Okay, here’s my blog post about recreating the F1 2006 BAR special livery, written in a casual, personal style:
So, I got this itch to mess around with some classic F1 liveries, and the 2006 BAR Honda with the special livery really caught my eye. You know, the one they ran because of the tobacco advertising bans? It’s such a unique look.
First thing I did was dig up a bunch of photos. Gotta have references, right? I spent a good hour just scrolling through Google Images, saving anything that showed the car from different angles. The front wing details, the sidepods, the rear – I needed it all. It’s surprising how many variations there can be even within a “special” livery!
Next, I fired up my trusty old copy. It took some serious trail to made it. I started by picking the base color, which was,thankfully, is plain white.
The hard part was figuring out all the sponsor logos and those weird graphic elements. I literally had a notepad next to me, sketching out the shapes and trying to figure out the placement. A lot of eyeballing it, moving things around, and squinting at my screen, and use my pen tool make the weird shape. It’s kinda like digital arts and crafts, which is awesome.
Then came the color matching. Let me tell * of the smaller logos were a real pain to even identify, let alone find a decent-quality version of.
I do some test, back and forward, and I finally made it.
After a few evenings of tinkering, I finally got something I was happy with. It’s not perfect, 100% replica, but it captures the vibe of that 2006 BAR car. And honestly, that’s good enough for me. I slapped it on the car, took it for a few laps, and grinned like an idiot. Mission accomplished!
It’s these little projects that make gaming so much fun, right? Taking something iconic and putting your own spin on it, or just recreating it out of pure appreciation. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go admire my handiwork some more.
