German tank and vehicles pack 
by John "Skycat" Turner
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 Hi! Welcome to what I believe is the most comprehensive and detailed vehicles pack yet assembled for WW2 Fighters:
skins for 14 different German tanks, vehicles and troops plus some 3d file fixes.

 I am not nearly the artist I wish I was, and therefore rely heavily adapting existing artwork and photographs
into the skin files to make them as detailed as possible. Recently, I discovered that there is a large modding 
community surrounding the game 'Combat Mission' (CM) -- this game appears to be a 3D tactical sim based on World War II.
Out of curiousity, I downloaded some of the'third party' (player made) skins for some of the tanks, and was 
pleased to discover the skins for each vehicle required multiple bitmaps, sometimes in high resolution, and 
various views (top, side, back) were provided. I wondered if these could be adapted for use in WW2 Fighters ...

 So, after downloading around 400 mb of bitmaps to sift through, and spending several weeks chained to my
computer slaving to get every texture sized and positioned exactly right on their corresponding models (LOTS of
trial and error here!), we have finally arrived ...

I hope you enjoy! 
~ Jtskycat@yahoo.com

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Credits and notes
----------------------------

A. TIGER tank: original textures by Jorge MC and Eric Scurlock for Combat Mission. Based on Normandy paint scheme.

B. PANTHER tank: original textures by Malfunkt for Combat Mission. ("It is based on a illustrations from a book Tanks & 
   Armoured Fighting Vehicles (c.1977 Salamander). When I first saw this paint scheme it reminded me of the 
   colorful paint styles found on some of Germany's WWI fighters and bombers. It is unusual in the abscence of 
   the dark yellow undercoat. At first I was unsure of this, but I found a great article at Track-Link.net in 
   this regard (http://www.track-link.net/articles/vArticle.php?aid=78).")   

c. PANZER IV tank: original textures by Fernando J. Carrera Buil for Combat Mission. 

D. JAGDPANZER IV tank: original textures by mike8g, based on Fernando J. Carrera Buil's CM PANZER IV textures.

E. STUG III assault gun: original textures by Kwazydog for Combat Mission, recolored by Fernando J. Carrera Buil to tricolor.

F. WESPE self-propelled gun: original textures by Andrew Fox for Combat Mission. Recolored and mottled by Skycat for WW2F.

G. WIRBELWIND flakpanzer: based on original PANZER IV textures by Fernando J. Carrera Buil for Combat Mission.

H. SDKFZ 251 halftrack: original textures by Fernando J. Carrera Buil for Combat Mission. Machine gun from Jurgen Muhlbauer's
   Afrika Korps SDKFZ 251 textures for WW2 Fighters. 3D mapping fix by Skycat.

I. WUHRFRAHMEN 40 halftrack:  original textures by Fernando J. Carrera Buil for Combat Mission. Machine gun from Jurgen 
   Muhlbauer's 'Afrika Korps SDKFZ 251' textures for WW2 Fighters. 3D mapping fix by Skycat.

J. KUBELWAGEN car: original textures by Andrew Fox for Combat Mission. Canvas cover from Spudkopf's Tri-Colored Kubelwagen 
   skin for WW2 Fighters.

K. OPEL BLITZ truck: original "hasty camo" texture by Marco Bergman for Combat Mission (an attempt to skin a US GMC truck
   to look like a Sauer 6x4 truck). Canvas cover colored by Skycat based on various photos of plastic models. 

L. BMW R75 motorcycle: Includes JHAT's 'tropical BMW R75' 3D edits to add sidecar passenger. Original uniform textures by
   JoJimbo for DeadlyDozen game. Jane's WW2F MOTORCYCLE skin recolored by Skycat; BMW logo added by Skycat. Historical   
   reference: painting by James Dietz titled "Das Reich" portraying Waffen SS motorcycle units of the 2nd Panzer Division 
   riding through France in June, 1944 (Published in "Portraits of Combat" art book about Dietz's work).

M. KETTENKRAD: Original uniform textures adapted from Combat Mission mods. Jane's WW2F KETTENKRAD skin recolored by Skycat.

N. TROOPS: Uniform textures adapted from Combat Mission skin mods. Inspired by BigDog's troop pack for WW2F. 

  ~ Special thanks to Big Dog, whose advice solved my long-standing Crash-to-Desktop problems with the PANZER_IV ... quite
    simply, I now save the -64 and -32 textures as 128x128 each.  


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Installation advice
-------------------

To install, extract (unzip) the contents into your WW2 Fighters game "Data" folder. Enable 
the installation of new modifications by finding the WW2.SQS file in your Data folder and right-
clicking on it; look at 'properties' and uncheck the 'Read Only' option. 

Now, navigate back to this skin pack's main folder and double-click on one of the icons that is 
titled "Install_ ..."  Install_ALL.bat will install all skins at once. Specifically named icons
install only the vehicle/object that they are named for (IE: "Install_Kubelwagen" installs just the field car).

A DOS session will begin, recording the entry of the new data to your 
WW2.SQS file. The session will either end by itself or prompt you to close out. 
When the session completes, your new skins should be ready for play!
  
