Modern German General

Straight from the advice of DK & Chugg... "do it yourself", I finally broke-down and did one, since I felt comfortable enough to reskin an existing model in Paint Shop Pro (used nothing but PSP & a DDS converter)... I have absolutely ZERO experience in doing 3D models, but I had to start somewhere...

This is a Modern German General (Warlord) for Civ4.

Based on the default Modern General, Mamba changed the colors from green to German grey, Wolfshanze did what he could with the detail work, reworking the tunic with a new cut, collar tabs, Iron Cross, shoulder boards & breast eagle... the pants received red piping & a new buckle, while the cap got a new cocarde and cap eagle.

New to v2.0 are some texture improvements and the riding crop has been replaced with a Marshall's Baton (assistance by Walter Hawkwood).

New to v3.0, caucasian skin tones, and a "generic" European General (for use with America and other European civs without a custom general).

New to v4.0, completely reworked Marshall's Baton (new NIF files... thanks to the Coyote).

New to v5.0, Luger P08 parabellum pistol replaces the default revolver (thanks Coyote!).


All needed files, including animation are included in the download.


Download Here
(Updated to v5.0 on 13-May-08)



Based on the German Field Marshall uniform:

Congrats on your first unit, Wolf! I hope many more will follow!

Not bad, here's to hoping you stay in the reskinning business

Looks good.

Wolfshanze said:

Straight from the advice of DK & Chugg... "do it yourself".

Click to expand...

Well mine's almost finished if you're still interested in it (it just has a problem with the neck in the animation).

Chugginator said:

Well mine's almost finished if you're still interested in it (it just has a problem with the neck in the animation).

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Hehe, now it is almost finished, so far it probably would not be in your next release which is still two weeks or so away

I for one am certainly interested in your version, nothing wrong with having different alternatives for the same unit.

mamba said:

Hehe, now it is almost finished, so far it probably would not be in your next release which is still two weeks or so away

I for one am certainly interested in your version, nothing wrong with having different alternatives for the same unit.

Click to expand...

I like some parts of wolfshanze's version better, the torso, belt and the boots. So I could merge the head, and the trench coat off mine onto wolf's.

Nice reskin Wolf.. looks good and cant see thst its your first unit so keep up the good work.. makes me wonder if I should try it to...

nice reskin! And your painting skills are better than you said, i even recognize the iron cross

but perhaps it would look even better if you change the button colour from black to silver, reduce the size the iron cross (if possible), add the breast pockets and change the colour of the belt.

http://www.geschichtsthemen.de/wk2_bilder/wk2_002.jpg

Thanks for the comments folks!

mamba said:

Not bad, here's to hoping you stay in the reskinning business

Click to expand...

You said it... "reskinning"... because I still don't think I'm cut-out for 3D models... I might be able to reskin an existing model or two, but that's about the extent of my "talents". I'm sorta handy with Paint Shop Pro (PSP), as I used to do a lot of 2D art work for strategy games in my younger days (I'm still using PSP7), but when games started going 3D, that's when I stopped.

Anyways, I want to thank you Mamba for the base grey transformation... that saved me a lot of headaches, and I could just work on the details!

Chugginator said:

Looks good.

Click to expand...

Coming from you, that's a big compliment.

Chugginator said:

Well mine's almost finished if you're still interested in it (it just has a problem with the neck in the animation).

Click to expand...

I'm always interested in more options... but I ain't in no rush... you know me... "Mr. Patient!"

Seriously though... I didn't undercut anybody and come-out with my own Rommel (or Kesselring even)... I never once requested this guy... I based this model off-of Field Marshall Bock. Never once did I request him of anybody, so feel free to make all the Rommels and Kesselrings anybody wants... I only made FM Bock!

GFO_Anubis said:

Nice reskin Wolf.. looks good and cant see that it's your first unit so keep up the good work.. makes me wonder if I should try it to...

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Thanks... give it a try... realize all I did was a reskin in PSP... I'm still not even brave enough to download Nifscope (or whatever they use these days).

Chugginator said:

I like some parts of wolfshanze's version better, the torso, belt and the boots. So I could merge the head, and the trench coat off mine onto wolf's.

Click to expand...

The_Coyote said:

nice reskin! And your painting skills are better than you said, i even recognize the iron cross

but perhaps it would look even better if you change the button colour from black to silver, reduce the size the iron cross (if possible), add the breast pockets and change the colour of the belt.

Click to expand...

