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NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR The Earnhardt "LEGACY" Monte Carlo

His popularity as a racer was a major reason for NASCAR's taking off in the late '90's and, love him or hate him, no one could deny he knew how to manhandle a stock car!!

Frankly, I am not sure what to make of this model/collectible/whatever... It is likely one for the die-hard Earnhardt fans only. Is it a model car, or does it belong with the strange "collectible" stuff - the Earnhardt pocket knives, the Earnhardt clocks and doormats? To my knowledge, there is no actual car using these graphics at DEI, although some of the elements of the design - the elongated "E-stripes" on the sides. and the large "E" on the roof - have been incorporated into the three DEI cars for 2003. But this particular design was announced by ACTION PERFORMANCE as part of their diecast line-up late in 2002, is shown on a 2002 Monte Carlo, and billed as a tribute to Dale's legacy. (Here's an interesting thought: Dale's best years, when he won 4 of his 7 Championships, were in Luminas - wonder how these graphics would look on a Lumina??)

When I first heard of this little project by ACTION, I was decidedly lukewarm, feeling that they were trying to take the Earnhardt legend into ELVIS-land by over-hyping it for profit (or is that already happening?...hmmm). Besides, it did not represent an actual race car, or even a fictitious race car - no numbers on the doors!!! (I should note here that I am not particularly anti-diecast. Their quality has increased dramatically in the past 3-4 years. I did buy Gordo's 200-year car, and some of the Muppets Diecast this year, but I passed on the MUPPETS so-called "event car" - no numbers on the doors...)

So, it was kind of ironic when this graphics file arrived unannounced from Sam. I was surprised, and not highly enthused, but Sam had done a quick survey thru Randy's NASCAR Modeling Forum site and showed a number of people were keen to build this one in plastic. So, I fired up the ol' ALPS, plus my shiniest black lacquer (TAMIYA TS14), and, lo and behold, ended up with what is actually quite a spiff model!

So, what we have here, I suppose, is a 1:1 scale model of an ACTION PERFORMANCE diecast... The base model is the Jeff Gordon 2000 standard glue kit, primed with PlastiKote grey primer, then shot with three fat coats of TAMIYA TS14 black. All aerosol, all heated first in hot tap water, for better atomization. Sam's graphics were right on, and made up into an excellent set of graphics. The silver centers of the "E"'s in particular add greatly to the overall design. They actually come off looking like chrome (like BareMetal foil). I must admit I monkeyed a bit with SAM's hood graphics, so the red colour is not as bright as I'd like on this particular model, and I made the white surround too narrow. This has been restored on the graphics file for any future printing, and I plan to redo the hood on this one in the near future. Other than that, it faithfully reproduces the ACTION piece in plastic. Once the decals had had a couple days to dry, I shot it with some light coats of TAMIYA TS13 clear, then polished the heck out of it with Turtle Wax, so that that black was nice and glossy.

Now that I have it finished, I'm glad I was given the chance to go ahead with this little 3 Amigos project, and I'll certainly find a place for it in my display case!

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