BLiTZ's Liveries - Latest Update: #1 Nissan ALTIA GT-R '99

BLiTZ · Nov 16, 2017

BLiTZ's GT Sport Liveries

Welcome to my livery thread, here you'll find my latest creations and perhaps the odd preview or two.

Most of these will be uploaded for public use and I'll include the tags where appropriate. You can find these under my PSN: spooned12000rpm

Check by regularly for updates and if you like what you see, be sure to comment or leave a like.

- - - - -

Honda Civic Type R (FK2) '15 - Team Dynamics BTCC

Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "btcc" "teamdynamics" "typer"

This livery is based on the Team Dynamics Halfords Yuasa Racing Honda Civic Type R's from the 2017 BTCC. This was the first livery I created in GT Sport and I used it as a test to see how I got on with the controls. I've recently updated it with the newly released O.Z Racing Superturismo LM wheels which complete the look nicely. The design uses only decals from GT Sport, I may revisit the design with custom decals at a later stage, but for now I kind like how it looks with the GT and Polyphony logos as it has a GT1/2 Race Modification vibe.

- - - - -

Nissan GT-R Gr.4 - Falken Motorsports

Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "falken" "gtr" "nismo"

(UPDATE - ver 5.00 released - see post #4)

Taking inspiration from the Falken Skyline GT-R BNR34's that competed in the Super Taikyu and Nurburgring 24hr's in the early 2000's, this is my take on the famous teal and blue livery. Getting the design to work was tricky due to the lack of a white Falken logo. My workaround was to use a number of the blue Falken logos blown up to colour the rear end of the car. I've seen a number of Falken replicas in GT Sport and there's very few that accurately capture the famous Falken scallops properly. I developed the method I currently use in NFS '15 where I created a number of Falken wraps. Safe to say it's a time consuming process and without NFS's coordinates in GT Sport there's much more positioning by eye involved. This is in fact the second time I've made the Falken livery for this car as I was 100% happy with the first attempt (the area above the windows is tricky due to how the shapes skew) and with the release of the Enkei wheels and Nissan/Nismo logos it was only fitting to have a better go. This version took at least 10 hours from start to finish. When I find the motivation again I'll perhaps do the same livery for other cars.

- - - - -

Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 - PUMA Racing

Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "puma" "gtr" "nismo"

Inspired by the PUMA sponsored Mitsubishi GTO that competed in the Super Taikyu series in Japan.

- - - - -

Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 - Kondo ADVAN

Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "kondo" "gtr" "gismo"

Whilst Googling to find some GT-R GT3 real life liveries for more inspiration, I came across the Kondo GT-R from the Super Taikyu series. The livery looked achievable in GT Sport and I'm happy with the result. Again this was created pre-decal uploader so there's a bit of work needed at some point down the road but as with the Civic I like how it looks at the moment and I don't know If I'll want to mess with it all that much.

- - - - -

Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 - Team Cougar

Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "cougar" "gtr" "jackiechan"

One of my favourite films is Jackie Chan's Thunderbolt (Pik Lik Foh). In the film the villain, Cougar, drives a Nissan Skyline GT-R BNR32 with a fictitious livery based loosely on the Unisia Jecs sponsored Hasemi Motorsport car (albeit with a black base). Here's my take using the GT-R GT3 as the canvas.

- - - - -

Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 - Test Car

Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "gtr" "nismo" "testcar"

Nothing special, just a simple plain test car livery.

BLiTZ · Nov 16, 2017

Nissan GT-R Gr.4 & Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 - ECR Team Nismo

Status: Private | Availability: N/A | Tags: N/A

This is the livery I've created for use in Sport Mode. ECR or Ed Chambers Racing is the name I've used for my fictitious race team ever since I was a little kid pushing Hot Wheels cars round the carpet (I'm an adult now and the Hot Wheels cars now take pride of place on my die cast shelf).

The design takes inspiration from a number of different real world GT-R race cars with the colour scheme similar to that used by RJN in the British GT championship and on various cars campaigned in endurance races worldwide. The design originally used a gloss black base to allow for a chrome roof and a more vibrant Mclaren-esk rocket red (similar to my Cougar livery above) but with the release of K3 Half Matt paint my direction changed as I really like the contrast between the glossy vinyl and the matt paint. This also made the design more of a challenge as it meant I couldn't use black shapes to mask off areas of the red.

Pre-Decal Uploader I was using the Webster Sporting Goods logos as a title sponsor but knew as soon as we could get proper logos that they'd be replaced with Nissan and Nismo for a 'works team' look. Some of the real challenges came with masking off the roof and the V Motion grille along with masking the front lip to allow the fluorescent yellow accents to show through, plenty of hours spent tweaking and tweaking until I got it perfect.

In there current guises I've gone for a Blancpain series look for the GT3 with the Pirelli tyres and Total lubricants championship sponsor decals. With the Gr.4 I've opted for Dunlop tyres as they seem to cater for more of the endurance championships. Again once a white Falken logo comes on the scene I'll likely use them as they're one of my preferred real world tyre suppliers.

