Mod for M3 Lend Lease Sov. Halftrack?

[rickier65]

I'm working on the SL # Sned, Hill 621. It shows a couple of M3 halftracks as part of the Sov. OOB.

Any suggestions for an alternate vehicle I can substitute? I've looked through the mods and the Sov veh. that came with the game, and didn't really see any soviet HT at all. Am I missing something obvious (I did some looking and the Sov appraently did get either the M3 or M5 (IH version of M3)?

I could use trucks, but I suspect they would be a lot more vulnerable to inf fire than HT would be.

Thanks!
Rick

[junk2drive]

CMBB uses M5s I believe. I thought someone would have made one by now for PC, but I haven't seen any.

[rickier65]

j2d,

Thanks- I'd be fine with the M5 HT, from what I read, it was biscly the same as the M3 but built by International Harvestor rather than D. White.

I spent some time going through the mod pages. There are actually a fair number of mods in here. Having the split threads helps, but still quite a few.

Thanks - not sure what I'll use for substitute, I'll have to think about it.

Rick

[spellir74]

Rick,

Couldn't you make an XML for M3s and M5s after researching them a little (armour, speed, weight, amount, dates) and then just use any HT or Truck model as stop gap? (Maybe you could make a unique skin --eg colour change in paint.net.)

---------------
PS
Rick, I'm doing the 221 PzBuk41 right now.

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: spellir74

Rick,

Couldn't you make an XML for M3s and M5s after researching them a little (armour, speed, weight, amount, dates) and then just use any HT or Truck model as stop gap? (Maybe you could make a unique skin --eg colour change in paint.net.)

---------------
PS
Rick, I'm doing the 221 PzBuk41 right now.

Spellir,

Yes, I could probably handle the XML data. - found a source that had the speed weight, etc. but I don't know the first thing about modeling. My first exposure to paint.net was making maps here for PCK so I'm not much of an artist. Maybe I could experiment with changing color some - but that modelling stuff is all pretty incomprehensible to me.

But yes - was already wondering about just using the model for a German HT for an interim solution.

Thanks
Rick

[spellir74]

Editing entire color is a good place to start --if you want exposure to image editing.

.Use stock 251 XML as XML basis.

.Copy and paste a 'stock'/or 'orig(user)' HT folder; name it ['unique russian HT', eg 'Russ M3 LndLs'].

.Go into folder and open the 'body' dds in paint.net

{Paint.net is my favorite since it does .dds intuitively. Get the smudge tool add-on at the site. While a little more cumbersome than PS's smudge tool, it practically makes P.n a one-stop prgm.}

{Also, I use 'dds thumbnail viewer' so I can see the dds's image in XP preview-square at bottom left.}

Keep saving your work as uniques as you futz naming eg ___1, __2, ___3; save your staring point too.

.hilite the entire image --ctrl A.

.menu bar/"adjustments"

-"hue/saturation" is an alright place to start.
-Or try 'levels' /'R,G,B' toward bottom.

I would go tannish /drabby. (eg red and green up, blue down.)

.....
Deluxe way is open stock dds and meticulously select with the outline tool, floor boards, tires and wood etc --things you don't want color changed. Outline tool has 'add-' or 'subtract-' to selected option at top left. Then you cut that [ctrl+x], grab what remains [ctrl A] and [delete] it all and then paste [_ctrl+shft+V_] your cut tires etc back in, "layers/merge down", and then save as eg "russ HT, tires and wood" [paint.net file].

Now you can make grand color edits and simply copy[ctrl C] and paste[ctrl V] those wood & tire pieces --unchanged-- back in; the last step is "Layers/merge down" [ctrl+M].

......
.Save as DDS (dx1 w/MIPs) Shopuld be same size as starting point: 1024=683kb or 512=171kb.

.when satisfied, name final version .dds exactly as it was originally (for other files in that folder might call it).

.open your XML and map at bottom exactly to the new folder and files.

----------
If you don't want to, this is something anyone can do easily once pkge is ready to go.

[rickier65]

Hey Spellir - thanks for the lesson - I'll give that a try - won't be as accurate as some of the modellers here, but the different color scheme should distinguish it from the German ones.

Thanks!
Rick

[Mraah]

Rick,

A website Mobius mentioned in another thread ...

ORIGINAL: Mobius
I got this off the internet. Originally from the Russian Battlefield site.
This one from armchairgeneral.
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/galleries.htm

Scroll to the bottom, Lend Lease vehicles ... I would think that you're looking for either the M2 Halftrack or the M3A1 Scout car.

