PHCAS units

[flakfernrohr]

Akkula, I made another set of 61 skins for DCS that you can find on the DCS thread. They are selected skins from original DCS only sized down which changes the patterns on the units when skinned a little bit and a little different. PHCAS gave me the idea just like he sent the Panther set to me without realizing he had invented an icon tool. He is a genius. Make some of those fancy Panthers with the tool and dress them up to get blasted away in your mod, LOL

[Akkula]

I grabbed those skins yesterday . They are beautiful and I am considering to update some units of my mod!. Thanks a million flak.
And for the Panthers, are you going to release the masks for DCS?.

Regards.

[flakfernrohr]

@Akkula...............I made masks of course for the units I posted on the thread. I can easily put them in a zip file. The dilemma is this; there are so many variations possible with the Panzer Maker Tool, that I really don't know if I should make up some more variations with masks or not since my variations may not be what others would want in the way of a Panther D, A or G. Example: I made all of the G versions with side turret armor of tracks since when the G series came out later in the war, it seems that many of them were equipped with such armor. Some of the A versions have it for the same reasons, it was becoming more common to encounter the A Panthers with some turret armor.

I think I will make some of the D, A and G units without turret armor and side skirts as well as make some other variations. Hopefully people will find use for them. I just did not want to only offer my chosen selections. I will then make a zip file on mediafire and put the link here in the thread.

[ckraiderfan1]

Wow after reading this thread I realized that you could with a little work use your panther tool to put battalion numbers on tanks as an overlay and division emblems that the crews painted on the tanks near the tank in the back ground as an overlay !!!! Just brain storming what do you guys think

[flakfernrohr]

It certainly could be done if a person put the proper "add on" images into a file that you can place as a layer on the unit. The key would be making the proper image look right, have it sized right to the scale and properly positioned in the layer to be put on the unit. If a person is well versed in using and manipulating layers in Paint NET, certainly it is feasible.

[phcas]

I was already working on that. Have a look.

[flakfernrohr]

PHCAS.............a mind like Nicolas Tesla............absolutely inciteful and practical. Wunderbar.

[phcas]

Thanks Flak

Who wants can make your own

[phcas]

Example of Luftwaffe 2.Jagdgeschwader

[Carius]

What about a Cannone da 90/53 on Lancia truck?

Or have a missed it?

[flakfernrohr]

Although I am not really familiar with Italian units, I think you may find that truck on the forum in someone's mod or units posted. Lots of Italian units that are quite good have been made. Best bet is to check the unit folders of the graphics file of the mods I think.

On second thought, Guille may have made one of those trucks. Check his thread or Pvt Email him, he will answer.

[ckraiderfan1]

wow i did it guys this is so cool I want to show you what I did but It wont let me upload a unit pic I get an error message"The extension pdn is not allowed"

[flakfernrohr]

If you have a png file of the unit, it should upload without any problems. You may have made the unit with Paint Net and NOT SAVED it as a png file. You have to do an extra step to save it as a png and then "flatten" the layers in the command box. After that, it will save as a png file which is what you need (I think). If you fiddle around with Paint NET a bit, you will get the hang of it. It's easy.

[ckraiderfan1]

Panther_G.png (37.47 KiB) Viewed 3692 times

Panther_D.png (39.58 KiB) Viewed 3692 times

Phcas wow this is going to change everything if we set this up right

[ckraiderfan1]

Panther_A.png (41.19 KiB) Viewed 3691 times

And here is the Panther A

[ckraiderfan1]

So if I take this Unit Icon and transfer it to the paint shop will the existing masks work correctly???

[flakfernrohr]

You will have to do a totally new mask whenever you change something on a unit. For this Panther, you will need to mask not only the tracks and road wheels, etc., but you will need to mask the MG (in black), flag (black), rear hull tracks (if you do not want them camo colored, black), balkenkreuz cross and the number on the turret (black). I would also mask in black the exhaust pipes. By personal choice I do not mask the cannon barrel since it looks better to me if it is the same color as the unit body. Other people mask the barrels. Just personal choice.

Using Paint Net you can put the file into it and change the view to 1600, then you have large pixels you can see that will need the masking. If you take take your time pixel by pixel, your mask will come out nice and sharp. There are three colors you can use in masking (which you may know). The pink, bright blue and black. Black will retain the color of the original item masked.

If you are unfamiliar with making masks, Rezaf did a tutoral on it in the forum. It will help you get started.

[guille1434]

ckraiderfan1: I think another option is to apply the camo skin to the Panther icon using the regular, alreday made mask, and after taht you can apply the new detail layers on top of it,and proceed as Flak explained...

Carius: Altough I have made several Italian units, the Autocannone da 90/53 is still a pending one... I will try to make it ASAP, it is a very interesting unit to have around...

Best regards for all!

[ckraiderfan1]

SE_Panther_G.png (38.32 KiB) Viewed 3609 times

Thanks Phcas Im still a little green with paint.net heres my result boy if you could come up with unit number packs that would be cool

[flakfernrohr]

@ GUILLE and CKRAIDERFAN1................

"ckraiderfan1: I think another option is to apply the camo skin to the Panther icon using the regular, alreday made mask, and after taht you can apply the new detail layers on top of it,and proceed as Flak explained..."

Flak has done "too many" masks lately to be thinking so clearly . Sorry for making it difficult ckraiderfan1. If you will notice on your skinned unit, the schurtzen are not camouflaged. It isn't a big deal, but if you don't like it and want them camouflaged, you will need to add the schurtzen and then a mask, run it through DCS and then add the other add ons in Paint NET. There is always more than one way to "skin a cat".

This gives me another idea on skinning.........
I have seen pictures of Panthers with TWO different camouflage styles, one on the tank and the other on the schurtzen. So if one wanted two different colors on their Panther for authenticity you could run the schurtzen through DCS in one camo color and the tank in another color, run then through Paint NET layers, save as png file and you'd have that different Panther most certain.