GP4: 1996 Jordan 196 walkaround part 2

Welcome back for part 2 of my 1996 Jordan 196 walkaround. There's quite a few screenshots to feature that I'd like to talk apart so there are 3 parts in total, but let's get into the detail now starting at the front of the car.

The nose and monocoque section has a nice flat side and then a smooth rounded top and bottom. So you can see how I tried to be efficient on polygon use on the flat regions compared to the curved ones which has lots more polygons. The front wing endplate has the small lip that comes out at the front bottom, and then it creates a little bit of an outwash, with the rounded bottom at the rear producing a vortices.

The lower front wing, like most of the grid, curves up on the leading edge in the middle of the car, whilst the trailing edge is flat. Like modern day cars, the upper front wing is separated from the central section to the main part. The front wing support is an interesting shape, because it doesn't really follow the contours of the nose (have a look at the front view in my previous blog) where the lower back part extends wider than any other part of the support. It took a few goes for me to get that right from various angles.

Not that you can tell as it's all black, but the suspension has a bit of detail added to the shape when it connects to the monocoque. The small barge-board also has 3D holes for the suspension to go through.

Again, hard to see when it is all black, but for me it's a first in modelling my first wheel hub and brake ducts.

The first sidepod inlet is an interesting shape. Like the 1995 car, the top part is smoothly merged to the car in a lovely rounded shape around the front of the cockpit. The lower part is attached to the tea-tray element of the floor. Because of the stepped floor to house the plank, the sidepod sits a little higher up than the floor. Again it wasn't easy getting the shape right for the top of the first part of the sidepod, it almost has two separate curves. I'm really pleased with the outcome though, and also the inlet for the second rear sidepod was not easy to get right, especially as it is slightly raised.

The hardest part to model of all was the body line that runs along the side of the cockpit. Not only are the lines curved, but the bodyline itself is on a curved part of the car. Though I'm happy with the positioning, I'm not all too happy with how it turned out compared to the other bodylines. Though I'm glad they are there rather than not there too.

Again, thankfully there were some good shots of the cockpit that I could find and try and get as accurate as possible. My only regrets is that none of the textures have put any effort into lighting up the dash, but at least the 3D rev lights are lit up.


Having shown the video of the converted rfactor 2 car, this is a video the car in Assetto Corsa.