Very good topic!
In the past, I have dedicated a part of my time trying to help out members to acheive greater standards for their skins. It could have been as simple as a little touch up to a full scale remake ( like Keisu's which btw was a bit of a pain in the ass because it was the first time skinning in 4096 resolution)
For the past few years, I have skinned various cars from the little UF1 to the BF1, tried various techniques, styles. My bests of all times were not made in the past months, but in the year 2006. Which is suprising to some.
doriftoKids personalized team skin
year: 2006
car: XRT / RB4
time to complete: 2 months and countless hours of trial and error, crashes, frustation.
note: those were the times when beauty did not need bodykits.
Notorious Fruity Drifters team skin.
year: 2006
car: LX4
time to complete: close to 2 months
note: Back then, there were no skinning kit for the LX4. Everything was made by nudging and guessing.
Generation 1 JDM*F skin
year: 2007
car: XRT/ RB4 / FZ5
time to complete: 1 month
note: Very controversial skin when it came out. Along with inc. (Chris Cummins), we were the only ones making bodykits for the cars. It made a lot of noise in the drift community. Although it was highly inspired by inc.'s version, this one was made from scratch. Pioneering a kit from no resourse took a good 30+ hours of searching, nudging, and frustration. Nowadays, copy / paste and you have a bodykit. Don't take things for granted.
Note 2: From then on, Charlie joined me and created the amazing skins we see today. Only used by JDM*F members, design dude's public skins, and obviously, the DrftMstr garage.
Note3: Imageshack is being a pain in the arse now. no pics yet.