Searching for symbols for WW2 and modern military vehicles, artillery etc.
Lizzy_Maracuja
🖼️ 54 images Traveler
Hello to you mappers,
I got some kind of a weird looking request.
Since I do a lot of mapping for Achtung!Cthulhu or other more modern military TTRPGs, I often end up needing symbols for military vehicles, larger weapons, military tents, modern guard towers etc. in a top view.
And to be safe when using those maps on websites or RPG projects and adventures, those symbols need to be creative commons or allow for commercial usage somehow.
I use a lot of stuff from CSUAC/Dundjinni, but I need more.
Do you know any sources besides drawing them by hand (which wouldn't look too good in my case)?
Comments
That's the perfectionism hitting me. If I have to do a map with certain enemy vehicles, I gotta use the right ones, or I will feel bad. 😅
Hi Ute :)
It's Sue Daniel here ;)
Though I very much doubt that it contains anything you don't already know about, there's a thread that Remy Monsen created which lists all the available free stuff we collectively know about here:
https://forum.profantasy.com/discussion/10443/free-symbols-artwork
You might get lucky if you Google the required symbols - most people who sell them have to make the rights pretty clear up front, or have to put up with a constant stream of questions.
Good evening Sue 😊
There was actually one site among those resources I didn't know - thank you, that will help a lot in various black and white projects 😊👍
I searched for such military vehicle symbols. But it's tricky, I didn't find something fitting - even though I'm totally willing to pay for resources (already bought a huge amount of different symbols for usage with CC3+).
And I want to make sure to not support somebody who creates such images as form of glorification of Wehrmacht. So it's really tough.
But on the other hand - one of the two vehicles I currently need the most is nearly done. When I finish them, I can post them here for everybody to use freely.
A bit crude, far from perfect (not a painter at all), but will do the job 😁
Maybe look for "Squad Leader" or "Panzer Leader" sites. their counters are top down representation of vagarious WWII weapons and vehicles
Thank you, I'll check them out!
RPGMapShare has a boatload of military vehicles, but most of them are listed as "CC Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International". Maybe there's a way to contact the person who uploaded them (it all seems to be the same person) for what you need?
This web site lets you compose the appropriate symbols for unit and equipment using the NATO/UK MS2525 and APP 6 Standards documents.
This site has several files you can download that provides NATO and other symbols/vehicles/planes/etc.
And this web site has many diagrams of ships, ground vehicles, and aircraft in constant scales.
Thank you, I think I can make great use of those in future projects!
For the current map, I made an Opel Blitz truck in three variants.
Not a painter, so a bit crude, but scaled down in a map, it will do the job.
I add the symbols I created for free usage as well.
And the second one. Got everything I need for the map I'm working on today. Huzzah! Onward to...more mapping. ^^
I think you've done a pretty good job :)
Thank you 😊
I don’t know if he is still around but George Bradford, artist/author of a ton of wwii drawings let me buy use of many of his drawings many ago for a project I was working on. He lives in Canada. I don’t recall off the top of my head how I found him but his books are for sale and there might be contact info in them to lease some rights.
Suggest checking out the Close Combat series modding community: it's a game catering to platoon-sized infantry combat, and the aspirations of detail and vehicle design accuracy very much reflects that you constantly switch between checking in on individual squads/units and zoom out for an overview picture.
I don't know to what extent there are top-down vehicle sprites available for traces, however, but the stuff that is available without registering for an account over att closecombat.net (which...for some reason don't like the free e-email services) should give you an idea. Again; it's mainly tanks and similar combat vehicles - and not too much by way of fixed-position artillery - but the hobbyists are very keen. I can't speak for the Wehrmacht apologetic frequency but if there are any in their ranks, they certainly don't flaunt it in the same ways as...well..their opposite numbers in the WH40k fandom...
I am currently prepping some game aids for Achtung Cthulhu!/World War Cthulhu myself and I certainly see the benefits of a token library of sorts.
So here's a Königstiger trace job I did which doesn't adhere to any unit scale in particular - but feel equally free to use the lines: I didn't find a neat way to do the cammo pattern so I figure I might as well drop it as a mandala template :D
All this wonderful creativity! :D
One would dive straight into tracing off https://drawingdatabase.com/tag/world-war-ii/ but they are preciously anonymous and non-informative about usage.
Tricky.
I don't suppose there are any vehicle plans that are definitely in the public domain that you could trace?
Or if you had a model that you could photograph from above, you could trace the photo without worrying about copyright.
@Lillhans Awesome that's a wonderful idea and source!
And thank you very much for the beautiful linework, that's perfect! 😊
Another take on the VI. I think the trick is probably to do turrets as a seperate symbol entirely, @Lizzy_Maracuja: it allows for rotation options - and with or without the turret that also gives you a nice platform for wreckages.
If what you're wanting to do is use online images to make your own vehicle trace-drawings for conversion to symbols, it's worth checking the military museum sites (especially if you're hunting for more obscure vehicles) and also scale model websites - including model kit manufacturers. A number of manufacturers now have PDFs of their kit instructions online that you can freely download, and they sometimes have illustrations showing top-down views for the paint and decal schemes for instance, which might be another starting point.
In terms of constructing the symbols, I'd suggest having a set-up where the lines, base colour, camouflage patterning and any markings are each done as a separate Sheet in CC3+ (or more likely "layers" in non-CC3 graphics programs), to make it easier to swap those for different theatres and times. Also, @Lillhans' comment about separate tank turrets is an excellent one. I'd suggest too using Sheet overlays for the top of various AFVs that have different variants using the same lower chassis and skirts, again to make those easier to swap-out without having to keep redrawing each time.
The game is afoot! Breaking it into Contours and also a Surface (which helps for selecting an area to draw in).
I think I'll be adding some air width to the back: will absolutely want to be able to center symbol on the turret itself since it makes it easer to fit on the chassi, in-map. Also gonna have to add even more air because of course they had the entire alphabet's worth and F has a shorter barrel than L and this was probably a terrible idea. But it's handy to have all turrets in the same workspace.
More height also, for discrete shading around the turret.
And then...painting and decals I guess. Or maybe not decals, after all...I have seen kit hobbyists' blogs on the subject of markings, and I am not yet ready to get that bachelor's degree in tank markings methinks. Good call on layer structures, @Wyvern.
No more hijacking this thread! 😂 Will share in a seperate thread when results.
The scale model websites are a nice idea, I guess I might find all that I'm looking for there. Splendid!
Usually, for such symbols, I work in a regular graphics program, so the different layers make for different details or colours. So one image in the program can be split into 3-4 different map symbols with different colours or details.
I might really get into drawing more for this - which is a nice side effect.
I love your work, so a thread with the images you create is very welcome!
😀
You might look at a youtube channel 'Military History Viualized'. The guy that runs it is from Austria, he makes nothing political, just shows the gear and explains how it was used, and some gear failures on both fronts. He covers the models of all AFV and others like trucks and jeeps. Rocket launchers, etc.
I noticed when he quotes a book, he shows the original text below if it is not written in English.
His other channel is 'Military History Not Visualized'.
He has visited various museums to show more detail than a drawing or photo might show.
Mark Felton is a British military historian, but his are more situations and battles.
I also suggest, subject change' looking up 'When Hotels Went to war' by Drachinifel. Pre-dreadnaughts that do look like hotel lower floors on a cruiser hull.
But the first two are more likely to have what you want.
Edit. Corrected the channel names.