With the Make Arma Not War 2025 modding competition now concluded, we’re excited to speak with the talented creators who claimed the top spots in each category. To kick things off, we’re sitting down with TepacheLoco, the developer behind the British Forces mod and the winner of this year’s Assets category, whose work left a strong impression on both players and judges alike.

BIO

Name: David

Nickname: TepacheLoco

Nationality: British

Random fact about yourself: I met Justin Bieber the day he changed his haircut, a landmark moment in pop culture history!

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Would you tell us a bit about yourself?

Certainly! I’m TepacheLoco, full-time sentient pineapple, part-time Arma modder. When I’m not at my desk, I enjoy being bad at archery, playing with my black cat, and repairing my old home.

How did you first get involved with Arma and modding?

I’ve been a fan of the series since Cold War Assault, which I first played around 2002. The local game shop staff had already got me onto Rainbow Six, and when I came back for more, they pointed me in the direction of the Arma series.

I couldn’t put the game down and kept playing an endless series of scenarios and ideas on Desert Island, and eventually discovered mods! I made some unauthorized modifications of a couple of Mechanic’s cars to rally variants, and one extremely basic-looking Caterham Super Seven, but that was as far as it went until 2017.

Would you give us an introduction to your winning creation?

British Forces mod brings to life the experience of being an infantryman in the British Army in the 1980s. It basically adds a whole new faction to the game. We’ve got all the weapons, uniform, and equipment a soldier could need, and our first foray into vehicles is with the iconic (copyright-friendly) Truck, Utility 109.

We’ve also added our own versions of the vanilla scenarios, so you can play Commando Ops (our British Special Forces take on Combat Ops), Elimination, Game Master, and Conflict. We’ve spent quite a lot of time on Conflict recently, and it’s fun to play with a differently balanced faction: One that starts quite slow and weak, builds up some hard-hitting long-range kit once you rank up, and hits the apex with extremely well-armed Special Forces units.

The Utility 109 in action.

How did the concept for the British Forces mod begin, and what inspired the creation?

It began about eight years ago, on a train home from a particularly dreary day at work. Out of the blue, it crossed my mind that I could have a go at making a Cold War British army mod for Arma 3. I’ve no clue why it came to mind; there was nothing in my day that would’ve prompted it. Once it was there, I couldn’t get it out of my head.

So I got into the tools and had a go, and the first few things I made were simply garbage (you can see an example of this below). So I deleted all that in a fit of embarrassment and had another go, and it was a bit less terrible. With the support of the Arma Cold Warriors community (special thanks are due to Mondkalb of Global Mobilization fame) I kept on iterating over and over, until I had a reasonably good mod on my hands called Spearpoint.

As time passed (a little spent working on the SOG: Prairie Fire DLC) I started to grow a bit tired of modding Arma 3. When Reforger came out, it was clearly the place I wanted to be. Seeing a new engine and the opportunity to help lead the charge of what was possible, it felt like a no brainer. British Forces mod was the result.

My first steps in modding were troubled at best.

Moustaches aplenty in Arma 3’s Spearpoint Mod.

Give us some insight into the development process for the mod. Are there any interesting anecdotes you can share?

The British Forces mod started out as a bit of a fiddle around in various eras - some old kit, some very modern - but eventually I decided to focus the scope down to just getting Cold War vanilla-era-appropriate content in the game.

One of the key moments in the mod’s development happened about a year ago. I had been playing with a 3D-scanning phone app and decided to pick up a British Army field dressing from a surplus shop. I scanned it in-game and shared some pictures on Discord. People mostly went mild at the prospect of adding a bandage, but then someone pointed out that no other mod had made a custom bandage yet. It gave a glimpse of a way to differentiate the mod: focus on getting every detail right and not just the uniforms or weapons. This kicked us off on the path that led us to where British Forces mod is today.

Whilst British Forces began as a one-man mod team, there were a few parts I struggled with. I’m a terrible animator, so I was very pleased when Khaos reached out to me, offering to help. They are a talented animator and also interested in Cold War British kit. I set them to work straight away on making the L85 feel as good as it looked, and the rest, as they say, is history. Khaos is now very much the co-owner of what British Forces has become.

British Forces mod originally spanned a much larger era than the eventual scope of the mod.

The field dressing set the tone for the level of detail of the rest of the model and was our first successful step in 3d scanning real props.

Could you tell us about any future updates that might be coming to British Forces mod? 

We’ve been quite tight-lipped about our plans, but now feels as good a time as ever to spill the beans a bit. The next areas for development on British Forces are expanding the equipment available to specialist groups like recce and engineers, and of course, working on our next vehicle. We’re chipping away at our first helicopter: The iconic, French-designed, British-manufactured sports car of the skies, the Gazelle.

The Prismatic Compass will give recce units an upgraded level of accuracy for identifying targets.

The Gazelle helicopter will be essential for scouting, light attack, and liaison duties.

Is there anything new that you might be working on in the future? 

Aside from British Forces mod, I’m across a few other projects. Myself, Khaos, and Kronque run ‘ARMA-RY’, a mod devoted to a wider range of Cold War equipment. Now that we’ve experimented a bit more with scripting for British Forces, it’s opening up a whole new world of possibilities for the content we want to add to the game.

If that’s not enough, I have one idea for a much larger project in a different era that’s been sitting in the back of my head for the last year. Another thing I can’t get out of my head. But, maybe that is for Arma 4 😉

What is your favorite piece of Arma user-created content (mod, addon, scenario, game mode, tool) and why?

Global Conflicts has nailed a great combination of frameworks for running large 128-player PvE and PvP scenarios on a weekly basis - super impressive and great fun. Your401kPlan has made some great East German equipment mods, and RHS are the high water mark that we aim for when it comes to asset quality and interactivity. Scenario-wise, NotSocrates’ Escapists, Ironbeard’s Seize & Secure, and JohnnyKerner’s Freedom Fighters are all top banana.

With the popularity of Arma Reforger and the potential of Enfusion Engine and Workbench, what are you looking forward to with the franchise as we move along the road to Arma 4?

Perhaps a return to Desert Island. In truth, I’m excited to see whatever it brings. The Arma series is built on a legacy of 26 years of development of this particular type of game, and I’ve been able to see that evolution all the way along. I think it’s fair to say that, despite any obstacles and challenges along the way, the series is in good hands.

On a more selfish note: towing trailers and digging holes in the ground are two important parts of British doctrine, so I’d love to see some support for them in the future!

BONUS

What is your most remarkable “Arma” moment?

That would have to be a 128-player Falklands war scenario with one side filled with mostly Brits and the other with mostly Argentinians. There was an incredible feeling to the atmosphere of the battle with the walk into the objective, mortars illuminating the battlefield, and tracers passing overhead! I’m terribly bad at playing Arma titles, so I was eliminated not long after, but those moments of immersion are like no other game.

What advice do you have for people who want to start modding?

Start with something really small and basic! Make a field dressing, or a pair of binoculars, or a hat. Go through all the steps of going from making the model to getting it working in-game and published and shared with the community. Appreciate that it’s probably not going to look as good as you want it to, and then have another go!