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NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR

Dale Earnhardt Junior's 2002 BGN "OREO" Monte Carlo


After an absence of nearly one year, RCR cautiously returned the legendary "3" to NASCAR in the 2002 Busch season opener at Daytona, the "EAS/GNC LIVEWELL 300", with Dale Jr, naturally, as the pilot. This was part of a 2-race deal between RCR, NABISCO, and DEjr as I understand it, and also served to showcase the "3" through 2002, with a tentative re-entry into WINSTON CUP with that number in 2003. (Don't think Dale Jr wasn't under a LOT of pressure with THAT car, THAT number, at THAT track... but he tried to downplay it before and after the race...) The second car is the 'NILLA car (Decals Pending...).

Based on both the ontrack performance, and fan acceptance, this was a hugely successful venture! Little E dominated the race, coming home in first, with Michael Waltrip in second. But unlike Daytona last July, Mikey wanted to get by his WC teammate, as at BGN level they are not on the same team. Ironically, Mikey got in a duel with one of Little E's old BGN nemeses, Matt Kenseth, and had to be satisfied to fend HIM off and keep second place.

Graphics for this model came, of course, from 3 AMIGOS' resident artiste, Sam Lopez. Decal application is pretty straightforward, everything is on the sheet except the fender contingency decals, and the front grilles. Starting point for this model was the Earnhardt 2000 regular kit, but any 2000 Monte kit, regular or Profinish, will work. Only significant modification I made was to remove the kit rear spoiler, and replace it with one that complied closer with the ever-amorphous NASCAR specs. (One thing I did NOT do, but wish I had, in looking at the finished model, was modify the front airdam to incorporate the "kickout" NASCAR has given the Chevies..., or maybe started with the ProFinish body...)

Painting was fairly simple, a good thing. I went thru my stock of Canadian Tire touch-up lacquers, and found a 1979 Ford colour, J3, that looked close to the colour in my reference pics. After I had primed the body with PlastiKote grey primer (rattlecan heated in hot tapwater) I wetsanded it nice and smooth with 600 grit then heated my aerosol can of J3 in hot tapwater, and began to lay on the first coat...

Yikes... the paint came out in huge droplets, and left the whole side covered in orange-peel... obviously this 15+ year old can of paint had either lost some pressure, or the paint had bodied up so much that the old "hot water treatment" wasn't enough to let it atomize... I likely shoulda thought of this... So, I sighed, cursed the viscosity demons, and after letting the mess dry a few hours, sanded it all back down again... This time I emptied about half of the aerosol can into a bottle, nailed it with about 50% by volume of lacquer thinner, and had another go at it thru my airbrush...

This resulted in a smoother finish, but there were these little hunks of crud in the finish that required a LOT of sanding to remove. Took a close look at my airbrush, and saw it was loaded up with PlastiKote clear engine enamel, this is the same airbrush I use to apply clear to our 3 Amigos decals. I obviously had not been doing a very good job in cleaning, and all that strong lacquer solvent dislodged dried-on clear! Sanded the body, recleaned the airbrush, and finally got a decent finish...

To simulate the lighter colour blue around the bottom of the car, I just sprayed some white touchup lacquer from another Aerosal can into the bottle of dark blue, until the colour diference looked right, then carefully fogged the bottom inch or so of the model, then I was ready for the decals.

The trials of turning a gorgeous set of graphics such as these from Sam into a workable set of decals can vary from a simple testfit and go, to some tricky - at least for those artistically-challenged such as I - and subtle changes. Using an inkjet print of the graphics, I was able to resize a couple items so they better duplicated references, including downsizing the great big hood graphic Sam provided, and I thought I was good to go.

"Splash" decals were applied first, then numbers and rear quarter graphics, then I added the hood graphic. Lo and behold, there was a problem that would only show up once you laid the decal over the painted hood... there should be a body-coloured gap between the "OREO" signage and the white "fogged" area on the hood front, that Sam had simulated as a decal.

Well, it took me about 5 takes over a week, to add that bit to the graphic, but it was worth it! You can see the difference in the pics below. On the left is the original decal with solid white up to the "OREO" logo, on the right is the more-accurate hood decal, with the body colour break in it. (I had toyed with either leaving it alone, or asking Sam to revamp it, but I wanted improved accuracy, I knew I wouldn't be happy leaving it as is for MY model, and I know Sam has a bazillion other neat projects underway...)


Once THAT was taken care of, everything else fell into place easily. Once all decals were on, and it had a couple days to dry, I sprayed on several light coats of TAMIYA TS13 clear from rattlecan heated in hot tapwater, then polished it out with Turtle Wax, and it was ready for the chassis.

Won't bore you with chassis details, 'cause let's face it, the graphics are the main point in modern NASCAR modelling, aren't they? And I have a formulaic approach to the chassis that anyone who's read this far has read before anyway! Just suffice to say I added seatbelts, and a radio coil wire around the steering column, and that was about it!

I was very pleased with the final result. Sam, as usual, did an EXCELLENT job in capturing the artwork, I was able to get it all to came together on the model body, and I had a unique model from one of Dale Junior's most significant wins... Bring on the 'NILLA, Sam, I'm ready!!

(But the famous "3" back in WC racing??? I wonder...)

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