- - - - -

BONUS!

Status: Not yet Uploaded | Availability: N/A | Tags: N/A

I had a play around with the Gr.4 version and created these inspired by the colour schemes available on the Race Modification versions of the Skyline GT-R BCNR33's in GT1/2. I only did them as an experiment but if there's enough interest I might share them.

Cytoria · Nov 17, 2017

Nice liveries. Just like you said, even the liveries that look "simple" take time to adjust, tweak, align perfectly...

And now with the gradual release of the uploader, I did not count the times when I said to myself "Ok, this one is not the exact same sponsor but it will be ok" ... and then I see the sticker that has just been downloaded, and I go back ! Or spending one full hour doing the Pegasus with 65 layers on the roof of the Mobil1 NSX, thinking "That way, I can really make a difference between all this simple liveries" and yesterday, someone upload the full decal and my work now looks dated !

I'll add you on the game to follow, I shall see nice work coming from you !

BLiTZ · Nov 18, 2017

So I finally have access to the Decal Uploader and I feel like a kid in a sweet shop. The first call of action was to upload my ECRacing logo and apply it to my Sport Mode liveries:

Then I decided to try out something I'd been wanting to do as soon as the DU came online. As much as I love the Falken livery it's always a pain to recreate and time/motivation often stops me doing more than one car. So I created the Falken scallops on my laptop and uploaded them via the DU. The first attempt wasn't 100% successful, despite being a vector SVG, the original I created was relatively small (px-wise) and when blown up big enough to cover the side of the car it turned pretty pixelated. Enlarging the design on the computer and uploading again made a massive difference. With the scallops uploaded as a single decal I was able to recreate the livery in a fraction of the time that my original attempts took me using separate lines. The only trouble spot came again at the top of the window where I had to switch between side and roof views to get a straight line.

Combined with uploading the correct Falken decal without the blue base means I can now recreate the livery much more readily as well as on other cars, so stay tuned for updates (namely a GT3 version, then perhaps something entirely different, Porsche 911 RSR perhaps?!). It also means I can recreate elements from other liveries that would have been time consuming to re-create in-game from the limited shapes.

Nissan GT-R Gr.4 - Falken Motorsports (ver 5.00)

Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "ecr" "falken" "gtr"

Based on the 2004 version of the Skyline GT-R BNR34 that competed in the Nurburgring 24 Hour race. It's missing a couple of smaller decals and the larger Team 5Zigen logos (as I can't find a good enough version online, nor can be bothered to vector one myself at this stage) and the Galladé logos from the top of the wings (this company appears to have become insolvent in 2010 so copies of the logo are none existent). Thanks to okasan_joestar07 for the N24h number board which I've placed so that the livery is fully compatible with the Sport Mode race numbers and the Project Mu logo.

BLiTZ · Nov 19, 2017

Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 - ECR ✕ Falken (N24 Version)

Status: Private | Availability: N/A | Tags: N/A

As promised, here's my GT-R GT3 Falken livery. The idea behind this design is a fantasy N24 entry for ECRacing teaming up with Falken Motorsports. Lots of elements carried over from my standard ECR livery and a few extra touches such as the driver roster which is made up of myself and my three brothers-in-law and the chrome base for the roof.

Couple of tricky areas such as getting the Falken decal on top of the side skirt and also correcting an issue with the Falken scallops skewing at the top of the doors (I discovered this bug after looking at the screenshots of my Gr.4 version, which has also been corrected and ver 5.01 shared with the same tags as ver 5.00). Managed to get a decent Union Jack created (as the SVG version pulled from Wikipedia used strokes instead of filled paths which GT Sport doesn't seem to cope with) and also had to create an egg shape for the red decal at the top of the pillar (Not sure what it means but all the top N24 cars seem to have them) to compensate for the skew.

Cris_riot · Nov 23, 2017

Nice work
Will you make the Blitz skyline r34
Drift car liverty? For the r34 when the dlc release

BLiTZ · Nov 23, 2017

Cris_riot
Nice work
Will you make the Blitz skyline r34
Drift car liverty? For the r34 when the dlc release

Thanks! I'd have to see, drift liveries tend to be quite complicated affairs these days and I'll be honest I haven't really kept up with the drift scene for a long time. If an R34 comes to GTS then I'll certainly do something with it as it's still my favourite car from the GT series. I had so much fun lapping Midfield in it when they re-released it for GT6!

Randombeef · Nov 23, 2017

BLiTZ
Thanks! I'd have to see, drift liveries tend to be quite complicated affairs these days and I'll be honest I haven't really kept up with the drift scene for a long time. If an R34 comes to GTS then I'll certainly do something with it as it's still my favourite car from the GT series. I had so much fun lapping Midfield in it when they re-released it for GT6!

Man you gotta keep up with this stuff! R34 coming in December!

