If you're familiar with the original run of
Robot Wars,
Panic Attack is one of those competitors which needs no introduction. Armed with a set of electric lifting forks, the Welsh machine immediately made a name for itself by winning the overall UK Championship on its debut in Series 2. One of the series' longest-competing All-Stars, Panic Attack would go on to reach the Semi-Finals of Series 3, 4 and 5, picking up a total of 28 combat wins through to its final appearance in Series 7. Much of that was down to the robot's reliability and the driving skills of its builder Kim Davies, who over time would develop a signature tactic
where Panic Attack would often use its forks to lift, carry and drop opponents into the pit.
Out of the suggestions I received for additional
Robot Wars-themed liveries, a design for Panic Attack was among them - and with good reason. The first problem was that
someone else had already created a similarly-themed design in GT Sport, so at the time I didn't want to work on a livery that looked too similar to that. The second problem was finding a suitable vehicle which was compact, low and angular enough to match Panic Attack's wedged box shape. At first, my main rule was to limit my selection to '90s JDM cars in keeping with the theme set with the reboot-based liveries. Then, I got the chance to drive - and win - the Chaparral 2J in Mission Challenge. Everything clicked after that.
Even though GT Auto doesn't let you add the forks, the 2J's shape was still
an almost perfect match for Panic Attack. Better still, it turned out that the area covering the aluminium mid-section is editable alongside the body and mirrors, so getting all areas in the same yellow base wouldn't be a problem. So, this was the end result when I eventually started work on it a few days ago.
Aside from the Welsh flags and SVG logos (themselves made by myself in Photoshop), everything you see here has been replicated purely using in-game shapes. The hazard stripes, the eyes, the cartoon spider mascot of the Series 3-5 and
Extreme versions. All of those are here and present, with some differences to account for the 2J's shape. The overall detailing is largely based on Panic Attack's appearance in
Extreme 2 (see photo above), though at one point I had intended to make the front 'chevron' blockier as a homage to the patterns used by
Series 5/Extreme 1 version.
Behind the front intake, additional black panels and stripes were also placed to represent the linear actuator mechanism for the robot's forks. The first screenshot below better shows off the 'eyes' which comprise of a variety of smaller shapes. The second shows one of the custom SVGs used for the 'Panic Attack' logo. These were made using a font ('Joost') similar to that applied to the real robot, with the text converted to shapes in Photoshop and the proportions adjusted accordingly. At some point, I had the idea to place a thin light grey stripe above the side hazard stripes, replicating the hinges for the side skirts found on the Series 4-7 versions.
The only major issue I experienced was discovered shortly after preparing and sharing the original version. The top-rear chevron on the auxiliary engine cover (in actuality made from overlapping black and yellow triangle shapes) was found to be wonky, so that layer was redone using another copy of that shape. Version '1.1' was released containing that fix, which can be made clear by comparing this Scape below with the later version featured at the top of this post.
Rounding off this post with extra side and top-down views from the Livery Editor. Honestly, I couldn't believe how amazing this livery looked in the GT Auto menus as it began to take shape.
Out of all the
Robot Wars liveries I've done so far, this is probably the closest to looking like an actual
Robot Wars competitor within the limits of what's possible in GT7. There are plenty of other combat robots out there with a similar wedged box shape -
Storm 2,
Tornado and
BattleBots legend
BioHazard - so those could also lend themselves well to a 2J-based scheme should anyone attempt these. Haven't decided on what new-for-GT7 livery I'll create next, so I'll probably refocus on importing more GT Sport designs in the coming weeks.
Link:
Panic Attack 2J 1.1.
