Before I get started, I gotta say this: you guys are awesome and I really appreciate all the thoughtful input that you guys have been providing thus far. You’re making this a better set with your involvement, and thank you for that!
Right, on we go. The customs scheme has been tweaked. I got rid of the golden yellow border trim around the text, then lightened and saturated the green a bit more:
In addition to that, I overhauled the follow-me car scheme completely. I wasn’t happy with it before, so I attacked it again this morning with fresh eyes. The follow-me car was missing the bumper numbers and I also changed the size/font of the door/roof numbers to match the regulation font used on the tug. I also added back the letter code to keep things as uniform as possible.
“M” is the letter code for self-propelled ground support equipment like tugs, tractors, and follow-me cars. That’s why the tug has “M 03″ on the sides, and the tweaks to the follow-me car scheme bring it back into line with that. This almost snuck past me completely, but The Chimp Helmsman’s comments in the previous post brought it all back to mind.
Okay, I also did a boring plain administrative vehicle scheme. It’s basically a factory fresh white Zoom at the lowest trim level, with bumper code stickers, the rear retroreflective hazard paneling, and a roof number.
The letter “A” is the code for general purpose vehicles. I know it’s a very plain and boring scheme, but it’s included just for the sake of completion. The black plastic trim strip on the door is a little nod to my first car, which was a white 1991 3-door Honda Civic hatchback with black plastic trim.
Okay, assuming there aren’t any more texture tweaks needed, I only have to add one more detail (the recharging port on the vehicle), do one more test build to make sure it’s not as scary as it was before, then I start putting together the beta PDFs and get them ready to ship.
After this, I’m doing the van. That won’t take as long because we’ve already figured out the various liveries, so the hard part is already done. I want the van to be a cute little thing sort of like a VW microvan, and it’ll be done in the administrative, security, and customs schemes.
Update: Some folks were surprised that I didn’t use chevrons for the follow-me car. Here’s why:
That’s just what follow-me cars look like. 
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Looks great mel. If it’s of any use, and sort of continuing a name theme, you might consider naming the van Nova which, my wife informs me, translates spanish-to-english as Doesn’t Go
I’m really liking the newer Follow Me car.
That will really stand out on a board.
These versions are really nice. And the administrative car really works, especially with the numbers on the roof.
Not too sure about the follow me car. It stands out and looks nice, don’t get me wrong. But somehow I imagined you using the chevrons for a follow me car (with big chevrons added to the rook maybe). It screams “follow me” without needing text on the back.
Not that I won’t build it like it is now, mind you.
1) LOL – I like elaric’s “Nova” name idea
2) If “M” is for ‘self-propelled’ & “A” for ‘general’ [before reading the description I thought it might be 'administration'], does “C” actually stand for ‘customs’?
3) I concur with Thomas on using chevrons for the ‘Follow Me’. In my mind checkers always makes me think of taxis…
4) I like the newer thicker flashbars for the security car.
Elaric: I chuckled at the idea, but Chevrolet already did the Chevy Nova back in the 1970s.
Tommygun: Thanks!
Tomas/Greypilgrim: Updated the post with photos of real follow-me cars. That’s just what they look like.
Greypilgrim on letter codes: No, the “C” and “customs” is coincidental. “C” is the code for governmental/quasigovernmental official use vehicles. That includes Customs, immigration, flight safety investigators, and so forth. In practice, budgetary and practical issues means that at smaller spaceports, Customs tends to be the only ones with actual C-coded vehicles while everybody else borrows from the A pool on an as-needed basis. Especially at smaller spaceports where senior administrators often wear multiple official hats.
Chris: I knew about the chevrolet nova. Vauxhall did one this side of the pond at about the same time. I just thought it was worth a chuckle
is it possible to move the roof numbers forward a bit? most of the follow-me car images i saw seem to have the lightbar on the back of the roof.
I don’t know if it is the dark background around the car but the new follow-me car scheme looks to me a bit darker and less good visible on gray tarmac than the old version.
With the wheels, windows, marking squares and the trim line around the cars bottom sharing almost the same gray tone it could use a bit more contrast – at least judging from the screenshots. Perhaps lighten up the windows to a mid-gray or leave the window pillars free from markings?
Otherwise the cars are looking great. As I haven’t had time yet to read backwards through the blog – did anyone mention a variant of the plain white car with just “Spaceport Facility Management” or “Spaceport Technical Maintenance” written on it? I guess there would be some personal to make sure all light bulbs and air cons are working perfectly. They wouldn’t need to drive around the airfield but might like to have cars marked as belonging to the spaceport to prevent them from getting parking tickets next to the fast food drive-in.
Elaric: It was.
Patrick R Jackson: I’ve relocated the roof numbers and glueto zones on the follow me car so that the lightbar is at the back and the numbers are at the front. I also changed the rear Follow Me sign to a digital display.
Maik Schmidt: Well, the previous version of the follow-me car had an all-yellow roof and no markings on the pillars for the reasons you stated, and it left me a little cold because it looked more like a taxicab than a follow-me car. The new scheme looks much more like the real thing, and looks more appealing to me.
There are also a couple of practical reasons not to change the glass or the trim. To start with, the car comes straight from the factory with that black plastic trim, and it’s basically a plain white vehicle wearing a yellow/black applique wrap, so the plastic trim on it is going to be identical to the trim on all of the other vehicles. This probably sounds a little sad, but I have a tendency to care about little details like that.
The other one is that on a paper model, there are basically just 2 ways to do textured glass that doesn’t completely suck: make it dark tinted glass with a sort of abstracted level of specularity, or rely upon environmental reflections to make lighter glass look convincing. I don’t like relying upon environmental reflections because they tend to only look correct from one angle in one specific type of environment. Dark tinted glass with fake specularity is more visually neutral and blends into more environments better.
As for maintenance personnel, they’re getting their own little vehicles because I like to see a lot of geometric variety on the tabletop. It makes the world look and feel a little more believable when it looks like there’s a lot of industrial diversity.
Our taxis around here aren’t that bright yellow colored – we have a more beige variant. So it didn’t remind me of one of them. In addition the follow-me cars I remember from Frankfurt have an all yellow roof.
I take potluck with them how they look build and on my table.