CC What If: “What If” Enters the Third Dimension

We have had a few variations on altered photographs or press drawings in the CC What If series thus far. I have created a few 3D models of factory vehicles over the years so thought about taking What If into the third dimension. Follow along for a bit of fun as I use free/open source software Blender 3D to modify a few factory designs as well as create one of my own.

Building a 3D model can a little time consuming. All the geometry has to be built from scratch. Here is a Land Rover body shell in wire frame mode.

A set of blueprints can help get the proportions correct.

Here in solid mode we can see all the components fully built. They do not have any material on them yet which is the next step.

After the materials are added a final render is produced. The result is a reasonable representation of a short wheel base Series 2 Land Rover. Since I built the model I can now alter the it with an extra set of doors, give it a hardtop to get …

A long wheel base model.

Or a pickup truck variant.

A few tweaks and we can convert to Series 3 specification.

The whole point of What If is to imagine something the factory did not produce. So what about a low rider pickup truck? The name might have to change with the loss of off road pedigree. Maybe Low Rover?

Not wild enough? Cutting off the roof and a fitting a set of Seventies inspired “slot mag” wheels might spice things up.

Or a roll cage and a set of Minilite wheels borrowed from a Triumph Spitfire model I previously built. Race Rover?

The boxy styling means it could work rather well as a North American style three ton farm truck.

Perhaps that is enough Land Rover variants. This is a fairly standard early Jeep I built a while ago.

Now altered into a never factory produced pickup truck variation.

The rear box could likely use a few addition details but you get the idea.

Perhaps something a little more sporty? Morgan is well known for their trikes.

But what if they had just added that fourth wheel? While more conventional it is still rather unique looking with the exposed engine hanging off the front.

Jensen made the Interceptor with different body styles; hatchback, convertible or the rare coupe.

But they never did a four door … perhaps for good reason.

The beauty of 3D software is you do not have to limit yourself to variations on real production vehicles. I am a big fan of the Voisin automobiles. This two door convertible is inspired by their design language but nothing exactly like this was ever produced.

A What If in the third dimension obviously takes significantly longer to produce but the results can be worth it. Like any complex software Blender 3D takes practice and patience to learn. If you would like to check it out Blender can be downloaded for free at www.blender.org. There are plenty of tutorials available online as well.