BLiTZ · Nov 23, 2017

Randombeef
Man you gotta keep up with this stuff! R34 coming in December!

Don't worry I will. Not had so much time to play this week as been getting in later from work.

Hadn't seen the news until this morning so arrival of the BNR34 came as a shock. Very happy though, (a GR.4 version would be nice, the GT6 Touring verison was so nice to drive, though the DBA-R35 feels very similar so I can't complain) you can expect a Falken livery any maybe the Autech or Daishin Super Taikyu liveries from circa 2000. Wonder if they'll ever include the option to add the Nismo aero kit like we had in GT5/6, shouldn't be too hard to implement via the 'Racing Items' section.

racer_xis · Nov 23, 2017

Very nice job, and its downloadable, thank you!!!

BLiTZ · Nov 27, 2017

Porsche 911 GT3 RS (991) '16 - ECR Porsche Carrera Cup GT Sport

Status: WIP | Availability: N/A | Tags: N/A

Something a bit different from me this week, I'm not normally a Porsche guy but decided to try something outside my usual (*cough Nissan) comfort zone. Lots of inspiration taken from the Porsche Carrera Cup GB cars with the series sponsor logos on the sill etc. I experimented with the 'Align with Camera' projection method which really helped with some of the trickier areas of the car and was a real help in combating stretching and skewing.

It's still a WIP at this stage as I'm not 100% set on the sponsors and colour combos (it spent most of Saturday evening with blue chrome as the base colour) but its been a fun exercise and I'm sure I'll keep dipping back into it.

Also set up an Imgur account so I can share the screenshots in all their glory (when I have the time/inclination I'll update this thread with better images for all my designs). Enjoy!

#88

Details:

#84

Cap'n Jack · Nov 30, 2017

Any chance you’ll make a +23 livery?

BLiTZ · Nov 30, 2017

Cap'n Jack
Any chance you’ll make a +23 livery?

Now that's a blast from the past! Haven't thought about them for years. Yes, I need to make a +23 decal at the very least and do a tribute 'tune'.

Almost ready to show my current project so once that's done I'll get vectoring.

uccio21 · Dec 1, 2017

very nice original liveries, expecilly Porsche and Civic

BLiTZ · Dec 2, 2017

Porsche 911 RSR (991) '17 - Falken Motorsports

Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "ecr" "falken" "n24" | Version(s): (ver 3.01) & (ver 3.01 SM)

After picking up an RSR on the advice of other members saying it may be easier to drive than the GT-R GT3, I soon jumped into the Livery Editor to throw together a design (In fact I've only turned a few laps in the car and spent more time painting it than driving it so far!). My intention was to do a 'basic' Falken livery, but soon it turned into one of those "Well that escalated quickly!" moments and next thing I know I've committed to a full replica of the 2017 N24h car and I'm spending days making decals.

On the surface it may look like 'another' Falken RSR, but I'm proud to say that effort that's gone into this is massive. Anyone who's made a livery for the RSR will know it's not an easy canvas to paint. most of the body is one piece, meaning lots of masking is required and the curved shape can make decal placement tricky to avoid a skewed or distorted mess.

Once I'd got the base livery down, I was toying with which direction to go. Since there are lots of attempts at Falken replicas (none of which are really 'that' good, and some which are truly awful), I wanted to really make it special, I've long had a fondness for the Falken race cars and I knew I could do it better so It was at this point that the design went 'full replica' (vs the fantasy design I made for the GT-R GT3).

I started trawling Google for pictures of the real car, weighing up which year to replicate ('16 vs. '17) and collecting decals. I also spent a few hours researching and matching up fonts to get the correct style for the web address on the skirt.

One of the areas that I'm most proud of is the bonnet (hood). On the real car, the slats are painted black and in GT Sport most people simply paint these the same colour as the body as it's easier to do it that way. I wanted to copy the real thing as I feel it helps break up the colour and makes it look more accurate. To make life more difficult for myself I wanted to use a matte black finish so what followed was about 5 hours of painstaking masking, with a massive amount of trial and error using the Align with Camera projection method. The masking alone is about 50+ layers!

I've also kept the matte black for the side skirts which stops it looking quite so much like a hovercraft. This was much easier and only required a few decals to mask. In addition I've also painted the rear under body white as per the real car which is white underneath.

I played with some of the N24h number boards already uploaded but they were proving to be a bit awkward to use and being, A. OCD, liking to create/use my own stuff, and B. thinking "How hard can it be?!" I set about replicating my own. This took half a day to do and in absence of a vector version of the 2017 N24h logo meant also creating that from scratch too! Designing and making the board was only half the battle. The finished file (complete with number to make placement easier) Weighed in at 37kb. I was able to easily shrink this down to the required 15kb using the online optimiser, however the results were always a bit off.

TOP TIP: I spent a few hours trying various things and finally found that if I blew the original file up about 5x in size it meant I could finally reduce the accuracy in the optimiser (key to getting the size down) without losing too much quality on the smaller logos.

