Aligned the side molding to horizon and reduced the depth a bit, also made a little dip up front, now it is more NSU like.
Also, made it go all around the car and made a new trunk seam where it should be.
The NSU is another step forward design wise among the cars we are going through here - even if the R16 did not have round headlamps, the oval ones are a rather simple, and symmetric, shape. The Ro80 has headlights that are more “designed” together with the car, with a custom shape. Sometimes hard to replicate, for example, I found nothing among the headlights, so I had to use this taillight fixture, but set all the innards to transparent.
Shown without the lens, here you can see how I built up the innards of the light with modular headlight parts.
What I noticed when looking at the car from some angles is that the doors are caving in slightly under the “ridge” on the side. In one of Xian’s excellent molding packages I found a somewhat similar shape. Will need me to correct the door gaps again, but well…
For some reason, the NSU has an extremely small filler door. This 3D cone was used as the finger grip, a detail lots of cars have that is easy to miss.
Now we come to another “trial and error” part. I could not stand the sharp corners of the windshield, but wanted the more curved one of the NSU. As you can see I try to show this after it was finished…since it was lots of trying back and forth. Anyway, first part was to reshape the door frame…
Cutout patches took away the remains of the old door frame.
Then it was time for modifying the chrome surround of the windshield.
Single axis cutout patches set to translucent became a new top part of the windshield.
Decal patches was used for the A-pillar chrome trim, and ain’t it looking a bit more like an Ro80 now, even if not perfect?
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The recess in the hood was shaped like this. There is a vanilla fixture similar to this, but I didn’t really achieve the results I wanted with that one.
The new hood seam was done with negatape and the old one closed with patches.
No hocus pocus with the grille. Negatape and this rectangular mesh painted in silver.
Seems like there is either this or the DS bumper on 60s designs…
The panel under the front bumper is a little bit more complicated on the Ro80. I used this grille as a base fixture, since it protrudes a fair bit, especially if you increase the depth. The mesh was changed to the car’s primary colour.
A grille fixture in the middle…
And then this vanilla light fixture (not used so much anymore, at least by me, but sometimes it seems like it still has its place)
Reducing the height of the front pan not only makes the car look 200 kg lighter up front, it also makes it look more like the original. I built up the new shape with this molding fixture…
Then I negataped away everything below it.
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“Why does the front look so weird?”
Because I did the recess the wrong way. Don’t work on car replicas when you are tired… Had to redo it all.
At least there were now vanilla taillights that works - as long as you set the backup lens to transparent.
Brake light and reverse light lenses created with patches.
A slightly concave panel between the taillights takes away some of the clumsiness and flatness of the tail. Something you would easily leave out on an Automation car I guess, but still such details exists on IRL cars for a reason. With that said I don’t think the tail of the Ro80 is as well designed as the rest of the car.
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Another “detail you hardly notice” on the Ro80: The sills are a bit crooked. Fixed with this fixture…
…negataped everything below it and then decal patched it to black.
And the chrome trim has a slight curve too, hardly noticeable in the pic as well as IRL.
It seems like when the Ro80 has mirrors, it’s a rather simplistic round type placed on the doors, so I did choose that here.
A sign of the times: Air intake and wipers being black.
Hood shutlines patched and new ones created.
There is a similar recess on the trunk as on the hood, but that can be replicated fairly OK with this vanilla fixture IMO.
Some rather small, dual round tailpipes seems to be what the NSU had…
Not too much badging on this car, subtle and simplistic, this was created with editable text and a piece of side trim.
IMO, the Ro80 looks the best in orange, I accept if you have a different opinion because I can’t force you into being right. And no, unfortunately nothing I have tried can remove the remains of the “seam” between the front and rear side windows of the pillarless BMW coupé so we have to live with that.
The obligatory pictures I guess. It feels to me that there both was a lot of change to the basic body, and still not…
Interior next, I guess.
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Expectations vs reality. The Ro80 was originally going to have an interior as funkadelic as the car, well, we know how that turned out, but for us it might be a good thing…
It means that the Peugeot 204 dash could probably be a great base again.
