The light really lifts the image, care to share your setup for this shot, number of lights and what sorts of modifiers do you use?
The reason I ask is because I saw some similar types of shots and it was listed as bare bulb flash, and I couldn't work how one gets soft light from a small bare buld speedlite (unless bounced at least)
No light modifiers were used in either shot, not even the flappy doohickey built into the Speedlight. Just by angling and positioning the flashes just right, you can get some surprisingly soft light from them even when they're pointed at metal. Of course, the light would be softer still by bouncing it off a reflector or using a softbox, but that can yield light that's too flat for my liking. That approach can still net very pleasing results if you opt for a more aggressive contrast curve in post, but it wasn't the look I was going for. There's also quite a bit of ambient light in both shots. The flashes primarily serve as accent and fill light, more so for the second shot than the first one.
The light from the flashes looks deceivingly soft in the overall shot of the car because some hot spots were removed in post. In the shot of the plane/hood ornament, there's a backlight to right of the plane's right wing, angled toward the center of the plane, and a fill light pointed at the plane's left wing. I forget the exact ratio, but I want to say that the backlight was set to put out twice the output as the fill light. If I turned off the fill, the shadow would have been much harsher, thereby making the light look harsher as well. Turn off the backlight while keeping the fill on, and the image would look flat and boring as hell, which is a bad thing when the subject isn't that interesting to begin with
