Here’s a second installment in MCG’s Dreams and Nightmares miniseries. In this big photo essay, we look at all the fascinating things that can go right and wrong in the modeling phase of automotive design.
Years ago, a veteran clay sculptor at GM Styling gave MCG a valuable insight into the art, craft, and science of auto styling. “The automakers will spend millions moving piles of clay around just because it’s so difficult to get it right,” he said. “A pretty picture is just a pretty picture. It doesn’t mean it will be a pretty car.”
And there’s the challenge of the modeling stage: transforming a two-dimensional rendering on a thin piece of art board into an actual, three-dimensional object that dwells in the human world. In this part of the process, designers learn if their ideas will work in reality—functionally and aesthetically.
For the purposes of this story, we use the term clay (actually, the stuff is industrial plasticine) generically. A number of materials have been used over the years to produce working models: Wood and plaster were popular early in the industry (wood also serving as a die model) while later on, fiberglass and carbon fiber have proven out. And naturally, rapid prototyping and 3D printing are now entering and changing the game.
Clay models were traditionally built over wood lath armatures, while today plastic foam (which can be CNC-sculpted) often serves as the substructure. With a rudimentary frame and pair of mobile home-type axles underneath, the fullsize models are sometimes called “rollers” or “pushmobiles.” Facelifts and partial restyling jobs often are performed on existing vehicles with clay, foam, and plastic filler materials piled on to crate a working mock-up, which can then be digitized and reproduced.
Models can be any scale from 1:10 to full size, while the level of detail and realism can vary greatly as well. In the ’50s and ’60s, Motor City clay modelers became highly skilled at using DI-NOC plastic film to simulate paint, metal foil to approximate chrome, and realistic trim details  like badges and door handles to create clay models that were quite convincing—in the photography at least, if not totally in person.
In the slide show gallery below you will also find half-models, which are placed against a mirror to create the illusion of a complete vehicle. Some models might represent one proposal on one side and a completely different look on the opposite side, or two-door and four-door versions on one model. Much of the fascination in studying these models.is in seeing all the techniques and approaches at work.
Then there’s the primary question: How does she look? In this big gallery of over 50 vehicles, you will find some truly beautiful designs, along with some faces that only a mother could love. We tried to provide some genuine surprises, too. In any case, please enjoy looking them over.
Unlike the last installment, I don’t feel that we missed out on any great ones.
The Japanese would have loved the cartoon styling of both ’59 Pontiac mockups. They conjure up Mothra in my mind’s eye. In fact, I think the GM designers were doing LSD when they went to work on potential cars for that year. Look at that double-bubble Buick! On the other hand, I prefer the 1959 Cadillac to the final design.
The 1957 Chrysler 300 was heavily influenced by the Batmobile.
The 1960 Edsel would have definitely made people forget about the “lemon-sucking” grille, but not for the better. And the 1959 Edsel foreshadows the 1969 Pontiac.
Anyone who knows the history of Chrysler Styling knows that Virgil Exner was responsible for the 1957 Chrysler 300 and was influenced by clean truly aerodynamic design and thoroughly opposed to the “Blue Sky” type phantasies posed by the Batman series from its’ earliest beginnings through the first actual Batmobile in 1965. I, too, was mostly interested in true simplicity of form following function in those days as now.
It’s easy for people to express an opinion 50 years later. Try really learning about something new, then experimenting with future directions to try to arrive at aesthetic truth, whether one likes it or not. What we have today is getting a little better, but still lacks character of aesthetic conviction.
The model shown as # 48 of 58 is my finished 1/12 scale Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild contest model of 1946. I won first place in the Junior Division and a $4,000 University Scholarship at age 13. The photo was taken long after and had gone through a home fire. Of course I made a clay model first and cast it in plaster to be finished. Then I did the “Saturn Gold” paint job and details. Much influence by Studebaker in those days as my father was then the Chief Designer of Studebaker, but the influence went the other way, too.
Thanks for your input, Andy. One limiting factor is the size of the slide show. The prevailing view is they shouldn’t be too long since web attention span is short. This is one of the longer slide shows we’ve done here. What’s a preferred length for this audience? I invite folks to weigh in.
That Muroc is so ugly, it’d blind an eagle. Fortunately, some ideas can just be turned back into lumps of clay…
I just wonder if the stylists ever stopped mid-sculpt and said “Sheesh, what were the designers drinking for lunch when they drew this?”
Overall, I enjoyed the clay models. It would have been interesting to know how far into the future those sculptors were working, seeing how, in most cases, the major styling cues were present, but it looked like someone said “Throw a couple of dagmars there, some little fins here, and break up those long straight lines…I don’t care how you do it.”
This is why the modeling phase is so critical and so fascinating. You know all these cars looked simply fabulous in the renderings. Or at least someone thought so.
I’m OK with the length of this slideshow. What I don’t want to see is for it to become an actual slide show. I want to be able to see all of the pictures at once and have the ability to scroll up and down quickly instead of interminably clicking back and forth. I also object to the additional scripting that true slideshows require. I do not patronize sites that show me one picture and expect me to hit the arrow another ten to twenty times.
They’re cars. How could we ever have too many pictures?
Back in my brief life with Chrysler International in England I can remember seeing the mock ups being pushed out alongside the boiler house wall at Whiteley so ” senior management” could pass judgement. Why my US bosses in Finance as CPA’s should represent what UK punters would want to buy was always somewhat beyond me. Mind you I always liked the way they mocked up police blue light gear on any car laying around whatever its origins – sort of Starksy and Hutch in UK miniuture
Bill, where do you get this stuff? Great presentation! From Murray pedal cars to the Buick LeSabre, it’s an amazing collection of images. The Buick twin bubble top should have made the cut, that thing would knock peoples socks off today, wouldn’t it? Thanks for this, kept me inside where it’s warm for a few extra minutes!
Brian
Absolutely wonderful stuff Mac. Whenever I see these way-out 50’s stylings it reminds me of the space-age anything-is-possible mood of the times.
As for being too long for web attention spans, I think most of us regulars would happily wade through hours of this stuff. We’re probably not your typical teenage facebook junkies.