Spearhead

[Col. Faulkner 0]

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

I'll look into it later. I'm assuming it'd just mean a face and body-size (if

supported) conversion once the figures are all done. It'd be really cool

to have Gurkhas in the game, though.

[max power 21]

I forgot to add that I'm glad you're feeling better, Faulkner. I was starting to miss your posts.

[goose4291 11]

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.

Only if they come with Kukhri's :)

[GD Mast 0]

Ok... been lurking this post for a bit and I gotta say that your units are looking top notch. Great improvement and glad that your healthy once again.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

I've finally managed to get some of the weapons properly unwrapped and

am now trying to texture them in earnest. Good texturing is deceptively

hard. :(

I've been working on and off on this damned SLR since the days of the old

OFP NI mod (my first ever attempt looked like it was made out of bubble-

gum). It's good to finally get it really going. I'm sure the addon making

gurus on here would say this is shite but I'm chuffed with it so far.

(clickable thumbnails)

At least it's a proper SLR - a right British squaddie's bunduk, and (I hope)

it'll only get better as I work on it. Got several other versions on the go too;

with wooden furniture (and a mix of wood and plastic), optics and lots of

other bits and pieces.

The black plastic furniture was approved for service by the Ordnance

Board in 1968 but was rare before the end of the 1970s.

The other stuff consists of SMG, LMG, GPMG, section anti-tank rocket

(with the proper British sights), APers and Smoke hand grenades and

Carl Gustav.

[GD Mast 0]

Now that's a pretty good looking SLR. :cool: Is it correct to call it the L1A1?

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Now that's a pretty good looking SLR. :cool: Is it correct to call it the L1A1?

L1A1 was part of the service nomenclature (specifically the Land Service

designation and non-operational modification number) for the 7.62mm self-

loading rifle but nobody ever actually called it that. The rifle was normally

referred to as the SLR (sometimes pronounced like "slar"), or "Self-Loading

Rifle" if you wanted to be more formal (as in, for example, "Did you so

handle the Self-Loading Rifle so as to cause it to be discharged without the

order to do so being given?").

In any case, L1A1 on its own is ambiguous since there were/are hundreds of

stores designated L1A1 (the British version of the "M72 LAW" was an L1A1,

for example, as was the Sterling-manufactured magazine for the SMG, or

the telescopic sight used on the Lee-Enfield sniper's rifle etc, etc...).

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Well I never thought I'd ever get this far but I have now

successfully got the SPEARHEAD soldier figures (and some

of the small arms) completely unwrapped and UV mapped for

texturing (albeit doing it in a laughably inefficient way

- in Oxygen, often one face at a time because the UVUnwrap

function seems to have a mind of its own...). All the

textures are applied properly now (no more cheating by

slapping on crappo textures in "Buldozer"). It's largely

just a matter now of improving my "artwork".

[clickable thumbnails]

Admittedly, the normal maps still look a bit crap in places

(still trying to understand them properly - why, for example,

is the normal map I made for the puttees apparently upside

down on one leg while the other is perfect!?), but I'm pretty

sure I can fix it all up.

The webbing and kit looks pretty authentic now. Everything

fits together and moves properly on them (quite realistically

actually, I was frankly astonished) as the little guys run

about the battlefield. It also has an undefinable "heavy"

look to it - which is great. I spent a lot of time trying

to make sure it fits them right - nothing worse than those

addons with cardboard-looking webbing straps. It's also all

the correct scale size (although I think I'll recheck the

resi haversack now that I see it there - although "Buldozer"

does distort the view quite a bit).

Their clothes are constructed correctly - not that it

immediately strikes you with these textures and unsophisticated

models. I have to say that I'm still not entirely happy

with the clothing textures.

The cammed-up steel toby is a total nightmare to try and

texture convincingly. It constantly evolves as I try to

get it looking even slightly acceptable. It's difficult

(impossible?) to represent a chaos of torn scrim, bits

of sandbag, strips of hessian, plastic cam' netting and

sundry other bollocks on what is basically a solid lump

of polys. I may have to go back and redo it from scratch.

At least it doesn't have that stupid bare helmet look of

the SLA troops.

