The 3rd P.G. Skin Pack!

[No.23_Triggers]

 

 

Greetings, all! 

I'm very happy to announce that the 3rd Pursuit Group USAS' Squadron Skin-Pack is now complete! As we are a historical unit, our skin-pack contains both our personal 'fictional' designs, as well as 33 Historical SPAD 13.C1s of the 28th, 93rd, 103rd and 213th Aero Squadrons! 

 

Our historical Skins are named in the following style: (SQUADRON, Pilot Name) 

Our fictional Skins are named in the following style: (z 3PG Pilot Name)

Here is the download for the full pack (49 Skins): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SAKMzynXb9haTXaIO7KxUNfdmDxlyHXi/view?usp=sharing


ABOUT THE 3rd PURSUIT GROUP SKIN PACK:

 

As we are a unit that likes to emulate the history of the AEF as closely as possible, meticulous research went into the creation of the 3rd P.G. Skin-Pack! Everything from historical images, to original USAS records, to historical references was used to try and re-create the SPADs of the 3rd Pursuit Group USAS as authentically as possible!

 

 

We determined the historical Factory Finishes, Camouflage Colours and Roundel Colours by using Cross & Cockade's fantastic study of French Camo Schemes, a three-part study named the 'Butterfly Project'. This went into extensive detail about the colours of the paints, camouflage variants of each manufacturer, and even the materials used to create the finish! We used this study alongside historical images to land at (what we believe is) the most accurate historical representation of the SPAD XIII's colour scheme. 

This is done to the smallest detail - not only including the different factory patterns for each SPAD, but also the individual manufacturer's markings for each Serial Batch. For example, a SPAD with the serial number 7550 may have different markings on the rudder to a SPAD marked 7650, despite both being built by the Kellner Factory! 




UNIT MARKINGS & INSIGNIA: 

Each unit's insignia was painstakingly recreated from historical examples, and brought to 4K standard. In the case of the 103rd, our original Squadron, SPADs will even bear uniquely-painted Sioux insignia, as no two Squadron insignia were ever painted exactly the same - a fact we've sought to recreate with our own pack! Using resources such as Gorrell's History of the A.E.F, we have been able to match up serial numbers and fuselage numbers to the correct historical pilots. Through further research, we have been able to determine the correct factory camouflage patterns for these planes. 

 

ADDITIONAL DETAILS: 

We have designed our skin-pack to be as authentic as possible, right down to the smallest detail. As the SPAD manufacturers hand-painted their Roundels, we have done the same! A closer look at the roundels will reveal some uneven edges. Some of our machines also display patched-up bullet holes, marked with small Iron Crosses - a historical practice of the USAS' pilots. As well as the roundels, many of our SPADs' numbers have also been "Hand-Painted" to add to the authentic look. 

 

FICTIONAL SKINS: 

In addition to the historical skins, we have included some of our own Fictional designs. Keeping with our historical approach, our Skins are all subject to historical standards, and so will fit right in with their historical counterparts! Every design seen on a fictional aircraft of the 3rd Pursuit Group is based on historical research and reference. 

 

A full list of the Skins included can be found in the Spoiler below: 
 

Spoiler

HISTORICAL SKINS:

28th Aero Squadron: 
-Default

-1st. Lt. Charles Maury Jones

-1st. Lt. Martinus Stenseth
-1st Lt. Hardendorf

-1st. Lt. Cline
-1st. Lt. Buchanan

 

93rd Aero Squadron: 

-1st. Lt. Alfred B. Patterson, Jr. 

-1st. Lt. Charles B. Maxwell
-1st Lt. Charles R. D'Olive

-1st. Lt. Chester Wright
-1st. Lt. Barron
-1st. Lt. Barry
 

103rd Aero Squadron: 

-Capt. Frank O'Driscoll Hunter

-Capt. G. DeFreest Larner
-1st Lt. B. Drummond Cannon

-1st. Lt. George W. Furlow
-1st. Lt. John Frost
-1st. Lt. Joseph Waddell
-1st. Lt. Percy R. Pyne
-1st. Lt. Lawrence E. Cauffman
-1st. Lt. William T. Ponder
-1st. Lt. William T. Rolph
 

213th Aero Squadron: 

