Thanks Eddie, I think it should look good moving in a game. I'm really tempted to do some more aeoroplanes, as they're all so stunning in their Burma colours. Then there's a little bulldozer and scraper, that could fit in a glider. If on landing it came adrift, pulleys would pull the pilots compartment out of the way! That must have been bloody scary. I did find raf fonts but one of them looks just like the font I used. My font has a rounder number eight in the plane's tail number. Some it's squarer, anybody that fussed on this point? I can change it no bother, just a faff. I found the fonts on a site called military meshes, I should have looked sooner but these guys are pretty scary. I once put up a normal map image of three links in a chain. I was building the Bismark, and thought to hell with making chains for the railings. Some people there went ape! "No, no, you have to make proper chains." There are images on that site where you could zoom in on the handrails of a Bismark model and see the proper links of a german style chain!!! I think that's barking myself. But no, forget planes and ships, I have to do the gurkha next, I need a game figure to help me get people on board for the game. I've even found a model mule for him but it's hopeless to repair for a game. I'll have to use it as a background image and rebuild a new one. Nine tenths of the work on a figure is sculpting detail onto a low poly mesh, then turning that into a normal map, to give the lumps and bumps, then painting the figure so that he looks like he's been in the wars. I'm looking forward to that stage, as chindits could look like fabulously beat up game figures. Another question though. on an actual mission what did they have with them? I take it they weren't carrying a full pack but they could be ambushed in full pack, was the first thing to do, get down and squirm out of your pack, or cover your bren gun people while they did that?
Bugger I have two choices on which way the slouch hat was pinned up, I have to pick the wrong one. No great problem but annoying. I've got most of the body roughed out and it looks okay up to now.
Whoah... now your into that "how deep the rabbit hole goes..." territory... Bob, do you want to take the red pill, or the blue pill...? Start down the red-pill road and you end up with a significant research library... I'm fourteen years of research down that road and I'm still finding wrinkles in that story... (short answer - pack on or at your side at all times or you end up with no kit, no food, no ammo, no nothing...)
It's still early days but I've got to think about animating the character. He needs to be given a skeleton, and then I need about three seconds of him walking on the spot. On frame zero, he's in repose and on the last fame he's again in repose. He has to take a couple of paces, and with a full pack on, this would look different. It's controlled falling over, which we rarely even think about. Also, we don't really think about how much movement we have of the bones in our feet etc. Then I have to do an animation of him walking backwards, not the same as him walking forwards. Then a run, and also a crouch cover animation. He also need to load and fire his weapon, so another set of animations. Here's how far on I am with the Gurkha. The raggy bit at the bottom of his legs is the start of his puttees. Now he's made of little polygons and I have to keep the numbers down to a minimum. So once he's built, I take him into another app, that let's me sculpt him. In there I can up the polygon count to a very high figure. Even to the stage of putting pore marks on his skin. Once he's been sculpted to look as good as the sculptor can get him, he needs to have something called a displacement/height map made. This is a black and white image, which when applied to a low polygon model, gives the illusion of all the sculpted detail. You can see that on the Sunderland, where there are body/panel lines which don't actually exist on the model itself. Then the bloke needs to be painted. Which calls for some subtle texturing of skin and clothes. Underarm sweat marks and the like. Then the completed article has to be brought into the game engine and tweaked for bugs. All this so that some brain dead adolescent can have an excuse not to talk to his parents; makes ya think!!!
I'm allowed to whine on, I'm from solid peasant stock. Boots and laces, I've seen one model where the squadie had rown oots. yet from a reenactment society page, black boots! Laces:- are there regs on how to lace your boots? do they cross over, the way most people lace their shoes, or is it the straight lines of lace between two holes. I don't think squadies these days even lace them.
There were specifics re the lacing of boots from comments I've found but you'll need further answers I can't give on that...
I actually found a web site just about shoe laces! You just have to love the old interweb. I'm going to give my squadies the "king's tie," it's where you tie a knot in the end of your lace and pull it through the bottom hole of your boot, so it's underneath the flap. Then you lace up to give horizontal lines between the lace holes. The lace end is then wrapped round the boot top and tucked in. The puttees cover that. I did find some comments about brown boot issue. At one time two pairs of boots were issued but someone must have forgotten to tell the boot polish people and so only one, black, polish was issued. Then they just did away with brown boots. Officers though bought their own boots, so they could wander round the jungle in snazzy brown winkle pickers if they wished. (well maybe not going that far!)
I found that thread where my confusion over the colour of boots came from. I think the guy simply painted the boots to look as though they have mud on them. note that this bloke says you dump the pack to fight, and that the webbing has been modified to lose a few straps, the gear hanging from the belt. Not sure about that chagal(sp?) A lot of water slopping around on your back pack, where he has it, would be awkward I think. http://www.onesixthwarriors.com/forum/sixth-scale-action-figure-news-reviews-discussion/77081-chindit-1944-a.html
Bob At long last, I've had a chance to start playing about with 3d modelling. This is my first concerted effort into figures. This is just the begining and I know that I have a lot to do with materials etc and adding props but I had to start somewhere.
Hi eddie, if they are Poser figures, you may be able to find the uniforms among the various poser websites. They literally have thousands of props, a good few of them for free.
A little update on the Gurkha, he still needs his knife, bayonet, water bottle, laces and ammo bandoleer. His pack is still pretty rudimentary and I've decided that I'll make that as a separate game object. All of these game models have their, "how do I do that?" question. With this one, it's going to be that two metre coil of rope. Now because I've had to join all the bits of this model together into one mesh, the guy has lost the coordinates for his face map. So he now looks like your classic airfix soldier. Fresh out of a mould his detail is a little sketchy. I now need to tighten up the detail in a sculpting program, then paint him. unlike an airfix soldier, this guy is his true height, and I can have a paint brush that is very precise.
Looking for picture of kukris, I came across this site. Made me laugh anyway but probably not in the spirit of the guy that invented lego men, who didn't want war toys for little kids. BrickArms Forums • View topic - Figbarf
As I understand it, these blokes were using a very old bayonet design. I found this site, is the brit bayonet the design shown among the brit rifles? World Wars Collections-Long Winded & Picture Heavy
I've made his kukri, now to check what side he wore it on. Now my uncle Matty had a kukri but he says they used machetes. The guy who put that model up says that chindits could have used kukris for clearing brush but the idea I came away with from my uncle, was that it could have caused offense. Did Gurkhas use them to clear brush? I thought they had to draw blood every time they drew the weapon, hence the little thing near the hilt. Wouldn't chopping bamboo be some sort of dishonorable act?
Time for a little bit more whining, the straps for his back pack were a right pain to do. Still got that damn rope thing to do, laces and a couple of water bottles, his bayonet is on but you can't see it. His kukri needs shifting onto his hip, and maybe he needs another roll under his back pack.
Thanks Sol, I'd just assumed that the gurkha hat they wore was a dress hat, and that they wore the pinned up one in the jungle. Oddly I had to rebuild the hat from scratch, just trying to bring the brim down created a mess of polys.