(BTW, If anyone wants N24h number boards making up complete with numbers, let me know as I now have the template set up. Just send me a PM and I'll set one up and upload it in the game 👍 )

Another decal I had to set up was for Schnabl Engineering as all I could find online was a low res .jpg. As the logo is only small on the mirror (and as it was about 3am in the morning at this point) it's a bit of a rush job with only basic shapes for 'Engineering' but it does the job in my eyes and for the extra time required to make it 100% it would be wasted as GT Sport doesn't really render small logos all that well.

The driver's names were a really pain in the backside. Not only are they in a different order on each side of the car (god knows why?!) meaning I couldn't mirror them, the roof line of the 911 also means they need to be curved. I left that as my last job as I knew it was going to take a bit of trial and error to match the shape. Talking of curved decals, the Falken logos in front of the front wheels were also a challenge and had to be split into two halves so that I could project them at different angles to cater for the way the front wings (fenders) flow into the bumper.

I'd say this livery is about 90% accurate to the real car. The main differences come from the placement of some of the decals to cater for differences in the design of the RSR compared the real life GT3 R. Obvious things like having to position the number board on the other side of the bonnet to allow for the fuel filler (The filler is mounted centrally on the GT3 R), and moving the Falken logos around a bit so that they don't foul the bonnet pins etc. (I've also added my own touch and placed a few arrows around pointing to the various panel release clips).

I've shared the livery in two flavours: The full replica version and a version without the N24h number boards so that you can use it in Sport Mode without things getting covered up. (Full version has the black windscreen banner, Sport Mode version has a white one). Please give it a like and be sure to reshape, thanks!

Gallery

UPDATE: After doing a face races with this livery I noticed that during replays and in race photos that I was getting turquoise spots appearing on the bonnet slats. I'm guessing that game uses a lower resolution version of the livery for races to save memory (and also thinking that during an actual race you're not spending much time looking closely at the car itself). Being a perfectionist I have corrected it (at the expense of the matte finish) by placing black decals over the affected areas and using a black base for the slats.

On closer inspection this is actually closer to the real car which has a bare glossy carbon fibre finish. I've also repainted the side mirrors in gloss black to tie it in a bit better.

I also wasn't happy with the way the Falken decal on the bonnet skewed over the centre intake. I've shrunk it a little an moved it slightly so that it reduces the weird fuzziness.

UPDATE 2: Colours tweaked slightly - Re-released as versions 2.00 and 2.00 SM

UPDATE 3: Livery updated, details Here

Cytoria · Dec 4, 2017

Hum.
Just another Falken replica.

If you search me, I'm already far far far away...

BLiTZ · Dec 10, 2017

BMW M6 GT3 '16 - Falken N24h '17

Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "ecr" "falken" "m6" | Version(s): (ver 3.01) & (ver 3.01 SM)

I'll be honest, I never planned to make this car, but after finishing the RSR I was short on Ideas for what to do next, and after convincing myself that the M6 should be a whole lot easier I decided to take the plunge. On the surface, yes the M6 is an easier car to work on, but pretty soon I realised that if I wanted to create an accurate replica I was going to have to get my hands dirty.

The basic scallops went on remarkably easily compared to the Porsche, but when it came to placing the Falken decals I was in for a treat. Not only do the ones on the bonnet (hood) span both the 'Bonnet' and Other' areas but the ones on the rear flanks required placing each letter separately in order to compensate for the weird angles as it flows over the arch and straddles the rear intakes.

Once I'd overcome that, the rest of the decals were similar in difficulty to the RSR. Driver's names required splitting and curving to follow the correct path (Though I was able to use the 'Roof' projection for all compared to aligning with the camera for all the names on the RSR).

In terms of detail, I had a few places I wanted to get right. Firstly colour coding the window frames in the 'Other' section seems to be overlooked by most people that have replicated this livery. I then have used the matte black base coat to make the protection panels in front of the rear wheels. Unfortunately I had to use decals for the ones behind the front wheels as I'd not really allowed for them when placing the scallops and colouring the front wings (fenders) and the turquoise was overlapping where I'd need to leave blank paint. I also had to make a decal to correct the side vents where the GT Sport model doesn't leave enough black (bare carbon fibre on the real thing I guess) exposed.

Again I've shared the livery in both Full Replica and Sport Mode compatible versions so be sure to give them a like and download them!

UPDATE: Livery updated, details Here

BLiTZ · Dec 23, 2017

Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II Nür (R34) '02 - Falken S-Tai

Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "ecr" "falken" "r34" | Version(s): (ver 2.02) | Link: Download Here

UPDATE - ver 2.02 now available - Details Here

After spending a few days trying to come up with something for the TT Cup I was being forced to use in Gr.4 races (now thankfully fixed as of 1.10 and able to use my GT-R again!) I was getting no where. Then 1.10 landed and in an "Ok people this is not a drill!" moment I finally got to set about making a Falken BNR34. I'd hoped to be the first, but by the time I'd finished, two had sprung up in Discover though neither are wholly accurate.

