AIRFIX DOGFIGHTER CUSTOM SKINS PAGE

As I don't have time for a long tutorial, here's quick instructions on how to make your own skins:

first, the easiest way:

• after installing the missions skins above, there will be a directory \Graphics\Models\Acxxx for every plane model, any new folder in this directory with correctly named texture files will be considered a new skin by the game(e.g. 'Mission' should be there already)
  
  
• make a copy of the 'Mission' folder into the same directory(drag with right mouse button -> "Copy Here") and rename the copy to whatever name you like, just don't use whitespaces!
  
  
• if you extract the file Resource.up with the UP extractor, you will find lots of texture files(*.GTI) inside! Just copy the ones you like to the new skin directory
  
  
• replace the original *.GTI files with the new ones! The names are pretty distictive: "hellc_leftwingov1.gti" is the top of the Hellcat's left wing, "hellc_bodyri1.gti" the right side of the Hellcat's body etc... All you have to do is give these names to the texture files you just copied from somewhere else! If you don't want to delete the original files just rename them to "hellc_bodyri1.gti.bak" etc...

the complicated(but more rewarding) way:

• use the UP extractor or the mission skins to get your hands on a set of GTI files as described above
  
  
• drag&drop the GTI files you want to change(probably anything named "body" or "wing") on the UP extractor(upx.exe) to convert them to TGA
  
  
• edit the TGA file with your favourite graphics program, while taking care...
  • ...not to resize the image
  • ...to keep the color depth at 24 or 32 Bits
  • ...not to add any color maps(mostly when applying filters), creating a new image and copy&pasting the modified image generally helps
  • ...not to modify the existing alpha channel(transparency information)
  • ...to add a blank alpha channel to images that don't have one
  • ...to save your work under a different name with NO COMPRESSION
    
    
• drag&drop the result(new TGA image file) on the UP extractor(upx.exe) to convert it back to the GTI format
  
  
• compare file sizes of the original and your creation - if your file is smaller than the original, there's probably something wrong(see above)
  
  
• install your skin by using a copy of the original skin directory in \Graphics\Models\Acxxx, replacing the original GTI files with the ones you created
  
  
• launch the game and verify the result, the game reloads the skins every time a multiplayer level is loaded, so you only have to go back to the main menu after making a change

this is the list of the currently available custom skins:

IMAGE	NAME	PLANE	AUTHOR	DATE ADDED	DOWNLOAD
not available	Mission Skins	all	UDS	16.01.2003	download!
	Beer	Hellcat	ziggomorphic	16.01.2003	download!
	Boom	Hellcat	ziggomorphic	16.01.2003	download!
	SB_Hellcat	Hellcat	SpeedBump	20.01.2003	download!
	Midas_Touch	Hellcat	SpeedBump	22.01.2003	download!
	AquaMan	Hellcat	SpeedBump	22.01.2003	download!
	Explosion	Hellcat	Pirlone	22.01.2003	download!
	Scratched	Komet	Magnetic	22.01.2003	download!
	KraftEi	Komet	ziggomorphic	28.04.2003	download!
	Camouflage grey	Komet	Frank Phantom	01.11.2003	download!
	Camouflage brown	Komet	Frank Phantom	01.11.2003	download!
	Tiger	Komet	Frank Phantom	13.12.2003	download!
	Scale Ost Winter	Bf109	Frank Phantom	13.12.2003	download!
	Bf109 old movie	Bf109	ziggomorphic	13.12.2003	download!
	Bf109 skeleton	Bf109	ziggomorphic	13.12.2003	download!
	sharky	Spitfire	ziggomorphic	13.12.2003	download!
	Race Mustang	Mustang	Frank Phantom	14.12.2003	download!
	Phantom	Komet	Frank Phantom	01.03.2003	download!
	Nightflyer	Komet	Frank Phantom	01.03.2003	download!