German Unit Portraits

[Philippe]

I hate the sight of the fictinal red flag that gets used as the background of the German unit portraits, so I replaced it with one of my own.

The background flag is a rippled version of my Reichskriegflagge from my CMMOS CMBO Vexillography mod (based on historical specifications from the FOTW site). Several of the uniforms and helmets have been adjusted to make them closer to the units they are supposed to represent.

This has, unfortunately, opened a can of worms in the research department, so there will probably be several more versions of this mod. For the moment I am sticking to the format used by BFC so that I don't have to worry about the other nationalities. [ But if someone provides me with some research material and images I'll take a crack at the russian marines ].

There are several units I'm not happy with, and any helpful suggestions, useful images, or research would be heartilly appreciated. In particular I'm looking for shoulder-and-ear shots of re-enactors in Gebirgsjaeger and Paratrooper uniforms.

There seem to be a lot more bmp slots than there are images. As soon as I figure out what these extra slots are really for, and as soon as I have decent and appropriate images to fill them, I'll come up with another version of the mod.

I would like to thank Schoerner for taking the time to answer my questions: any mistakes that you find in the mod are the result of the limitations of my skills, my models and my knowledge, and should in no way reflect on him.

This mod can be found in the CMBB section of CMMODS. It might be compatible with CMAK, but I have no way of testing that.

[Runyan99]

Wonderful! I've always wanted a historically accurate set. Many thanks.

[Tarkus]

Philippe,

You can do plenty of test via MCMMM. Simply zip your work, install it and scrutinize it. Not happy ? MCMMM will remove and replace in a matter of seconds.

Cheers.

[Michael Dorosh]

If you download my ASL portraits, it will give you the correct rank insignia and waffenfarbe for the units involved - you can use that info to further modify your mods, if you find them to be inaccurate.

Off the top of my head, based on the image you posted, the dark green collar on the Luftwaffe Field Division type is incorrect; they wore field blue uniforms, or later pattern field grey - a dark green collar would have been unusual unless worn by Army personnel attached - but then, he wouldn't have the LW collar patches.

[Philippe]

So just to be sure we're on the same page, the Felddivisionen collars should be blue but the tabs green, no ?

I think I'm going blind. I thought I had made the Luftwaffe collars blue, but I now realize I just made green collars bluer. So I'll cut some material from somewhere else and make the collars closer in color to the rest of the tunic.

Speaking of which, is my blue too dark ? And should I lighten the grey in the first uniform in the example that I showed ?

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Philippe:

[QB] So just to be sure we're on the same page, the Felddivisionen collars should be blue but the tabs green, no ?

Yes, correct.

I think I'm going blind.

Pretty good artist for a blind man!

I thought I had made the Luftwaffe collars blue, but I now realize I just made green collars bluer. So I'll cut some material from somewhere else and make the collars closer in color to the rest of the tunic.

The collars were made from the same material as the tunic, so matching them exactly will be best.

Speaking of which, is my blue too dark ? And should I lighten the grey in the first uniform in the example that I showed ?

There is no "correct" colour, however the picture in the first post seems pefectly ok. You could even make it a bit "more blue" but what you have is fine. German uniforms ran the gamut from brown-grey to slate-grey to field-grey (grey-green) and all shades in between depending on wool quality (itself dependent on the time period), exposure to sun and elements, manufacturer, etc.

If you really want to differentiate, make the SS uniforms a pearl grey shade, Army uniforms a shade of green-grey, and the Luftwaffe a pronounced blue-grey.

[Philippe]

I have just posted Version 2.0 of the German Unit Portraits to CMMODS.

The difference between Version 2.0 and Version 1.0 consists of corrections to the uniforms of about a score of units. It sticks to the original BFC unit images (unlike the upcoming Version 3.0), and incorporates many of the helpful suggestions and comments that I've gotten along the way. In particular I would like to thank Michael Dorosh, who has done yeoman's service in reviewing my increasingly incoherent e-mails.

I felt it was neccessary to get the mistakes in Version 1.0 cleaned up in case outside events prevent me from finishing Version 3.0 in the near future.

There is also a major difference in presentation between Version 2.0 and Version 3.0. Version 3.0 heads tend to be smaller and full face. More interesting and a lot harder to construct, but not necessarily consistant with the faces of the other nationalities in the game. At some point I'll have to decide how I really feel about that, and either make the current set that I have larger, or simply not worry about it.

My choice was between posting Version 2.0 and the current state of the mod, which is probably the equivalent of 2.6. I decided to post 2.0 because it is just about as far as I can take that approach, and so represents a kind of complete mod. I much prefer the mod in its current form (creepy adolescent Volksturm, Gebirgjaegers in characteristic hats, regular infantry in fatigue caps) but it will need a lot of rebalancing before I can release it. So I've decided to release 2.0 instead, which should replace 1.0 and is a completed mod. Version 3.0, however, will be radically different and a lot more fun.