NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR
The car ran in one of the Twin 125's to try and make the big field, but best Ol' Shemp could get outta her was a 25th-place finish, which meant early exit for the boys.
The building of the model you see here was quite an adventure, and involved collaboration among three people in two countries.
This car is one that I've dreamt of building ever since I first saw it qualifying for this year's Daytona. With the shutting down of the so-called "B" decal sources, I despaired of ever getting that chance, as my graphics abilities, to do my own, were about equal to my capability to outduel JG and Dale on the high side at Michigan (read "potentially disastrous"...). I did, however lament this fact in my semi-monthly column/rant "NASCAR Corner" in the 29th edition.
A few weeks later, I got an e-mail from Sam Lopez in Mexico City, saying he might be able to help me get this model built, and was I interested? Needless to say, after I'd mopped up the floor under the computer, I responded in the positive...
Sho' 'nuff, in a short time, a file arrived that had the graphics laid out SLIXX-style, ready for printing and using.
Printing.... Aye, there was the rub... How could I get these printed on decal paper using a medium that would stand up better than the effort you get out of a normal Canon or Epson-type inkjet printer, and still be able to pay my kid's tuition??
I then remembered that fellow Group 25'er, Alex Kung, had told me he was plaaning to get an ALPS printer that could use different types of pigmented printing inks, such as white, gold, silver, etc, and he was planning to experiment with decal making. "hoo boy," I thought to myself, "have I got a project for him!"
I contacted Alex, who agreed to try out his new printer on these graphics. I printed out a set on my own ink-jet on plain white paper, and did some fitting and resizing to provide Alex some benchmark measurements so he could size the decals correctly. I then e-mailed the file to him to play with.
Got back from a few days' travelling to a note that Alex had the decals ready! (Won't go into any detail here on his, or Sam Lopez' methods - I don't know much about either... I just wanted some decals... and got to be Sam's "beta-user"...) I picked up the decals from Alex, and began the build. Toyota Sunburst Yellow was first applied over a white groundcoat, then masking and application of black followed. For the hood, to ensure the Stooge images and yellow lettering remained nice and bright, I left the hood white, and applied the decal, which has a printed black background. Looked great! The black-white-black separation stripes worked very well, as did the roof, deck and rear quarter decals. Had to double up on the door numbers, and the "Fuddruckers" emblem, to hide black showthrough. The contingency decals came from my SLIXX warehouse...
Since the "beta" set I was using did not have "X1-R" emblems for the right c-panel, I decided to do one side (left) of the car as raced in the Twin 125's (#73); and the other side as the car appeared in practice and press opps (#73 1/3).
When the pictures were taken, I had not yet completed the model. Missing is foil for the window straps, detailing of wheels, and the hand-made exhausts. These followed after the photos... Nor had it been clearcoated.
Ultimately, I was able to clear the decals using heated Tamiya TS13 rattlecan clear, in successive light coats.
The rest of the chassis build was familiar territory, and I ended up with a unique eye-catching model.
Once the build was complete, I provided some feedback to Sam: provide properly-proportioned "X1-R" for RHS C-pillar; correct spelling of "Curly" to match 1:1 car photos - not sure which is technically correct - I'm not a "Stoogie"; and try and brighten up the door numerals. This he's done, passed the file on to me, and it's with Mr Kung for printing.
Once I get some revised decals from Alex, I'll likely do another body... but I sure won't change anything on this one - it's like an R&D project!
I consider this a true multinational (Canada, Mexico) effort, using technology (E-mail, multicolour printers...) that would been unthinkable twenty years ago. Then again, 20 years ago, some PC twit would not be telling us what decals we could buy without Shutting Down Society as We Know It.. and we'd be able to get these ... but I digress...
We all played a part in this project - I whined, Sam designed, Alex refined, and printed. (not fair - I DID size the decals, and built what you see here to pass improvement opps back to Sam.
All in all, a neat project - what's next, Sammy????
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