My first exposure to Falken liveried cars came from a single picture in (the first issue of) Banzai magazine of the BCNR33 GT-R that competed in the N24h race on the Falken trade stand at the Essen motor show. Around the same time I was given a copy of the the Duke Nissan Skyline GT-R DVD. Halfway through the 'film' they play some footage from the Super Taikyu series from Japan in which two GT-R's go toe to toe battling for the lead. The two cars (Falken and Endless sponsored) instantly stuck in my head and by the time a copy of Banzai magazine came out with a full feature on the 2001 N24h entered BNR34 I was hooked.

The N24h car has now become somewhat cliched, as it's inclusion in GT4/5/6/P raised it's exposure and and subsequent drift and IMSA teams have clouded the memories of where the livery began in the endurance series of Japan. For this livery I've gone with that original Super Taikyu design. Again, what should have been an easy replica was thwarted by the lack of available decals online. Some of the companies no longer exist (looking at you ARC Brazing) and other decals are not available. I was also hampered by the lack of hi-res reference pics and all the gradual evolution of the real car meaning many decals changed design or placement over time. So for now this is a 90% accurate replica. The biggest omission is the words "Road gripping power" under the Azenis logos which I had to make from random bits I could find online and in a rush to finish up before tea didn't have time to mess around with the SVG optimiser to complete it. (A job for a rainy day me thinks).

Another logo that just didn't exist in vector format (not even in the companies own PDF documents) was Active Traction Service. This is a complete scratch job and is 99% accurate (any more would be wasted in-game). Now as someone who likes to use all his own stuff, I'm a little bit disappointed that I've had to resort to using other's work. Normally I like to source logos direct from the company (usually via PDF's or Wikimedia Commons) but for this livery, the Project Mu, Bride and C-West (though heavily modified to match the version used on the real car) logos have all come from either other GT Sport users or other online vector libraries.

As with some other people on here, I've never been a fan of race car liveries on road cars, so for the final touch I decided to add number (registration) plates. I feel this gives the car a more realistic feel, like a fan that's had his car wrapped to match his favourite race car. This also gave a chance to add a few cheeky ECR logos (along with the ones on the side on the Japanese decal I just couldn't work out on the side).

So there you go. It's uploaded and available to download, so enjoy!

uccio21 · Dec 23, 2017

BLiTZ
Porsche 911 GT3 RS (991) '16 - ECR Porsche Carrera Cup GT Sport

Status: WIP | Availability: N/A | Tags: N/A

Something a bit different from me this week, I'm not normally a Porsche guy but decided to try something outside my usual (*cough Nissan) comfort zone. Lots of inspiration taken from the Porsche Carrera Cup GB cars with the series sponsor logos on the sill etc. I experimented with the 'Align with Camera' projection method which really helped with some of the trickier areas of the car and was a real help in combating stretching and skewing.

It's still a WIP at this stage as I'm not 100% set on the sponsors and colour combos (it spent most of Saturday evening with blue chrome as the base colour) but its been a fun exercise and I'm sure I'll keep dipping back into it.

Also set up an Imgur account so I can share the screenshots in all their glory (when I have the time/inclination I'll update this thread with better images for all my designs). Enjoy!

#88

Details:

#84

Hi Blitz...when you share this?

BLiTZ · Dec 24, 2017

uccio21
Hi Blitz...when you share this?

I'll upload it as soon as I can. My internet went out 5 mins after I posted about the Skyline and doesn't look like it'll be back up this side of New Year so I'm locked out of GT (bloody online only FFS). Ironically 4G on my phone is about 3/4 the speed of my home internet but I've got a 1GB data cap (my wife burned through half of that in a day before I told her not to watch videos).

BLiTZ · Dec 30, 2017

Just a quick update to say that I'm finally back online after what has felt like forever (3rd-world problems I know!).

I've since re-uploaded all the Falken liveries as I still wasn't happy with the colours (looked ok on my HDR TV but way too bright on my laptop and phone screens). They still look quite bright on the screenshots but do appear better in-game.

RSR and M6 are now ver 3.00 and 3.00 SM

I've also corrected the Azenis decals (extra text underneath) and number boards (more rounded corners) on the BNR34 which is now version 2.00

So please give them a like and a re-share!

Also as requested I've also uploaded my 911 GT3 RS Cup liveries.

uccio21 · Dec 30, 2017

I

BLiTZ
Just a quick update to say that I'm finally back online after what has felt like forever (3rd-world problems I know!).

I've since re-uploaded all the Falken liveries as I still wasn't happy with the colours (looked ok on my HDR TV but way too bright on my laptop and phone screens). They still look quite bright on the screenshots but do appear better in-game.

RSR and M6 are now ver 3.00 and 3.00 SM

I've also corrected the Azenis decals (extra text underneath) and number boards (more rounded corners) on the BNR34 which is now version 2.00

So please give them a like and a re-share!

