GP4: 1994 Williams FW16B Renault Australian GP Version download

Here it is, the first release of the 1994 Williams FW16B in Australian GP configuration.

As the main car uses every available polygon allowed in GP4, I've created lower lods. If you run a lower end machine, you can rename the lod_1 or lod_3 car to lod_0 to get better performance. 

I've also included a range of different sized textures, again to help you run it on a lower end machine. With the Extra-High resolution, the main texture is 4096x4096 in size, which is the same for my other 1994 cars. 

The texture pack includes a David Coulthard's car, with the white number 2 on the nose. 

Most of all, I hope you enjoy this release. Here's the link and some screenshots.

Download

For more information about this car, and a my build diary of sorts, you can find articles here: https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/search/label/FW16B

GP4: 1994 Williams FW16B Renault WIP update 6

I was looking back and I can't believe it's been a year to the day since my last update on this Williams. Well with a couple of smaller tweaks, I finally learned to use Photoshop and I can now paint my own cars again, which gives some motivation to mapping. The first fruits of that was the 1994 Ligier JS39B, released a few weeks back, and now it's time for the Williams FW16B. I'm still far from the best painter, shaping is still my strength I feel, but it's better than the cars having none at all. 

There's still a fair bit of work still to do on the car, but I thought I would give an update nevertheless as the bulk of the livery is done. What's quite deceptive is that a lot of the TV and photos of the time gave the impressions that the cars were quite dark, whereas they were deliberately painted quite bright to be noticed. I went down to Donington museum just before it closed, and it had one of these Williams cars on display, in Australian GP spec, and the colours were quite vibrant. Transferring that direct onto this car however made it look wrong - especially as there are some bright tracks in GP4. So it wasn't the most straight forward to choose the right palette. 

The other thing about GP4 is that although it had quite a good reflections engine, with the sky domes being added to custom tracks, it makes the cars super shiny. Testing between various tracks gave vastly different results. As I haven't tweaked the alpha layer yet (the part that manages the strength of reflections in GP4) I picked Mid-Ohio as a place for these screenshots, a mix of lovely high resolution textures and barely any reflections and shininess. 

My other issue is that I'm right on the polygon limit that GP4 allows, there's actually a bit of detail I had to leave out of the shape in order to get it to run in-game. So it does mean that whilst my model contains various onboard cameras and a couple of other nice parts, I'll have to make a decision on what the final in-game release spec will feature. 

For the time being, enjoy the screenshots, I'll release the Australian GP spec car as soon as it is ready, whilst I busily work on the other versions of the car. 

GP4: 1994 Williams FW16B Renault WIP update 5

Well, I think I'm finished with the Williams FW16B based on the Australian GP in terms of shaping now, so just to update you on the last couple of changes I've made. 

I've updated the top part of my old 2D seatbelt, and made it much thicker, as it had quite a bit of padding around the shoulder area. Back when the cockpits were more exposed and you could see more of the driver, I felt it deserved something a bit more substantial, fitted around my driver figure. 

I mentioned last time about the inside of the sidepod without taking a screenshot where you can see it, so here it is. I took quite a lot of photos of the car when it was still at the Donington Park museum just before it closed, and it revealed to me this unconventional layout.

As I mentioned last time, I've completely reworked the rear of the engine cover. There's quite a few changes in gradient, some gentle humps, and it's not easy to see when a lot of it is white. If you look at photos, the Renault logo is slightly distorted as the engine cover is shrink wrapped around the internals. I think if I was to start this area again, I could get it to look a bit smoother, but this looks OK to me.

Finally, you can see a slightly different angle of the rear of the engine cover. I've added a fuel cap, on the right hand side of the car for the Australian GP, and you can see the extinguisher handle.

So that's it, after almost a year, the car is complete and here's some final shots of the car. This is by far the most detailed shape I've created to date, and there were areas where I held back a bit (just so that it will run in GP4). I would add the camera in front of the cockpit and a coil to fit behind the steering wheel, but I personally am not going to miss them. I'd also redo the mirrors, but these ones will suffice for now. Anyway, I hope you like it and I hope you enjoyed the journey with me. Drop my a line if you want to contribute to me making my 3D cars.

