Blender 3D 1927 Bugatti Type 35 Racer

This week I wanted to let everyone see my latest creation that I have been working on in Blender 3D.  I've spoken about this software over the years and it has been a great 3D modeling tool for a lot of my projects but it also have given me the opportunity to spread my wings when it comes to creating some interesting 3D computer images.  Case in point is this project that I am working on.  

This is a photo of the real 1927 Bugatti Type 35 racer.  A stunning car as you can see and so it was an easy decision to try and model the car using Blender 3D.  As with most of subjects I tend to model in 3D I end up having to research the Internet for photos of what I want to make and also get a bit of information along with this search.  The Bugatti I find to be quite interesting looking as well as the stats on this car.  It had an inline eight cylinder, the car only weighed 1650 lbs and was only twelve feet long.  It could go from zero to sixty in six seconds and had a top speed of 125 mph!  Quite impressive for a car that was built in the 1920's.  I also found a video of one of these car driving down the road.  Sounded like a beast when it fired up.  Would be a blast to drive for sure.  So that's some of what I found with my research.  Back to my modeling effort.

I started my computer model by finding what is called a blueprint of the car. This was an easy task as there is a site online for this named  The-blueprints.com, looking in their car files section and finding what I needed. I had done this some time back so it was just matter of pulling it up off of my computer hard drive and getting it into Blender.

Here's what the computer model started out looking like in Blender.  The blueprint was separated into front, back, top, and side views. These images were lined up in relation to what view I was looking at in Blender.  This made is simpler to get things right. I left the tires in this image to show you how the blueprint helps keep everything in the computer model  correct in size and location.  Even with the blueprints it is still like trying to figure out a rather large puzzle with all the little details that are needed to make a 3D image such as this.

(Click on image for larger view)

Here is where I am at as of this morning with the Bugatti.  As you can see the model is nowhere near complete but it gives you a good idea of how much the blueprints have helped in getting a computer model that even at this point is starting to look like something worth continuing on. I started with the body of the car first as I thought that would be one of the harder parts to get right. I wanted to get this done first and the rest would seem easier.  Each component seems to have it's own type of puzzle to figure out.  Some of it is very easy and other things take some real time to figure out how to make look right. As I said earlier it can be a real puzzle to figure out some of it. 

(Click on image for a larger view)

In this view you get a better idea of the shape of the rear of the car along with all the louvers on the body.  I'm rather proud of the fact that this part (the body) has turned out as well as it has.  The plus side of making one tire is that it can be duplicated (like any part) over and over again so all wheels are exactly the same. There is a lot of work that needs to be done yet to complete this computer model. Suspension front and rear, interior, chrome work, color choices, lighting, shading and the list goes on from there.  The lighting and colors I have in the images you see here are only temporary so that I can see some color in the images and how some of the shadows on the model will look.  I'll spend at least five or six hours just setting up the lighting that I want to show off the model the way I want.  Just depends how detailed I want to make the final image. At this point the computer model already has 33+ hours work in it. I suspect that this number will double at least to get the look that I am going for.  Like almost all of my projects that I get into it's a labor of love and the Bugatti is no exception. I'll post more on this project when I get farther along with it and it is closer to completion.  In the mean time check out Blender 3D online. The software is fun to use and create with plus it's free and there are tons of tutorials to get you started using it. Have a good one and enjoy the images.