Guille's PzCorps Support Base - Multipurpose Icons and more.

[Razz1]

The barrel of the gun looks warped.
It curves up in both units.
For 25mm AA you could use the 40 mm bofors unit.

I personally didn't see a need for the 25mm AA as the small AA units are pretty useless in the game.

However, I have been using the 25mmSPAA unit for a year and it is valuable, especially if the German player has one in a MP game.

It's always good to have extra units.

Thanks for the extra units.

[ThvN]

Hello Guille,

wow, you've been busy! I've been (slowly, as always) working on some existing units, mostly AA units and halftracks, yesterday I started to see if it was feasible to make a 37mm FlaK 43, and while looking for measurements I found a good diagram for the 'Zwilling' version, here's the link with some illustrations, in case you want to make it yourself: http://vorbild.ipmsdeutschland.de/Zeich ... ng_43.html. I might make one myself, but I have other things that I want to finish first.

I just finished a prototype reworking of the German 20mm Flakvierling as the stock icon looked very strange (shown in travelling position with impossible shielding position). I tried to ignore it as I normally never buy these small towed AA units but I'm playing trough the DLC's and they turn up as auxiliaries sometimes, so it started to annoy me. And I wanted to make a convertible Flakvierling on a halftrack or railcar anyway for which using the stock icon is almost impossible (I tried...). So I started by making a new towed icon first, which makes putting it on a halftrack or railcar a lot easier. But four convertible barrels are a lot trickier than one, especially with the convertible option added. So first I'll see if it looks any good in the game, although I won't make a new 3D (big) icon for it I think.

I also started to convert some little-used allied AA units, such as the French 25mm, and Bofors and Oerlikon are also in the pipeline. You have already made some of these units convertible I believe, but not all, is that correct? Since I want to make some extra allied self-propelled AA units which used these guns I first need to convert these basic towed versions as well, like with the Flakvierling. If you are still missing convertible icons for some of these I can post them here, I don't think that there will be much demand for a convertible icon for some of these basic guns (20mm Oerlikon etc.), but I'm going to do them anyway, like with the 20mm Breda.

[guille1434]

Hello ThvN! Nice to hear (read) from you!

Thanks for the Flakzwilling 43 link... it gave me some useful images. This icon project is still in the pipeline, but not very far!

About you projects, I can only encourage you to go ahead, as your conversions are always welcomed by me to add to my collection, as they are, as I already said, pieces of art (and pixel engineering!). Of the units you mention, I only worked on the Bofors icon, the soviet version, not the others, so our work will not be duplicated.

I surely will improve my icon conversions using your "new" Flakvierling, as I made quite a number of SPAA conversions on trucks and half tracks. I am sure the effort will be worthly.

I like you methodical approach! So, any new and real looking icon is a plus to this game. Keep they coming!

[guille1434]

Razz1: ok, redid the barrels, I think they look straight now... About using the Bofors icon... that is what impulses me to do all those icons, I dont like the use of "generic" icons which looks all the same in the game. Thanks for the feedback!

[Razz1]

Thanks for the barrel. I know what you mean about icons, I'm pretty anal about historical things too, but sometimes you have to compromise.

[guille1434]

Ok, continuing with the artillery units updates, I upload the 7.5 cm FK16nA in the following variants:

The standard icon in Arty and AT variants, in standard grey color, desert sand color, and SE & SS camo schemes.

The other packs are the 7.5cm FK16nA with Fallschirmjager troops, again in Arty and AT versions for the four schemes: grey, desert, SE and SS camo.

I hope someone may find them useful...

[guille1434]

An improved icon for the Obice da 210/22 and its Hungarian and German derivatives (some retouches here and there)... Also included are the mask for the Camo Sprayshop software, the grey german icon can be used as a Base Icon for this program. As a bonus, there is a "special" desert camouflaged italian gun, in case someone wants to mod a bonus special unit to the Italian Reggio Esercito...

I hope you like them...

