Dale Earnhardt ran this special colour scheme in "The Winston Select" in May of 1996, to commemorate the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. This was the second year he ran a special colour scheme, having run a silver car in 1995 to commemorate Winston's 25th year of involvement as the primary sponsor of the NASCAR championship. (see elseshere on this site for pictures)
The car attracted a lot of attention, being a dramatic change from his usual "Intimidator Black" steed!
The model was built from the Monogram WCW #29 Monte Carlo. The sides were removed and replaced with Flat plastic for the slabsided look. The engine was wired and plumbed, and twin valve stems added to the wheels. (Unfortunately, they do not show up well in photos, but they do add to the model!)
The decals are from Mooseworks, and provide the basic numbers, stars, stripes, and hood graphics. The numbers, and "Goodwrench" for the rear quarters are especially impressive, in a bright silver, that is a dead match for my reference pictures. The Monogram kit of this car uses solid grey for these, and would make a disappointing representation of the prototype. (I guess this was a cost-cutting measure on their part, at the time...)
The painting and decalling were one of the most challenging I ever did. To get the red stripes, which are decals, to be placed correctly, and register as they should with the blue/white edge, required very precise placement of the masking to apply the blue on the front over the white.
I found the decals themselves, although providing excellent graphical quality, to be very difficult to work with, being less flexible than I am used to, and requiring a lot of Solvaset@ and several coats of Tamiya TS13 clear before I had a satisfactory finish.
While digging up info for this description, I realized I left off the roof cam - ah well, I'll add it one day...
During the race, DE ran quite well, and was duelling with Rusty for the lead in the last laps. Unfortunately, neither he nor Rusty saw Michael Waltrip slip by them and take the win... Dale finished third, behind Waltrip and Wallace, but it was still an improvement over 1995!