I’ve picked up a new low-cost hobby for rainy days: 3D modeling. It scratches my frequent itch to build model cars but doesn’t cost anything, doesn’t make a mess, and is infinitely more portable. I played around with 3D Studio max about a decade ago when it was more relevant so I’m not starting completely from scratch. Blender’s interface is different but the fundamentals are pretty much the same. After watching a few tutorials of varying helpfulness I decided to get on with what I got into this for:

Part track rat, part bosozoku.

I figured, somewhat mistakenly, than an 80’s car with lots of straight edges would be easy to start with. But even really boxy cars have slight curves to them and that must be taken into consideration for the design to look plausible. The fender flares are supposed to look like they’ve been slapped on with self-tapping screws and maybe zip ties, as is correct for the genre (which I sort of made up).

Party in the front, more party in the back. Introducing the 1988 Nissoyonda Supralude-line GT-R Si Turbo.

OK that went pretty well for a first go, but I cheated and just blacked out most of the interior. How about a convertible?

Humble Miata-like beginnings

Again, sports car. But more of a gentleman’s turnkey track toy this time, so it’s a bit more polished, like a Lotus 2-eleven. The original intention was to move forward a decade and do a mid-90’s design but somewhere along the way (probably due to insufficient planning and sketching) it took a mid-00’s turn.

Suddenly, the wheels no longer suited the car. I’ll find a use for those ones in some other project, hopefully.

A change of wheels, hacksaw to the windscreen, and some smoothing and fiddling:

Headlights are hard.

I kinda phoned in the back end.

Again, due to inadequate planning, I had no idea what to do with anything aft of the rear axle line. I’m still not happy with it but I’d rather just move on.

Either I’m rubbish at designing interiors, or I was completely over this project by the time I got this far.

I think it will be a while before I tackle a full interior again. Definitely won’t go into it without at least a few sketches. I could say it’s minimalist as befits a track car, but in my mind this is a derivation of a premium-brand sports coupe, so the interior should look a bit higher-rent.

Next project? I don’t know yet. Maybe I’ll do something funky and futuristic so I don’t have to worry about making it look believable.