[fly_zo]

Thanks Gringo, but its not painting and making textures that are required.
I intend to access those which are already inherent within the game, probably using the NW Europe map textures. The way this works is that the file map_T.tga is a greyscale image with various shades of grey on each pixel. Depending on which map your are using the RGB number of each pixel defines which texture map is called up to fill that space. So if you change the shade of grey the texture map which is called up will change.

A lot of work has already been done by others on this so I am hoping someone with the knowledge will step up -- at least to offer themselves as a tutor. Otherwise I have a steep learning curve to ascend.

Thanks for the offer though.

... well i don't have time for tutoring but i may offer some advice that made my life so much easier when modding map_T.tga....

first take every shade of gray ( from starting map file) and make swatches ... recognize which shade do what change ( forest....towns...airfields...hills... factories....) ...
changes apply via layers ( so you can easily make adjustments)
and most important of all : use pencil tool .... no blurring is allowed on map_T.tga

hope that will help

Z