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Skin MOD - Chechen Rebel Fighters


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Here's one for any Red-on-Red fan out there. :D

This is a mod for the Unconventional Fighters, replacing the default all-black "monks in gas masks" skin:

oldfightercg5.jpg

...with a one that makes them look like actual human beings, or more specifically Chechen Rebel Fighters, although they could fit into any other para-military role quite easily.

newfighterds6.jpg

Download here. (link updated - same as below)

And while we're on the topic of Uncons, does anyone know why their *entire* skin is only as big as a normal unit's *face* skin, not to mention the uniform? I also love how Uncons don't have a nose tongue.gif

[ February 02, 2008, 07:15 PM: Message edited by: The Louch ]

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Having remembered that we can add brand new texture sets, I figured some skin verity was needed for the Fighter bunch. The pack has been expanded to 5 skins, and now features such notable characters as:

the Beardo Weirdos - watch out, they're packing!

beardoweirdosul4.jpg

and the Tuque Gang

toqueambushms1.jpg

Download the 5-skin pack

[ February 02, 2008, 08:12 PM: Message edited by: The Louch ]

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Nice stuff, an excellent contribution!

This is probably too nitpicky to make a difference, but for the record:

* The "classic" Chechen fighter can have longish beard but not so Santa-Claus wide as depicted in the skin. Quite often Chechens are clean-shaven or wear moustaches. Only the very few Wahabbi-indoctrinated would bother with doctrinal beards.

* The undershirt would according to the "classic" rules be a woodland camoflage pattern, not the blue-white striped Red Army issue

* Chechen fighters don't usually wear religious style headbands. Sometimes if they are on a suicide mission they will, but that's relatively rare.

* Elite/well-financed Chechen fighters wear NATO cold war woodland pattern uniforms, the rest whatever is available. Russian issue is avoided if possible but sometimes this is not possible.

* Preferred headgear hands down is some form the black knit watch cap

* Alternate headcover options are pretty wide, including especially boonie hats, bare-headed, the Red Army do-rag, military baseball caps, and even (theoretically) lambskin hats.

* If they are actually proper combatants, very often the entire front torso is in a vest for AK magazines.

This is all more or less a "movie-standard" Chechen circa 1994-2000. The RL ones these days wear civilian clothes and avoid stand-up fights.

For true "movie-standard" results, the sniper is ALWAYS either a Chechen woman, or an pale-skinned Estonian mercenary. This is a standard Russian propaganda gambit: if the sniper that hits you is not a Chechen man, then even after one of your buddies gets nailed it is possible to pretend Chechen males can't shoot straight.

We have seen similar fables in Vietnam and Iraq, BTW.

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Great insight, yet again Duke, thanks!

As a side note, if someone out there is interested in this kind of detailed description of the Chechen theater, check out one of Duke's earlier posts on terrain and architecture.

For the most part I was well aware of these points, however I had to take some liberties in order to make it work due to the in-game model limitations.

The beard is made so wide and Santa-Clausish in order to texture the enormous black sack model that the default monks-in-gasmasks wear. If you look at these guys from a side profile, the extent of the problem is quite clear:

uglymodelqw0.jpg

Even textured as a beard it looks rather odd – imagine if it were textured with as plain skin – the guy would look like he has gills tongue.gif

That's the same reason the rest of the guys are wearing face-masks, which aren't very common among Chechens either from what I understand.

That said, note this photo of Basayev … quite the Santa he is:

300px-Shamil_basayev.jpg

Also note the black head band – while it might indeed be rare to see them wear these, it provided me with a rather convenient texturing short-cut to blend the face and the cap textures :D

Some of the other inaccuracies were caused by the rather low resolution textures the game uses for Uncons. A woods-camo green t-shirt would simply blend in completely with the coat texture, and a black knit cap would look like a black blob at that resolution.

The “entire front torso of AK-mags” is not possible because those are governed by an in-game model, not just a texture. And as it stands right now I don’t believe we’re able to edit models, are we?

But thanks again for the detailed post, always appreciated!

[ February 03, 2008, 07:54 AM: Message edited by: The Louch ]

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Originally posted by Bigduke6:

Nice stuff, an excellent contribution!

* The undershirt would according to the "classic" rules be a woodland camoflage pattern, not the blue-white striped Red Army issue

Just for clarity, the striped sailor shirt is worn by the airborne troops (VDV) and their various derivatives (Spetsnaz and airlanding troops) who formed a large proportion of the combat forces in both Chechnya and Afghanistan. They are also worn by the naval infantry, and possibly by Interior Ministry troops as well (I may be mistaken on that).

So why would Army paratroopers wear sailor shirts? Even though the VDV wasn't formed until 1931, they claim lineage from the 1917 Kronstadt sailors "soviets" whose mutiny was a key element in the November revolution. In Bolshevik mythology, the sailors were the elite vanguard of the new Red Army (although these same sailors were later brutally purged on Lenin's orders in 1918).

The sailor shirt was selected by the VDV's post WWII commander, General Margelov, allegedly because he had served as a naval infantryman. However, the symbolism also referred to the VDV's political role as guardian of Communist rule against a potential Army coup. Their bases ring Moscow and their commanders had very long tenures as well as a reputation as hardline communists.

This political role was demonstrated in 1991 when

they -- as well as KGB and MVD forces and the Taman Guards armoured division -- executed, but then refused to complete, the 1991 coup against Gorbachev. They also tended to be the first units sent outside the motherland, owing as much to their political reliability as their high mobility and elite training (e.g. Czechoslovakia, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kosovo).

The VDV may continue to play a similar balancing role today in Putin's Russia, although I haven't looked into this in some time.

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Originally posted by handihoc:

Let's just say it's not something you'd see Muslims wearing.... Do you get the point of my raxor sharp wit yet? ROFL!!!

No actually I do not ... if it's the beards - that was already covered - a) there's a reason for them looking so excessive and B) some actually do wear huge beards.

If you can manage to skin those fighter models into something better, I'd like to see it. :rolleyes:

[ February 04, 2008, 08:52 PM: Message edited by: The Louch ]

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You were a bit slow there, Louch!

LLF's comment just made me bust my gut with laughter. I still get the giggles at inappropriate moments when I think about it - but that's my sick, adolescent humour, I guess.

But no, we were definitely not laughing at the skins themselves - they are great. Good work, and thanks.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Originally posted by RommL:

thanks for this mod , I installed them on my mod Balkans war... ;)

Thanks! Now we both have the same mods running tongue.gif

But speaking of the Balkans mod, seeing how you ignored my question in that thread, I'll ask it again here tongue.gif .. Where do the cobblestone textures come from?

i.e. these ground textures:

sanstitre1bp0.png

modurbain2iq4.png

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