Spearhead

[Col. Faulkner 0]

I'm delighted to report that I've now fixed most of the

distortion problems. Yes, his arms and legs no longer

appear to be made of crushed cardboard tubes, his head

no longer pops off his neck, a displaced point on his leg

no longer makes him look as if he has a monstrous hard-on

and his boot soles remain attached at all times (although,

come to think of it, flapping soles would simulate the horrible

old "Boots, DMS" quite well). I've even sorted the weird firing

bug (a point in the memory LOD that shouldn't have been

there), so they can now use their weapons "...at all times

effectively against the enemy and safely among their comrades".

Texturing soon, then, wah-hey! I already made a very nice

tiled DPM graphic that I've drawn in layers so I can make the

several DPM flavours I need. It has the complete pattern

repeat so you won't see just the same tiny bit repeated over

and over like you sometimes see on addons.

ETA: Blast, spoke too soon. I am steadily managing to

improve them though. It's all a huge pain in the bum,

though.

[canibalimao 0]

beautifull!!!! love it

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Here's a rough idea of what one of the Spearhead British infantry figures is

going to look like:

This bod is in temperate combat dress and fighting order (without NBC kit).

These textures are only very roughly applied for now and don't at all represent

the intended end result. Work continues on improving all aspects of these figures

(and their weapons). I have now managed to get rid of almost all of the problems

with animation (only a small, annoying embuggerance with the left arm remains).

Other figures in progress just now have different equipment (eg. extra ammo

bandoliers), are in different NBC states, wear different helmets (Royal Marines,

MkIV, MK V and MK VI - no paras for now), or have different mods to

their webbing. Others wear soft headress (DP combat cap, Tam O' Shanter, Beret)

and are from 1960-65 and 1985 (other orders of dress - ie. jungle, arctic,

desert - and other time periods - ie. 1950s and possibly 1944-45 - may follow

on later).

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Also having a go at making an APC for the boys to rattle around in:

Ideally, I'd like a Chieftain tank too but the shape of the

turret has so far defeated my pathetic modelling skills. The

432 will do me fine for now (better for an infantry-oriented

addon set like this anyway).

[sabre 244]

Looking good mate, im really interested in the infantry part of this. Keep it up!

[Stewy 1]

Great stuff Colonel!

I love the scrim and hessian on the helmets! Just a humble request - can you please make the soldier have defeault BI faces? I'd love to add diffent cam faces to that guy!

Just my 2c Sir - great stuff!

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Great stuff Colonel!

I love the scrim and hessian on the helmets!  Just a humble request - can you please make the soldier have defeault BI faces?  I'd love to add diffent cam faces to that guy!

Just my 2c Sir - great stuff!

I am painting a half dozen or so faces with the right sort

of brown cam cream daubed on. All of the guys in fighting

order will have cammed up faces (and hands). It's an

important detail for getting the right "look". I have made

cammed versions of some of the weapons too. The heads are

standard BIS ones so I suppose other custom faces could be

applied if desired.

[Stewy 1]

Thanks Colonel, no worries Sir - I'm sure your cam-cream will be authentic!

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Some fun "photos" of some of the addons in progress posed

in the scenery with "imaginative" (ho! ho! ) captions.

The animations are almost correct now, the LODS are done

and the shadows are working reasonably OK too. Texturing

and all the rest obviously still needs a lot of work though.

NB: I know that the unit titles mentioned are fictional in

places - this is entirely intentional. Similarly, some of the

details are not strictly right for the scenarios pictured - eg.

the Gordons are wearing Staybrite capbadges and are

carrying bayonets on a CO-IN patrol out in the field. This was

never actually done. My actual CO-IN patrol model guy -

under construction - is properly authentic:

[Stewy 1]

Holy Cow mate - that is simply stunning! It all looks great!

The helmets and SLR look fantastic!

[MontyVCB 0]

indeed, i look forward to seeing the finnished product.

[halkrath 1]

any update for this? progress? Just curious.

[Namikaze 0]

Curiosity killed the cat. Or in this case, harassed the addon maker. It's only been a month since the last post/update report, be patient (this addon's been in development since February last year, so one month isn't much).

[Col. Faulkner 0]

I'm giving most of the stuff to "vilas", now, to finish for use

in his "Project '85". His team seem most likely to be able to

finish these to a decent standard. I'll never get these finished

by myself now, since I've pretty much finally run out of

enthusiasm (dismayed with the time it all takes, disappointed

with the restrictions imposed by the game, and fed up of  the

shit quality of my models). At least this now means that at

least some of the stuff I tried to make will get released so

people can play with it.

For what it's worth, the last state was something like this.

I was trying to get the colours on the DPM to approach

something like the real thing in-game (1968 pattern DPM

Combat Dress), but it still looks wank:

[halkrath 1]

Curiosity killed the cat.  Or in this case, harassed the addon maker.  It's only been a month since the last post/update report, be patient (this addon's been in development since February last year, so one month isn't much).

.....

Col, I've been watching your progress on these addons and you've done a fine job as you have. I can see the frustration with this stuff, as I couldn't even begin to get the patience to learn this stuff. I was just curious, as nobody else posted here, so I didn't know if you were working on it or maybe you went to a team or anything. Cheers Mate.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Curiosity killed the cat.  Or in this case, harassed the addon maker.  It's only been a month since the last post/update report, be patient (this addon's been in development since February last year, so one month isn't much).

