A tale of two WiPs

[18degrees]

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

See what i did there?

hey y'all, hopping on here to share my 2 current WiPs with everyone.  i truly hate doing more than one build at a time, but when one is 90% completed...

so the first one is going to be a mystery, anyone have a guess as to what it is gonna be based on the color of the hood and the car?  it technically should be a 2005 edition Monte and i bought a 2001 edition before i really thought about it.  there IS a difference... i sized this one up with a completed 2005 era body.



any guesses?  i know it's not much to go off of.


this other one, the story isn't so simple.  back before i moved in 2021 i used to have to paint models in a shed.  so i couldn't exactly paint bodies during the winter months, so i would work on chassis and such and paint the bodies when the weather got nicer.  this was one such build.






i pulled it out the other day to resume... and i remember why i stalled out.  it was supposed to be this car



but... the Powerslide decals were sized to a resin body that Mike sold before the kits came out.  i built it on a Chase Elliott SS kit.  needless to day, after fiddling with the huge side panel decals (snipping, cutting, angling, etc) i realized that it wasn't going to work, no matter how much massaging i did.

so now it's going to be this




the decals should be here this weekend.  had to do a lot of work, don't know what was going on when i first started this but the white paint is crappy/orange peeled.  also, i had some gouges in the side body slits so i filled them in.  and the hood had some gouges in it that were pretty deep, i assume from not taking care when i removed the molded hood pins.  sanded and sanded, couldn't get rid of them.  ended up filling with putty.  the second coat on the hood is drying now.  should turn out looking ok.

i chose this particular Dale Jr. build because i was REALLY happy with the stance of the car (not sure what i did with the front but the rear has some 3D printed springs from Brandon Miller that are functional, along with some functional shocks i fabbed out of aluminum tube) plus i had already marked the tires and wheels for #88.  so i kinda had to stick with it.  i had done some decal work, the hood, roof, tv panel that all had to be peeled off.  thinking about trying to salvage the black paint on the tv panel. i had painted a 3D printed superspeedway splitter (again from Brandon Miller) bright red for this, and instead of using it for one of my Ryan Blaney Menards builds that used a red splitter and just grabbing a new one from my stash, i primed it grey, then white, they painted it florescent yellow.  gonna represent the car in the photo above, a Talladega win, since i already filled in the jack points in the body (seemed that was done often for superspeedways by this team, see both photos above).  also chose that Nationwide scheme because it seemed like the decals would fit, even on the wrong style body.

[18degrees]

got a little done recently... paint on both bodies and a few decals.

this is Tamiya Park Green and 3 Amigos decals... not sure if i like their decals or not.  will have to do a little more work with them to give a verdict.  not sure if i didn't line up the top decal on this or they are mis-sized from the seller. prolly me but these decals aren't very forgiving when trying to line them up.  anyone have any tips? i tend to not deal with too many multi-layer decals.



i asked y'all in the first post if you had any idea what build this is... any ideas now?

not a fan of the movie, most racing movies that i have seen (aside from "Rush") aren't very realistic.  "I'm dropping the hammer"... you wouldn't take off by downshifting on an oval at speed, Tom Cruise, you would blow the motor.  "Talladega Nights" ain't much better but at least it's severely tongue in cheek.


anyway, on to Dale Jr.  Tamiya Metallic Blue and Pure White.  i included a close up of the side to show there are 2 stripes, the top one seems to blend in when viewed at a distance.  i did manage to salvage the black on the tv panel.







this set of decals is waaaayyyy easier to deal with than the National Guard decals.

[Volzfan59]

That Perrier car was driven by the French F-1 driver in Talladega Nights. Ricky Bobby's nemesis but the name is escaping me. Gil Gerrard maybe?

[18degrees]

Jean Girard. I only know that for sure because it's on the decal sheet

[Volzfan59]

Are there prizes involved???

[TonyK]

I like that Nationwide car. Nice paint scheme and graphics. Looking real good so far.

[18degrees]

Are there prizes involved???

Like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, you had to get the name 100% correct to win the prize. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades

[Volzfan59]

Ha, good one. I should have done more research 😂

[Volzfan59]

Sent you a PM Dave

[18degrees]

Only have one decal on the Nationwide car to put in place then the windows and spoiler on and she's gonna be done.

I have an extra full sheet of the Nationwide decals that i can sell for $11 delivered (paypal is preferred) if anyone has a SS kit they need decals for. I always order 2 sheets these days in case i mess something up, which i usually do, so this is a rarity

Painted the #55 floorpan, so that's in the works too.

[18degrees]

finished the #88, it's in the showroom

[18degrees]

lots of painting done on the #55 engine, cage, running gear, etc.  not feeling real hip about doing the decal work.

[jh63fan]

not feeling real hip about doing the decal work.

I used to have bodies painted and decaled before anything else got done. Now it's the last thing I do. I have a half dozen frames totally complete and bodies that may have made it to the primer stage.

[18degrees]

not feeling real hip about doing the decal work.

I used to have bodies painted and decaled before anything else got done. Now it's the last thing I do. I have a half dozen frames totally complete and bodies that may have made it to the primer stage.

just not a fan of layered decals.  i'm lazy these days and just want to put one on and be done.  this one is going to have many layers...