Coastie Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 (edited) Whilst this is my first post here, I'm not 'really' a newbie. Now in my forty-ninth year, I got my first ever kit for my 7th birthday, and even including two marriages and three kids, I've never really stopped - Lucky, eh ??. Well here I am back building 1:24/25 cars instead of my usual 1:48 & 1:32 aircraft, why ?? Well almost five months ago, my family and I left the UK for New Zealand, and whilst we're renting a house here, I simply don't have the room to build, paint and display the 'big stuff', so have defaulted back to my second favourite subjects... NASCAR and Muscle Cars ! 1988 is sort of a special year in terms of NASCAR for me – It’s the first season that I really took notice of this fantastic spectator sport. The cars were interesting to look at, the racing was at times more akin to bare-knuckle boxing and most importantly, Sky was showing it every weekend in the UK !! I bought my first couple of NASCAR kits in 1990, both were from the 1988 season, Davy Allison’s ‘Havoline Thunderbird’ and Ricky Rudd’s ‘Quaker State Buick’. I cannot recall how many years ago I bought the Buick kit again, but six years ago I found it in a water-damaged box, in the garage, at my mothers house. The kit & instructions were perfect, the decals were trashed !!. Nevertheless when we decided to move out here to NZ I boxed-it-up and brought it with me (amongst very many others). Lucky that I did, as whilst looking for decals for a different project I found a site called Mike’s Decals (www.mikesdecals.com). I ordered a replacement set of Fred Cady decals and started work: As you can see the body only needs a little filler, my biggest ‘issue’ will be getting an acceptable match to the green paint. In every photo, and there aren’t too many of them, of the ‘88/89 car the green seems to occupy the whole spectrum of light to medium greens and in one picture looks closer to turquoise !! Ahhhh well nobody said the hobby was designed to be easy, right ?? Ian (First posted on other sites early July 2012 Edited September 2, 2012 by Coastie Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Coastie Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 As you can see, the green is on – my own mix, the white has been primed and masked on the lower body, and just done, the masking for the black pin-stripes each side of the gold stripe – the black isn’t provided on the Fred Cady decals I’m using. Still unsure about the inside colour of the bodyshell, Really difficult to make out in the few photos that I’ve see. The roll-cage and floor pan area dark green and I don’t think I can go too far wrong painting the bodyshell light grey… unless anybody here can tell me otherwise !! AFN Ian (First posted on other sites late July 2012) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Coastie Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 (edited) As ever with these late 1980's vintage Monogram kits, the generic interior, engine & running gear is a truly awful fit and requires a shed-load of filing, cyano, patience, experience, clothes pegs and swearing to get all the component parts together.... Arrghhh - If I had any hair left I'd have torn it from my head whilst I was wrestling this lot. Now on to the fun part... the decals. Edited September 2, 2012 by Coastie Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Coastie Posted September 2, 2012 Author Share Posted September 2, 2012 Fred Cady sheet 603 is a direct replacement for the kit decals, (minus the contingency 'stickers' - these came from an Earnhardt 87/88 Aerocoupe), and is quite simply, fantastic !! If you've ever used any Monogram decals from this era and I’m guessing most folks reading this probably have, then you'll know that the lighter colours - especially the white - were very transluscent, Not too bad on an aircraft model, but annoying as h*ll on a car kit. Because the white characters on these Fred Cady decals come with separate overlays for the black borders the white can be printed with greater 'depth' giving an almost opaque finish... wonderful and HIGHLY recommended. As you can see, still a work in progress, but I should get the decalling sorted after a couple more evening sessions this week. AFN, more soon. I'm happy to answer any questions, comments or criticisms, and ALWAYS happy to take any suggestions to improve my 'craft'. Thanks for taking the time to look. Ian Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bigasshammm Posted September 2, 2012 Share Posted September 2, 2012 Very clean and detailed. Nice work. nascar's not my favorite but I can enjoy a model of it now and then! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Glynyrd Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 Lookin' really good! I was going to mention maybe referencing the paint with a bottle of actual Quaker State oil, but it looks like you have it spot on. You're absolutely right about that era of Monogram decals, I built a Neil Bonnett Valvoline Pontiac in 2005 using the box decals. Translucent they were; I was surprised they had even worked since they were stored in an attic at one time. It's getting really difficult to find that body style Buick. Thanks for sharing. Glenn Quote Link to post Share on other sites
2qwik4u Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 Nice! The green looks like it went down beautifully. -Dave Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.