Well, time for the 127 I guess.
10 Likes
Out of the vanilla bodies, I feel like maybe the Mobula from '69 could possibly work? The next closet looking one does seem to be that 80’s Compact mod body that unlocks in '75.
Is that the one that looks like a Lancia Delta/Prisma? Tried fiddling with that one, it would work for a 2 door second gen Audi 80 (4 door greenhouse does not match) but as I feared it looks too modern for a first gen.
Hoping not to be wrong, but the Delta-esque mod body unlocks somewhere around mid 70s. The '69 Mobula looks like a FIAT 130 or a Lancia Gamma coupè
OK, my conclusions:
The Delta is, as stated earlier out of the question.
The Mk2 Escort is a bit close to an 80 in its shape, but it could more or less be said that the differences between the 80 and the Escort is the morphs that can’t be changed on that body.
The Fiesta can be morphed into something with a greenhouse that looks right - and a front that looks wrong.
The Mobula with Audi proportions became so ugly that I ragequitted the game and wanted to go out and punch some random stranger in the face.
So, BL body it is. It’s still not perfect. The tail is sloping too much, and the roof is too rounded around the windshield. But what I noticed is that one of the most important design features of the original Audi 80 seems to be the front end that is more curved than it seems like, in all the directions, which also can be done with the BL body. With a too squared off front end, the Audi proportions with a huge front overhang (due to the L-FWD layout) would have looked awkward.
Rather interesting that a car that seems as simple as the Audi 80 actually lacks a good body. Maybe a 70s VAG body could be an interesting mod to have, if one could dream. One Polo/50 sized, one Golf, one Passat/80 and one 100 C2. Lots of different bodystyles if you merge everything VAG did together too.
But now that’s just a dream and closest this far is the BL one…
Once again, used a round vent as a headlight bucket.
Then 3Ded in the actual light fixtures.
Used only the rim from a modular headlight fixture, for headlight trim.
Shaped the grille surround with chrome trim, and negataped the space.
Then did the grille bars. As usual a 3D radiator behind them.
The Audi badge is available as a mod.
Chrome trim made the grille look a bit more complete.
Set to all chrome, this bumper is close enough.
The correct wheels are available as a vanilla option.
8 Likes
The Audi hood is not totally flat, it has a little ridge in the middle.
Details that should not be forgotten: the vents under the bumper.
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The use of body molding is rather important to make it look like an Audi and not like a slab. I must say that once again I have started to see a car in a new light by trying to replicate it. I have always seen the first gen 80 as a rather boring grandma car, but fact is there is actually lots of clever forming of the sheetmetal of the car that makes it look lighter and more vigorous and not just like a box.
Something of an attempt to replicate the slightly convex sides. Will never be 100% but eh.
Door handles put in as a reference. Looks somewhat right I guess.
Continued with the sheetmetal forming at the bottom of the doors and sills.
Well, it is getting closer to the truth.
Vent windows. Still relevant in 1973 in some cases.
6 Likes
Very similar now when you say it. I would have liked to be able to raise the roof…
Now it’s time for the boring but important part of reshaping the greenhouse (well, as good as I am able to do). In the end, it makes a big difference…
The upper corners of the BL windshield are rounded, while they are sharp on the Audi, so I started with negataping away the corner…
Then redid the chrome trim…
Patched in the glass.
Funny enough - it is the opposite at the bottom, sharp edges on the BL windshield and rounded on the Audi. So, more negatape and more chrome trim.
Some shoddy patchwork indeed, but on the distance you usually view an Automation car…well…
So, already looking a bit better.
Next thing to fix, the upper door corners that are too rounded. More negatape…
Some patching, the negatape already becomes a great door gap, so…
Looks a bit more real now.
Rain gutters in place but the rear side window still looks wrong.
So, sharp edges to replace the rounded one.
Voila! Isn’t it a bit more Audi looking already?
This vent fixture is actually pretty close to the one used on the IRL car.
6 Likes
Is it just me, or is the trim splitting the front side window more upright than the B pillar? Logically it should be angled to the same or sharper degree for the window to open. I get that impression mostly from this pic:
3 Likes
Good point, may look into that.
