Derricke Cope's 1995 "Mane 'n Tail" T-Bird
Now here is the "Paint Job From Hell"!! I will provide the gory details further on...
Derricke Cope is one of the more experienced shoes in NASCAR, racing full time for various teams since 1988, with sporadic starts back to 1982. He has won two races, both in 1990. His ride then was the #10 Purolator Lumina. In 1994-1996 he drove the #12 T-Bird for Bobby Allison Motorsports. In 1995, sporting the Mane & Tail livery, he finished 15th in the Championship points.
This model was built starting with the Monogram 1994 Tide T-bird. Decals were "no-name", and of excellent quality. I chose not to use the decal-supplied magenta strips for the bottom colour, using instead a fluorescent bright pink aerosol from Canadian Tire. (unfortunately, I couldn't get the hue right in the image above, a problem originating from the original photos...)
The very complex paint job is very striking, and was a real challenge! I learned a lot about my airbrush on this one! The main body consists of four colours that fade into one another. I worked from the front to the back to apply the colours, starting with a full coat of white lacquer (automotive touchup aerosol). I have learned from past experience, always start with the lightest colour if possible, and work your way to the darkest when layering colours... I then sprayed some VW Sunburst Yellow from an aerosol can into a container, thinned it a further 100% with lacquer thinner, and fogged in the back 3/4 of the car. This was done very carefully, with no masking of the white on the nose. I then repeated the process, using Tamiya TS22 Light Green aerosol. This time I fogged in the back 1/2 of the body. The break lines (fog lines?) were determined from refernce shots from Winston Cup Scene, and the 1995 NASCAR Press Guide.
At this point, the yellow and green fogged areas seemed to lack intensity. I applied a thin coat of fluorescent yellow over both areas through the airbrush. This worked very well in harmony with the underlying colours to increase the intensity. Last step was to fog in the rear 1/4 with a dark blue auto touchup lacquer, again thru the old Badger. I then clearcoated the whole thing with several thin coats of Tamiya TS13 from the can, with light sanding (1200 grit) between coats. Last step was to apply the bottom strips of Magenta, by masking off the rest of the body, applying a coat of white lacquer, then the magenta. Whew!
Decals were then applied, and whole thing was polished with Turtle wax.
Contingency decals came from SLIXX.
The build was straightforward, with the only significant change being the addition of oil lines and plug wires, and building a better oil filter housing for the front of the engine compartment.
The Mane & Tail company developed business problems late in 1995, thus the sponsorship ran into problems and was gone in 1996. Badcock furniture was on the car, but Allison Motorsports was suffering also. By the start of 1997, Cope was gone, and the team was essentially inactive, Allison having relinquished all or part of the team. There are questions of its ability to survive into '98