The Charger steering wheel feels like the closest one. The NSU does not have slots in the spokes, and its horn pad is a bit smaller, but I still feel that it captures the spirit somewhat well. 3 spoke 60s wheels aren’t all that common in the game…
The dashboard wood trim removed and ready to be replaced with some scratch built one.
The trim (only) from those headlights might work well IMO.
Gauge cluster to be…
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The offroader spare wheel fixture became a new horn pad.
Bumper bars filled up the slots in the spokes.
I see wood on literally NO pictures of the Ro80 dashboard except for the one above. That makes me think that it is some added on thing, so I went for black wrinkle finish instead.
Modern times, and a radio (still just a radio) with a mostly black fascia, no chrome here anymore.
Dual zone heater controls! As I said, modern times even though Mercedes had it already in the 50s.
Vents as…vents.
Popup headlight fixture as glovebox door.
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Have you pirated Windows?
No. I bought a restored laptop from a company that first did not send me the Windows key. After some struggling they sent it to me, only for me to forget to enter it, lol. I should fix that some day I guess…
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Gah. I incidentally turned off my computer while saving yesterday, but I think this is a somewhat useful summary of what I have done…
Headlight filler blocks was used to fill in all the empty space of the dashboard.
Now, some modder can absolutely take this as a hint.
One thing that bothers me is that there is very hard to find a full set of instruments looking somewhat similar. This is not perfect but it has to work. I try to not use custom textures in this project as it would be too much of a shortcut.
This turn signal fixture had to serve as the warning lights.
Seems like the Ro80 had a cloth/vinyl upholstery, so that’s what I went for, black interior in the orange cars is what my research shows, and no headrests yet in the early models.
As the Fiat 124, the Ro80 seems to have the pedals a bit offset, and since the Ro80 had a kind of odd 3 speed semi auto, no clutch pedal.
The 70s sedan door cards are a good match here.
A sign of the times: recessed interior door handles, less protruding parts somewhat improved side impact safety, something we will see more of in the upcoming years, other than that, really nothing “new” with the interior, so what’s left is just basic detailing, I have showed you what techniques I use before, and the fixtures are rather straightforward, so I won’t bore you anymore, instead I will show the final results.
Huh? Nah, incidentally there actually exists a picture of an Ro80 in the same colour, taken in a similar environment at a similar angle, which I discovered after taking the screenshots, so comparing them could be fun I guess.
It’s honestly not too far off, right?
A challenging car to make, so I guess the typical Automation flaws it has can be excused.
Now onto something I guess will be easier, 1969 Peugeot 504, since I think there is a rather 504 looking sedan variant of the Leyland body. I don’t know if Pininfarina had something to do with the Princess (they had with some other BL models) but the cars are actually somewhat similar in their styling…
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What to beat
What I have ATM
(Should not be hard to beat. IMO, ironically enough my old 504 replica could almost be mistaken for a 604, I guess slapping Peugeot fixtures on a BMW body will result in that)
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The NSU turned out surprisingly well. It’s a bit more boxier than the real thing, but fixing that would have required a lot of 3D fixture pain.
Absolutely love how the interior turned out though!
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I am happy that the NSU has a rather simplistic interior after all the struggle with the exterior
Since the hood of the 504 does not extend all the way forward, I had to make some new shutlines and decal patch the old ones here.
The 504 has the most complicated headlight shape this far with its “cat eyes”. I had to combine this modular headlight…
…with this one. Not perfect maybe but good enough IMO.
This grille had a somewhat correct shape.
I believe this was changed some times, but the older models seems to have lots of horizontal grille bars.
The seams for the front fenders should not be forgotten even after closing the ones for the hood.
The turn signals also has a kind of complex shape, I combined this modular light fixture…
…with this. Not perfect but close enough IMO.
It also has a small, hardly noticeable ridge in the middle of the hood.
Still some years away to the huge safety bumpers on some 70s cars, this “universal” fixture it is again.
…but rubber horns instead of metal is still a hint that we’re soon entering the 70s.
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I feel that the greenhouse is what can make or break a car, so I just had to fix the sharp edges of the windshield. Yes, they are a bit sharp on the rear window too, but I’ll let them pass.