Alright... slow-down... it is just a reskin job, so I'm afraid I can't claim any parts as my own, cuz I didn't model anything, just did some recoloring work in PSP.

I'm still not a good painter... but I am a good scavenger... everything you see... collar tabs, Iron Cross, shoulder boards, breast eagle, cocarde and cap eagle... they were all actual uniform pieces I "lifted" from a site that sells them... I just cropped them out, resized them, and slapped them on the base model (adjusted coloring/brightness where needed). I just wanted them to be accurate, so that's how I did it. I admit I ventured-out on the red piping job on the pants... that was free-hand!

On the Iron Cross... I know it's a bit out-of-scale (ie: a little big)... I actually played with this quite a bit. The black cross itself is actually only two pixels in width... if I made it any smaller, it would lose so much detail, it'd look more like a 'plus' then an Iron Cross.

I wanted to do breast pockets but this is where my experience with 3D models interfered... the NIF calls for a large patch over the left breast of the uniform... my first thought was to put the breast eagle and pocket on the right (where they belong) and have the large patch blot-out the Eagle on the left (which would be mirrored) and redraw the breast pocket if necessary... unfortunately, due to the 3D-ness of the model, there's some considerable stretching of the tunic going on here which makes me lose hair in my 2D thinking (I'm like Khan). My first attempt to put a breast eagle on the right had it going from the buttons up underneath his arm pit! I eventually gave-up and just used the breast eagle on the patch that covers the left side, because it doesn't stretch... I had serious problems getting the eagle and pocket working on the base tunic due to stretching issues which stressed my "first reskin ever" mind to the max.

Anyways, to make a long story short (too late), that's the best you're going to get from a "1st try ever" on reskinning a 3D model. I have a hard time thinking in 3D with this old 2D mind of mine. I'm actually surprised it turned-out as well as it did... I didn't think I would even have anything "releaseable" to the public, but I thought this cut the mustard to be "mod-worthy" for some folks... and now you can be the 1st kid on the block to have your very own Field Marshall Bock Warlord (I know most of you are going "who's he?").

Remember folks... it's just a reskin... I went from the model on the left to the guy on the right, with nothing more then PSP, a photo of FM Bock and a link to a German Uniform site! I got the desired effect I was looking for... now Germany has a General to lead the troops!

I just did a minor update to fix the shoulder boards... was only getting a portion of them, now get the full boards! (still figuring this 3D stuff out).

Wolfshanze said:

Straight from the advice of DK & Chugg... "do it yourself", I finally broke-down and did one, since I felt comfortable enough to reskin an existing model in Paint Shop Pro (used nothing but PSP & a DDS converter)... I have absolutely ZERO experience in doing 3D models, but I had to start somewhere...

Click to expand...

Good for you wolf.

Great job for a first unit, excellent. If you want any advice for 3D models just ask. Start with Nifskope first and make your way up to Blender (which is where I am now). I'm glad you decided to start up.

Yeah, this is certainly not a bad way to start your unit-making career. Good work

Great skinning. I think the current model w/ your skin looks perfect for a modern era German Great General.

not to be nitpicky but maybe you can remove the revolver in nifskope? of course that may make the shooting animation weird but it would differentiate it a bit.

Nah, he should have a gun if the animation requires it. If I cannot stand one thing it is weird animations for units, like the modern settler talking into his hand as he misses the cell phone. That is reason for me to seriously consider using it.

Differentiate all you want, but keep the animation intact (or use a different one).

Wait for Chuggis version for more differentiation.

Talking of weird units, any idea how I can get the flamethrower to make a 'flame' sound rather than a gun sound ?

You just need a kitchen torch and a microphone !

didn't civ3PTW have a flamethrower unit with sound?

The sound isn't really the problem, it is to get the unit to actually make that sound

I'd go with AS3D_UN_ICBM_SELECT over gunfire any day

Okay guys... enough is enough... stay on-topic!



***BACK ON-TOPIC***

Ekmek said:

not to be nitpicky but maybe you can remove the revolver in nifskope? of course that may make the shooting animation weird but it would differentiate it a bit.

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Actually, I've been thinking/wanting to change the Revolver to a German Luger Parabellum... though I'm not sure if I can do that with reskining alone... not sure if I have to change the model if I want a luger or not... this is where my noobness on 3D models kicks-in again.



After all is said and done, I'd just be honored if my German General found his way into a mod besides the Wolfshanze Mod!

Seconded ... thought of a reequip with a luger yesterday but wasn't sure for accuracy.