Now I have a back log of cars to map before I get too tempted to start my next car.

GP4: 1994 Williams FW16B Renault WIP update 4

I've been quite busy over the past few months, but I've been doing little bits here and there on the Williams FW16B. There's still a fair bit left to do, but it's coming together quite nicely.

Not too much has changed from the front view, other than adding some onboard cameras, the mirrors have been slightly tweaked, and some work has been done on the inside of the sidepod. 

Taking off the nose cone and and you can see I've added quite a bit of detail onto the front of the monocoque. For GP4, this will have to be cut down in detail, but I quite enjoyed fitting some detail into this section of the car.

I've finished the barge boards, the number of supports seem a bit overkill to me, it was just more for me to model. 

A lot of work has been done on the cockpit and I've tried to keep it as accurate as possible. I've thrown a bit more polygons than my other 1994 cars to date, and I think it will look quite good when properly painted up. I aim to redo the seatbelts to better fit around my new driver body (from the 1995 Ferrari 412T2).

I've added the hole at the top of the rollover bar, and also added a small hole just behind the onboard camera, and on the other side, it's got the fire extinguisher hoop. Renault engined customers ran these extra inlets at the rear of the engine cover, and this carried over to the 1995 cars too. I still aim to redo the area around the rear light, it's going to be one of the last things I do on this car.

The rear suspension is complete. There's a lot less elements due to the unique rear suspension concept ran on the FW16B, where the top wishbones and the driveshaft are all encased in a wing- shaped cover.  This lowered the whole rear of the car, allowing them to run the unique anhedral lower rear wing. I've also added some body lines onto the sidepod. The rear end plate has been tweaked slightly since the last update.

Moving to the rear of the car and that's a lot more complete now. With the McLaren and Ligier, I already increased the detail around the gearbox area, but I went a little further with this car as there were clearer pictures to work from. You can see how it all integrates with the rear suspension, and you can see the exhaust on the bottom of the diffuser.

Here you can see the detail I've put in on how the rear suspension is mounted onto the gearbox casing and a selection of wires and detail have been added. Unfortunately all the detail comes at a cost and it pushes this car over the allowable polygon limit allowed for GP4, which is just over 65,000 polygons. I'm surprised I reached it so quickly, but I have been a bit more liberal with my polygon use on the detailed regions, whilst the car itself is fairly economical, certainly compared to models being created for more modern games.

1/43 Model Review: 1992 World Champion Nigel Mansell (Williams FW14B Renault)

Background

This is the successful 1992 Williams car that brought Nigel Mansell his only Drivers' World Championship and saw the team dominate the Constructors' Title. The car is a reliable evolution from the previous year's car, the FW14, which showed great promise in 1991 season, but was unreliable. Having hired Adrian Newey from March, they perfected their cars, integrating driver aids such as semi-automatic gearboxes, traction control, and an unmatched active suspension. These all came together to dominate the season, with Nigel setting various records along the way.

Onyx

Onyx 139

Back in the 90s, there were two options, you could go for Onyx, or you could go for the relatively new to the market Minichamps. Onyx had been producing models for a few years, and their 1992 collection was showing signs of improvement from some of their earlier more basic attempts. This Williams has relatively good proportions and is instantly recognisable.
Score: 5/10

Minichamps

Minichamps 430920005

As mentioned above, this is one of the early Minichamps models, only featuring a couple of 1992 and 1993 cars initially. The cars featured more detail than the Onyx version, and though it wasn't particularly hard to find on second hand markets, were still traded at higher than the original retail price. I have managed to own a couple of these models in my time and I've always managed to make a tidy profit from it over the years.
Score: 5/10

Minichamps 402929301

The car was updated for the 1992 and 1993 World Championship two car set, along with the FW15. New wings, new driver figure, updated suspension and added mirrors were all added to the original model. However it could have really done with an overhaul.
Score: 6/10

Minichamps 436920005

The car did receive an overhaul and we got the long awaited resin version in the World Champions Collection in 2017. This model is fantastic from Minichamps, a fitting tribute to one of the most dominant cars in F1 history. The shame is that the driver figure looks a bit too small and lost in the cockpit; I don't think Mansell can see out of the cockpit! Without the driver figure, I would have been tempted to give this a score of 9.
Score: 8/10

