quakerparrot67

Started with 28mm and venturing into 20mm and 15mm, Mostly WWII, just received a **** load of 15mm French buildings for Normandy. How about yourself mate?

Me too (before my eyesight went tits-up), what scale do you prefer? 

Hello mate, Sorry for the late reply. I wish I could change the backpacks but I don't think it's possible unfortunately. I'm also a figure painter :)

I remembered the thread from way back because it was so interesting

It's correct - it's a particular type of HEAT round these guns could fire.
 
 

some german vehicles
The panzer IV Nathalie

luck, on the slope, the shell hits the top of the armor !!!

the panther smashes the wall

lost in the tall grass

Hah 😜 You know we only do it to tease!
Trust me, I want to get this finished so that I can concentrate on making the bocage look even better with work on those 3D models.
I know you will appreciate the extra few days (😉 months ) it has taken. Imagine, you’ll have Ash trees to shelter under, Hazel bushes to hide behind and more beautiful bocage textures than you can name ... now where did I put my reference for those Elder trees 🌳

LOL, folks after my own heart ... another classic.
This may well have to be the subtitle of my eventual tree mod package ... might even include no.1 The Larch ... 🌲

Talking of more trees....
 

That may be part of it. The casualty rates are more easily rationalized on the Eastern Front and CM:RT seems to want larger scale battles. I generally play reinforced company sized battles in the Western titles, but nearly always go for a battalion of infantry and at least a company of armor in RT.
Speaking of scale, for anyone who is unaware of it, you should really check out TIK's Battlestorm: Stalingrad series. At this point, it is the most detailed, step-by-step video documentary of the battle ever made. It's in ongoing production and the Germans are just getting close to the city. The series really shows how much fighting and attrition went on before the Germans even got to Stalingrad itself. A number of myths about the battle have been put to bed so far. -Highly recommended!

A very scenic place to die! 

now British Shermans
you can notice some of the great work of Lucky_Strike




 

Winter trees seem to be summer trees with slightly different texture applied and no leaves. I hadn’t thought to use them for the burnt trees base, but they might well work more easily. The burnt texture is pretty straight forward but less leaves to mask out is a real bonus! I’ll have a look at those in CMFI as I know that has a larger range of trees in all seasonal states, bushes as well.

Well, another quickish experiment later, and I don't think we can have actual coexisting 3D models for the same numbered tree only MAYBE different textures, though even with this there are likely to be redraw issues which I think are associated with those pesky lod files. I think it would be best to either use scenario specific mod tags for one or two damaged tree types, or just temporarily add the damaged trees to the z folder when playing a scenario that has damaged trees. I personally think mod tags would be neater and avoid any confusion, but would need careful map design.
On a lighter note, I decided to fat-shame a bit more of the Norman countryside - fat trees anyone?

A rough idea, textures would need work, but as proof of concept ... perhaps a bit more natural looking. 🌳

Fat bocage trunks and branches anyone ...?

Fat-shaming the bocage ...

Thanks Sgt.
I'm hopeful that I may have an even better solution to the use of normal hedges as forest thickets. Looking at the 3D .mdr files for the bocage I suspect that I may be able to wrangle stuff so that the texture currently used by both bocage and normal hedge - boccage2.bmp I believe - is ONLY used by hedges and not by bocage. That is to say it's perhaps possible to make both low and tall bocage .mdr mods that use boccage.bmp and the other new numbered boccage bmps that I'm making, so that just normal hedges are using the boccage2.bmp. This would then allow for a unique texture to be created for boccage2.bmp / hedges. They could then, with careful management, or perhaps mod tags, be used as the thickets that @benpark, yourself and no doubt others would like to see in game. I don't know how much LOS, cover or concealment hedges provide when used in this way but I would warrant that it's better in some respects than brush and long grass ...

You lost me at .mdr TBH.....But it all sounds most excellent! 

So ... I got a bit distracted after @Ithikial_AU suggested some burnt trees might be nice, started to think about modding the actual 3D models - the .mdr files that we've seen @Aquila-SmartWargames and @37mm amongst others change so radically and effectively. This was mooted some time back by a few of you and I said I would have a go at it once I got done with the textures. As my better half will testify I'm always a good one for moving on to the next project before finishing the current one, so I dove into Blender (more of a belly-flop than a pike 💦) at the end of last week. To cut a long story short, I started with the bocage (of course), I was on the cusp of giving up because I just couldn't get the files to export correctly with all my edits intact - think branches only, floating bushes, displaced bushes lah lah lah 😭🤪 Had one more go today and ... lo and behold - I present some subtly changed bocage:

Can't spot what's different? In the middle, fewer bean poles - will please some of you - I certainly won't miss them, and some more, same again ...

Here's a pic the actual Blender file ...

You can just about make out the remaining bean pole branches outlined in orange, there are normally a dozen or so on a larger section of bocage, here we have about half that amount. I also removed a couple of leafy branches, just to see if it would work, they are gone in-game! 
So what does all this mean - I don't know. It took me days to get this far. I can use Blender to make the edits I want, I don't really understand the whole process, why things happen or don't when I export files, but if I can make some edits that make even just the bocage look more natural then I will be one happy lapin.
My plan is to make a fully edited section of bocage - more ragged, less or no bean poles, maybe some better branches and roots - then see how it looks in game. I have a few bocage textures to finish first though, so I can release the Hedgerow Hell mod - otherwise @3j2m7 will be knocking at my door demanding I release them 🥺.
 

Call of Cthulhu?

Busting the Bocage
"Sherman et bocage ne font pas bon ménage !!!"
"Sherman and bocage do not go together"
in french it sounds good!
it looks like a saying
A picture of every destroyed Sherman☹️







 

Fantastic stuff.
I can see lots of uses like apples on some branches, some not, or thinning/destroyed foliage- subtle, but that's where the ground-players (like my own self) notice things.
One terrain type that seems missing when I make forested areas is a "thicket"- the dense underbrush that exists at the edge of newer-growth forests. Tall enough to hinder movement and LoS, but unable to provide much cover. I've taken to using hedges (taller and shorter) to fill this in, but maybe there's a solution with this mix-'em-up method to get a more convincing look.

@Lucky_Strike It is a little known fact that before he changed his name to "Manilow", Bazzer was in a cabaret duo with his twin brother Beny Bocage called "Les garcons de Saint-Lo". After Petula Clark's success at the Paris Olympia, she was able to get them a residency at Madame Fifi's Revue Bar, in Old Compton Street. Sadly, it wasn't long before the rozzers began raiding the place, and Beny died at West End Central, after slipping on a wet floor and smashing his bonce on the cell door, only seconds after P.C. Eyat Wolfenden had put away his mop and bucket. ... Allegedly.
Of course they weren't the only "celebs" to have problems there. The Bee Gees' "Massachusetts" was originally entitled "West End Central" based on the notorious Maurice and Lulu drugs bust. But their record company turned it down for legal reasons, and they had to change both title, and lyrics. 

f-ing hell!  wow.    thank you, ben park,  these maps are gorgeous.
 
cheers,
rob
 

Nice towns.  Shame if something were to happen to them...

f-ing hell!  wow.    thank you, ben park,  these maps are gorgeous.
 
cheers,
rob