GP4: Final batch of 2021 helmets

A Happy New Year to all of you.

I never envisioned at the beginning of 2021 that I would end up doing as many helmets as I did. I'm grateful that there are other authors who have released fantastic content to supplement it. Having been a mere novice at Photoshop before, I'm growing in confidence in what I can do, and that's in part pushing myself to produce more and more complicated helmets. Some have come off better than others, I must admit, but this final batch are amongst my best work this season, that's the way that it should be I guess. I've added 9 new helmets for you in this batch of releases.

Valterri Bottas

2021 Valterri Bottas Abu Dhabi Helmet

First up, we have Valterri Botta's helmet for his final race at Mercedes. I've actually enjoyed recreating all of his designs this year, all done by his girlfriend. This one features a messages of thanks in different languages, some career highlights, a number of photos from his achievements with the team, as well as a fitting tribute to Niki Lauda on the back, and a nod to teammate Lewis Hamilton. The top is full of stock art, which I was able to track down was by Anastasia Vintovkina. I even had to mix two fonts together to make up the Danke Mercedes text. 

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Charles Leclerc

2021 Charles Leclerc Abu Dhabi GP helmet

This is another busy helmet. I started off by creating a glittery background, and there was just about enough photos for me to recreate the design, with messages of love, the prancing horse of Ferrari and his own name repeated on the top. It was a pleasant enough helmet to make and I think it looks really nice in game. 

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Lando Norris

2021 Lando Norris US GP helmet

Two Lando Norris helmets for you. This one is back from the US GP. It looks simple, but with the moon and rust backgrounds, I struggled at the time at the seams. It's not perfect still, but close enough not to notice it. I'm quite pleased with the final result and to get it done, as this was plaguing me sitting in my to do list for a while. 

2021 Lando Norris Abu Dhabi GP Helmet

I was expecting this helmet, which shines and reflects in different ways and in different colours, to be near impossible. But I found a close match to the pattern that Norris used, and I managed to quite quickly put his design together again, I managed to use some of the techniques I've learned this year to put this together. It looks great in GP4, working well with the alpha channels that adds another element to this helmet. In the end, it didn't take as long as I feared, and I'm pleased with the result. 

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George Russell

2021 George Russell Abu Dhabi GP Helmet

George Russell, in his final race with Williams, had a plain helmet, along with a new visor strip promoting the new King's Man film, where the team members were able to sign messages directly onto it. Because I did a similar task with Norris's British GP helmet earlier this year, I knew just how to go about this one. All the messages are true to the real lid, although there's a few I had to get creative on placement. The blue also twinkles a bit in the lights. Again, not as bad as I feared, again I'm pleased with the result. 

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Mick Schumacher

2021 Mick Schumacher US GP helmet

Two helmets for Mick Schumacher. Like Lando's US helmet, it was hanging over me for the last few races. I attempted to recreate it directly from photos, but there was no good picture of the right side. In the end, after much searching, I found the correct wood stained Texan flag. I also found a close match to the floral embossing. It was just then finding a good match to the rust background, there's three different layers going on there, and I managed to recreate the helmet entirely. From fearing I couldn't do it, I'm really glad I can tick this off, as it was a challenge, but I'm glad it's done and representative of the real thing. 

2021 Mick Schumacher Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Mick went all blue for the final race, with each star representing one member of the Haas staff. The placing of the stars was probably the most complicated thing about this helmet, a fairly easy recreation compared to some of the others in this batch of releases. 
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Max Verstappen

I wanted to commemorate Max's first World Championship by making up his helmet. He's driven absolutely brilliantly all year, and he's made less obvious mistakes to Lewis, and though I felt he was over aggressive at times, it doesn't take away from the achievement of beating a 7-times World Champion in probably the marginally better car, to his first World Championship. 

2021 Max Verstappen US GP Helmet

I had his template for his helmet mocked up from his previous liveries, so it wasn't too much trouble to recolour it to his regular design, and add one a few parts. In the US GP, the team ran with Acura branding instead of Honda, so that's all that's different with this helmet really. 

2021 Max Verstappen Abu Dhabi GP Helmet

Max had a thank you Honda logo put onto the back of his helmet for this weekend. He ran it in practice and qualifying, but ran his regular lid in the race. Anyway, I felt it justified it's own helmet, and as I say it's my tribute to his Championship success. 

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So that's me done with helmets for 2021. I know that Mazepin showed up at the final race with a gold helmet, but he did not start the race, and I need a break from helmets, so it's not getting done. 

I'm forever grateful to Jvinu and his helmets and template. His helmets are of great quality, and still stand up despite being a few years old. I only wish he had more time to create some helmets as he has done in the past. As with the whole season, these helmets are ACSPRH compatible.

I want to thank Jsoria for his helmets made for AC as well, having seen his excellent work, has helped me save time with placement of designs and logos for my lids throughout the year. I'm glad that between us we have a full set of helmets for GP4, the first time in a very long time. 

The fact there were different helmet shapes to paint on made a big difference, and Oggo's breakthrough tweak allowing us to run specific shapes for each driver has really made making these helmets all the more worthwhile. His return to GP4 this year has not only been greatly welcomed, but very productive in the tweaks, cars and new tools that he's shared. 

There's still a few more things for 2021 on my to do list, so watch this space for these coming soon. I also have another project that is in the closing stages of being complete enough to share with you.