The last few days

This is what I have been working on. I have successfully created a skydome with moving clouds. Currently trying to get a sun in there and then a day to night cycle.

  I sketched a few ideas for the rooftop.

My primary reference has all been from Leicester, some from the top of Dominos, some from the top of multistory carparks and most from the Mansfield Police Station roof.
Secondary reference is a mixture of internet saves and game screenshots, (Mirrors Edge was the biggest help).

 This is my 3D plan of the Rooftop level. I exported the floor and used it in UDK as reference to build my whitebox.

 It took me 7 tries to get to the stage where it was complete except for the vent system that ran underneath.

This screenshot was taken at the moment i decided to scrap the vent idea. I had spent so much time getting the measurement right and finding out how to make the character crouch so it would all be possible, when i was finally ready to test it properly, the character would not drop down. Instead he just hovered above the opening and It was too much. I had to just cut and run with the next part of the plan.

All of my main assets are build and unwrapped. I havnt had very many problems with building them. The only one i found a challenge was the lettering for the "medusas" sign. I could use the text tool in 3ds Max because it uses up so many tris, I tried to just target weld and connect a lot of the verts but it would have taken forever, instead used the text as accurate references for each letter and modelled them separately.

Next.

I have decided that the vehicle mesh is complete. I am going the leave the texture for now and concentrate on getting it rendered nicely and modelled as a burnt/damaged version.

The vehicle paint that i have worked so hard on to look shiny and new (so it would contrast dramatically with the damaged version) only shows up well if the vehicle is placed under harsh angled lighting. The parts of the car that are not lit in the same way, look totally different and spoil the illusion. The only way to get it all looking like real car paint is to light it in a realistic manner. This will include a more complicated lighting studio and a background image that i can use as reflections on the car.

For now though its important to get the damaged version done.
I used Call of Duty for some reference, I entered a private match and just spent some time shooting and blowing up cars. Although this would preferably be more for ideas than reference, reference for burnt cars is obviously quite hard to come across so it will probably end up surving both purposes equally. Here is a few of the pictures.

Some interenet research:

Ideas for the damaged vehicle.