My Father’s MG

The scene is an imagined art/history museum in the year 2251AD. On display are various artifacts from 300 years earlier which include a 1951 MG TD Midget Sports Car. Displayed alongside the car is a 1950s era manakin dressed in the popular garb of the time: Hawaiian shirt, short pants hiked up to his navel, argyle knee socks and loafers and a driver’s cap. Also displayed on other pedestals is an ancient Royal Typewriter, an old candlestick telephone, and a black and white TV. These items are all displayed under glass domes in carefully controlled environments to preserve them. These domes are also LED screens upon which descriptions and other information can be displayed in illuminated letters placed anywhere on the dome that is needed. The display sign for the MG is a hologram illuminated from a projector in the floor. A rotating holographic ticker on the ceiling dome announces the show and dates.

The entire room is built in dark green faux-marble with gold trim. The floor is composed of carbon-ceramic tiles. The arched windows look out onto the city bustling with 23rd century technology in stark contrast to the artifacts on display inside.

The 1951 MG TD Midget is of special significance to me because it is the car I learned to drive in. It was also manufactured in the same year I was born - 1951. One just like the one shown here - bright red with leather interior and wooden dashboard - was my father’s pride and joy. It had no power steering, no power brakes, no power windows, no power anything. The clutch was very tight and difficult to control and so I learned to drive a stick the hard way. My dates in high school loved it when I picked them up in my father’s MG. My father was a very popular feature column writer for a newspaper in Honolulu and well know author of more than 20 books about Hawaiian culture, all typed on an ancient Royal typewriter. Part of his public image was this old-fashioned (even then) car. He also dressed accordingly - the manakin is based on his preferred attire.

The MG has been re-created in great detail, much of which is not visible in this scene. The dashboard has been re-created down to the specific dials and knobs and wood grain texture. The leather interior - seats and inside walls, are rendered as close to the real thing as I could get. Everything is modeled entirely by hand, mostly using booleans. The only image maps are in the dashboard dials and headlights. I will post images of these details in the WIP post I have linked to at blenderartists.org.

The scene was created in its entirety in Blender 3.6. I used Photoshop to create some of the image maps and to tweak the final result. The modeling of the car took me a month and the rest of the scene about two weeks. I am admittedly not the fastest 3D artist or blender head but this was a labor of love. Humbly submitted for your Car Challenge contest.