Notes: Peter Gregg was one of the original drivers of the CSL Stella Art Car. After he and Frank Stella became friends, this car was commisioned by Peter Gregg. Not sure what Peter Gregg intended for this car. I believe the story goes that Frank Stella was also in the car when Peter Gregg had his road accident at Le Mans in 1979, just before the race. For those that don't know, Peter Gregg would not recover completely from injuries to that accident and would take his own life before the end of the year.

Bimmer Magazine had an article on this car a few years back that would provide inspiration and reference photos. I didn't know this car exsisted until the Internet age.

This model is a familiar set of parts that originated with the Saphire kit. The story of this build is really about the decals. The parts go together so well, that I actually prepped the model for painting quite quickly. There is also a nice set of photo-etched parts for detailing, such as door handles, fuel caps, front turn indicators and so forth. The seat belts are the only aftermarket parts. I did remake the rear louvers for this model as my parts were damaged.

The decals were started quite a few years ago. I rediscovered them at the end of 2006 and decided I was so close, it's about time I finish them. I suppose I let this go for so long thinking it wouldn't work out. That the lines would just get lost in printing.

Decal line art was drawn in Illustrator. But transferred to Photoshop because of the variation in color in the solid areas. The lines themselves don't appear to be perfect in photos i have. So I wasn't too worried about making the art bitmap instead of vector. I was slightly wrong as the test art I applied from an Illustrator printout was crisper. Oh well. After some test prints on paper, I finally did a test print on decal paper. The entire subject was decaled to find out what needed adjusted. After adjustments, the finished Photoshop are was made and printed. Printouts are from a laser printer. They proved to be rather durable, and decal softener worked just fine. After the Warhol decals, I wasn't looking forward to covering this model either. But this one is so much easier because there are many more options to breaking these in sections and cutting any darts where needed. These really don't look as hard as it may seem. Biggest trouble is cutting the rear window louver sections. They didn't quite line up as hoped, but close enough to live with. A couple areas do need touch up paint as the decals didn't go into the side grooves and the right front wheel arch so well. Colors were matched as well as I could and don't stand out too much.

These decal projects are challenging projects. The satisfaction is still high, and is nice creating something not otherwise found.