Also as requested I've also uploaded my 911 GT3 RS Cup liveries.

Yes I see the Porsche online... Downloaded and shared, very nice paint, I take the grey/pink

BLiTZ · Dec 30, 2017

uccio21
Yes I see the Porsche online... Downloaded and shared, very nice paint, I take the grey/pink

Cheers, glad you like it. If there's any other variations you'd like to see let me know

BLiTZ · Jan 22, 2018

Firstly apologies for the lack of updates. Things have been slow on the GT Sport livery front, a combination of lack of time and lack of inspiration isn't helping, but things have been ticking away. I've spent a bit of time tidying up existing designs as well as giving my personal ECRacing liveried cars a mild 2018 refresh.

Nissan Skyline GT-R V-spec II (R32) '94 - Falken N1 '91

Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "ecr" "falken" "r32" | Version(s): (ver 1.02) | Link: Download Here

We can now safely assume that I'm obsessed with Falken's blue and teal scallops, so after completing the Super Taikyu BNR34, the N1 Super Endurance BNR32 was an obvious choice. I'm not alone in this camp, Falken is a popular brand and a quick search in Discovery brings up plenty of other people's attempts at this car, but as with the BMW and Porsche N24h replicas, few hit the mark in terms of accuracy or detail, I knew I could do better.

Now when I last tackled a replica of this car back in NFS 2015 things were a lot easier. With no decal uploader, your best effort with the pre-defined stickers was good enough (unless you were some sort of alien and happy to make every logo from scratch using shapes), but with GT Sport you have the added pressure of "No excuses", you can upload all the decals you need! Reference wasn't a problem as I have a HPI 1/43 scale model of this car on my shelf and although actual photos of the real thing are few and far between, I was happy that I knew which decals I'd need and where they needed to go.

The biggest issue with a lot of GT Sport replica liveries is that they just aren't period correct. Unless you're replicating a car from the last 5 years or so, chances are at least some of the sponsor decals will have changed. To go for 100% accuracy just slapping on a 2017 decal on a 27 year old car isn't an option, you need to research the car and find out which version of a logo you need, then pray you can find a good version of it online.

Having laid down the base livery the weekend after Christmas, it was New Year's day morning that I sat in bed and started Googling the various logos I needed. I already had the Tein and Enkei decals uploaded as my research showed that these were the only logos on the car that haven't changed since 1991. Every other logo however, was different, worse still, none of them existed in an accurate vector form and thus started a labour of love making all the decals from scratch. Finding high resolution copies of 80's logos isn't easy and I must have spent hours trying to find what I needed.

The Falken logo is traced by hand from the box of the Tamiya 1/24 scale model kit of the #33 car. The Castrol logo (which annoyingly changed in 1992 and seems to be readily available as a vector in the later form) is traced from a sticker someone had scanned in. Equally the Nismo and KYB logos are traced from other images and stickers online (even down to the kerning on Nissan Motorsport International). Some of the companies/logos just don't exist at all online and had to be improvised, as with the driver's names which I can't find a clear image of to be able to determine the true font. Ultimately however I'd say this is as close to being accurate as you can get short of having the real car in front of you.

Now the keener eyed amongst you will have already spotted that I've fitted Work wheels to an Enkei sponsored car. Now I normally frown on people for doing this (usually through ignorance), but in this case it was a conscious choice as the wheels are closer, aesthetically, to the original 1991 wheels with the polished lips and appropriate dish.

The livery is uploaded and ready to download. It originally went live in early January, so some of you may have already seen it but has been updated at least twice as I've corrected the odd decal here and there, so please go find it, download it and give it a like and a share!

- - - - -

Intermission

- - - - -

Nissan Skyline GT-R V-spec II (R32) '94 - ECR N1

Status: Private | Availability: N/A | Tags: N/A | Version(s): (ver 1.02) | Link: N/A

This livery came about for a couple of reasons. After doing a few Scapes with the Falken BNR32, I was finding that I didn't really have any good retro cars to partner with it for racing shots, so the idea to create a basic 80's/90's livery for background cars popped up. Around the same time I'd been tweaking my ECRacing liveried cars and thought that it'd be cool to come up with a retro design to use in a before/after type setting, like when race teams do retro liveries or bring out old race cars for launch events etc. It also meant I got to make use of some of those painstakingly recreated retro decals.

The basic design for the livery was sort of a reverse engineered version of my current design (making them appear like modern interpretations of the old car) along with inspiration taken from the 1992 Winfield Racing GT-R's. The black base remains, although in gloss (matt wraps hadn't really been invented back then) and the red takes on a more 80's-tastic bright McLaren-esk rocket red. To complete the look I knocked up a retro ECR decal.

Overall I'm please with how it came out and as you'll see below it fits in nicely with the modern cars.

