I’m finally getting around to modeling parts I should have made years ago. As of recently, I’ve been modeling stuff left and right and have gigabytes of reference and files that are a work in progress. This NASCAR style fuel coupler is one of them files.
I burnt myself out years ago and lost the enjoyment that came from 3d modeling. Lately I’ve been starting to have fun again as long as I don’t take too long on certain stuff. So I’ve learned to hop around different projects. I made it easy to do that by learning new programs, gaining new skills, and making smaller files. Overall, I think in the end all my work will be all part of one large project but I’m not looking at it like that. Like that fuel coupler above, I’m taking baby steps and making stuff some friends of mine and I can use now without the main project.
The Schultz fuel coupler is something I’ve wanted to model for years. Every time I thought about it, I’d get lazy. I thought I had good reference of it, but until a few days ago, apparently, I didn’t, lol. I checked their Facebook page and found the perfect photo of it up close and realized I would have been off if I had the reference I currently had. It’s still not perfect, but it’s much better than it would have been. The thing that makes this different than a lot of models on my previous posts on this blog is the programs I used. I am using Blender for modeling and rendering now. That program has become one of my favorite tools and I’m starting to use it more than 3ds Max. The texture for the text was made in Photoshop of course, but then I also used Substance Painter to apply the materials. Them Substance programs… Some of the best purchases I’ve made in a long while. This coupler certainly needs a higher poly count car to really shine on. I had to add a subdivision modifier on the body just to remove some hard edges.
I should make it a bit smaller, but I’m in no rush. And you can see my new wheels there as well, but those will not be freely available like my old ones were. More on that some other time. Another object I finally got around to making was a NACA duct for the side windows. For some reason, I was always nervous about trying to model that. The shape of it made it seem like it would be difficult for me to make. Maybe that was my anxiety messing with me and making me overthink things. But as you can somewhat see below, it came out looking alright.
I still have to tweak the window a bit after cutting a hole in it for the duct, but it works. Also added some modeled rivets to help make it look more legit. I still have to make a UV map for it so I can do some variations. Right now, I’m just using a clear polycarbonate material. I’d like to see it done in carbon fiber too. And I also need to make other variations of the vent as well. It doesn’t look very realistic at the moment, but hopefully it’ll get there. I’m debating whether or not to get back to work on that or try fixing up some hood pins I screwed up a while back, lol. For now, I’ll end this entry here. If you read this much, thanks for tuning in. Till the next one!
Burnout3D 