Uhu: Here is also the lighter desert coloured icon for the Italian gun, but sent it to you by e-mail also. Just in case.

Cheers!

[guille1434]

Now the focus goes to the Red Army...

Using the icon of the 25 mm AA gun, I did some transformations on the icons for the 25mm SPAA (I downloaded some time ago an icon wich mated an american truck with the Flakvierling).
So, I could "Assemble" a 25mm SPAA with the 25mm soviet gun based on the ZiS-5 truck, and other based on the American truck, both of them in AA and AT modes.

[guille1434]

As a work derived from the making of the 25mm SPAA previously uploaded, here are the base icons for the trucks used, the Zis-5 with flatbed, and a Zis-42 half track, wich I downloaded from this forum and only added the red star on the cabin door.

They are not new icons, or the result my work, but someone may find them handy to have them available to download...

[ThvN]

Hi, thanks for the compliments, it's really not art what I do, just the product of my obsessive-compulsive perfectionism . More pixel 'relocation' than 'engineering', but like you said, using the 'wrong' icons for units annoys me from time to time. I'm nearly done with the Flakvierling, maybe it's still a little bit too dark and the shadows could use a little more tweaking, but I need to take a break and I will look at it again a day later, if it still looks 'wrong' to me I can change it. It looks far less out of of place now that it uses the same sort of undercarriage as the other AA units, and it will be a lot easier to put it on other vehicles. Speaking of vehicles...

[ThvN]

In the original Panzer General, one of the early units you could buy was the Panzer 35(t), the predecessor to the Panzer 38(t). The German army used about 200 of them, and although there are other icons of it already floating around (I believe you have one in your icon pack), those were not completely to my wishes. I didn't want to modify the icon(s) I found elsewhere as I didn't know who made them and if modding them would be welcomed, as some people get very upset if you start hacking their icons apart.

So I made my own, and this time I had no excuses, it would need a BIG icon as well! It looks rather different than the ones already available, thats because I studied the dimensions and proportions and found out that a lot of photographs are very deceiving in how it really looks. Most icons have a strong 'rake', making it look like it's leaning forward and having a rather small turret very far forward, but this is mostly optical illusion. My version is very plain-looking and has no markings/insignia yet, because I want to try and make a mask for it and keeping it unmarked will make it easier to add insignia later. I have been testing it together with some convertible icons for a few days now and it is as good as finished.

Made from bits of stock game icons, whose pixels were scarred beyond recognition during the process.

[guille1434]

As I said, not quantity, but high quality... I like those two units very much. I was waiting for your Pz35, because I read about this project of yours, and the look of the icon I have previously downloaded was not bad, but this one has a more "vanilla" look (I like the icons with a more or less "uniform" look as compared with the stock ones).

This unit was absent in this game, now it is fairly represented.

So, I picked them up to add to my "weapons museum"...

Thanks! and keep the good work!!!

[McGuba]

I was very busy last week so I did not have the time to upload it, but I did have the time to make the Hungarian 80mm AA. However, I would like to stick to vanilla style so I worked a bit more on it finally using parts of your icon, the platform of the vanilla German FlaK36, and the barrel from a side-view picture.

After buying the manufacturing licence from Bofors, Hungary mass produced this gun and it became the standard heavy AA gun. Photographic eviedence shows that the usual three-colour camo was applied to this particular AA gun as well in Hungarian service:







The historical importance of this gun is a bit overlooked as The Encylopedia of Weapons of World War II states: "It now seems almost certain that some form of cross-fertilization occured between the two teams (Bofors and the German Krupp team residing in Sweden), for almost the same instant the Krupp team produced a 75mm gun that led eventually to the famous German '88', Bofors produced its 75mm Model 1929." Meaning that this AA gun in some way could be seen as the predecessor to the German 8.8cm FlaK 18 and its later models.

Oh, and here are the original grayscale images with the masks if anyone interested in making the Sweedish, Dutch, Chinese, Finnish, Greek or Iranian versions as these countries also used the Bofors 75 and 80mm AA guns:

https://rapidshare.com/files/584719287/80mmBofors.zip

[Razz1]

That's pretty good.

