless you do a direct side-by-side comparison, you'd be hard-pressed to see any discrepancy!

So how did Jimmy Spencer, the victim of this fraternal gang-up, feel about the ending? He had been leading, but got shuffled back to fourth behind the Wallace boys and Bill Elliott in the last few hundred yards. He was OK - his quote, in WINSTON CUP ILLUSTRATED (April 1998): "If my brother didn't do that, I don't know if I'd ever talk to him again."

But he was NOT too happy with Awesome Bill, whom he felt could have helped him regain the lead... but at that time Kenny's team and Bill's team had a partnership in engine development work, so Jimmy was truly the odd man out, from both a blood and a business standpoint!

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