Wearing lightweight keks with combat dress was a common

practice in the 1980s, although they were by no means

suitable for that purpose. Guys liked the fact that they dried

quickly (the 68 pattern DPM combat trousers took on the

weight of a small planetoid when wet and took about 3

months to dry). A popular alternative was to wear the

unlined DPM trousers from the tropical combat suit (which

colour scheme I'm working on for one or two of the figures -

certainly for the SPEARHEAD 1985 set)

Getting the berets (and other regimental headdress) right is

very important. Any old thing (especially those BIS

"especas" berets buggered about and recoloured) really won't

do.

And yes, he [i}does[/i] have a nose, he's just got his

cam' cream on the right way.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Ah, eureka! I just worked out why the view in "buldozer" always

seemed so myopic. All the lovely details I'm slaving to create are

coming out much better now:

[max power 21]

I like what you are doing very much, Col. Faulkner. It looks like you are getting a very firm grasp on the technologies. I especially like those normal maps on the pouches.

[GD Mast 0]

Getting better and better. :) Also, thanks for that tidbit about the SLR.

[jojimbo 0]

Awesome job Col. Faulkner,those units are spot on mate.

I have one of those pots 44-89,mines got the 1944 date on it.

No good running with that on,they bump up and down on your nut

with that elasticated chinstrap,lol.

Putees,yeah I remember those too.

Quality mate.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Thanks to everyone for the responses.

I have totally remapped and retextured the helmet and it's now looking

much better. Many of the other parts have been recoloured too; the DPM

clothing is now quite close to the 1960-1968 patterns, the webbing looks

more like webbing, he now has a proper 1970s/80s FFD wrapper, correct

1975-dated rifle bandolier (although I'll still need to redo it, I think) and

much better textures for the body of the no. 83 grenade. I especially like

how the scrim scarf and combat jacket collar have turned out now.

[clickable thumbnails]

The helmet cam of torn strips of hessian matches [one of] the cammed

up version of the Spearhead SLR (the other weapons have cammed up

parts too, where appropriate).

It's mind blowing how much time all this stuff takes to do, though.

[MehMan 0]

It takes up a lot of time indeed!

[max power 21]

It's mind blowing how much time all this stuff takes to do, though.

It will take less and less time the more you do it. To begin it's really tough, though.

[MehMan 0]

Unless you procastrinate a lot. Like I do. All the wonders of the internet keep my away from my modding work. And that's why it took me two years or a year and something to make an infantry model

[Col. Faulkner 0]

It will take less and less time the more you do it. To begin it's really tough, though.

Yes, it certainly helps once you know what the hell you're doing. I should

have made a "blooper reel" of all my attempts up to this point - comedy

gold! :D

---------- Post added at 06:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:03 PM ----------

Unless you procastrinate a lot. Like I do. All the wonders of the internet keep my away from my modding work. And that's why it took me two years or a year and something to make an infantry model

Well I'm gonna make a smart answer to this...maybe I'll do it tomorrow.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

As well as ordinary combat dress there are men wearing the early 1980s

NBC IPE. A truly loathsome experience, even in Germany with the worst

thing you're facing a canister of CS gas in training.

As is obvious I'm really struggling with the texturing. :(

[clickable thumbnails]

[rocket 9]

You're welcome to use my gasmask I made, if you'd like.

[max power 21]

I thik he's done a fairly good job on the gasmasks, myself.

Col. Faulkner, is the reason you're having trouble texturing to do with the painting / compositing aspect or the UVs aspect? Ie. is the physical painting difficult or painting onto the shapes of the UVs?

[R0adki11 3945]

looking impressive, nice to see some older types of British troops :)

[Col. Faulkner 0]

I thik he's done a fairly good job on the gasmasks, myself.

Col. Faulkner, is the reason you're having trouble texturing to do with the painting / compositing aspect or the UVs aspect? Ie. is the physical painting difficult or painting onto the shapes of the UVs?

It's the physical painting. I'm just not an artist.

---------- Post added at 09:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:51 AM ----------

You're welcome to use my gasmask I made, if you'd like.

Thanks but the respirator I have made is coming along well enough. I've

improved it somewhat since those last images were captured. It's a

reasonably good model of the S6. I just need to texture it much better.

