Post by Dan Belcher on May 14, 2022 9:34:01 GMT -5
30 years ago we were treated to one of the best All-Star races of all time, the 1992 running of The Winston. Here is Dale Earnhardt's car as it looked in that race. Well, at least before it got junked by the turn 3 wall!
Monogram kit with Powerslide decals. The body is painted with Tamiya TS-14 black, TS-30 silver leaf, and TS-13 clear straight from rattle cans. The chassis and interior of car were airbrushed with MCW Finishes Poppy Red.
I started this car last year and took a long break after I accidentally broke the entire nose of the car, repaired it, and broke it again. I am glad that despite all of the repairs I had to do, it turned out to be my best build yet.
Here are the things I had to modify or build from scratch for this car. I am happy to help if you have any questions about how I did something.
Exterior:
Reshaped nose (I sanded the valence to make it shorter on the left side than the right. I filled in area on left side and simulated the metal piece by painting with Alclad chrome, but painting it with an extra coat to make it look less shiny than chrome).
Added covers to the grille openings on either side of the Lumina decal on the nose.
Larger rear spoiler.
Lowered rear bodywork behind the wheels, and removed some material from the bottom of the rear bumper.
Photoetched grilles (with black ribbon mesh covering the top center grille).
New exhaust pipes.
New quarter windows and air ducts.
Added jack posts.
Added valve stems to wheels, and drilled out the center of the rear wheel hubs and filled in the back of the hole with some plastic.
Wheels are glued directly on, and the connection point on the suspension was cut and shimmed as necessary to get the right wheel depth.
Added a roof antenna.
Interior:
Seat (The seat is an older style one Don Lansing scavenged from another kit for me, and I built the left side support from Evergreen plastic sheet. I made seatbelts from masking tape and seatbelt hardware from plastic I cut and painted with a Molotow chrome pen).
Headrest (Evergreen sheet cut to fit with a piece of felt glued on it).
Ignition boxes (made all from scratch with Evergreen plastic and assorted wiring).
Mirror (More Evergreen plastic sheet, chromed with a Molotow pen).
Cooling hoses (26 gauge metal wire wrapped around a rod to create the shape, removed the rod and wrapped the metal wire in PTFE plumbing thread seal tape and painted silver, then black washed with Tamiya panel line accent).
Steering wheel radio wire (wrapped thin plastic wire around a rod to shape it).
Rollbar padding (I added one piece of padding to the A post area bar made from heat shrink tubing)
Monogram kit with Powerslide decals. The body is painted with Tamiya TS-14 black, TS-30 silver leaf, and TS-13 clear straight from rattle cans. The chassis and interior of car were airbrushed with MCW Finishes Poppy Red.
I started this car last year and took a long break after I accidentally broke the entire nose of the car, repaired it, and broke it again. I am glad that despite all of the repairs I had to do, it turned out to be my best build yet.
Here are the things I had to modify or build from scratch for this car. I am happy to help if you have any questions about how I did something.
Exterior:
Reshaped nose (I sanded the valence to make it shorter on the left side than the right. I filled in area on left side and simulated the metal piece by painting with Alclad chrome, but painting it with an extra coat to make it look less shiny than chrome).
Added covers to the grille openings on either side of the Lumina decal on the nose.
Larger rear spoiler.
Lowered rear bodywork behind the wheels, and removed some material from the bottom of the rear bumper.
Photoetched grilles (with black ribbon mesh covering the top center grille).
New exhaust pipes.
New quarter windows and air ducts.
Added jack posts.
Added valve stems to wheels, and drilled out the center of the rear wheel hubs and filled in the back of the hole with some plastic.
Wheels are glued directly on, and the connection point on the suspension was cut and shimmed as necessary to get the right wheel depth.
Added a roof antenna.
Interior:
Seat (The seat is an older style one Don Lansing scavenged from another kit for me, and I built the left side support from Evergreen plastic sheet. I made seatbelts from masking tape and seatbelt hardware from plastic I cut and painted with a Molotow chrome pen).
Headrest (Evergreen sheet cut to fit with a piece of felt glued on it).
Ignition boxes (made all from scratch with Evergreen plastic and assorted wiring).
Mirror (More Evergreen plastic sheet, chromed with a Molotow pen).
Cooling hoses (26 gauge metal wire wrapped around a rod to create the shape, removed the rod and wrapped the metal wire in PTFE plumbing thread seal tape and painted silver, then black washed with Tamiya panel line accent).
Steering wheel radio wire (wrapped thin plastic wire around a rod to shape it).
Rollbar padding (I added one piece of padding to the A post area bar made from heat shrink tubing)