Let me know your thoughts.
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In the video, some vehicles don’t have proper markings. German vehicles usually carried the Balkenkreuz, for example. Also, if I remember correctly, most of the T-34-57s were lost during the Battle of Moscow, and only a few remained later on, with very limited actual armored engagements.
I hope you can create more historically accurate War Thunder videos in the future. Details really matter — including vehicle markings, items placed on vehicles, camouflage, and even regional vegetation. Camouflage should match the geographical environment, and nothing should violate basic physics.
I personally organize historical events in Taiwan from time to time, but participation is very low. I honestly envy some foreign Discord servers where people immediately sign up when someone tags everyone. I’m not sure how many War Thunder players truly care about historical authenticity anymore, but from my observation, it seems to be a very small percentage — unless someone has actual statistics.
I totally understand your frustration, my suggesiton is to try to find the correct group of people and the channels to organize such events there are a lot of nice groups out there that can help you!
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Good video overall, nice camera work mixed with historical footage. My suggestion would be to work a bit more on the fusion of the music and the environment.
will done 0.0!
very nice to see this kind of videos made in wt !
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But I don’t know how to find this kind of group 🫠. Another issue is the time zone — it would be ideal if it mainly covered countries within the same time zone in Asia.
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yeah i know timezones are a bummer, although you can try to gather people around from the forum, wt.live, discord servers focused on war thunder etc… also i highly suggest the use of CDK, sure it wont’ be as fun but the possibilities with CDK there are endless.
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I usually use maps from WT Live that are close to real life. As for the CDK, I used it before I changed my computer, but I couldn’t really understand anything because my English level is probably only at a kindergarten or elementary school level. The same goes for the Enlisted mod editor.
All of my communication on game forums has to rely on AI translation — you’ve probably noticed that.
Thanks for the feedback — I genuinely appreciate it. I agree there’s always room for improvement, and I’m constantly trying to get closer to true realism. I put a lot of research into this video, even if the final product is limited by what the game and my own tools allow. For the vehicles I personally own and can customize, I used only historically appropriate camouflage and insignia. For example, the elephant is wearing the exact same pattern seen in the original black‑and‑white footage. I make mistakes I accidentally had my two sided camouflage selected incorrectly causing a backwards marking in one scene.
A) It’s just me doing this. I’m not in it for money or recognition — I simply enjoy War Thunder and like creating videos that I hope others might enjoy too. I don’t have thousands of followers I can call on to fill a custom battle with perfectly marked vehicles on my day off. So I work with what I have, and I try to camouflage things as accurately as possible. I hope people can give a little grace on that.
B) On the vehicles I own, I used only period‑correct camouflage and markings, including the Balkenkreuz. I tried to stick to common schemes like Dunkelgelb and used unit markings from formations that actually fought in the engagement, with one small exception for a brief scene. I’m limited by the decals I own in‑game, and I don’t know how to make custom skins — plus I work full‑time, so that’s not something I can take on. I did compare everything to real footage, but I understand your point, and next time I’ll look through the downloadable skins section to see what’s available there to I had not thought of that.
C) I’m also limited by the game’s format. I used the Kursk map, even though it’s not a perfect historical representation of the actual village based on period maps and footage. All the environmental details were set to summer, including straw decor, which historically fits the season. When it comes to capturing combat footage on a specific map, my options are limited:
I can queue into battles and hope I get the right map with players using period‑appropriate camos (which does happen sometimes). I can try the mission creator, which I’ve been experimenting with but haven’t mastered yet. Or I can use custom missions, which unfortunately are pretty broken.
That’s why you see T‑34/57s — it bothered me too. Once you set a battle rating, the game only spawns a couple of baseline models, and they change every few BR steps. Sometimes they use your selected camo, sometimes only the default. I try to use those shots from far away or very close up so insignia aren’t visible. I even experimented with uneven numbering like you see in real footage, but those clips looked too crisp and ended up looking fake, so I cut them.
D) Lastly, during Operation Citadel, units were pulled from all over the German front, often without time to repaint or adjust camouflage. So it wasn’t unusual to see vehicles or aircraft with markings or camos that didn’t perfectly match the local environment. That variation was actually common at Kursk.
I really did put in the research — I promise. And I’m always trying to get better.
If you check out my past videos (they are nice too), you will see camera angles, rhythm, timing, clarity, and length have all improved.
Thank you so much for your feed back if you have any solutions to the above issues or any one please let me know.
Also if anyone knows how to make the replay camera motions smoother I’d love to know.
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Any tutorials you recommend for CDK. I’ve had so much trouble with it. the tutorials I have found have not been very helpful to me.
KohleR Can you give me an example of “Work on the fusion of music with the environment.” Maybe give a time mark and what you expect. I hope this doesn’t come off wrong. I just truly want to understand what to fix.
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It should have been a Ferdinand rather than an Elefant.
Regarding the camouflage, in your video there is a black-and-white clip showing an Elefant with no visible markings on the side. It’s possible that the tactical numbers and the Balkenkreuz were painted on the rear of the vehicle. There also seems to be a name written on the front, but it’s too blurry to identify clearly.
As for the Panther, the camouflage at that time was still relatively early-war style and definitely not the same as the one shown in your test drive. The 251/22 and the 234/4 are vehicles from 1944.
"You’re spot on! It was definitely a Ferdinand vs. Elefant situation. Since the game only offers the video specific Kursk camouflage on the Elefant (you can see it at the 0:59 mark), I had a bit of a dilemma. To make it work, I purposely filmed it from low angles and the rear to try and hide most of the visual differences between the two models. I had to roll with the Balkenkreuz being visible on the side because of the in-game camo, but I think I made the most of the tools I had!
As for the *Panther, oh, you caught my little secret! It’s only on screen for a split second, and I used a ‘close-enough’ marking since it’s the only SS decal I have. I also used the test drive map to get those burning buildings in the background—good eye on that one! I even added a piece of the Mephisto marking to vibe with the song, even if it isn’t period-accurate. I kept the camos as they were just to break up the monotony of the plain vehicles. The fact you caught it just makes me proud of my fellow thunder player.
Regarding the 251/22 and 234/4, that was totally my mistake. I misread a source that was discussing multiple models, but I’ll definitely do a deeper dive next time.
Overall, I hope you enjoyed the video! Given the creative problem-solving and the effort to keep it visually engaging, how would you rate it on a scale of 1–10?
But in terms of the video’s rating, I would give it a 5 — and with your effort to recreate history, I’d raise it to a 6. My standard is very high out of 10, but compared to other videos, it’s much better. It’s just that there’s no one helping you.
Apologies forgot to answer im rarely active on the forum, what i meant was find a perfect combination of cinematic songs to go along with the footage you can see other cinematics on ytb, and regarding the CDK the tutorials on War Thunder wiki are pretty much updated and explains things in detail. https://wiki.warthunder.com/
Overall pretty good job! will be waiting for more :D
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Well that is a high standard. However I appreciate your recognition of the effort. 07
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