1:24 Lake Speed’s Melling Racing #9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR (R/W)

[Dizzyfugu]

1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

Some background:
Melling Racing was a Championship-winning NASCAR Winston Cup Series race team owned by Harry Melling and his son Mark Melling. Harry Melling ran the team from its inception in 1982, to mid-1999.

In 1982 the team became Melling Racing after Harry Melling bought the team from George Elliott on December 1, 1981, Melling first became involved in NASCAR when his company Melling Tool sponsored Benny Parsons in 1979. Melling Racing ran 21 races with Bill Elliott in 1982 and had nine top-tens and won the pole for the Champion Spark Plug 400.
In 1983, Elliott won his first race in the season finale at Riverside International Raceway and finished third in points. The following season, Coors became the team's new sponsor and Melling Racing responded with three wins with Elliott and another third-place points finish. 1985 was a phenomenal year for Elliott and Melling, marking a season-and-career-high 11 poles and 11 wins, with 7 of those 11 wins coming from the pole, as well as over $2 million in earnings. The team would slip to 4th in points in 1986 and won only two races, both coming at Michigan. Even though both wins were at Michigan, Bill Elliott would become the 1st driver in NASCAR history to win 4 straight superspeedway races at one track, doing so at Michigan with season sweeps in 1985 and 1986.


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Elliott and Melling rallied back in 1987 by winning 6 races, and starting off the year by winning the Daytona 500 for the 2nd time. During the season in May, Bill Elliott would run the fastest qualifying lap in NASCAR history at Talladega Superspeedway for the Winston 500 with a lap of 212.809 mph. Due to NASCAR mandating restrictor plates the following year to keep the drivers from going over 200 mph, this record will never be matched. They would finish the year 2nd in points to Dale Earnhardt, who scored 11 wins, by 489 points. Bill Elliott and Melling Racing would finally win the NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship in 1988 after winning 6 races for the 2nd straight season and scoring 22 top-ten finishes. Elliott won the title by only 24 points over Rusty Wallace, who also won 6 races.
The team was unable to defend its championship in 1989 after Elliott was injured early in the season and Jody Ridley served as a substitute driver. Elliott still managed to win three races that year, but the defending Winston Cup champions fell to 6th in points. In 1990, Elliott had only one victory, winning at Dover, but rebounded to finish 4th in points. In 1991, there would be a bit of a change in the team's identity: the sponsorship would change from Coors to Coors Light, and the colors would also change from the team's iconic red to blue. They would only win one race that season, the Pepsi 400 at Daytona. Bill Elliott had a very rough year, and fell to a disappointing 11th in points, causing him and Coors to part ways with Melling at the end of the 1991 season. The 1991 Pepsi 400 at Daytona would be the only race in his career that Bill Elliott won in a car that was not painted red. The Pepsi 400 would also be the team's 34th and final career Winston Cup win. Overall, Melling Racing won 34 races in 9 seasons, along with winning the 1985 Winston Million, setting the fastest qualifying lap ever in 1987 at Talladega, and winning the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup championship, all of those accomplishments with only Bill Elliott. Melling Racing's prime years would unfortunately come to an end for the team. Elliott however, would still be successful in the years to come.


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Without sponsorship, Melling ran Phil Parsons for the first two races in the 1992 season and had a top-ten finish at the Daytona 500. After that, the team ran a part-time schedule with Dorsey Schroeder, Dave Mader III, and Bill Schmitt driving, before Chad Little finished the season. The team continued running a part-time schedule with Little and Greg Sacks driving at the beginning of the season, along with P. J. Jones in the second half of the season. After Joe Ruttman drove at Daytona, Rich Bickle drove for ten races and had only one top-20 finish, causing him to be replaced by Parsons later on. The team finally got a new sponsor in Spam when Lake Speed signed with the team in 1995. He had two top-ten finishes and finished 23rd in points running a full-time schedule. After only one top-ten in 1996, Spam left the team.
Due to a lack of sponsorship, the team skipped races, and ran a total of 26 events with Speed driving 25 and Jeff Davis running at Sears Point. Melling was able to return full-time in 1998 when Cartoon Network became the team's new sponsor on car #9, a Ford Taurus. This "Generation 4" car had just been introduced in 1998, and it was the first four-door stock car model approved for NASCAR competition in the modern era – causing quite a controversial debate, because every former stock car had been based on a two-door coupé car body.
 
While practicing at Sears Point, Speed was involved in a crash and had to be replaced by Butch Gilliland that weekend while he recuperated. After returning for a final race at New Hampshire, Speed retired from driving and was replaced immediately by rookie Jerry Nadeau, who had a best finish of 15th at Watkins Glen International, which also was the team's best result during the 1998 season. Nadeau returned for the 1999 season, with Turner Broadcasting taking a larger role in its sponsorship duties, advertising TBS, Dinner and a Movie, WCW, and the Atlanta Braves in addition to their Cartoon Network sponsorship. Midway through the season, Harry Melling died due to a heart attack, and his son Mark took over ownership of the team, but without the former leadership the team closed in 2003


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr.


About the model:
This is/was one of the few "zombie" kits in The Stash™, one of the very few car kits I ever did. Inspiration for this project came through television: in the mid/late 90ies, national Free TV aired parts of the NASCAR Winston Cup series, mostly summaries but also a few complete live races. Being vaguely interested in motorsport, I followed the series, liked it due to the totally different race approach compared to sprint races like Formula One or other touring car race series, and decided to try my skills on a race car model. This is my 2nd NASCAR build, the first one was a contemporary Pontiac Grand Prix. But when I stumbled upon the 1998 Cartoon Network Ford Taurus from Melling Racing with its colorful livery, apparently a limited run of (only???) 10.000 copies, I was tempted into building it, too.

