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NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR

DALE JARRETT'S 1999 "REVERSE" TAURUS - "THE WINSTON" Version


1999 was a "Very Good Year" for Dale Jarrett as he claimed the WINSTON CUP Championship for the first (and only to date) time in his career. This capped a career that had seemed at times to be about to founder on the rocks of unfulfilled potential, until he got his big chance in good equipment with Robert Yates Racing, after Ernie Irvan's unfortunate crash at MIS in 1994. DJ filled in effectively, and, true to his word, Yates kept him on board in a new team, after Ernie came back. Ultimately, the 88 team became the "A" team at Yates.

But like any season, 1999 had its ups and downs, and DJ's outing for the showcase non-points WINSTON at Charlotte in May was certainly a downer for him. Dale went into the event, as do many drivers, sporting special livery. The 88 car carried what has come to be known as the "Reverse" colour scheme, with white replacing blue as the main body colour, and rearrangements of the colours of other graphics, altho the graphics themselves were largely unchanged. The car was to honour the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, a charity with which DJ had become associated, and still is. All in all, quite an attractive car, which I preferred over the regular scheme.

Sam sent me files for this car earlier in the year, but with other stuff to be worked on, it kinda languished on the ol' C: drive until mid November. Meantime, I was thinking that there was something missing from the graphics - was there not the Komen Foundation pink ribbon on the car somewheres? ...and wasn't it a white pearl colour?

A nice build-up of this model by Perry Yeager, who also did these graphics, stirred my interest in the car again, and, finally, I dug out the tape from that race, and watched it... didn't realize I missed Eli Gold... and from what I could see, Sam had nailed the graphics right on. The only appearance of the "ribbon" was in a bumpercam or roofcam shot, where it would be too small in 1/24 scale to worry about. Guess I was having some kind of false memory syndrome... or just a "senior moment"...Shoulda knowed better'n to doubt ol' Sam!!

But I was still half-convinced it was a pearl finish... was chewin' on that, when Eli commented on the special finish on the numbers, and how they "jumped right out at you". Sure enuff, the numbers were not a plain dark blue, but obviously a reflective blue that, when they caught the light just so, really brightened up. Now THERE was a challenge!!

I decided to try and duplicate this effect, using the ALPS printing process; it turned out to be deceptively easy. I set up a graphic to allow me to lay down a silver underlay for the numbers only, upon which I then printed the regular colour graphics. After some experimenting, I found that a light blue close to Petty blue, when applied over the silver gave the effect I was looking for, as some of the silver backdrop showthru gave a reflective look to the blue numbers. The pic to the left shows the number with no direct light reflecting off it, the pic to the right shows the same numbers with light reflecting almost directly off them (What we in the colour business call the "near-specular angle"...) The rest of the decal was straighforward, I had just added one more step to the printing process. (In the back of my mind, I've wondered what other effects can be achieved using this and other tricks in Photoshop... multihues?? fades???)

The buildup of this kit was very easy... once I'd sorted out the pearl vs non-pearl thing... After cleaning up the body, I had primed it with PlastiKote white primer, then shot it with Tamiya TS45 White Pearl from a warm (tap water) rattlecan, then thought "uh-oh...". It had a yellow hue that was not in any reference pics or on the tape I'd watched. Sam clarified things later that night, when he emailed me that the Show Car was a pearl finish, but the Race Car was white! Mystery solved... So - one more coat of white promer (I don't DO show cars...), then a couple coats more of straight white touch-up enamel completed the main body. I then masked and shot the rear spoiler with Honda cobalt blue, a close match to the reference pics.

No other painting was needed. Everything else, including the red striping for sides, tail panel, bumpers and front spoiler, were on the graphics Sam sent me. I just had to haul out a long-forgotten 1999 SLIXX contingency sheet for the fender contingency decals. Once the decals were all in place, and had had 24 hours to dry, I applied several LIGHT coats of TAMIYA TS13 clear, from a heated (hot tap water) rattlecan, with a 20-30 minute dry time in between each coat. Final touch was to rub out to a high gloss with Turtle brand wax/polishing compound.

Parallel to that, I was working on the chassis, using PlastiKote white Primer, with VW MARS Red touchup lacquer over top. One other thing needs to be done when painting the body that I forgot to mention above, and should be done BEFORE any decal application, as part of the painting process. This applies to ALL Taurus kits by the way... mask off the "package shelf" below the rear window opening and paint it chassis colour! Another idea to improve the fidelity of this model is to hog out the top of the grille opening as in these pics, and use photoetch screen, as the grille opening in the kits is much narrower than they ever raced with.

Chassis buildup was normal process, with only oil lines added under the hood to fill out the engine compartment. Going back to a pre 2000 kit meant I had to once more fabricate my own fan-style exhausts, using the procedure Randy Ayers has laid out on his site. One problem with this kit is if you apply the rocker panel filler parts to the sides of the chassis, the exhausts hang too low, and do not look at all right. To solve this, cut the fillers in half, and only apply the front part, so you do get some body location capability, yet the exhaust can snuggle right up to the frame where it should be. Also, glue the little "clips" to the inside of the front spoiler, as Randy shows at his site, to keep the nose down snug to the chassis. Done right, there's no need to glue the body in place on these models...

I was very pleased with the final result, even tho DJ was not... (in the race that is, I doubt he's seen my model)... Less than halfway through the first of the three segments this race is run in, Bobby Hamilton got into DJ, sending him into the wall, collecting not only Dale, but Jeff Burton and Ricky Rudd. All three unhappy campers sat on the sidelines and watched Terry Labonte ultimately emerge as the winner in another "Hot Night" in Charlotte.

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