New
Old
I borrowed the technique used by others in these forums, which is to copy and paste different parts of Sandra’s original artwork and make something new. I used humble MSPaint to open the game’s files then carefully pasted things like the AWI Delaware militiaman’s lapels and cuffs onto a Carolinian militiaman’s short blue coat. The white chest strap came off another model as did the waistcoat (which should be red but who’s counting?) and darker trousers. The turn backed edges of his coat are done by hand as was half of his white rimmed tri-corn hat. The left side of this came from Dunmore’s Ethiopian’s (as it looked smarter than the all black militia version) with the other half done by hand (to fit the tilt of the original head).
The trousers should be blue with tall gaiters but I couldn’t find a model that had these nor did I think blue trousers (from some AWI era militia) fitted with the rest of the model (too much blue!). I felt the same about the waistcoat which I couldn’t find in red on any other model anyway. Overall, I went for a less uniform appearance that suits my vision of these soldiers who, as I understand it, spent a lot of time waiting for regulation clothing to be issued anyway.
I had a bit of trouble getting it to display in the game last night, especially as I have to enlarge a portion of it for the “units” screen (along the bottom) without distorting it. As I’ve created it in as a bitmap it doesn’t scale very well. Also, being a simply bitmap the white background isn’t transparent so it sticks out unless I bodge it some more by putting it on orange myself.
Units Screen
Working zoomed in on Sandra’s artwork it is amazing to think what skill goes into this kind of art. The images are clearly worked on at a higher scale then reduced and I also assume the different body parts are initially separate layers as the originals seem to be “composed” using common elements such as diagonal belts and boots. It must be “easy” to some – I’ve spent hours bumbling about! What do you think of the result?
PS. This is very much a work in progress, not a serious "mod"
Link to AACW uniform mod that inspired me:
http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=4429&highlight=uniform+mod
