This is the first 1998 model I've built! The 1998 Miller Lite Taurus
driven by Rusty Wallace. The kit is a #99 1998 Revell-Monogram Ford Taurus
and the decals are from Racescale Graphics by way of BSR. The sheet was
made for the 1997 T-Bird which means I had to trim the white part from all
of the stripes since the stripes on the 98 car are red only. I also used
the Mobil 1 decals which have the solid white block around the "1" instead
of the blue block with white outline. I had to trim the point of the grey
area on the hood so it didn't go off of the hood and I had to use the white
Taurus logo from the #99 and outline it in black because there are no black
Taurus logos out yet and I don't know when they will be available (although
slixx will be coming out with a"nascar goodies" sheet for 98 which I'm sure
will include these). I also made a PPG logo for the trunk (I know from a
video I made at Martinsville that it says automotive beside this logo but I
wasn't sure of the "finishes" since I could find no pics where the trunk
was clearly visible! I got the "finishes" because of several adds for pPg
automotive finishes I've seen with the #2 pictured in them so I just
assumed that's what it says) This was the location for the red stripe
around the sides and back at Daytona (Which I have pictures of from WCI
magazine) I know the later cars have the stripe lower down on the body and
the Mobil 1 and Mead papers decals are pasted above it but as I said the
Daytona pics are the better that I had so I did a Daytona car. Lastly I
did a "K" for Kmart for the rear panel and made my own Bud contingency
decals so all that I left out were the Nascar Select battery decals and oh
yes I did a couple LENNOX decals as well (The letters are a bit oversize
but the other letters I had were way under size so I used these.
Painting and decals:
The chassis and body interior are standard light grey. The body was
then airbrushed in gloss white. I let the white dry throughly and masked
and applied the dark blue (standard testors as with the 1997 I did) When
dry I applied the decals starting with the red stripe. I then applied the
hood decal and the roof number, the homemade PPG trunk decal, the "Rusty
Wallace" above the windows, the door numbers, the rear quarter "Lite"
decals the Goodyear and other contingency decals, the headlights, rear
panel "Miller Time" "Lite" and "K"mart decals and finally the grille and
Taurus logo decals for the nose! Once these were dry I applied one coat
of testors clear high gloss enamel overcoat. While the body was drying I
masked and painted the clear parts.
Note: I did not work on the flat exhausts until after the model was
completed up to the point of painting the body so that I could mount the
body and get all the proper measurements and actually make the pipes and
fit them to the chassis/body combination and I can say now that the pipes
worked perfectly when glued to the chassis bottom outside edge and matched
up perfectly flush up against the body!!! Sure look better than those
ridiculous side pieces and pipe extensions in the kit IMO. I then made my
own pieces to extend from the chassis to the body on each side from 0.040
styrene sheet stock. The body required no modifications whatsoever (The
only thing I added were the two little tabs to hold the front end down and
hide the ductwork) There are pictures and descriptions of the flat
exhausts and the tabs for holding down the nose on the main page of this
site. Also one small detail I almost left out and I guess it would be
considered a modification to the body (oops!) I had to trim just a little
bit out of the front wheel wells because the tabs pulled the nose down just
a hare lower than the wheels would allow in stock configuration! I just
trimmed them enough to give the tires clearance that looked right to me,
how much you may think is enough is up to you to decide! I must say that
Revell-Monogram did a good job on this kit and it went together smoother
and easier than any I've done lately!
Complete instructions for painting and assembly of chassis, clear
parts, and construction of slab sides can be found at the bottom of the main page!