Kohlenklau Vehicle thread

[kohlenklau]

OK fellas, I am down below ground and slowly climbing upward on the modding learning curve. You get to watch! I am armed with Adobe Photoshop CS3. A free download and already I see what it has that my old pal free paint.NET does not have. Airbrush with soft edges! My thanks to Aris for his advice and offers of e-tutelage.

Project 1 will be winterizing a US M3 half-track and saving the files with the [snow] suffix.

started with the wheels file and tracks file

a layer of packed heavy snow with greater opacity in the treads of the tires. a dusty frost/snow layer with lesser opacity.

I will next put some snow on the shovel and the upper horizontal surfaces of the mines and c-ration box, etc etc etc

compared to before I did the weathering...

hey, that is weird, it is the same half-track but in one scene it has all mines on the side racks and then it has a c-ration box and ammo cans. maybe there are multiple random files...

[kohlenklau]

...continuing on to the hull because Aris sent me a link to some brush sets.

I will go back and do the axe (not a shovel!) later.

The hull bmp file is a weird jig saw puzzle kind of thing. As time goes by I will learn what means what, I missed the doors, they must be there somewhere.

I gotta remember to not go too wide with the brush or it looks too big once on the image. But I do need to change the size slightly and go up and down with the opacity.

I also want to add some drips and spills. This is supposed to be a rush job by units in the field.

[bruce90]

Great thread. I'm gonna learn with you.

[Fuser]

Looking good kohlenklau! Keep trying, eventually modding wil turn to be a hobby, watch out!

[kohlenklau]

sipping the AM java on the non-CM laptop and wanted to update w/o screenshots...

a. I am changing the vehicle serial number to a proper late 44 type.

Drab blue was the factory color and W (for War Department) stopped being applied in early 44.

I will go with yellow "4012845 S", S stood for "suppressed" for some reason, something about having a an EMI-shielded radio. some stencil military font. each on its own layer, left hood and right hood. one of the layers gets flipped horizontally. layer-edit-effects-flip horizontally. I still have to find how to rotate the layers into position. I will google that tonight.

b. I am thinking of doing the bumper vehicle codes. In white stencil font.

"28-109-I AT-3"

c. I did 2 versions of the hull and added a "2" to one filename before the [snow] suffix.

In the editor under deploy units I had purchased 5 various US half-tracks. All the M3 base models share the M3 hull file. single 30 cal, double 30 cal and single 50 cal. The M2 has its own.

I saw both versions of my M3 hull but as I zoomed or moved in towards them or away from them, the doors would change. I had one version with the paint stroke stripe effect and 1 with a full coverage effect. I would see the striped hull have solid doors and vice versa, then OK, then not OK as I zoomed in and out. very odd. Maybe I better make them more alike. I will try a 3rd version as well. Maybe I can have different vehicle serial numbers.

This is really fun. But I wish I had an instant tester, instead I have to load the mod and then fire up CM. Takes quite a few minutes.

I also need to google how to make a custom color palette and a custom brush set of my favorite brushes.

Shucks, gotta go to work...

[Fuser]

I told you it would become addicting,...

[Earl Grey]

Yup, sad fact is you can have as many variations as you like, BUT the game will mix and match single parts like running gear, doors, hatches, even single skirt panels.

So unless every variation essentially looks the same, we can't use that feature properly. maybe there's a system, maybe there isn't, I'm not quite sure yet. Will have to test that properly.

[kohlenklau]

Thanks for that info. I decide to just focus on ONE half-track snow camo scheme. Down the road a few years I can try for the multiple versions.

I have a photo of a snow camo M3 in one book and the photo is very small. I found the same photo in another book in a larger format and saw it DID have the W so I kept the W. Maybe the M3's without the W slowly made it to the front?

I went with a "bolder" white. Still some tweaking to do here and there, and the streaks of whitewash that ran off the mop or brush. Maybe some areas where it is worn off.

Maybe it is good I started with whitewash camo for this first project. I would eventually like to do a vehicle with heavy overall whitewash as well. I am afraid to lose the details such as rivets and hinges.

I looked though the old CMBB forums for post showing modded snow camo vehicles but couldn't find any.

[mjkerner]

Wow, you got guts (to do this in front of an audience, containing a lot of grogs!) and talent! It's looking really good, Phil.

[kohlenklau]

I will do a quick self-critique here. More as notes to myself for later...

For this latest image:

I usually used too soft an edge brush. I inadvertently got an airbrush effect.

In fact I may occasionally have selected the airbrush effect and like a kid just had fun.

The bitmap is big on screen and it takes a while to do, I certainly switched around with the brush types and sizes. I need to create my own brush set and name them. And I need to think of the stroke directions as a human would do it in scale.

A lot of relatively long verticals and then some short ones where the painter couldn't swing the brush in tight places. I AM looking at period photos. They used mops and brooms, so maybe thinking a smaller house-painting brush is wrong. Sometimes they just bucketed the whitewash on to large areas.

I also think I went too low on the opacity. I was timid but think now I need to have it white and clearly a whitewash not some diluted milk of magnesia.

