Though the news page has been quiet, things have been extremely busy here in the secret volcano base. My staff and I have been doing beta tests day in and day out while the new art continues to flow forth into the game. I'll often produce a new beta build every day that'll get tested that evening, and be obsolete the following morning. I'd like to thank my testers who put up with having to revamp their /data and /art folder practically every day. Our mappers are also putting the finishing touches on their map revamp as well, and I do believe you'll all be impressed by the quality in them.

Now, onto the art goodies! Up today is the Sherman lineage:

Sherman M4A1: First rolling off the production lines in 1941, the M4A1 Sherman was a top class main battle tank. It had a 75mm M3 gun that could fire AP, HE, and phosphorous shells among others, formidable armor proof against 37mm and 50mm antitank guns from most ranges, a powerful engine that gave it high speed especially when ungoverned, and its vertical volute spring suspension system (VVSS) gave it a decently smooth ride. It saw first action in Africa where it performed admirably, earning the quoted respect of Rommel himself. In combat, its 75mm gun proved deadly to exposed infantry as well as fortifications thanks to the M3 gun's potent HE round. Panzer IIIs and IVs were easy prey for its AP round. Later in the war though, when Tigers, Panthers, and further upgraded Panzer IVs became commonplace, the M3 gun became obsolete and change became needed.


Sherman M4A3 76(w) HVSS: Over time, many improvements were deemed necessary by the US Army in the M4 Sherman. Its gun was too weak against armor. Its ammunition was prone to catching fire and exploding. Its suspension didn't allow for wide enough tracks to cross boggy terrain. The M4A3 76(w) HVSS which was developed over time to correct these was among the finest Sherman variants produced. The hull front was sloped further to afford better armor protection and simpler production. The M3 75mm gun was upgraded to the M1, M1A1, or M1A1C (pictured) 76mm high velocity gun which proved capable of destroying the best Panzer IVs from the front from long range. Though still lacking power against the heaviest German tanks, it was a significant improvement. "Wet stowage" (glycerine-protected) ammunition racks prevented a hit tank from exploding due to an ammunition detonation. Horizontal Volute Spring Suspension (HVSS) allowed for a heavier tank while increasing maneuverability due to the wider tracks and increased speed due to the suspension's toughness. This vastly improved tank proved to be a decisive war-winner.


Sherman VC Firefly: Because the Americans were slow at adding a new gun to the underpowered M4 Sherman, the British took many of their delivered tanks and added a touch of British class to them by modifying the turret to accept a powerful 17 pounder antitank gun. To balance it, a counterweight was added to the rear of the turret. Though many different variants of the Firefly were made, the VC was the most common, being built upon the M4A4 usually delivered to England. Though the VC Firefly wasn't as well protected as the M4A3 76(w), nor as fast due to the retention of VVSS suspension, it had a significantly more powerful gun. When the British went into combat, the Firefly was the tank the Germans would target first whenever possible due to their their deadliness. A Sherman Firefly was, after all, the tank that landed the deadly blow on Micheal Wittman's Tiger.


All of these were modeled by TopKnot and skinned by Stino. Topknot did much of the work on the M4A1 skin as well.

B29 muahhahahahahahah


blitzi

Always nice to hear that work is progressing.

This post has been edited by Pranadevil: May 17 2005, 7:17 AM

^Yep

yay nice shermans!!!

I know it doesnt make a difference from the zoomed-out view in-game but imo they look a bit plain, esp the skin. Decent effort, and i dont mean any offense, but not the best unit that's been produced for Blitz2. And with the honesty over, cant wait til one of those betas makes it to a Public release!

In my opinion the skins are a bit too dark. They look good anyway.

Besides, I know at least one person here who will be VERY VERY HAPPY seeing the M4 in a newspost
Maybe we'll even get another lecture about it's deadliness

lets roll baby

going to be fun next patch.

Muahahhahahaha

Actually, i really like the new FireFly. Skin and all.

Cheers for Stino


Doc Out

This post has been edited by DrShrinker: May 17 2005, 3:09 PM

Great update, the Allies will be really great now.

whoo! those are some nice skins there bio. good work everyone!

They may not look the prettiest in the renders, but they look fantastic ingame!

The problem with it is the mid section in the front, it's to high but nice anyways.

I like the Firefly a lot.

I need to update again...I dont get why I never saw a new beta patch...oh well...looms schway!

Biohazard requested that I post these on the forum, so that’s what I am doing.