For reference data ... below is a screenshot from Panzer Wars, American Tank Table .... Of course, Mobius will have to recommend values that don't seem to match ... like max speed, dates, med prev, etc.

Hope this helps.

[Mobius]

You can not make location 3 a Wheel/track in PZC. It should go to location 4 because the game engine tests this location before the AI fires.

[rickier65]

Mraah,

Thanks but it's actually an M3 Halftrack (or an M5 Halftrack). I"ll do some checking before putting together the data. I'm out of town next week so probably won't get this done before then anyway.

Thanks!
Rick

[Mraah]

Rick,

Just to let you know ....

I woke up this morning and had nothing to do .... So, I decided to work on an M3A1 HT ... With any luck, it could be finished today.

I'm using parts from the 251 ---> wheels and treads. I'll make a material out of the blueprint, like I did the M4A2. Animating it should be easier and I'm going to have the gunner build into the body (like my river boat) so I won't have to make a new crewX ... I'm going to use the soviet truck crew (single figure).

I suppose it will need a .50 Cal MG [&:] ... unless the Russians used their DP ... I dunno.

Rob

Screenshot from MS3D ... Using the blueprint from the-blueprints website ...
http://www.the-blueprints.com/index.php ... alf_track/

[rickier65]

Rob,

Thanks! That will show up in my Hill 621 scenario. I'm doing a little tweaking on your Hill 621 map, and i'm using Ben's new trees. got side tracked wwith putting together a Mods summary table. Also I decided to build a terrain profile like the one in the SL manual just to check my heights for different levels.

And I'm out of town for rest of week - (sitting in airport right now waiting for flight).

Thanks again!
Rick

[Mraah]

Rick,

Enjoy your trip!

Just a progress report ... I found it interesting to take the 251 body texture and colorize it ... saves me some time and doesn't look half bad ... only 1372 polygons. Still needs some items (lights and bling) and some more UV mapping. I don't think I'll finish today.

By the way ... is the scenario you're doing summer or winter?

Rob

[Mraah]

Rick,

And, some final shots for tonight ... I was worried about that gun shield ...

[junk2drive]

Nice work.
 
Won't be long and it will look better than CM's.

[spellir74]

Super cool Mraah.

[JMass]

Great, it could be used also as SU-57...

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: Mraah

By the way ... is the scenario you're doing summer or winter?

Rob

Rob,

That's looking great! I appreiciate it. The scenario is summer.

thanks!
Rick

[Mraah]

Thank you everyone for your comments ... much appreciated.

It really could use a good original skin but I'll leave that to the rest of the modders. I still need to swap out some parts for a better design and flatten the rear end and add more, etc.

Jmass ... I read about the Su57 and it appears it uses a US 57mm gun but the picture seems to have a larger cannon. Leave it the Russians to make a modification and not tell anyone.

spellir74 ... I'm making the model "mod friendly" ... This means I'm going to have the extra parts in group form so you can strip the vehicle to the basic model which should make modding easier. Also, I'm going to have a seperate release in MS3D format which will contain the model in full size (unscaled to PcK), a scaled model, and all the parts broken out (ie, body, wheels, tread). It's alot easier to mod from the source than to import all the stuff and sort out it by hand.

Anyway ... I've looked at creating a halftrack crew using the Russian Truck driver with a tank commander model. Depending on how the animation goes (should be easy with just the head and arms) I'll see if it works ... or rather looks good. The frames for a HT is different (slightly) than for a tank but it won't be an issue.

I'll be modding the track texture and perhaps even cut and paste the Russian Truck wheel in place of the current wheel ... we'll see though. I've already tried a static version of the HT on a map in scene editor to check the coloring and any polygon problems and after reversing a few polygons it's ok. I'll post some screenshots later when I'm happy with the color and such.

Rick .... What was the date of the scenario? I'm asking because when I make an XML I'm going to have the start date as January/44 with an medprev of April/45 ... this should have the vehicle slowly rise in popularity as time goes by. And, I might as well mount a .50 cal on it with Panzer Wars stats but I haven't even gotten that far to look yet. At any rate ... the gun can be modded out with ease.

Rob

[Mraah]

Hmmm ... I found a great skin ... the darkest hour mod for RO ...

They use five huge skins to make the vehicle ... I'd have to cut and paste them into a friendly 512x512 image.

Screenshot below shows a partial skin at 512x512 ... not too bad ... [&:] I dunno ... perhaps I'll let other's skin it ... it's an option.