[max power 21]

I bed to differ. What you're producing seems quite good to me, so far, and I doubt you've reached the peak of your skills yet. All of this art stuff takes longer than you would think. The biggest time savers I can think of is to get lots of good photo reference for generic materials that look like the material you're going for, and then to develop photoshop brushes (if that's what you're using) to fill in the blanks. You can make brushes look like mud splatter, lights, windows on a building- any repeating pattern you can think of, including stitches or fabric.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

I bed to differ. What you're producing seems quite good to me, so far, and I doubt you've reached the peak of your skills yet. All of this art stuff takes longer than you would think. The biggest time savers I can think of is to get lots of good photo reference for generic materials that look like the material you're going for, and then to develop photoshop brushes (if that's what you're using) to fill in the blanks. You can make brushes look like mud splatter, lights, windows on a building- any repeating pattern you can think of, including stitches or fabric.

Yes, those photoshop brushes are amazing. I just recently worked out how

to use them to do stitching and that wrinkly effect on seams. Heretofore I'd

been doing it with an ordinary paint brush (probably why it was such a mess).

The clothing seams and pocket flaps are getting a major overhaul in the light

of this.

In the meantime I've been working on unwrapping and "texturing" the models.

Here are arty screenshots of some of the small arms:

SLRs in various flavours circa 1970 to 1997 (SLRs were finally declared

obsolete and withdrawn from service in November 1997):

[clickable thumbnails]

7.62mm Light Machine Gun (aka "Bren"). This is the version from the late

1950s - early 1960s. The "7.62mm" warning label in enamel paint was to

prevent stupid squaddies trying to stuff .303" rounds up it or trying to force

.303" mags into the magazine way (which wouldn't fit as the 7.62mm mags

were much narrower - a determined squaddy could break, bend or force

anything though). The later issues tended to omit the label, as .303"

had been consigned to history by then. My later variant is the L4A9 with the

sight bracket on the receiver. There's actually a tiny error in this model that

only anoraks will likely spot - this is what I get for using the 1959 parts

catalogue as reference. It shouldn't be too hard to fix, though.

I've configured it so it's nice and comfy to fire and is pretty accurate (like

the real thing). As in real life, the mag sticking up obscures your view and

the mag changes are a royal pain. This is my second-favourite weapon in

ArmA now (after the SLR, of course).

9mm SMG (aka "Smudge", aka "Sterling"). The pierced barrel jacket looks

only "adequate" but it's the best I can do without making a model with an

astronomical poly count or using transparent textures (which always looked

rubbish when I tried it and tend to give that "gun made out of paper" look).

It's cool to blat away with it in the game, although it's every bit as bloody

useless on the ArmA battlefield as it was in real life - strictly for tankies,

WRACs and other B-ech bods.

Nevertheless, I'm giving it to my medical orderlies and the Charlie G gunners

(I'm not planning to make platoon signallers - only the 1980s section

commanders are getting a Clansman 349 set on their model).

I'm still working on the texturing of these. Getting that "well-used but looked

after" metallic look is difficult.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

And some very W.I.P. shots of the men. As said, the clothing is getting a

drastic re-vamp so these images are just a basic idea of the current state of

play.

[clickable thumbnails]

A Royal Marines booty in his Royal Navy skid-lid. Circa 1980.

A booty in the '59 pattern "desert" Denison smock they used to wear before

the late 1970s. I'm really disappointed with how this has turned out so far,

though :(:

The late pattern Denisons are interesting because you can see in them an

obvious ancestor of the DPM pattern of the late 1960s. I wonder if the same

artists designed the patterns for both.

An infantryman from the mid 1980s with customized webbing, brand-spanking

new Mk6 helmet (with '84 patt DPM cover), faded old '68 patt smock and '74

patt jungle trousers (far too saturated in that shot, as it happens, and I

need to correct the pocket flaps, but the basic colours are right). Also worn

are Northern Ireland (aka 'derry) urban patrol boots (in lieu of the horrible

issue high-leg combat boots of the time).

A trio of squaddies from a line infantry regiment trying to look warry for the

camera, circa 1975 - 1980