kohlenklau

Yes - lots of quirks like that across the British Army and the Household Division in particular.

I just wanted to reach out to CMFI players that I am working on this mod. Anybody who wants to be involved can PM me. We can always use modders to help or folks who want to write scenarios for BEF 1940.
I am keeping progress posts over in the general discussion mod tips subforum.
 

That is it for today. Headed to the dining room project.

 

work in progress

 

I am calling GWENDOLYNN completed. This is my "best researched" portrayal of her as a Bren Carrier #8 of 3rd Company of the 3rd BN Grenadier Guards in the British 1st Infantry Division during May 1940.
I also removed the antenna from the Universal Carrier 3D model. @chuckdyke might want the mod...

I am moving on to start GORILLA T5637 which will be armed with a Vickers HMG.
 
 

I spent the morning dressing up Gwendolynn. 😮
She still needs a few items of make-up before she can go out.

There are 3 universal carriers in CMFI.
Plain, Bren and Vickers. All use the same universal-carrier-hull.bmp
I edited the mdr file to slightly change the texture filename for Plain and Vickers to universal-carriep-hull.bmp and universal-carriev-hull.bmp.
This way I can have the 3 distinct vehicles. I hope EDIT: Yes! It works.
 
 

Nothing new. Just using Google Earth and old maps to determine what goes on my CM map. I will press the magic override button and slightly move north so my Scheldt/Escaut River-Canal is easier to make in CM. National Route N50 will also be made to be vertical. Rue du Village might be able to be at a 45. No big deal. 


 
 

I think I can make a mod to create 3 distinct Carriers! I will purchase the Universal Carrier, the Bren Carrier and the Vickers Carrier. I think they normally ALL look for the same bmp as a base model. But I can trick-fugg the mdr file to rename the bmp's they look for. I have some research to do for the formation signs. 
I don't really know what names they used for the vehicles in this unit (3 GRENADIER GUARDS). I decided to have the names start with the letter G. Poetic License.
Gwendolynn T5653
Gorilla T5637
Gosport T5644

I have stuff all over the place in this CM forum. I scratch my head sometimes on where exactly is best to write or record or note something that I am doing.
I picked this thread to show, for whoever cares to read it, how I will create my first BEF scenario. There are youtube videos and pdf's for CM scenario creation. I can't say this will be a great place to learn anything new but it will show how my brain works. Take it or leave it.
SCENARIO SEEDS:
I get inspired or get an idea from several of my usual places. One source is the ASL scenario archive. I honestly do not have a strong knowledge of France 1940. It seems like such a short timeframe of May-June 1940 but it DOES have tons of scenario seeds waiting to grow a CM scenario. the archive has a search engine and I found actually 2 small scenarios covering the same historical battle with just infantry and Universal Carriers aka "bren carriers". It was 21 May 1940 near Esquelmes, Belgium. The BEF unit was 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards, part of the British 1st Infantry Division (The Big Red One, hahaha just kidding, wrong army!) 
Nicholls and Nash
https://www.aslscenarioarchive.com/scenario.php?id=58768
Carrier Assault on Poplar Ridge
https://www.aslscenarioarchive.com/scenario.php?id=60991
Lots of great documentation on the battle.
https://www.historyhit.com/all-hell-broke-lose-how-harry-nicholls-won-his-victoria-cross/
http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/war-diary-3rd-battalion-grenadier-guards-bef-sep-1939-to-jun-1940.27587/page-2
I have old maps from the 1930's.

I have google earth.
I have started the map in CM. I am working on the mods for the Bren Carriers and the Grenadier Guards battledress.
I will keep you posted here how it shapes up over the next few weeks and then I HOPE to do a PBEM DAR here to display the scenario and mod.
 

I am calling GWENDOLYNN completed. This is my "best researched" portrayal of her as a Bren Carrier #8 of 3rd Company of the 3rd BN Grenadier Guards in the British 1st Infantry Division during May 1940.
I also removed the antenna from the Universal Carrier 3D model. @chuckdyke might want the mod...

I am moving on to start GORILLA T5637 which will be armed with a Vickers HMG.
 
 

GWEN is almost ready. I guess tomorrow morning I can wrap her up.

GWEN is almost ready. I guess tomorrow morning I can wrap her up.

