1981 Buick Regal #11 Waltrip Mountain Dew Cup Champ

If you have ever enjoyed building one of the 90s NASCAR offerings from Monogram, this kit will be like reuniting with an old friend. The kit features great molding, and the parts fit, other than the parts on the clear sprue, is excellent. The correct small block Chevy engine, roll cage, and suspension go together without drama. Curiously, the roll cage is molded without driver padding. The body is well fitting and affords an appropriate race car stance. A darker shade of chrome is used on these Salvinos kits, and it is a handsome and very hard chrome plating. For better realism I sprayed the entire chrome sprue with flat clear. As alluded to earlier, the rear, side, and windshield glass are molded too flat for a fuss free fit. The flatness of the windshield resulted in disappointing gaps at each A pillar. Fortunately, these gaps could be closed somewhat by gluing and clamping the ends using clothespins. Rear window gaps were closed by taping the glass in place while the glue cured. There was no remedy for the side glass and I replaced it with some .010” clear styrene. The instructions could use more complete painting recommendations, and clearer illustrations (they are a bit blurry). An excellent sheet of Powerslide decals, along with a separate small sheet with tire markings sometimes absent from NASCAR kits is included. The roof, hood, and nose decals required a bit of trimming, but they laid down nicely. To give the car-length side decals the best chance to lay over the compound curves of the fenders, I cut them into 3 pieces before applying them. Overall, a nice offering from Salvinos that is only marred by the parts on the clear sprue.