Also, it had small quarter windows in its rear doors that should not be forgotten.
Made the rain gutters.
Also the 504 seems to have had some small C-pillar vents like this.
I didn’t really want to redo the chrome window trim, so I just extended it to look slightly closer to the original.
The first 504 models still used the old school pushbutton handles from the 404.
Mirrors seems to generally be door mounted, chrome, rather squared off things.
The sills of the Peugeot are black, so I decal patched that in.
And I used this bumper bar for the somewhat interestingly shaped chrome trim that separates the black and the body colour.
Also added some grooves to the sills.
Painted them black too and the results aren’t that bad.
Did my best to recreate the subtle ridge the 504 has on the outside too.
From what I remember, the sunroof was a common option on both the 404 and 504, at least here. So I decided to add that in too.
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This taillight fixture have always felt very “504” to me. It is not 100% accurate, but IMO close enough to not bother with scratchbuilding an exact copy.
Patched in the turn signals.
Could as well add the screws while I was still at it, to add some more depth.
This was a time when a thinned out bumper bar closed a gap better than any patch could.
A new seam located higher, as it is on the 504.
…and some patchwork to close the tearing.
The 504 has a license plate recess with rounded edges, I didn’t find a really good fixture for replicating it, but using this grille was somewhat close.
Once again a fuel door using a 3D cone for the finger grip.
A compromise I am not satisfied with, to somehow emulate the roof pillar sitting a bit inside the rear fender. But at least it looks better than just a smooth pillar/rear fender area.
This grille is somewhat close to the air intake for the heater.
Well, not terribly much changes to the body this time but…
…the 504 is weird in the sense that making a 90% car is hardly a challenge nowadays, while making a 95% car would require almost impossible amounts of 3Ding and scratch building. The Leyland body is generally good (if you hated the old one, try out the new one, nowadays it is surprisingly good!), but things like the roof being a tad too low for a 504 is hard to fix, as is it to replicate the weird transition between C-pillar and rear fender on the 504.
I like the 504 best in darker colours, so dark blue it is.
I hope the exterior is now good enough to identify it as a 504?
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The interior…well, feels a bit more challenging TBH, but I will still give it a shot.
Not perfect despite being 60s Peugeot, but our old friend the 204/304 dashboard will form the base again.
But since the 504 has a separate housing…well. Once again I wentfor the one that could look the closest with the least work involved.
The 304 framing of the gauges (which once again are “closest that I found”) could be used though.
The 504 has a surprisingly modern steering wheel for 1969. I used this Mercedes/Rekord inspired steering wheel as a base…
And made a horn pad out of a bumper bar.
E.T. phone home. The 504 has some of the coolest seats to ever be put into a car, but not the easiest to reproduce, so…let’s see if I succeed.
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I solved the ET headrest problems.
First, I used one seat fixture as a base, and set the middle part to transparent.
Then I added another seat fixture, set the outer parts to transparent, and reduced the height.
Well, the headrests does not have the piping now, but eh. Good enough. Also, the pillars were set to transparent…
And a single centre pillar was added instead. Not 100% but you can see what it is supposed to be, so…
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Headlight filler blocks worked for the dashboard this time too.
And the typical pieces of chrome trim was added.
Some detailing on the glovebox…
The early 504 had a column shifter, so a fitting steering column was put in place.
There is also a little console for the heater controls, ash tray and cigar lighter.
Good enough, I guess.
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It seems like mounting a radio in a 504 required a separate console with a speaker, this isn’t 100% true to the original, but enough to make me satisfied. Also, I read that the early cars had the handbrake under the steering column, but haven’t seen any good pictures, so this is what will have to do unless I find some better pics.
A vent for the speaker grille…
This fixture was very close to the Peugeot switches.
A positive surprise: The “70s sedan” door card isn’t just close to the 504, it is actually a clone of the 504 door cards!
Seems like at least the early column shifted cars had an arm rest between the seats, so another headrest had to double as that.
Also, the interior now gives off a very french vibe IMO even if you don’t know what it is. Not bad when done with pre-made Automation fixtures.
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