I am juggling tasks. The bren carriers are the stars of the show for this scenario. I want 3 distinct carriers. Different markings as applicable and maybe even a slightly different camo pattern. Yowzer! 
Here is how I learn and track the different 3D surfaces so I can make the best 2D bmp texture I can.
I just add text in the bmp on a layer I can turn off when I export the actual camo scheme. I can see what is reversed, inversed or mirrored.
Tomorrow with a cup of hot java I will start the first one!
 
Gwendolynn T5653
Gorilla T5637
Gosport T5644

hmmmm. I think I will go with this layout of 880 by 440 or so. It grabs the defensive positions of the British. It shows the river there but nothing on the east bank, I don't think that is involved. It grabs enough of the town south of the Poplar Ridge and some to the north. So next step is to edit THIS image and just crop and save as special editor overlay dot bmp. It will be a multiple of the same 880 to 440 ratio. 2:1 aspect ratio. I think I grabbed it at 1650 x 825 pixels. Then make the CM map to be about 880 x 440. I think I can do 880 x 448 meters

special editor overlay goes in your z folder...

 

Nothing new. Just using Google Earth and old maps to determine what goes on my CM map. I will press the magic override button and slightly move north so my Scheldt/Escaut River-Canal is easier to make in CM. National Route N50 will also be made to be vertical. Rue du Village might be able to be at a 45. No big deal. 


 
 

I spent the morning dressing up Gwendolynn. 😮
She still needs a few items of make-up before she can go out.

There are 3 universal carriers in CMFI.
Plain, Bren and Vickers. All use the same universal-carrier-hull.bmp
I edited the mdr file to slightly change the texture filename for Plain and Vickers to universal-carriep-hull.bmp and universal-carriev-hull.bmp.
This way I can have the 3 distinct vehicles. I hope EDIT: Yes! It works.
 
 

I spent the morning dressing up Gwendolynn. 😮
She still needs a few items of make-up before she can go out.

There are 3 universal carriers in CMFI.
Plain, Bren and Vickers. All use the same universal-carrier-hull.bmp
I edited the mdr file to slightly change the texture filename for Plain and Vickers to universal-carriep-hull.bmp and universal-carriev-hull.bmp.
This way I can have the 3 distinct vehicles. I hope EDIT: Yes! It works.
 
 

hmmmm. I think I will go with this layout of 880 by 440 or so. It grabs the defensive positions of the British. It shows the river there but nothing on the east bank, I don't think that is involved. It grabs enough of the town south of the Poplar Ridge and some to the north. So next step is to edit THIS image and just crop and save as special editor overlay dot bmp. It will be a multiple of the same 880 to 440 ratio. 2:1 aspect ratio. I think I grabbed it at 1650 x 825 pixels. Then make the CM map to be about 880 x 440. I think I can do 880 x 448 meters

special editor overlay goes in your z folder...

 

A screenshot from a scenario by @kevinkin
FR40B FIREFIGHT AT ANNELLES
We are preparing the SILVER PACK for release in a week or so...

This image comes from "The Blitzkrieg Legend"...
I ordered this book today. The version in English of course!

Lots and lots of great ideas for France 1940 scenarios!
 
 

Merci. But no, not to worry, please stay at your tasks mon ami.

If I can help (but I have lot of work at the moment...)

A smart guy like @laurent 22 will start a vehicle mod by FIRST using a "color grid" analysis so he knows the 2D-3D arrangement on the UV map. I tend to cut corners and get lazy.
A few tries of just making the new camo and I can usually figure out the odd areas. Trial and error I guess.
One of my favorite sources for making vehicle mods are the aftermarket scale model decal companies. Like "Bison" and "Star". In their sales websites, sometimes I can download the decal instructions which are full color and have great info on the unit and timeframe. Below is a cropped excerpt from one of their beautiful sheets. 

Also...I often go "font hunting" when I see something written on a vehicle. I have done a simple copy and paste BUT having the closest font to what I see is much better.
I think this F9755 is fairly well represented by Stardos Stencil font. You can grab it for free here. I will install the font and use it in GiMP to add text to some of my BEF vehicles.
https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Stardos+Stencil?preview.text=ARCHER F9755&preview.text_type=custom

 

Hi Tim. How goes it in Blighty? I am putting energy into the BEF1940 mod. If your PBEM plate clears up in a few weeks I would like to do one of those DARs and showcase the new mod in the forums...