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NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR

Kenny Wallace's 1999 "AEROSMITH" Monte Carlo


Of the three Wallace brothers, Rusty, Mike and Kenny, Rusty is by far the most succesful on the track, but I suspect Kenny has a following almost as loyal, thanks to the funloving personality and quick wit he has shown over the years, usually with himself as the butt of his humour. The model pictured here represents one his colour schemes from 1999, when he was part of the Andy Petree organization, and seemed on the verge of joining big brother Rusty as a winner in WINSTON Cup.

Now, I seem to remember Kenny commenting on this car on an episode of INSIDE WINSTON CUP (man, I've missed those boys...) and how excited he was to have this colour scheme. No idea if he paid Aerosmith for the privilege, or if they paid him to do it... or if they are even aware of NASCAR after all these years of rockin' 'n rollin'... but it is a neat scheme. Kenny ran it at Phoenix, in the 1999 Checker Autoparts/Duralube 500k on Nov 7, 1999.

Sam had been promising these for about a year, but we always seemed to have other projects on the go, so it was a nice surprise to have these images arrive in the old Outlook inbox in January this year!

I set right into building it, with coaching from Sam. Starting kit was the slabsided 1997 Terry Labonte Kellogg's Monte Carlo.

Looking at shots of the actual car, basic colour scheme was black and silver. Sam had provided a great big set of black wings on the decal sheet for the sides, so it was a simple matter to prime the entire car (Plastikote grey primer from rattlecan, heated in hot tapwater) and shoot it silver (1985 Toyota silver touchup lacquer from rattlecan, heated in hot tapwater).

Since the black "wings" would provide black/silver breakline (except for base of A-pillars...), I simply masked vertically on each side back about 1/3rd along the base of the side windows, and shot the front with black aerosol touch-up lacquer (heated, see above...) Once it was dry, it was a simple matter to lightly sand down the black/silver breakline, apply the black wings, and the basic paintjob was done.

Next step was to add the "rivets". These were almost my fave part of this build. Sam provided them in strips. As well as the layout for sides and rear panel (two rows wrap right around rear) shown to the right, there are also two rows down the roof, dividing it into thirds. These need to go on before the roof numer, unless you want to do some pretty fiddly cutting to butt them up to the numbers...

The rest of the decal application was simple. Fender contingency decals came from a 1999 SLIXX sheet. Once all the decals were in place, and had had 24 hours to dry, I applied 3 LIGHT coats of Tamiya TS13 clear from the heated (tapwater) rattlecan, buffed it up with Turtle polishing compound, and it was ready for the chassis. Chassis was a standard build, with oil lines, rear-end cooler lines, fan-style exhausts and seatbelts being the main additions.

Even Steven Tyler couldn't help Kenny at Phoenix, however, as he started 12th and finished 18th, in a race that saw Tony Stewart serve notice to the rest of the NASCAR world with his first win.

Kenny has struggled last couple seasons to stay at the WC level. He left Petree for 2000, to sign up with the new Eel River team. By the end of 2000, he was out of a ride, and relying on BGN to keep his hand in. You can tell your career is in decline when you don't make the driver profile section of The Official NASCAR Preview and Press Guide, and after several years tucked in between Tony Stewart and Rusty, Kenny is not in the 2002 issue... But he has been filling in quite capably for the injured Steve Park in the PENNZOIL, and as ol' DW pointed out, that's not a bad ride to help restart your WC career!

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