Me recreating every (?) European COTY - Part 11: 1974 Mercedes S-class

[Knugcab]

OK, I start to feel a bit bored about this game now, since it feels like my development has stalled. I have thought about it, and decided to once again take up an old project from the 4.1 era - to recreate the European Car of the year winner, starting in 1964 and going through year by year.

There are plenty of reasons. One is that I still struggle with some eras. 1964, however, is the era I have rather good knowledge and skills in. Going through year by year after that will maybe give some insights in how car design have evolved through the times. Another one is that it is hard to take shortcuts when you have to recreate real cars. If an idea does not work on a fictive car, you can do something different, but in the case of an IRL car, you have to do it as close as you can get, which requires LOTS of fiddling sometimes.

But why create a whole new thread and not just post it in car replicas? Well, I think of this as sort of a project thread. I think we can learn from each other. If I post pictures of the progress, maybe someone new to the game can pick up some valuable ideas from me that has been playing for over six years now. On the other hand I know that there are MANY designers out there that is more skilled than me, that probably has knowledge how I can solve stuff when being stuck, so I gladly take ALL sorts of feedback on my work here. So, this will not be cars slapped together in 15 minutes, rather be serious projects that will take time, and where I will share the progress from start to finish.

Done this far:

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1964 Rover 2000 - Rover_2000_-_P6.car (108.2 KB)
1965 Austin 1800 - Austin_-_1800.car (99.2 KB)
1966 Renault 16 - Renault_-_16.car (126.0 KB)
1967 Fiat 124 - Fiat_-_124.car (152.0 KB)
1968 NSU Ro80 - NSU_-_Ro80.car (155.1 KB)
1969 Peugeot 504 (to be uploaded)
1970 Fiat 128 (TBU)
1971 Citroën GS (TBU)
1972 Fiat 127 (TBU)
1973 Audi 80 (TBU)

In progress:
1974 Mercedes-Benz S-class

Future builds:
1975 Citroën CX
1976 Simca 1307
1977 Rover SD1
1978 Porsche 928
1979 Simca Horizon
1980 Lancia Delta
1981 Ford Escort
1982 Renault 9
1983 Audi 100
1984 Fiat Uno
1985 Opel Kadett
1986 Ford Scorpio
1987 Opel Omega
1988 Peugeot 405
1989 Fiat Tipo
1990 Citroën XM
1991 Renault Clio
1992 VW Golf
1993 Nissan Micra
1994 Ford Mondeo
1995 Fiat Punto
1996 Fiat Bravo
1997 Renault Megane Scenic
1998 Alfa Romeo 156
1999 Ford Focus
2000 Toyota Yaris
2001 Alfa Romeo 147
2002 Peugeot 307
2003 Renault Megane
2004 Fiat Panda
2005 Toyota Prius
2006 Renault Clio
2007 Ford S-Max
2008 Fiat 500
2009 Opel Insignia
2010 VW Polo
2011 Nissan Leaf
2012 Opel Ampera
2013 VW Golf
2014 Peugeot 308
2015 VW Passat
2016 Opel Astra
2017 Peugeot 3008
2018 Volvo XC40
2019 Jaguar I-Pace
2020 Peugeot 208
2021 Toyota Yaris
2022 Kia EV6
2023 Jeep Avenger
2024 Renault Scenic E-tech

Or if you want them for Beam:

Resources from Knugcab

[abg7]

The 1962 E3-E9 body set could be considered as a basis for a Rover 2000/P6 replica, but failing that, the '55 Euro-style sedan body would be a viable alternative.

[Knugcab]

Surprisingly enough, you’re right. The BMW body is the closest one, due to its versatile morphs and the smooth, “clean” body that means that there are no unnecessary things that needs to be removed. It wasn’t the first one I would have thought of, but I think this base should work…

[Happyhungryhippo]

Well, thats quite some workload… but surely also interessing.

[Knugcab]

Yes but I won’t hurry, if it takes years, then so what?

[Knugcab]

OK, this is the car I have used for reference this far.

Something I often overlook on older cars is to add the rain gutters. so, now I started with it to not forget it. If this is the ideal fixture? Probably not but it felt somewhat close at least, on the distance you should look at an Automation car at…

It turned out that using this fixture for the recess in the hood did work, when the “vent” part disappeared under the negataping I used to make the grille gap.

Those modular lights seemed to work for the turn signal/parking light arrangement.