Ixo/RBA/Formula 1 Car Collection

Ixo's attempt at the car is not a particularly good one in my opinion. I don't think the nose is particularly well shaped and the front of the rollover bar is a bit of a mess. I've seen better budget cars.
Score: 5/10

Tameo

Tameo TMK153

This Tameo car is based on the opening race from the South African GP. I found the front wing on this car way too big, though it's not that clear in the picture above. It's a real shame because the rest of the car is of the highest quality, even over the latest Minichamps resin version. The clarity of the body lines being one of the nice features, and the stepped floor at the rear of the sidepods, the gurney flaps, the gap between the separate wing elements are all fantasticly modelled.

Score: 9/10 

1/43 Model Review: 1987 World Champion Nelson Piquet (Williams FW11B Honda)

Background

The Williams team had the best engine in the Honda, and two great drivers, double world-champion Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. Both were in contention for the championship in 1986, but for tyre problems at the final race to cost both drivers the title. Although Mansell won 6 races to Piquet's 3 wins, Piquet would score points in 13 of the 15 races he started, 11 of them on the podium. This secured the Brazilian his third and final Drivers' World Championship.

Minichamps

Minichamps 400870006

This model was released as part of the Williams Collection, and is limited to 6,480 pieces. It wasn't easy to come by, but I remember stumbling across a seller on ebay selling his Williams collection at very low prices (£25) and I haven't seen this car at that low a price since. Even today, they are fetching over £50 usually. Anyway, this is a really nice model in my opinion. I'm not too keen on the helmet with the 'clear' visor, but the model does come with some nice details, inside the cockpit, suspension supports and at the rear of the car.

Minichamps 436870006

There is a World Champions Collection version too, which is the same as the Williams Collection but from a different race with small decal differences. I believe the two were released at the same time but I could be wrong.
Score: 8/10

Tameo

Tameo WCT087

This beautiful recreation by Tameo includes removable engine cover and sidepods which reveals a beautifully re-created internals. I love the detail on the internals, but also the detailing on the end plates is a really nice touch, as is the gurney flap on the rear wing. The detail on the suspension connection points and even the wheel nut is all incredibly well done. So this easily gets a perfect score from me.
Score: 10/10

Formula 1 Car Collection/Ixo

This Ixo car is part of the Formula 1 Car Collection, but is available with a driver figure from Eaglemoss in Brazil and Altaya. It's quite a nice budget model but I think the car ought to be longer around the engine area.
Score: 6/10

Heller

I remember buying a pack of three plastic kits from the 1987 season, which included the McLaren, the Ferrari and this Williams FW11B (though it's Mansell's car). They were quite easy to make, and for me at the time, I thought they looked pretty reasonable. Sadly mine got lost a long time ago, but the kits are still available to get.

GP4: 1994 Williams FW16B Renault WIP update 3

It's been a fair few weeks since my last update on my Australian GP spec 1994 Williams FW16B. In case you missed it, here are links to my previous updates:

Update 1

Update 2

I've been busy and it looks like my life is starting fill up again, so time for modelling will be become less and less again I'm afraid. But the motivation is still there, and whilst I'm not putting in hours at a time anymore, I am still able to take a few minutes here and there to make little bits at a time.

The car now has a rear wing, and I had fun putting lots of detail onto this. With the Ferrari 412T1B and the Mclaren MP4/9, I started putting more effort into the end-plates and I've gone an extra step with the Williams to make it more accurate. The upper element of the rear wing is connected to a small triangular piece with is connected to the endplate. The clasp that holds the upper rear wing together in the middle is also more than a simple triangle, but a bit more defined.

I also created a new lower rear wing support, and though you can't really see if from this screenshot, the rear jack mounting points are a separate piece screwed onto the main support. The unique thing about the FW16 is the rear suspension and along with it, the anhedral (triangular shaped) lower rear wing. It's scooping up the air at a lower point, which helps interact with the diffuser making it more efficient. The added length (because it is at an angle) will have more surface area to manipulate the airflow, but the trade off is that you create downforce at an angle. The FW16B had a third lower rear wing element at the high downforce tracks, including the Australian GP which this model is based on.