- - - - -

Nissan GT-R Gr.4 & Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 - ECR ✕ NISMO

Status: N/A | Availability: Private | Tags: N/A | Version(s): (ver 4.02) | Link: N/A

For 2018 I wanted to tidy up my ECRacing liveries. They've long been a work in progress, spanning the transition between pre and post-Decal Uploader and as a result not being as optimised as they could be. They'd also grown a little cluttered in places and needed a general tart up. I've also learnt a lot more about how to get the best out of the Align with Camera method of projection which meant I could sort out some of the skewed decals in places that had bugged me before.

Whilst the results are nothing astonishing, just the subtle little changes, like losing the fluorescent yellow accents on the splitter of the Gr.4 car and the red grill on the Gr.3 car have resulted in a more aggressive, yet cleaner look. I've also played about with materials again, and used liquid metallic on the side skirts of the Gr.3 car to give a heat foil wrapped look.

This year I'll be 30, and taking that as an inspiration I came up with an anniversary decal design that both cars proudly wear on the roof and rear pillars.

I'm sure I'll carry on tweaking things, but for now here's a few more shots:

Cytoria · Jan 22, 2018

Just like the previous ones, I loved reading your text, and the details in your liveries are amazing. Even if I try to be a lot more accurate than the majority, I couldn't say I am in front of your work.

And that "30 years" badge is a piece of art. Hats off, sir.

BLiTZ · Jan 28, 2018

Here's one for those upside down folk who walk among us...

Nissan Skyline GT-R V-spec II (R32) '94 - Winfield Racing Bathurst '92

Status: Uploaded | Availability: Public | Tags: "ecr" "winfield" "r32" | Version(s): (ver 2.00) | Link: Download Here

UPDATE - ver 2.00 now available - Details Here

My first experience of Australian motorsport came one Sunday afternoon in 1998. It was a typical day, the kid's shows had just finished and Grandstand (the BBC's sports show) came on. As with most programmes, they always started off with clips from the various features that were due to be aired during the next few hours. Amongst the various shots of 'regular' sports they they cut to a clip of some foreign looking Super Touring cars. Now this was 1998, the BTCC was the biggest thing in my motor racing world, I knew all the cars and drivers, I knew the 1998 season had just finished and I also knew they didn't have onboard cameras that could pan round as a car overtook, they'd aired the footage of the final round a week or so earlier, so what was this they were about to show?!

Fast forward a few hours and I'd sat through extended highlights of the 1998 Bathurst 1000, the last time the Super Tourers would take to the mountain and a close fought race between Nissan (piloted by my favourite driver Matt Neal) and the eventual winners Volvo. For me it was epic, endurance touring cars on a street circuit, it was nothing like the BTCC, yet starred some of it's biggest names. This small taste of Aussie motorsport, wetted the appetite and thanks to the occasional V8SC feature on Channel 5's late night/early morning motorsport show (massive thanks to my dad for setting the VCR for 3am) I slowly learnt more about the series. It was only years later that I learnt about Godzilla and how it shaped Australian motorsport for years to come.

At this stage I'll be honest and say that I never intended to make this livery. There are a lot of cliche paint jobs out there (with my fandom of anything Falken I should know) and the Winfield Racing Skyline is one of them, It's already been done to death and If I'm even more honest, it's not even a good livery (the '91 car is much better looking IMHO) but over the last few weeks since studying various images of the car to help design my ECR retro BNR32, I figured It'd be good to have a go at it since I'd already done most of the donkey work creating the stripes for my own livery, plus, of the many variations of this car already on GT Sport, none of them seem quite right.

To be fair to the users that have already made this livery, trying to get this car right is a minefield. Unlike the Falken N1 GT-R, the original car still exists, search Bathurst R32 and there are 100's of images of it, but that's where things start to get tricky. Of those few hundred images, only a small number are actually from 1992, and the car, whilst still in existence, was restored and re-painted/re-liveried by Gibson Motorsport and the main 'issue' for me, is that many people are only recreating the 'current' look of the car in its post-restoration form. These can be easily spotted as they have the 7Sport logo higher up by the yellow stripe, lack the Tooheys 1000 and CAMS Group A stickers and have the Gibson Motorsport decal on the front wings (fenders), Whilst this isn't a big deal for most people, in the pursuit of OCD perfection, I wanted to try and recreate the car as it appeared on race day.

Pretty soon I found myself in a familiar situation, after sourcing Yokohama decals and even finding an official vector of the 1971 Shell logos, I hit a brick wall. I knew I'd be making the Winfield logos, but I also ended up making the 7Sport, CAMS Group A sticker, the 1992 version of the Tooheys 1000 and even cobbled together an Australian Airlines logo (not an easy feat due to complete none-existence of any clear versions of the logo). In terms of time, I probably spent more time creating logos from scratch than it actually took me to place them all on the car.

