NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR

JEFF GORDON's 2000 "PEANUTS" Monte Carlo!!

Here we have my first build of the new Revellogram 2000 Monte Carlo. And the decals are once again 3 Amigos, with great graphics supplied as usual by Sam Lopez, printed on my trusty MD1000. The model shown here represents Jeffie's 2000 Indy ride, painted to commemorate 50 years of Peanuts cartoons. (! - Ya do what ya gotta do to sell diecasts...)

Personally, I've always considered Joe Cool a role model, so was real excited when this file arrived from Sam - but I tried not to show it...

While I was researching this model, looking at colour schemes, decal size and placement, I got very confused. Was this whole car light blue, or was it a two-tone with a darker roof? Finally, with help though some great shots sent to me by Shawn Payne, I was able to satisfy myself that there was indeed a two tone effect.

Producing the proper shade of blue was a challenge. Although close to Petty (Grabber) Blue, it was less red, and seemed richer and lighter, kinda like.... the sky. (I'd wondered why the car was in a colour so different from usual 24 fare, until it hit me as I was applying the doghouse decals, and the "cloud" decals - it's sky blue to be a backdrop as in the original Shultz cartoons! Simple once the light comes on...).

Anyhoo, I ended up spraying some bright white touchup lacquer (Chrysler match) into a bottle, and adding several drops of ChromaPremiere 988K Green Tone Blue mixing base until I had the colour I felt correct. I then shot the entire body, which had been primed with PlastiKote Grey Primer, and wetsanded with 1200 grit sandpaper. Looked real close to the original. I then took what was left in the bottle, and added more of the 988K to get a darker blue, which I then airbrushed onto the roof, and down the pillars to match pictures, as best I could.

I then applied my newly-minted 3 Amigos decals. As well as these, since I'd started with the Revellogram regular 2000 Dupont Monte, I had figgered on using the kit decals for a lot of those items not in the graphics, such as the Dupont ovals and "Automotive Finishes" signage for the rear quarters, and various larger decals, such as Quaker State... imagine my surprise when I realized there were no decals in the kit! Ooops! Must talk to Revellogram about that!!

Instead, a newly-acquired set of the SLIXX 2000 "SILVER" car decals from the Daytona race became my source for these, plus the contingency decals. So don't ask me if Revellogram's 2000 Dupont decals are any good... I wouldn't know...

Once all decals were in place, I carefully applied three coats of TAMIYA TS13 clear in LIGHT coats from the heated (tap water) aerosol can, and polished the heck out of it all with Turtle polishing compound. Came out quite nice! Oh, yeah... the spoiler I painted dark blue - it might actually be black... and the cowl panel was painted semigloss black.

While all this was goin' on, I built and detailed out the chassis. My impressions of the new Monte kit are as follows:

• The overall body shape is quite good, other than that dweeby little spoiler. Will need to work on an easy way to replace THAT!! It also sits a tad high in the nose; too much daylight under the airdam... even for Talledega...
• Cannot BELIEVE they forgot pins on the decklid! Very puzzling...
• The chassis is pretty well the same as the '99 Monte chassis, which likely explains the missing Earnhardt bar.. Oh well, no biggie, and the ones I add are more convincing than that little nancy-bar in the Taurus kit, anyway...
• The new engine mounts are more prototypical, but there is a great opportunity to misalign them if you're not careful, which could leave your engine sitting askew in the engine compartment...
• The new exhaust system is KILLER! Saves a lot of scratchbuilding time... Now should I bite the bullet and just buy an extra one of these each time I build a Grand Prix, or '99 Monte... or would that be playin' into Revellogram's cunning plot?...
• The cold air box, and new oil pan, are impressive. The updated distributor/plugwire harness set looks like an anorexic spider, sittin' on the engine, but it's nearly 100% hidden by that cold air box, so I can live with it. One less thing to scratchbuild...
• The raised lip around the jacking holes in the rear window are an excellent idea, and allow you to highlight them with fluorescent paint, actually an improvement over using decals...and the springjacking assembly under the rear window looks great!
• The new wheels, with separate disc brakes are nice, but the discs look pretty anemic, too small, I may try making some slightly larger ones next time...
• No jacking posts provided under the rockerpanels as in the last version, but I was easily able to build more convincing ones from a short length of 3/32nd plastic tubing; likely shoulda been doin' this all along...

I also added my usual little bits - valve stems (2 per), radio wire around the steering column, seatbelts, gas tank overflow tube... fewer than on past kits, as this kit has reasonable pieces. I did not feel the need to build exhausts, or a new ignition wire set...

So, how did Jeff do in the race? He started 33rd, goin' down a couple laps after gettin' caught up in an accident, and just sat there, finishing 29th, two laps down... definitely a Charley Brown kind of day....

(By the way, I think I musta got the light/dark blue contrast right... some of these shots show the two-tone effect, some do not, depending on the lighting... just like on the real car, I guess.)

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