Having gotten tired of broken AI models, destroyed repositories, lagging GitHub environments, and broken fast.ai courses, I pivoted to an entirely new project this week: BeamNG modding. The vehicle mod I’m intending to build is based on the 1998-2002 Toyota Soluna AL50; the first step is to create an exact replica of that mod for third-party free distribution. Then, a more refined lore-friendly Ibishu version will be released.
For quite a long time, I’ve been intending to get into the BeamNG vehicle modding universe. However, the issue has been the 3D modeling segment of the project, which is where I’ve always gotten stuck. Up until this week, the most I’d been able to achieve was getting the reference images positioned into the environment with none of the actual vehicle whatsoever; now, though, it seems I’ve made some progress. Read on for some details on my current undertakings, some screenshots, and plans for what I’m going to do next.
The Project
Not wanting to spend ten months designing an elaborate electronic gauge cluster and setting up emergency braking with automatic headlights and drink dispensers, I decided to choose a relatively basic, bare-bones vehicle to model. I ended up going with the Asia-exclusive Toyota Soluna, which is only sold in a right-hand drive configuration. It’s slightly smaller than the early-2000s Toyota Corolla, and has much less in the way of features. However, it’s a functional, reliable vehicle, and seems to be pretty easy to model.
I’ve started off by obtaining reference photos of various angles of the vehicle, including a side view, front view, and rear view. I’ve then placed these inside the Blender environment so I can better structure the blocking boxes (which will be discussed in the next section). The plan is to only offer the vehicle in an RHD configuration when distributing it through Modland; after all, this initial stage of replicating the exact vehicle is partly for my benefit and for the enjoyment of actually experiencing an in-game Toyota Soluna. (There is currently NO Soluna mod widely available for BeamNG – not even close).
After that’s done, I intend to go back and refine the mod for distribution on the internal, strict BeamNG Repository. Here, you are prohibited from uploading mods of real life vehicles, so I’ll need to modify the vehicle so it fits in with the fictional in-game car company Ibishu. This actually works perfectly, since Ibishu has always been represented as BeamNG’s version of Toyota. The Soluna’s lines fit well with Ibishu vehicles in that era (Covet, Pessima Mk1, etc.) and should be a good lore-friendly project.
The Process
As of right now (Friday, July 17, 2026), I currently have a complete blockout of the Soluna, and I’ve added some loop cuts to signify some basic panel divisions. A “blockout” essentially represents the skeleton of the vehicle; you have the full envelope, the roof, all four doors, the trunk lid, and the hood. This makes for a total of ten boxes, including the front and rear bumpers as well, which you might be able to see in the above image. This blockout will provide me with a starting point for pulling vertices and shaping the curvature of the vehicle; that’s the next step I’ll be moving onto shortly.
To start off with this mod, I’ve decided to make use of Blender Python, or .bpy scripts, to generate some of the geometry. Doing some of that stuff by hand would be very tedious, so I have used scripts to add mirror modifiers (so that changes I make on the driver’s side will be mirrored to the passenger side, for example) and find the exact specifications of the vehicle. This measurement-finding has actually been the most time-consuming part of the process so far: I’ve had to line up all the boxes exactly to the reference images, making sure the front overhang is the correct length and checking all values in the script against official measurements.
Hopefully I haven’t made any serious mistakes in aligning the vehicle against the images, but from what I can tell, everything seems to be working out. In the image above, I’m looking at the environment in the 3D perspective; if you were to switch to right orthographic or front orthographic view, you’d see the vehicle lined up closely to the reference image. An example of the side perspective is shown below:
I spent the most time yesterday on getting those insane loop cuts to actually go in. At first, I was just spamming Ctrl+R, clicking helplessly, and nothing was happening. Then, after some searching and usage of AI agents, I discovered the proper sequence of clicks and presses to make those loop cuts appear. I had to re-generate the entire blockout in the process, though, because somewhere along the way the environment had gotten muddled and unable to process any new loop cuts. Now that I have four cuts, though, I’m going to start extruding and pulling vertices to shape the vehicle, which might involve some more frustration and Blender Python scripts.
Next Steps
Here it is: the trademark “Next Steps” section that I always manage to include in these project update posts. Well, when it comes to this Toyota Soluna mod, the primary next step is going to be to continue working on shaping out the vehicle and creating a real structure. Right now, I just have some vague boxes for where the various panels and portions are; over the next few weeks I’d like to refine the shape of the vehicle and maybe have a hood/trunk curvature laid out. This is probably the most time-consuming portion of the modding process, although the whole JBEAMING situation might be difficult as well.
With the fabled BeamNG v0.39 update in a confused state, I’m not sure how it’s going to affect this process. It could be released this Sunday, or this September–or even next year. When it does come out, though, I really hope the devs won’t break the jbeaming interface or drastically change anything related to the modding process, because it means I’ll have to relearn everything to do with Lua and possibly contend with out-of-date and broken models. If that happens, it’s time to return to the Ashryver models!
Stay tuned for further updates. Time to continue working on the modeling.