Monogram 1/24 '87 Thunderbird Combo

Alan Kulwicki (December 14, 1954 – April 1, 1993), nicknamed "Special K" and "the Polish Prince", was an American auto racing driver and team owner. He started racing at local short tracks in Wisconsin before moving up to regional stock car touring series. Kulwicki arrived at NASCAR, the highest and most expensive level of stock car racing in the United States, with no sponsor, a limited budget and only a racecar and a borrowed pickup truck. Despite starting with meager equipment and finances, he earned the 1986 NASCAR Rookie of the Year award over drivers racing for well-funded teams.

After Kulwicki won his first race at Phoenix International Raceway, he debuted what would become his trademark "Polish victory lap". Kulwicki won the 1992 Winston Cup Championship by what was then the closest margin in NASCAR history. He died early in 1993 in a light aircraft accident and therefore never defended his championship. He has been inducted into numerous racing halls of fame and was named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers.

Kenny Schrader (born May 29, 1955) is an American professional racing driver. He currently races on local dirt and asphalt tracks around the country while also competing part-time in the ARCA Menards Series, driving the No. 11 Ford for Fast Track Racing. He previously competed in the NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, as well as the Superstar Racing Experience. He is a first cousin once removed of fellow NASCAR driver Carl Edwards. Kenny has never fully retired from racing and can often be seen driving his sportsman racer on tracks around the St.Louis region.

Back from the mid-1980s until the late 1990s, the major US model makers hit upon a gold mine;  NASCAR. During those years a bewildering number of cars and liveries were produced; mostly by AMT and Monogram. These kits were surprisingly similar in the way they built, but that was undoubtedly due to the simple fact that the real cars were built to a set of rules so there was little difference on the inside with only the bodies and liveries changing.

During that period, Monogram came up with the idea of doing combo kits, where two full NASCAR kits were in one box. These kits generally had a common theme and in this case it was 1987 Thunderbirds. What was particularly nice about these kits is that often they provided bodies that were not previously available in the 'standard' series of kits produced each year. In this case they were cars driven by Alan Kulwicki and Ken Schrader, drivers well known during the time and both were fairly successful.

The plastic for the two cars is identical. Each comes with a chrome sprue for wheels and engine bits. Most modelers will keep the chrome on the wheels as those are accurate, but strip the chrome from engine bits as, for the most part, those were either aluminum or painted.

A full engine and suspension is provided, which offers a good amount of detail and room for improvement should the modeler be so inclined. The frame includes the interior floor to which the seat, roll cage and other interior bits are attached. The roll cage is extensive and the builder will spend quality time removing the mold seam from the cage parts. Clear parts fit to the inside of the body so one will want to paint these prior to installation. These cars can be fairly quick builds and if you have done one, you will soon find them easy.

Instructions are standard fare for the time and provide both names and colors for the various parts. The #90 car has a light great frame/interior while the #7 car has these components in red. Both options are white and red with all the red parts needing to be painted, though the scheme is pretty simple. The instructions clearly state that the decals are NOT compatible with setting solutions. Past experience shows that they stick quite well on a gloss surface. Despite being over 25 years old, they should not offer any issues other than perhaps being thicker than today's decals. I wouldn't let the yellowish background be an indicator of the viability of the decals. Not sure if aftermarket are available as several years back, NASCAR started suing all the aftermarket decal makers and the market dried up.  

While NASCAR modeling isn't dead, those few new kits are expensive (as in $35-40) and are generally more recent cars. These older kits are not difficult to find and are generally quite reasonably priced, especially at swap meets and shows.

In case you are wondering why this kit is branded 'Monogram' and the one I did last week was branded 'Revell-Monogram', it is because the private equity firm that bought both Monogram and Revell in 1986 decided to continue with the two separate brands as both were well known. The next year after this kit was released, it was decided to brand the combined company Revell-Monogram. That lasted a few years until Monogram effectively disappeared.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kulwicki

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Schrader

July 2025

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