There are a number of mistakes on each Sherman. Some are fairly major and others are very minor. I’m going to divide these into two categories: inaccuracies and nitpicks. The inaccuracies are the errors that are somewhat significant and are unquestionably wrong and the nitpicks are things that probably shouldn’t be there, but either aren’t necessarily wrong or are very minor.

M4A1

Inaccuracies
#1 – the hull is all wrong; it is that of an M4A3, not an M4A1 at all
#2 – the drive sprocket is that of a Canadian Grizzly, not any Sherman

Nitpicks
#1 – the markings; there should be no stripe on the turret, no star on the hull front, and the star on the hull side is in the wrong place; it should be farther forward

M4A3(76) HVSS

Inaccuracies
#1 – the 76mm gun mantlet is wrong; it should look completely different
#2 – again, the drive sprocket is that of a Canadian Grizzly, not any Sherman

Nitpicks
#1 – again, the markings; there should be no star on the front of the hull, the side hull star should be slightly farther forward, and the stars should be considerably larger
#2 – probably the most minor of my nitpicks, the sand shields need to be removed; nearly all US late-model Shermans that saw combat had them removed to make maintenance easier; some US Army Groups officially ordered their removal on all Shermans

Sherman Firefly

Inaccuracies
#1 – the transmission housing on the hull front is wrong; right now it looks as if it hit a square column right between the tracks
#2 – the drive sprocket is wrong again; same problem
#3 – the hull is wrong; there are no drivers’ positions
#4 – there should be not hull MG, it should be plated over

Nitpicks
#1 - the paintscheme was usually a dark green, not that brownish color (right now it appears to be a faded olive drab)

How can they be fixed?

Let’s start with the M4A3(76) HVSS since there is the least to do. Right now, it has a mantlet that it stole from an M36 tank destroyer. The circle (I assume it depicts a pivot point) on the side of the mantlet needs to be eliminated to get rid of that M36 tank destroyer mantlet look. The mantlet should be more squarish with a small black circle to the left of the main gun for the coaxial .30cal and the gunner’s sight circle should be slightly closer to the main gun. Besides that, fix the drive sprocket, fix the markings, and if you’re really feeling ambitious, remove the skirts, but beyond that, it looks great.

Moving on to the M4 and the Sherman Firefly. I’m addressing these together since I noticed no errors on either of the turret models and, without the turrets, the two vehicles can have nearly identical hulls. Since the M4A1’s curvature is too difficult to model, the M4A3 is not an early model Sherman, and the Firefly variant is unspecified, how about we just make them both M4s? This will make it both easy to modify from the current models and it will be the most accurate. That would make them the M4 and the Sherman IC (Firefly), but it can just be labeled the Sherman Firefly. What needs to be done to make these models? Basically, use the current superstructure of the Firefly and the lower hull of the M4. Raise two areas in the front hull for the driver and co-driver in the superstructure, and you’re done; just remember to modify the hull MG in the Firefly model. As far as the lower hull of the M4 goes, if it will mate directly to the superstructure model of the modified Firefly, then you’re done. Use that as the hull for the two vehicles, the only difference being the bow MG. If you want to make the Firefly look different, give it back the sand shields from the earlier model; just make sure the transmission housing is fixed. In British service, it is accurate with or without the sand shields, so it’s easier to just leave them off. Now, as for the skins, fix the M4’s markings, fix the drive sprockets on both vehicles, and modify the skins to suit the changes in the model, and those two vehicles will be done as well. If you redo the entire Firefly skin, I’d give it a dark green instead of the current brownish color, but that is not necessary.

By no means do I mean to sound entirely negative. The “M4A1” model is, ironically, a perfect early M4A3(75) in every respect. Also, the Sherman Firefly’s skin is beautiful. That is probably the best skin I’ve seen for any unit for Generals: Zero Hour yet. I’m not just talking about skins on Blitzkrieg II: The Finest Hour, or Derelict Studios, I mean anywhere. Unfortunately, all of these three models and skins have significant problems.

Logan Hartke

This post has been edited by Logan Hartke: May 20 2005, 6:58 PM

Forgive me the smile....

Logan strikes once again!!!!! I got it Logan, you're not an Hummel like i said before, but a Stuart flamethrower ...burning everything you touch! I guess you're for Blitzkrieg2 what fire is for gold : an accurate and painful way to make the precious almost perfect!

Note* Do you take prisoners sometimes?

OOOOH, FIREFLY...
I love that tank.... normal sherman is not that great...

Cool..........A tank that the germans where Scarded of.......Sweet!!!! I thought they where afaried of the KV 2 Tank............