Revell 1/24 2000 Dale Earnhardt #3

[CANicoll]

After the last two detailed builds, thought I'd try something different, hence the Revell Dale Earnhardt #3.  Mostly because I want to see if I can get a nice, shiny NASCAR body done with all of those decals.  Not going to spend hardly any time under the hood (which will remain closed) but want to do a reasonable job on the interior.  NASCAR engines are not all that interesting anyway, but the interiors can be somewhat interesting, not that anyone will get to see much of it.

Plus, somehow, I've come down with Walking Pneumonia so need SOMETHING to do while I wait for the antibiotics to kick in.

This kit is from 2000, which is the year before he was killed at the 2001 Daytona 500. I picked up the kit that year. Kept it shrink wrapped until opening it a few weeks ago.  The decals still have yellowed a bit...

I guess it is good a lot of the decals are grouped together, especially with not a lot of clear carrier film noticeable.  The current plan is to paint the gray lower panels with the red pinstripe.

And we will see how 24-year-old decals respond...

Laid down a coat of Vallejo Gloss Black Primer first, which was a HUGE disappointment - splotchy and would not lay down. Looked like crap.  So covered that with the usual Vallejo Black Primer which I have found always goes down so smoothly.  Covered beautifully.  In the background are some of the gray interior parts and black primer for the wheels

 

Right after finishing the last coat, I somehow managed to airmail the body across the room so there are a couple of small nicks I need to clean up.

Tomorrow this will get a nice coat of X-11 Tamiya Gloss Clear in prep for the decals.

[FullArmor]

Interesting. Thanks for this WIP. Looking forward next step.🙂

[Landlubber Mike]

Looking forward to following this one Chris!  

My daughter caught pneumonia back in September.  Apparently a lot of kids and adults have been catching it this fall.  Hope you feel better soon.

[DocRob]

Interesting project Chris, hopefully the decals will behave, as they are the so important for such a kit. Hope your pneumonia will be better soon.

Cheers Rob 

[CANicoll]

7 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Looking forward to following this one Chris!  

My daughter caught pneumonia back in September.  Apparently a lot of kids and adults have been catching it this fall.  Hope you feel better soon.

7 hours ago, DocRob said:

Interesting project Chris, hopefully the decals will behave, as they are the so important for such a kit. Hope your pneumonia will be better soon.

Cheers Rob 

Hi Mike:  The doc said they are seeing a lot of Walking pneumonia and Covid - not so much Flu so far so your daughter was on the early end of that here.  How long was your daughter out for?  The cough is annoying, but more I'm tired. Slept about 10 hours last night (which I usually sleep about 7).

Rob - Thanks, me too on both. I appreciate it.  I'll look today to see if there are any AM ones available. I cannot get the Vallejo Gloss Black Primer to spray consistently.  When it sprays nicely, it is beautiful.  But on the vast majority of my tries, it does not.  On this build I was careful to really wash the plastic in my usual dish soap with a soft brush.  With these older kits I wanted to make sure the mold release was off the plastic.

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, CANicoll said:

I cannot get the Vallejo Gloss Black Primer to spray consistently.  When it sprays nicely, it is beautiful.  But on the vast majority of my tries, it does not.  On this build I was careful to really wash the plastic in my usual dish soap with a soft brush.  With these older kits I wanted to make sure the mold release was off the plastic.

I used many Vallejo products in the past Chris, but was seldom really convinced by the result. When it comes to priming, I use Mr. Surfacer thinned with Mr. Leveling thinner since years and am really satisfied with them. As a good base you can also use Tamiya LP gloss black, which is fantastic and if thinned and sprayed properly dries with a near polished finish. 

Cheers Rob

[CANicoll]

Thanks Rob.  I have no problems with the normal Vallejo Black primer, and most of their other paints, but the gloss black I am not good with.  I do have Mr. Surfacer, several levels, but have never tried to thin and prime with it.  With your urging, I think I'll give it a go on my paint mule.  I do not have many Tamiya paints, and none of the lacquers but I have heard they are nice paints.  The other challenge is I now paint with Vallejo, MRP (more and more), Alclad and have leftover Model Master Acryl.  I'm tempted by AK Interactive and some other of the new lacquers.