I'll be the first to say it's not 100% perfect, and after spending a bit of time with this car now, the GT Sport BNR32 model isn't without it's faults, firstly it's very 'bumpy', you can see on the yellow and white stripes that the edges are a bit wavy. Secondly they got the grille/bumper wrong. On the BNR32, the grille should be a separate piece to the bumper with the join just under the lower grille slat. In GT Sport, the sides of the grille are part of the bumper with the slats appearing as separate 'floating' pieces. However, all this aside, I'm fairly confident that this is the most accurate rendition of how the car appeared on race day in 1992. It's uploaded, so go grab your copy, like and share and all that jazz!

- - - - -

In other news, whilst researching fonts for the Winfield livery, I discovered two things: Futura gets used way more often in motorsport than you'd expect and whilst browsing the Futura family I spotted a suspiciously familiar set of letters...

When I completed the Falken 911 I spoke about the Schnabl Engineering logo which I ended up having to make my own version from the low res image on their site as I suspected it was a custom font. As it turns out, it's actually Futura Black meaning I was finally able to recreate the logo accurately...

As such, both liveries (and their Sport Mode counterparts) have been updated and re-released.

I also removed the extra red arrows on the RSR so that the livery is closer to the real car, both liveries can be found Here & Here

GT6champNK_69 · Jan 29, 2018

Great attention to detail

. I really appreciate all the hard work you put in to recreate these livery's. I have done a few myself, and I'm a perfectionist too, but I am not able to make my own decals. I am educated Sign-Maker and I worked a lot with CorelDraw and SignLab. But I don't have a PC, so I always rely on the uploaded decals in Discover. Lastly I have to ask you, will you share those logos you have done yourself?. There are not many like you, who upload those old correct logos/text stickers!. Cheers

BLiTZ · Jan 29, 2018

gt6champnk69
Great attention to detail . I really appreciate all the hard work you put in to recreate these livery's. I have done a few myself, and I'm a perfectionist too, but I am not able to make my own decals. I am educated Sign-Maker and I worked a lot with CorelDraw and SignLab. But I don't have a PC, so I always rely on the uploaded decals in Discover. Lastly I have to ask you, will you share those logos you have done yourself?. There are not many like you, who upload those old correct logos/text stickers!. Cheers

Thank you. I've been holding off from sharing decals for the moment, A. because I've been wary of the potential copyright infringement issues (though seeing how much stuff has been uploaded without issue makes me less worried) and B. after all the hard work I've put in the lack of any crediting system means you don't get the recognition you deserve. However I think I'll start sharing a few of the decals I've done and see what the response is like. When I get a bit of time I'll start the process.

BLiTZ · Feb 7, 2018

Being a perfectionist can be a real pain at times...

A few days after uploading the Winfield Racing GT-R I was looking at the various shots I'd taken, and I couldn't help thinking there was something a little off about it. I made a couple of early tweaks but I still wasn't 100% happy. The turning point was when I stumbled upon a gallery of images better showing the sides of the real car and comparing them to my version I began to see a few areas where I'd not quite got things right. The main issue was the white stripes. As I mentioned at the time, I'd roughly copied the Winfield livery for the base of my ECR retro design, but that was never intended to be a carbon copy and as a full replica the striped were letting the side down (no pun intended).

With better side shots I could also see that the number boards were not quite right and the placement of some of the decals was off. The result was a complete overhaul, with almost all the decals rescaled and repositioned and hours of painstaking trial and error with the 'align with camera' to get the stripes as accurate as possible on the front wings (fenders). The results, although subtle, are now as close as I think I can get.

The livery is now at ver 2.00 and available to download Here

- - - - -

Now that I'm hitting a new level of accuracy I wanted to revisit the Falken BNR34 and fix a couple of the areas that I'd skipped over back in December. First was the number boards. In my initial offering the '1's were custom made but when I'd made the BNR32 livery, I'd managed to find the correct number font (Compacta) so that was the first port of call. Whilst I was there I also fixed the Azenis logos with the correct spacing and font for 'Road gripping power' (Serpentine Bold Oblique). Finally I decided it was time to man up and make the missing ARC Magic logos from scratch. This posed a new challenge as the logo required an angled gradient and initially I struggled as the game refused to render it correctly, but thanks to some helpful pointers from @MatskiMonk and a bit of reading up on the W3 website I was able to get my head around manually editing the SVG code so that the game would faithfully represent the correct gradient. As a final touch and in keeping with the other liveries I've been making lately I decided to replace the UK style numberplate with Falken show plates.

The only decal now missing from the car is the small white rectangle under the Calpis decal. The real logo is too small to make out in photos. All I can deduce is that it comprises of two blue circles (like a MasterCard logo) and three larger Asian characters and some smaller Asian text.

The livery is now at ver 2.02 and available to download Here

Cytoria · Feb 8, 2018

BLiTZ
Being a perfectionist can be a real pain at times...

I totally understand, although I'm still far from your level ! I wonder what could happen if you put your hands on some GT/LM/IMSA cars... Great writing again, and high quality pics.