i messed a bit my topology, and things didn’t turned out well :/. The lack of “lines to follow” on the blueprint in these areas made things a little bit difficult for me. I tried to use existing edges to help me as much as i could, but that “bulbous” zone is hard to create.
Also, as some edges are harder than others on this car, i used holding edges to create this “crests”. I think that the crease function gives ugly results. The problem is that without perfect topology, some holding edges do not go as far as they should, whereas other continue too much and influence areas that i’d like to keep smooth.
At this stage, what remains to do is :
Fix the “bumps” problem, and had good holding edges
Model a few part that i chose to keep completely separated from the “shell” : Glasses, the black part between the hood and the windshield, some plastic parts in the front and the back of the car (lights, radiator…)
Cut the different parts from the shell
Apply the subsurf, create some cutouts that currently lacking (e.g. that sort of vent in front of the rear wheel that can be seen on the blueprint)
My main interrogations :
As shitty topology is quite unforgiving in that kind of model (shiny paint, etc.), i wondered if was a good idea to cut the parts, and then modify the topology to be more suitable for each part… but there is a risk that the reflections do not match anymore, right ?
Best way to use Subsurf in this case : Creases or holding edges + Edge Split mod. + Sharp edges ?
if you want nice results you need to have clean topology, otherwise you still can get clear results, but really hard. I started some toy car and messed up topology and started again, i made only first part, check it out. i suggest you start over.
Its a little bit hard to judge the topology without seeing the meshes…
I will say, try to correct it as early as you can, because further in the project, this can start to be an real headache. Things can become pretty ugly when you need separate parts, add loop edges when the topology is a bit messed up on some parts. And more you go, harder it will be to correct.
You can do a copy of the shell, and try on it the correction, like this you can maybe then have a better idea of what you will do… Its normal to have wrong things when starting, then you somewhat include it in your workflow ( you will start to include the solution of your past errors, instead of redo them ). Its part of the learning ( and an important one ).
If something is missing on your Blueprint, google, search images of thoses area and try see, imagine how the meshes should been there. ( sometimes Blueprint have some errors too )