After the Pontiac Grand Prix and its arduous completion some months earlier, I was warned. At first, I was a bit disappointed by the kit, because it looked rather simple and crude in the box, with flash and rather soft details. But after putting it together and checking reference pictures of the real stock cars of that era, I must admit that the kit is a) quite accurate, b) fits surprisingly well and c) offers anything you might ask for OOB, even though there's space for personal detail improvements. The only real trouble I faced was the suspension: getting all four wheels on the ground at the same time and finding a proper stance, so that all wheels fill the wheelhouses more or less equally, was tricky and was only possible after the model was completed.

However, the REAL problem with this build was that my car mojo – I am not a big fan of car models – left me half-way through the project! Because I liked the cartoonish and colorful livery, I started the build enthusiastically with the car's body and the exterior. This was building-wise not a true challenge, but the livery with its large and overlapping decals was tough, and it did not work out as planned.

As a side note: the kit's specific paint scheme with Tom & Jerry on the left and The Flintstones characters on the right side was AFAIK only used during summer races, e. g. at Charlotte. There were other variants, though: while the blue/pink base colors were retained on the Ford Taurus, other comic characters like the Powerpuff Girls (early in 1998) appeared at some other races.

The basis was an overall coat of grey primer, and on the outside the hull was sprayed with a bright medium blue (actually heat-resistant paint for brake calipers – I just liked the tone!) from the rattle can. The huge decals came next, and as one might expect, this did not go without troubles through the Taurus' round shapes. At that time, I did not use decal softener, but I tried my best to avoid wrinkles and bubbles. But these could still not be avoided, esp. around the front bumper and the separate bonnet.

To "save" the project and hide the flaws, I decided to finish the model not in "starting grid prime" but rather add some typical bruises towards the later race stages, in the form of tape on the front, holding car body parts together (and hiding decal flaws...), some tire/rubber traces after (non-fatal) collisions and general dirt/rubber/oil spray on the front. The model's hull was not physically dented, though, just cosmetic changes were made.
The tape is just that: thin adhesive tape, strategically placed over obvious decals seams. The black tire traces were created with the OOB rubber tires, (ab)used as "brushes" for matt black paint.

The final "weathering" measure, the dirt spray on the frontal surfaces, called for some brain power – also because I did not (and still don't) have an airbrush. Creating a spray that only covered the frontal areas, evenly yet erratic, was a touch challenge, and I eventually solved it through a jury-rigged wind tunnel: I placed a hairdryer in front of the so far finished hull, maybe 1' away, switched off the heat and ran it at lowest speed possible. Then I carefully sprayed black, grey, and olive drab acrylic paint from rattle cans into the airstream. The windscreen had been partly masked with tape, so that it would later appear as if the font had been wiped manually by the box crew – even though this was, in hindsight, not a realistic decision. Nevertheless, the "airstream paint distribution stunt" worked better than expected!

However, after that I just completed the car's wheels, and did not start with the chassis... until now, more than 20 years later! I just could not stand the empty hull staring at me from the cabinet anymore, so I decided to eventually finish the model, which was still in The Stash™. Unfortunately, the decals suffered during this period, yellowing slightly, and I tried to mend this with software in the beauty pics.


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus - WiP by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The Taurus' chassis was built 100% right out of the box. The only cosmetic change is a scratch-built set of safety belts from (pink!) paper instead of just the 2D decals for the seat, for a 3D effect. As mentioned above, the kit provides you with anything you might as for to complete a NASCAR race car, but there is flash almost everywhere, so that cleaning the parts is recommended and takes time. Due to the safety cage's complex construction, the interior has to be built and also painted in stages, the instructions should be taken seriously because some elements like the engine or the seat must be put into place before they are enclosed by other chassis parts.

The chassis was painted in a glossy grey (Humbrol 40), the rest according to the instructions – most of it is not be visible under the hull, though, but you can open the hood or take of the car's body for a closer look at the innards. However, I primarily just wanted a complete car chassis for the finished body.


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


1:24 Revell/Monogram – Lake Speed's Melling Racing 1998 No. 9 "Cartoon Network Anniversary" NASCAR Winston Cup Ford Taurus by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr


Finally, this model was completed – it just took around 23 years! 😉

[Wardukw]

23 yrs is a little on the long side but hey ya got it finished so well done 
I love the rubbing marks and that follows the rubbing is racing rules nicely mate and bloody nice decal work  to.
Ya gotta do more cars Thomas 

[Dizzyfugu]

Thank you, glad you like it - but the decal work is just not as nice as it appears, all those tapes and the dirt on the front hide a lot of problematic areas! I just made a virtue out of necessity... 

[su27rules]

    

[zenrat]

Good job Dizz.
 

You should build more cars.

[PR19_Kit]

What Fred said. ^^^^^

And everyone else on the thread too. 

[Dizzyfugu]

Good job Dizz.
 

You should build more cars.

Thank you (all), but cars are just "not mine"...    There are, however, two or three 1:24 kits still in The Stash™, including a Daihatsu Copen, which will be built like the car I own/drive.

[Old Wombat]

Thank you, glad you like it - but the decal work is just not as nice as it appears, all those tapes and the dirt on the front hide a lot of problematic areas! I just made a virtue out of necessity... 

That is called "modelling"!


Nice work, again, Dizzy!

[McColm]

Well done 

[martinbayer]

Simply stunning.

[jcf]