Best,

Chrsi

[Landlubber Mike]

1 hour ago, CANicoll said:

Thanks Rob.  I have no problems with the normal Vallejo Black primer, and most of their other paints, but the gloss black I am not good with.  I do have Mr. Surfacer, several levels, but have never tried to thin and prime with it.  With your urging, I think I'll give it a go on my paint mule.  I do not have many Tamiya paints, and none of the lacquers but I have heard they are nice paints.  The other challenge is I now paint with Vallejo, MRP (more and more), Alclad and have leftover Model Master Acryl.  I'm tempted by AK Interactive and some other of the new lacquers.

Best,

Chrsi

I have some leftover Vallejo gloss black and will use it on small things with an irregular surface like engines where I will also use Vallejo Metal Colors.  Otherwise, I use Mr. Surfacer black and/or Mr. Surfacer Ueno Gloss black if I want to black base for larger flatter surfaces where surface finish is important.

[Landlubber Mike]

6 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Hi Mike:  The doc said they are seeing a lot of Walking pneumonia and Covid - not so much Flu so far so your daughter was on the early end of that here.  How long was your daughter out for?  The cough is annoying, but more I'm tired. Slept about 10 hours last night (which I usually sleep about 7).

She missed six days of school with a fever and was really tired.  Probably took a good three weeks to get to feeling better.  She also lost weight (when she was thin/athletic build to begin with) and was a bit slower and more tired which didn't help as she plays travel softball.  

I remember having walking pneumonia maybe 15 years ago.  I'd have a touch of a fever and feel a bit tired, so would go home, take a day off from work and sleep 12+ hours.  Then I'd feel better for a good 5+ days and then go through it again.  The z-pack antibiotics certainly helped, but I really needed to sleep many days straight for a good 10+ hours to finally get over it.  And I usually function just fine on 5-6 hours of sleep.  I think it's one of those things where you really need to rest for a long period of time to kick it.

[CANicoll]

Mike thanks.  I was beginning to wonder the same thing about getting a lot of rest.  I don't feel badly, just very tired...  The cough I've had for two weeks already so expect that to hang around for a while...

I do like the Vallejo black primer which seems to give a very consistent smooth black finish, and it's not a lacquer.

[belugawhaleman]

Looking forward to see how your build proceeds. I've never had much

success with automotive finishes and am interested in seeing how its done.

[CANicoll]

5 hours ago, belugawhaleman said:

Looking forward to see how your build proceeds. I've never had much

success with automotive finishes and am interested in seeing how its done.

Same for me!  The nice thing about the #3 is that it is pretty much all black.  If this goes well I may try a Richard Petty #43 in that STP Red/Orange and Blue.

[CANicoll]

Well, as expected the decals are proving to be something of a challenge.  The rooftop #3 has two major wrinkles I need to remove but when I hit it with a decal solution, the wrinkles shift.    The decals are rather thick so not reacting well to decal solvent very well anyway, but I'm reluctant to using Solvaset.  Some work to be done there.

Also, the decals all have a brownish tint that has to be washed off.  Here is the residue on the backing paper.

Painted the lower panel Dull Aluminum (Vallejo Metal Color after having to use the end of a brush to break up the pigment in the bottom of the bottle and give it a really good stir for several minutes) in preparation for the red pinstripe.  Just could not bring myself to use the kit decals.

Also created my own problem when one of my masks slipped and it took off half of the rear decal.  Not sure what I'm going to do about that.  I'm soaking the offending piece of tape in the hope it will eventually release the decal. My bad!

The plan is once the decals are on to get a nice clear coat on and polish that.  I have a 70 Challenger in the stash so may try that sometime - polishing the paint before laying down the clear coat.  Will see how the #3 turns out...

[CANicoll]

Amazingly enough, it worked pretty well!  Here is the decal on the piece of tape that pulled it off the car.  I soaked it in water for a few hours then gently worked a toothpick and then a number 11 blade under the decal to fully loosen it from the piece of tape - applying lots of water as I went.

The end result is not perfect, but considering what I had before, better than nothing!

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow, good save!!

[DocRob]

Have you tried to warm the #3 decal with a hairdryer, Chris. I had stubborn decals settled perfectly with decal solvents and some added heat. 
The black body prep doesn´t look too glossy and I hope, you will not run into silvering issues or visible carrier film later on.

Cheers Rob

[HubertB]

I read (but never tried) that, contrary to what common sense would have you imagine, exposing the yellowed decal sheets to the sunlight will help "bleach" them ...

Goods save on the decal on the back.

