Need help making historical map

[V]

Hi, I am making a map of Auschwitz II- Birkenau KZ in CMBB. Not for play, really. My plan to is create a CM museum of sorts, giving people a chance inspect the camp grounds. I remember back in CMBO someone created maps of Waterloo, Gettysburg and another battlefield. The idea always stayed with me and last week I watched "The Grey Zone" and wondered if I could remake the Birkenau Camp in the CMBB map making engine.

I have got the basic map outlines set, its going to be huge, but I am having trouble with map scale. Should I look for a certain scale of map which will translate to CM best?

I have found many generic plans for the Birkenau camp, and those help a lot to get a feel for the layout, but its hard to pin-point distances when carrying that over to CM. Allied ariel recon photos will help a lot in getting some details down as well.

Basically, I am looking for links to any threads whcih go in depth on the topic of historic map making. I have used the search function and found some stuff, but need much more. Any tips, links or FAQs would be most appreciated.

[V]

bump

[V]

I will keep bumping this thread till I get the help needed.

[Michael Dorosh]

You really don't think someone is going to jump at this obvious flame-bait, do you? I really don't think the CM world is all that interested in a 3-D model of a death camp, but maybe that is just me.

Frankly, if anyone out there really did have plans for the Auschwitz camp in their possession and scanned in, I'd be more than a little worried.

[V]

Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

You really don't think someone is going to jump at this obvious flame-bait, do you? I really don't think the CM world is all that interested in a 3-D model of a death camp, but maybe that is just me.

Frankly, if anyone out there really did have plans for the Auschwitz camp in their possession and scanned in, I'd be more than a little worried.

WTF? Dude, you are taking this entirely the wrong way.

Just pretend I didn't mention Birkenau and help me figure out how to transfer real maps to CM...

Please?

edit: besides, is there that much difference in making a map of Birkenau and making a map of the Warsaw ghetto? They were essentually the same thing. Holding places for prisoners before they were executed by Nazis. Anyways, not trying to do anything ghoulish, as I said before. Just want to look at history in a different way. Sorry if I offended anyone.

[ December 30, 2003, 09:17 PM: Message edited by: V- Die Hand die Verletzt ]

[SgtMuhammed]

If you can get a 1:50,000 scale tactical map or better they tend to work best. A ton of old photos will also help to add realism.

[Michael Emrys]

Originally posted by V- Die Hand die Verletzt:

...help me figure out how to transfer real maps to CM...

I don't know of any way to do it directly without a lot of work. Just taking a guess here, the best I can think of is to find the largest scale map of the area you can and draw a rectangle around it the part you are interested in. To make subsequent steps of the operation easier, I suggest you make the dimensions even multiples of 100 meters. Then draw a grid on the map in intervals of 100 meters.

In the scenario editor, create a new map with the same overall dimensions as the rectangle you drew on your paper map. Since CM terrain cells are 20X20 meters, you will be able to fit 25 of them into each one of the grid squares from your paper map. Now all you have to do is to analyze the terrain in each of those grid squares and duplicate it as closely as you can using the terrain types available in the editor. You will probably have to do some fudging to get it to come out.

Michael