Work has begun on the front suspension as well. The brakepad is from my 1993 Tyrrell 021 and is common in my later 1996 cars, but I've added two screw ends at the top. For my 1996 cars, I already started making more effort in the suspension ends in particular, but with this car, I put more detail into the main wheel hub assembly.

Having lots of good photos helps me make the model much more accurate, and adding things like the small cable on the wheel hub just helps bring a bit more life to it, even though its mostly covered by the front wheel in a race.

The main bit that you can see is the brake duct. It's a lovely shape, with turning vanes inside of it, and it elegantly curves around the diagonal suspension arm to the rear of the front tyre, where there is an additional inlet.

I have started amending the monocoque and how the suspension joins to it. It's a bit of a pain where the body lines join, but it's fun trying to get the normals all looking smooth.


Here's a preview shot of it in-game. Since I took the shots above, I have since created the suspension cover body line, which isn't easy as it curves from the top of the monocoque around to the side in a smooth curve, it's very difficult to get right. I'm not noticing too much of a hit on the performance on my GP4 yet as my cars get more and more detailed.

GP4: 1994 Williams FW16B Renault WIP update 2

It's time for another update on my GP4 1994 Williams FW16B from the Australian Grand Prix.

I collect a lot of photos, spending days scouring the internet for them and then sorting them. One resource that I've been particularly useful is gurneyflap. Sadly it hasn't been added to for some years, but at least it is still there.
http://www.gurneyflap.com/williamsfw16a.html

I've now created the front wing. I'm pretty happy with it, but it may have a few minor tweaks before its finished. The lower front wing has the bulge in front of the nosecone, making it the first thing the air hits rather than say the McLaren where the nose extends in front of the front wing. The middle of the front wing is also higher than the edges but only on the leading edge, so that makes it a little more tricky to get right. There's a small clip on to attach it to the end plates on either side, it's nice to add small details.
The upper flap is pretty boring, but it has gurney flaps attached on the trailing edge, which are slightly angled. I don't know whether it's worth adding small screws - let me know whether you think its worth modelling as I don't want to go too crazy on the number of faces I use.

You can see the end plates  more clearly on the screenshot below. It's not flat side on, and the top edge is angled. The bottom part of the endplate starts off wider, before channeling the air in towards the nose, before swooping back out again, creating a small Bernoullli effect. They also had a small flat plate running along the bottom of it. Again, it's nice to try and replicate the detailed contours of it, rather than opting for a simple flat one. 

I've modeled  the inner part of the nose, which I don't tend to put too much effort towards, because you only really catch a glimpse of it during a pitstop in GP4, and there's usually something blocking the view anyway. 

Last time I talked a bit about the floor, and you can see the layers a bit more clearly on the shot below. I've now added the diffuser and extended the rear of the sidepod, although this will be changed quite a lot when I get around to doing the rear suspension. I noticed this on the McLaren, but the floor seems to drop just in front of the rear wheels, perhaps a small loophole in the regulations at the time. Anyway, the second half of the season saw a change in the regulations of the diffuser. At the beginning of the season, you would see these big diffusers on the cars, but they have brought them forward to the rear axle making them much smaller and thus less effective, leaving only the central part of the diffuser to extend to the rear of the car. The central section of the diffuser has its own endplates, stopping the air from leaking out towards the side. 

To keep me motivated, I've been slowly adding my parts to the existing car by McKey and Oggo and slowly deleting their parts and then trying them out in-game. I've attached some screenshots, obviously the grey parts are mine and the textured parts the remains of the existing car. Whilst the wheelbase is identical, the driver in my car actually sits a little further back, so the helmet and onboard camera are not quite in the right place whilst I'm testing. Here you can see the contours of the front wing and endplates from another angle. 

Here's a shot from the rear of the car. I've filled in the hole on the engine cover from the last update, but the rear light remains from the old car. The diffuser looks nice in grey, but there's still work to do in that I'm yet to model the exhaust exiting from underneath. 

In case you missed it, you can read my first update here: https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/2019/01/gp4-1994-williams-fw16b-renault-wip.html
To see some of the other things I'm working on, click here: https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/search/label/Fongu