Hello there! I’m finally back here in the Race Paints section after a long-ish hiatus. Without further ado, I present you the first images of my new project, codename: Biru!
Only got the very basics laid down, just to get an idea of how the car would look. And I’ll need to do every single sponsor decal from scratch!
The car’s going to be painted like a car competing in the 1987 All-Japan Touring Car Championship Division 1 for cars with engines up to 1600 cc of displacement. In real life, Honda never fielded the Mugen Ballade Sports (as it was called in Japan) in the JTCC, choosing instead to race with the AT Wonder Civic in those years. In 1987 the Motul-sponsored car dominated the series, winning every single race facing a stiff competition from a field of private AE86.
The G1 CR-X was, however, raced in the United States, where it destroyed the competition in the SCCA National Championships GT4 class from 1985 to 1989; it served to introduce Mugen to the American market.
I am still undecided whenever I should use a metallic or solid base paint: metallic paints weren’t popular on the Japanese scene and in world-wide motorsports back then, so it feels like an anachronism to have a car painted in a metallic color.
I’m not going to reveal the sponsor for now: but I’ve given enough hints for you to make an educated guess. It’s going to be a long while before I will post some progress on this livery, and longer still before it will become available; but hey, it’s something, isn’t it? ; )
Thanks for the feedback! I am glad to see the community’s still strong.
As usual, I changed my mind about sponsors. So, the base’s been redone to fit these changes. Work on all the decals is underway, and will probably take me forever. Gotto fill those 3000 layers per side somehow!
Thank you all! Quick update with some decal work done. I know it may be too soon, but hey, I’m too giddy! Seems that I haven’t lost it yet (the NGK logo was all done by eye and after some measurements proved to match and surpass my self-imposed accuracy standards).
I am also quite glad to see that the dreaded pixelation of FM4 is gone, and I have to say, those 2000 extra layers are proving to be quite useful, as I’d be already running out of space on the sides if we still had the old limitations! Also, is the coordinate grid far more narrow than it was in the past, or I’m imagining things? Eight clicks seem to do what four did in FM4.
I don’t know about the coordination grid but this thing is looking really sweet so far mate! I am digging the old-school Japanese style. Keep up the good work, really crisp logos so far.
I may be away for a while, so I decided to post a quick update while I can.
And let me just say: this car’s turning out to be a lot harder to paint than I thought, and I’ll never do a vintage livery from a semi-obscure championship again (yeah, I’ll just keep telling myself that).
I originally planned to go for a completely different sponsor (which I am going to use for another car), had very different ideas about the base livery, and this thing just keep changing. You may already know my usual process involves throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks, but only now I feel like I am going on the right direction with this, and even then, how long before I may change my mind again?