 .....

Col, I've been watching your progress on these addons and you've done a fine job as you have. I can see the frustration with this stuff, as I couldn't even begin to get the patience to learn this stuff. I was just curious, as nobody else posted here, so I didn't know if you were working on it or maybe you went to a team or anything. Cheers Mate.

I don't mind people asking at all. I don't subscribe to the

prevailing ethos here. If I make a thread about my stuff

then it means that all enquiries, comments etc are welcome.

Anyway...

I'm very pleased "Vilas" wants the stuff. I'll give him all the

information he needs to finish them properly (he mostly

wants mid-1980s Parachute Regiment but I'm hoping he'll do

some line infantry too), so I don't feel that my work has

all been in vain.

[halkrath 1]

I personally like your work as I have seen. I mean hell... I surely hell couldnt do nothin like that, as I previously stated, lol. But I don't blame you for giving it to him if you lost time or whatever reason. I can see where it gets to people, and especially with lack of time or whatever the reason. Atleast you put the effort there. And it so far paid off. I'd like to see also what he does with them.

[MontyVCB 0]

Models seem okay to me mate, I wouldnt worry abut textures, not everyone can do it, infact alot of the model makers here get a person to help them with it. I'm sure Vilas will make great use of it.

[halkrath 1]

Now im really waiting for him to show what hes done or doing to them.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Well, disappointingly, it turned out that "Vilas" has neither

the time nor the inclination to take over the stuff I was

doing. He's just doing a very basic "UK airborne" soldier

unit and is not much interested in anything else.

He did, however, give me some very useful help about

how to skin and texture the BIS soldier models, for which I'm

very grateful to him. So this, together with me returning to

better health lately, has given me a little reinjection of

enthusiasm to try and move my stuff on.

I've also, with the help of information submitted by "Messiah"

and others in the "O2 Modelling" section of this board, now

worked out how to do all that arcane UV mapping magic stuff

and am at last in the process of texturing the damn things

properly. It all looks so much better when it's done right.

The bodies are now articulating correctly in-game

(well "correctly" as far as ArmA anims go - the ArmA men

always seem to have very weird arms) and I managed to

incorporate all the good bits from my original models. They

are now getting proper textures with normal maps for the

details and stuff! The graphic artwork still needs polishing

in places, of course, but it's already an improvement on the

crap I was doing before.

Here are some quick pics of the latest sort of thing. Parts of

these still have just gash textures on them, but these should

be looking much better very soon. Unwrapping a little set of

58 webbing is hugely tedious but well doable (just the yoke

and bumroll left to unwrap now!). Clickable thumbnails:

A lot of the detail is not very visible in those little pictures,

but (for example) they have proper DMS boots on (correctly

laced up too - none of that bloody foreign cat's-cradle

nonsense) and not just some random high-leg boot model -

and their puttees are properly wound too. Lots more little

details to come.

The guys in fighting order have a first attempt at making

them look dirty (90% of the real infantryman's job is just

traversing the terrain, not fighting the enemy - and I hate

all those squeaky clean addon soldiers).

Uniforms, weapons and kit are still from c. 1955 to c. 1985.

The Gordons are supposed to be just for me (everyone wants

to be a Marine or a Para, not a Jock), but I also have beret

models in three different styles (a la Paras, Marines and

Guardsmen).

If there are any good addon makers who'd be interested in

helping with a model of an FV 432, please get in touch.

[Stewy 1]

Fantastic news Colonel! Thanks for the update - it all looks amazing - I'm glad you're feeling better too mate!

Stew

[Grim_Fandango 0]

Fantastic work Faulkner, it's looking fantastic - Keep it up!

Any chance for a couple of Gurkhas thrown in there perhaps? I know it might be an exotic request, but I always thought them at least equal to a para or marine on the scale of british military kickass, based on everything I've read about those guys.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Any chance for a couple of Gurkhas thrown in there perhaps? I know it might be an exotic request, but I always thought them at least equal to a para or marine on the scale of british military kickass, based on everything I've read about those guys.

I would absolutely love to do Gurkhas, but the game restricts the soldier

figures to one size only and that's always deterred me from considering it

seriously. Your average Gurkha is only about 5 foot 3, after all.

Maybe that doesn't really matter so much, though, as others now have

smaller statured peoples in the game already (Vietnamese, Filippinos, etc)

just using the standard BIS model proportions. Basically all it'd need then is

an Indo-Mongolian face and a Kukri ("Service no.1"). Not really much of a

stretch, then. So, yes, I think I will add them. They'll also be very

appropriate for the figures in No.9s (ie. tropical/jungle) that I'm doing too

just now.

[MehMan 0]

I would absolutely love to do Gurkhas, but the game restricts the soldier

figures to one size only and that's always deterred me from considering it

seriously. Your average Gurkha is only about 5 foot 3, after all.

I thought that in theory the animation system supported scalable skeletons. Didn't try it though.

[max power 21]

The BIS proportions are fairly large, too. Those soldiers are way above average height.