Hubert

[CANicoll]

Thanks Mike!!

17 hours ago, DocRob said:

Have you tried to warm the #3 decal with a hairdryer, Chris. I had stubborn decals settled perfectly with decal solvents and some added heat. 
The black body prep doesn´t look too glossy and I hope, you will not run into silvering issues or visible carrier film later on.

Cheers Rob

Rob,  I ended up cutting out the folds (and a lot of carrier film) which seems to have done the job.  The camera may not show the glossy coat well (probably my lighting so as to not show too many reflections) however no silvering so far.  The bigger problem is the yellow film which is attached to the back of the decals.

13 hours ago, HubertB said:

I read (but never tried) that, contrary to what common sense would have you imagine, exposing the yellowed decal sheets to the sunlight will help "bleach" them ...

Goods save on the decal on the back.

Hubert

I have tried that, and not been successful on getting that to do anything but heat up the decal sheet.  

The yellowing comes from the decal in the water and is under the decals so I guess part of the paper?  The challenge is the for most of the decals I've been able to actually wipe off the yellowing (literally flipping the decal over and brushing it with a wide, wet brush) but the yellowing isn't coming off of all of the decals.  The larger ones do pretty well - not intuitively.  Having more problem with the smaller decals such as the "Goodyear" decal over the front wheel well.

Making progress on the body decals.  The front grills are painted the same color: Vallejo Metal Color Gunmetal.  Funny how the light makes the same paint look completely different.

While the decals dry worked on the chassis.  The instructions are not very clear as to where all of the roll cage pieces go, but with patience it does work out in the end.  Lots of touch-up to be done and some additional detail painting. The hoses in the back are another matter.  Need to get the clear windows into the body before I permanently attach them to figure out where they go.

[FullArmor]

coming together nicely, despite the difficulties with that old decal sheet👍

[CANicoll]

Thanks FA.  Can't wait to see how the final gloss coats come out...  Looking forward to your Abrams.. Looking good and the new 3D pieces really make a difference.

[CANicoll]

Making progress, especially on the glossy body.  There is still some visible carrier film, especially on the hood (bonnet), roof (roof) and trunk lid (boot, for our English friends  ).  This is the same gloss used under the decals : Tamiya X-22.  I used different thinning ratios, under the decals was about 55% Mr Color Leveling Thinner to 45% X-22 and sprayed light to medium coats.  Over the decals swapped the ratio's and layed down wet coats looking for a bit of a thicker coat to cover the carrier film.  I think with a few more coats I could get a perfectly smooth finish - right now you can still pick out the carrier film on some of the decals.  I have to trim some of the red line decals at the wheelwells.  Yes, I took the easy way out on those!  I cut the silver part of the decal off and just used the red band.

Some of the brown stuff just would not come off from under some of the decals.  The examples that are easier to see here are the three decals on the door pillar and also around the world JESEL.

Do you like my applesauce cup paint stands?  

Also got working on the rest of the car (oh yeah, those bits!).  I think it was Carl who introduced me to the Gundam markers, which I used liberally to outline the glass parts, as well as touch up the roll-cage padding and other black bits in the interior.  It goes on glossy, then dries to a matte/flat finish.  It has a felt tip which comes to a nice point for detail lines, but the sides can be used for wider applications.

Started on one of the tires.  That center seam is a PITA but NASCAR slicks are not bright and shiny very long (like new F1 tires at the start) so will see how this looks in the end.  The tires (shown on the tire, bottom right) have three molded in marks.  One is a large "D5574", in very small letters is the word "radial", and the opposite from the D5574 is what I think is the size of the tire, but the marking is pretty indistinct, even when I photograph it and blow it up. 

The molded in D5574 is probably a batch indicator for the tire, but the molding is way too raised compared to the actual Goodyear Eagles:

Still to be done, after I sort out the tires and wheels, is adding the Goodyear Eagle decals to each tire.

Here are some of the other bits.

Edited November 30 by CANicoll
Spelling corrections

[KevinM]

Looking good Chris now you just need a #9 Coors car.

[CANicoll]

Long delay, sorry, but have been doing some minor work.  The decals continue to be an issue.

(and I keep getting error codes when I'm trying to upload pictures, even those under 2 MB.  arggh)

The decals have that tan color and I'm having a very difficult time removing it from the tire decals.  It is gone from about 65% of the tire decals, but does not want to seem to come off as easily from the rest.