Edit: Yep, the angles were off and I corrected that. Four eyes are better than two and this is why I value input on what I do in this thread. Thanks a lot!
2 Likes
Seamwork may be boring ,but it pays off in the end when it comes to making the car look less like some cheap plastic toy IMO.
Also, the Audi 80 had a panel between the hood and windshield that the BL didn’t have so I had to do some seam changes there. Again, not 100% accurate but at least an improvement.
Hood vents added.
Chrome trim on the sills is on every Audi 80 reference pic I can find so I guess it was standard equipment. Added…
Mirrors that feels “close enough”.
Fuel filler door + a 3d cone added as the “finger grip”.
Wipers, still the classic fixture but it seems like early 80 models had a silver finish rather than chrome (black on later ones) that started to disappear around this era to lessen reflections…
Rear bumper added.
Usually, my guess is that the early vanilla fixtures are kept mostly for backwards compatibility. Sometimes you find an useful one, though. This one is very close to the Audi 80 taillights actually, so I saw no meaning scratch building them.
Had to fiddle a little to get the sizes right and so on, after adding a plate recess (vent with the mesh replaced with paint) that should fit the euro sized plates…
The compromise in the end. Not 100% the right proportions but you can still identify the car IMO, so…
Badges and a trunk opening button added
As well as a tailpipe and cutout.
Then the Audi has a recess below the side windows that is a rather important part of the design, but I managed to build it up using molding fixtures.
The tearing of the window trim repaired with chrome patchwork.
Did the final shaping of the sides. Not very beautiful maybe but eh…
Added the vertical C-pillar vents
And license plate lights
The obligatory pictures. Well, rather obviously an Audi 80 even with the main body removed IMO…
Tibetorange, the best looking colour the Audi 80 had. I must say I am far from satisfied with the results this time, but I think I did all I could. Now it strikes me that the Golf in the first ARM was built on the BL body too (the old one before the update I think, too), so this is not the first 70s VAG built on that body when I think about it…
11 Likes
Bold statement in case of any old Audi 
Seriously though, good job as usual, but yeah, I agree we could use some boxy body like the 70s to mid 80s VAGs.
Hehe, you mean because Audis have always been like matryoshkas?
Yeah, but not only that - those old ones quite often look like anything of the era if you remove the badges and maybe some grille trim. “It’s a car” kind of design.
The Audi dashboard is like the car - looks simplistic, is a bit painful to recreate. But I started out with this dashboard top from the classic car interior pack…
Put the Peugeot 304 dash as the bottom part (with the dashboard top set to transparent)
Gauge cluster is a bit special! I actually used two of this one to recreate it. The first one, flipped upside down and mostly hidden behind the dashboard, to recreate the lower edge…
Then, only the dials from another one.
A dash filler was shrunken down to fill up the empty space at the top.
This steering wheel pack contains a column that looks somewhat right.
I don’t know if this vanilla wheel is supposed to resemble a Mk1 Golf one? It is at least “close but no cigar” which has to do for now.
Offset steering wheel badge, like the real car has.
Dash vents added
The radio placement does a somewhat good job at hiding the glovebox that is not placed up there on the Audi.
7 Likes
This door panel fixture was resized until it was useful to fill the gap on the dash.
The 80s interior fixture pack is like tailored for this dash, both the fan knob, cigar lighter and heater controls comes from that one, and is pretty close to the truth.
Also, it is a bit too modern stuff but I took the dashboard bottom part with glovebox and such from the modern modular dashboard pack. Another case of “close enough” I guess.
So now the glovebox gaps from the Peugeot started to get annoying, so filled them too with door panel fixtures.
Added the badging.
Also, not satisfied with the Peugeot speaker grille, so I decided to make one on my own. First, I 3Ded in this mesh material.
Then, I put a similar cube just below it and used the soft top material to get it as black as possible.
5 Likes
I love it when you use fixtures in ways they weren’t designed to be used, that’s definitely inspiring
The thing is, when you try to copy something that exists IRL, you have to, you can’t make as many shortcuts as you do when you do original designs, which is one reason why I went for this project.
1 Like