I was using this icon for 80mm Bofors

[Razz1]

And this for my Big unit Icon.

[guille1434]

McGuba:

I like the improvements you made to the Bofors 80mm AA Gun icon... You took the parts I like it more (the pedestal and the cradle and mated it to a more "vanilla looking" cruciform base. The only think I retouched vas the barrel, which was in my opinion, a little too dark. So I modified the base icon, and I think the result is a good unit. By the way, I like this gun base more than that of the stock Flak18 88 mm gun (the squared base hub is not good looking for me, neither is accurate I think), so I plan to use this part in my attempt to improve the Flak18 icon, sometime in the future.

I redid also the masks for the icon, as they were not correct (if the ones you uploaded were used, the Camo Sprayshop program would have applied camouflage to the shadow of the gun also).
So, I think between the two of us, closed a gap in the icon library, putting in place an importante unit. Thanks!

One questions: Did you use one of the Camo Sprayshop skins to make the three toned camo of this gun? Can you tell me which one is the correct or if it is one new skin created by you, could you share it? Thanks again!

Razz1: That would be an excellent icon, but for the 40 mm Bofors gun, which is a light AA gun, not a heavy one, and it does not look like the 80 mm gun. Now, you can use this new icon, if you prefer.

[guille1434]

And now, the missing AT mask...

[4kEY]

What? Can the Nashorn REALLY elevate like that?

[leo55]

I like your units I did some myself too.

I'm not able to open the rar file from the link in the 1. post. I get an error - unknown file type or damaged file - something like that. I'm using Win rar. Any idea?

[guille1434]

4Key: According to my references, Nashorn max gun elevation was 20°, so technically, the icon is not correct, because I remember to have elevated the barrel 25°

Here is the data, copied from the wikipedia, the vehicle had indirect fire sights, also:

Technical data
Manufacturer: Deutsche-Eisenwerke AG, in Teplitz-Schönau
Crew: 4 or 5
Combat weight: 24 metric tons
Dimensions Length (with gun): 8.44 m
Length (without gun): 7.26 m
Width: 2.95 m, 3.176 m with 'Ostketten' tracks
Height: 2.65 m
Ground clearance: 0.4 m

Road speed: 42 km/h
Road range: 235 km
Tracks: 61/400/120 kg Type: single pin
Width: 400 mm
Ground contact length: 3.80 m
Shoes(links)/track: 104
Ground pressure: 0.85 kg/cm²

Suspension: leaf spring
Shock absorbers: no
Vertical obstacle: 0.6 m
Trench: 2.3 m
Fording: 0.8 m
Engine: Maybach HL 120 TRM Ausf. A Type: V-12 60 deg
Horsepower: 300 PS @ 3000 rpm
Displacement: 11,867 l
Compression ratio: 6.2-6.5:1
Fuel: gasoline
Fuel consumption (road): 2 l/km
Fuel capacity: 470 l (two fuel tanks)

Transmission: ZF (Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen AG) SSG 77 Aphon Type: synchromesh manual
Gears: 6/1

Steering: Daimler-Benz/Wilson clutch/brake
Clutch: Fichtel & Sachs La 120 HDA dry, triple disc
Armament Main gun: 88 mm Pak 43/1
Type: Anti-tank gun
Caliber: 88 mm
Barrel length: 71 calibers
Breech: semiautomatic, horizontal sliding block
Traverse: manual, +/-15°
Elevation: manual, +20/-5°
Rounds carried: 24 to 40
one 7.92 x 57 mm MG-34 or MG-42 machine-gun carried inside the vehicle
appr. 600 rounds

Primary gun sight: Sfl. Z. F. 1a (Selbstfahrlafetten-Zielfernrohr) Magnification: 5x
Field of view: 8°

Indirect fire sight: Aushilfsrichtmittel 38 Magnification: 3x
Field of view: 10°

Radio: FuG Spr. f