I'll keep experimenting around.

I am also wanting to do a small painted script name on the vehicle like "Ellen" or "Betty Lou" or somesuch...

[Erwin]

You might try having anything that sticks out have a bit more white on it to simulate either paint gathering on it, or snow. That way you would also emphasize the rivets and other details that protrude.

[Fuser]

I would create a transparent layer, add fully opaque whitewash brushing there, and at the same time apply rubber brushes with raindrop, washes, dirt, splatter shapes to simulate paint fading and chipping,..After that you coulkd play with the opacity to your liking to create tranparencies,..etc...

[kohlenklau]

is a rubber brush like a stamp effect? You just size it down as needed?

[bruce90]

kohlenklau. Have you found the 'Replace Color' function in your Photoshop.Gives you the option to quickly if crudely winterize vehicles.

[bruce90]

One of Aris Jeeps as an example.(Hope he won't mind).

[kohlenklau]

yes, I have played with it but still need to figure it out.

I will seek out a tutorial on youtube.

[kohlenklau]

bruce90,

I am trying but it isn't turning out so good so I must be doing something incorrectly.

I am in the background layer.

Image - Adjustments - Replace Color

Replace color window comes up.

I tried to set the target color as a brown hue that was muddy weathering.

Is this what you did?

I set the replacement color as white.

I played with the fuzziness and looked at the preview window til it looked like it was going to turn out OK. But it seems I am not aggressive enough. in the scenario editor, it doesn't look well-winterized like your jeep example.

Or maybe my areas are hidden by the tracks...

Trial and error. I will go and try a more aggressive approach.

2nd attempt still was crappy. Maybe my bmp just doesn't have enough muddy weathering to begin with or I should change the target color.

[bruce90]

Try this with Aris' Kubelwagen.Open Kubelwagen-Hull.bmp in Photoshop. Then go...Image....Adjustments....Replace Color.The Replace Color box will come up.The correct Eye Dropper tool will already be selected. Take it over on to the Kubelwagen hull and select (click on) a colour.Try and select one of the lesser used colours or the Kubelwagen will be almost completely white.When you have done this the small image in the Replace Color box will show you what will be white on the Kubelwagen.(If it's too much or not enough start again). Go to the 'Lightness' slider and move it to the right. As you are doing this bits of the Hull will whiten.Set this to your own taste, I set it at between 90 and 100% usually, then Save it. I did it for the 'Hull-Muddy.bmp' as well and of course the wheels.Thats it.

[kohlenklau]

picking the correct lesser used color must be the trick.

And having a nicely modded muddy hull to begin with.

So, please someone tell the ways to get rid of big white stars in circles on a vehicle.

Clone tool?

[Earl Grey]

In case of doubt the clone tool is your best friend. A somewhat better solution would be to cut out a part of another vehicle's texture and put that OVER the white star and just blur/clone the edges of said part.

Play around and see what works best for you. Most of the time it's try and error rather than having the perfect solution right from the start.

[kohlenklau]

Thanks Earl. I gotta go cook dinner and then I will settle down to a nice evening of modding.

[kohlenklau]

progress to date on the M3 project.

I have isolated some brushes and set them up as a brush set called Bulge brushes.

Then for each brush type I used a separate layer so I could tweak the opacity.

Please tell me if it is getting any better. Just remember this is supposed to be a field applied white wash scheme by the motor pool's finest PFC Pablo Picasso.

My own thoughts are that I should add some more snowy frost to the running gear and wheels.

I went and made those improvements and was still in the window to edit the post so here she is....

I also snow dusted the shovels and stuff and the bumpers. I think she is looking much better. Any comments or constructive criticisms?

[Erwin]

The thought I had was that it's a bit "clean"... the details of the vehicle are a bit lost in the camo. Need to punch em up a bit so we see the rivets and tools etc. Maybe some "dirt" is needed?

[kohlenklau]

a little bit of mud and dirt coming right up.

the "punch em up a bit" might take a little to figure out.

My first thought is to go and do a little modified opacity erasing above the background details. Any hints from the maestro's?

But now I think it should be to use the brush in its mode as a color replacement tool.

But that totally hoses up how I thought to do layers. hmmmmm

I need to renew my passport and fly to Spain. A long weekend with Aris and I will be A-O-K!

Truth is I would probably drink wine and chase Spanish girls and pull an "all nighter" to figure this out before my flight back...

[kohlenklau]

the color replacement tool doesn't seem to do what I want it to do.

I am down on the background layer with all other layers hidden as a test.

I am trying to set the new color as white and as I go over the olive drab rivets, they instead are turning a odd greyish color.

i also need to search for and find some long drip spill type brushes. I need those around the lower parts of the white wash. and as I study my scheme I need to eliminate goofy parts like horizontal areas where they wouldn't have bothered to make white stripes, maybe some muddy boot prints and smears down there though!

....later after work.

my video card/PC is not high end, i get a lot of flicker trying to take the screen shots, it is in light fog on a huge map, maybe I will experiment and instead take shots in different conditions on a smaller map.

in all the rest of CMX2 are there any snow camo vehicles yet?