1924 Ford Model T Roadster (also called a Runabout)
My infatuation with the Model T Ford started as a boy, my father, who was very much into collecting and restoring old cars, (remember, this was the 1960’s and 1970’s), he especially had a love for the Model T Ford, which isn’t unusual, even today, so it was well ingrained in me to also have a certain effection for this particular car.
My dad owned a 1925 Ford Coupe, thats right, the one that looks like a telephone booth on wheels, for all the room inside the car, it felt like you were in a telephone booth too, however, the car was a lot of fun to drive, (I was going on 16 at the time, so I did do some of my driver training in that car), we were members of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Model T Ford Club of America, so we were always running with tours and parades throughout the summer months.
I do have a lot of great memories of that car, that being said, a little different history is due here.
The Model T Ford was produced between 1909 and 1927, over the years, the car at its very base level remained very much unchanged, although things like electric starter, generator and other items were added and eventually became standard equipment, other changes to the car also took effect throughout Model T production.
From 1909 to 1917, the car came with a real nice looking brass radiator, and the earlier cars had brass headlights, later models had electric lights and different bezels, but the earliest models sported a lot of brass, the earliest T’s also had a variety of colors that the car could be ordered in, in 1917, Henry made his famous quote, “(the public can have any color they want, so long as it is black),” from 1917 through 1925, the only color the car came off of the assembly line with was black.
In 1909, when production first started, producing a single car would take about 48 hours, Henry hadn’t had his “better idea” yet as to the moving assembly line, however, within a year after Model T production started, he did, and it worked, and the rest as they say is, “HISTORY”!
The Model
While looking over a nice model that was pictured in a forum, it was a model of a Harley Davidson motorcycle, one in which was posted in a picture on the forum, the artist had stated that they had gotten it from Meshbox, a website that specializes in 3D models, it had been awhile since I had visited the site, but was somewhat familiar with it, when I clicked on the link provided in another post, I was suddenly staring at some really nice looking 1920’s models of American automobiles, including the Model T Roadster, which is the subject of this writing.
I went ahead and purchased the 1924 Model T Runabout, (roadster), about 24 hours after placing my order, I then had the download information in my inbox, the way Meshbox works is you place an order, (ie. you pay for the item, but the download isn’t instant.), when I downloaded the models, the zip file, which is always .rar file, only opens with a password for these particular models.
When I opened the file, since I’m running DAZ Studio 4.5 Pro, I simply dragged and dropped the runtime folder from the zip folder into the My Library folder in the DS folder, it worked at getting it into DAZ Studio.
Problems from the start, I guess, what really happened was that when I tried to load the model in DS, it freezes while importing the .cr2 file, freezes right at 99%, so nothing was happening, so since I’ve got DS and Poser7 tied together, I simp loaded the model in Poser, and then I again added the loaded model to My Library, this made a new icon which also appears in DS, and allows me to open the model in DS.
Once I had it loaded in DS, the model definitely needs some paint work, the model comes with white tires, while this was a common practice during early automobile production, since natural rubber is white, it only stands to reason that those sexy looking white tires, would look great on an old flivver, however, by the mid 1920s, and even earlier than 1920, tires were being made black, only high end tires had white sidewalls.
So using the surfaces tab, I highlited the one wheel, opened the appropriate surface, and set my values and 56-56-56, this gives a nice flatblack color for the tire, created materials preset, saved the file and went on, next the body paint, I used DZFires car shaders for the Deep Black paint for all body panels, this gave the car its nice shiny black appearence.
For the top, I use a leather shader from the Ultimate Shader Pack, and the car was done and ready for rendering.
You do the stearing by highlighting each front wheel, utilizing the left/right dial, the doors work the same way, am still trying to figure out the hood.
Stuff that makes me glare a little bit, there is no Ford script at the top front of the radiator shell, this detail may have been omitted for legal reasons, so won’t go into much detail here, however, one could always put something there that looks like a Ford script without it actually saying “Ford”, but I digress!
On the open cars from Ford of that era, none, and I do mean NONE! Of the cars had an opening door at the drivers side, while touring cars had an opening rear door for passengers to enter the back seat on the left side, the drivers door was just an outline, it really didn’t exist, however, on closed cars such as coupes and sedands, there was a drivers door.
Another omission was a top boot in that can be placed if one wants the top down, the top was not a removable item, and on both roadsters and touring cars, it did fold down, so a folded top should have been included as a prop.
Other than those few things, the model is a well detailed, and for the most part, accurate model, and well worth the $9.95 she costs from Meshbox.
Yes they as much fun to render as they are to drive 