For me, getting the wheels somewhat right early in the build is important. Maybe because the Automation default steelies totally lacks any personality and makes the car look very…“default”. Turned out that there was an alternative among the vanilla wheels that resembled the Rover’s funky hubcaps.

Well, since there isn’t any grille fixture that I think works for this, I negataped a hole, filled it up with a mesh, put a 3D radiator behind it. Used bumper bars thinned out for framing, headlights in this era were most often just usual round ones, as they are here, so nothing special there. The DS mod bumper with its rather thin, sharp profile looks a lot like the original, and the horns are vanilla ones, as well as the license plate. The Draco mod badge is supposed (I think) to resemble the Rover one. Some 3D fixtures to smooth out the area around the turn signals and such, not extremely satisfied there so anyone having tips should feel free to give them…

I guess here is where I stop for tonight.

[Knugcab]

The upcoming struggle may be to replicate the small tailfins it has. The existing tailfin fixtures are a bit too 50s and doesn’t work as well for the more subtle 60s variants. How would you have tried to do it…?

My goal isn’t necessary exact replicas but to get as close as possible with sane amounts of work…

[Knugcab]

OK, tonight was spent mostly working on the fins, and I think I have an idea that worked. I don’t know what kind of taillights the grey car has with the square reflector at the bottom. Seems like other cars I see DON’T have them, so I went for an easier variant I see on most of the cars.

The fin in itself is a half cylinder (what is the correct name in english?), as is the top of the taillight reflector.

While the bottom is a cube that has been flattened and stretched etc…

Turn signal is a quarter of a sphere (or whatever you call that in English…) while taillight and reversing light are the half cylinders again.

Done, with bulbs added for a little bit more depth, and the chrome separating the different lights are once again the half cylinder.

This fixture in 3D mode made for a little better front fender tops…yeah I have seen better.

Well, that’s it for tonight I guess.

[Knugcab]

Nah. The front parking light/turn signal arrangement just looked wrong, and the final solution was to redo them in a similar fashion to the taillights. Not perfect but finally deemed good enough IMO…

One thing that looks a bit wrong on the BMW body is the wheelarches. On the Rover, the rear one should be smaller, but that’s a tradeoff I am willing to do, since shrinking it, making new cutlines for the door etc. does not feel viable to me. However, up front the problem is the opposite. It should be larger, rounder. That’s an easier fix, with this fixture scaled to the right proportions being the new arch…

…and flat cutout patches sent to transparent removed the remaining parts of the front arch. Fiddly on this body, to say the least.

The sides are rather free from sculpting, however, it seems to be a rather small indent in the front of the sills, which this fixture, scaled to a shallow depth, was chosen to represent.

This was still the era of vent windows, on the Rover rather small and slightly leaned. Door handles just vanilla fixtures, being chrome pushbutton ones rather typical for the era.

Fender badge, being just chrome embossed lettering with a trim piece underneath and a black decal patch behind it. When it comes to mirrors, I guess they weren’t standard and that various solutions have existed as an afterthought. I see cars without mirrors, with fender mirrors, door mirrors, square ones, round ones… So, I decided to go for fender mirrors and a rather classic, chrome finished type. I think cars looks a bit cheap without sidemirrors TBH…

Other things I find on reference pictures. Covers probably for the jacking points and a seam between fender and sill. Such things that does it in the end, I guess…

Well, an overview this far. Hard to do much about things that the roofline that isn’t quite right, the side crease being in the wrong place, and so on. But as I said I am not looking to replicate the cars down to downright silly details.

A decal patch had to represent the chrome on the Rover A-pillars.

TBH, I don’t know if there is much more to do to the sides now. maybe they can be seen as finished…

At least I hope for this to be better than my attempt from four years ago…

[Knugcab]

The shutline of the trunk is a little bit high on the BMW body and had to be closed with a patch.

The Rover seems to have a rather chunky chrome license plate mounting base, so I put in this grille as a 3D fixture and set the mesh to chrome.

Also, there is a little recess at the base of the trunklid, I think this fixture worked there.

Now, some new shutlines for the trunklid.

Again, DS mod bumper, combined with some vanilla horns.

Some details filled in, and now it starts to resemble a car. I guess most of them are rather obvious ones, and I also added wipers, sure, rain in the UK is a seldom seen thing I guess, but still.

Always a bit fun to see how much that is reshaped, well, still something left of the stock body it seems like, so…

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And here it is, not a perfect but still IMO rather decent looking P6 replica. I’ll gladly take some feedback, both good and bad, on the exterior. (Yes, I realize that a tailpipe could be a good thing, going to fix that I see now.)

I am absolutely no expert in the P6, so going by various reference pics, I may have mixed different years, trim levels etc. - I’ll be happy to take some corrections there too, even though the point of this thread still somewhat stays even if the cars becomes a bit “imaginary”.

For the interior, fiddling with fixtures is a bit harder, but it will be nice to see if it is possible to make it at least somewhat similar, so…stay tuned.

[AudiRS4]

Awesome work dude!
I wonder if you’ll be doing those in chronological order

[Knugcab]

Yes. At least that is my goal. If it proves to be absolutely impossible to find a body that even can be modified into looking like the actual car, then I might have to skip it, but I will try to avoid that at all costs.

[Maverick74]

Overall I would say it’s a very good replica. I feel the tail lights could stick out from the body a smidge more and might be a little too tall. But I think you absolutely nailed the grill design.

[abg7]

As things stand right now, it’s close enough for my liking.

[Knugcab]

OK, it seemed a bit hard to get a really good reference pic of the dashboard that seemed to be of a relatively early car that wasn’t a V8 or TC, I wanted it somewhat basic spec, but I think this is one.

The basic dashboard is out of the mod pack with various interior parts, that features some simple dashboard shapes. A typical feature in the Rover is the steering wheel that is just a thin spoke across the wheel with no real “hub” area, one of the vanilla “classic steering wheels” is kind of that type of wheel even if it is not 100% similar. Gauge cluster is the Peugeot 204 unit from the “70s interior pack” mod, close enough I think even if the same thing goes here, not an identical replica. The centre mounted clock is out of one of the interior packs with 50s/60s interior parts.

The switches and ignition lock are also from the 50s/60s interior packs, except for the turn switch in the middle that is from the “modular 80s” pack.

Now, the centre console needs some thinking since it is a fairly complex thing that also includes a speaker. I am pretty sure I can’t replicate it, so the question is how to get as close as possible. Suggestions welcome as always.

[Knugcab]

The panel under the dash is a parcel shelf fixture, and since grey cars seems to have had red interiors, I went for that in this too.

The centre console was built by using a 3D vent fixture as the “speaker”, with a 3D triangle fixture on each side.

Then two of those fixtures from the “modular 80s interior” tab was stacked on top of each other and resized, a radio was mounted in the lower one, and the radio part also got 3D triangles in a similar fashion.

Other than that, I think that the fixtures used this far might be rather straightforward, I guess.

[dylansan]

Looks great! I love projects like these that go through time, one year at a time. In my experience I never get as far as I intend, but that’s just my own lack of motivation.

I really appreciate you showing the fixtures you’re using. It’ll definitely be helpful in my builds!

[Knugcab]

Thanks, I was afraid that 200 pictures showing more or less the same thing would be repetitive, but if you say that you learn from it, I guess I have achieved what I wanted to do with it. I try to choose not to show the most obvious fixtures to cut down on the number of pictures, I think people understand, for example, a radio fixture, or gearstick or handbrake…

[Knugcab]

The front seats are rather straightforward, but since the rear seat is contoured for two passengers, with the one in the middle bound to suffer, it is a bit harder to do. First, I started with the same fixtures used for the front seats.

Then it was only to place two 3D blocks of the variety with rounded edges on the top and bottom, voila, finished seat.

The parcel shelf could be done in one fixture, but to fill up the gap I placed a second one behind the seat. Correct? Maybe, maybe not. It looks better than a gap anyway.

The way I make door cards in more or less any car, maybe not always the correct way, but the easiest. First I start with a “door panel” fixture at the top. Keep in mind that I use 2D to not leave a gap towards the door skin.

The door panels on the Rover are relatively smooth, so I used smooth ones. Missing a recessed strip at the top, but eh.

I didn’t find any fixture resembling the simplistic arm rests so I used bumper bars instead.

The Rover has a knob to open the vent windows instead of a latch. I just enlarged a pull switch for that. Keep in mind that you need to use your imagination sometimes, and use fixtures in different ways than they were intended to be. The window crank and door handle is just fixtures from the 50s/60s interior packs - rather straightforward. Now, the most important parts of the interior are laid out and mostly detailwork remains.

(Yes, the exhaust is poking through the interior and will be painted a transparent colour)

[Knugcab]

OK, by now I think we have a pretty good 2000 P6?

Now on to tackle the BMC 1800 for 1965. My guess is that the fastback Cortina is the best bet for that one, even if I gladly hear a different opinion if someone has one.