-Capt. Charles G. Grey 

-1st. Lt. Alvin Treadwell
-1st Lt. Arthur W. Weirick

-1st. Lt. Henry S. Loomis
-1st. Lt. William F. Loomis
-1st. Lt. Lee
-1st. Lt. Aiken

-No. 13 (No Pilot Historically Assigned) 


FICTIONAL SKINS:

3rd Pursuit Group Headquarters: 
 z 3PG US103_Hunter

 z 3PG US103_Hunter B

 

93rd Aero Squadron: 

z 3PG US93_Larner
z 3PG US93_Larner_B
z 3PG US93_Hobbs
z 3PG US93_Bridgman

103rd Aero Squadron: 
z 3PG US103_Baer
z 3PG US103_Parsons

 

213th Aero Squadron: 

z 3PG US213_Talbot
z 3PG US213_Biddle 
z 3PG US213_Bellows
z 3PG US213_Hall
z 3PG US213_Doolittle

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Edited December 10, 2019 by US93_Larner

[No.23_Gaylion]

Guys,

 

I cannot begin to explain the absolute phenomenal effort that this man has put into these skins. The description barely skims the surface of the task he took on himself. They are but a fraction of what he had already done, over 80, which were lost due to hard drive crash.

 

The meticulous research put into this effort is unparalleled by anything I've ever seen before. His attention to detail, constantly striving for perfection, and steadfast dedication to the historical context is beyond simply copy and paste.

 

I would put this man in the top five percent in the world who have such in depth knowledge of SPAD markings, coloration, manufacturers--he's essentially the "Rain Man" of SPADS.

 

If only we could make money off of him....

 

We at the Third Pursuit Group cannot thank you enough for your hard work and know that you are fully appreciated.

Also: GFY.

[BMA_Hellbender]

Those are bloody awesome! Excellent work, sir.

 

And thanks for painting targets on your wings, those will sure come in handy for my rear gunner.

[J99_Sizzlorr]

How many GB are we talking? Hard drive space seems to be a big factor for me these days. And is it safe to delete your older skins or are you still using them? 

Edited December 14, 2019 by J99_Sizzlorr

[BMA_Hellbender]

1 hour ago, J99_Sizzlorr said:

How many GB are we talking? Hard drive space seems to be a big factor for me these days. And is it safe to delete your older skins or are you still using them? 

 

Unzipped it should be around 1GB.

 

 

I must say, I'm very tempted to use them. This is a pretty big step for me, considering the huge mess that Rise of Flight had become in the skins department and how I'd given up on community skins. The personal skins had become a bloated disaster and even the historical skin packs included many duplicates, captured skins with enemy markings and overall wild differences in quality. I found it was easier to just roll with the official skins.

 

Here I'm a bit torn, I'd love to see those historical 3PG skins flying around in multiplayer, but you've also added personal skins. Are those the ones you're actually going to fly with?

 

For my part, I'm considering making a very limited historical Schlasta 27b skin pack (some 3 or 4 skins), to be used interchangeably.

[No.23_Gaylion]

Yeah its a mess. Really sad too because there are some REALLY great skins out there and it's cool seeing someone flying and you know or see distinct markings on it.

 

There's no way to keep up with it. Its overwhelming. 

 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2019 by US213_Talbot

[JGr2/J5_Baeumer]

Very well done.   We will appreciate being able to distinguish one falling spad from another with more accuracy.

 

Seriously though, as a historically based Jasta, we have a shared appreciation for the dedication of time and decision making that goes into maintaining and recreating and even discovering historicity in the context of a gaming community.   Larners efforts to contribute in this way contributes to the colorful richness of the era we all share a passion for recreating together.  Danke!  S!

[TAAC_Blue]

@J5_Hellbender-Sch27b To the best of my knowledge, all of our personal skins mirror historical skins with only a small personal marking underneath the cockpit. This isnt really noticable unless your lined up next to us on the airfield or your zoomed in and looking at it in playback. 

 

Go ahead and download them so you can see that black and white 27 screaming past your burning CL.II!

[BMA_Hellbender]

45 minutes ago, US213_Hall said:

@J5_Hellbender-Sch27b To the best of my knowledge, all of our personal skins mirror historical skins with only a small personal marking underneath the cockpit. This isnt really noticable unless your lined up next to us on the airfield or your zoomed in and looking at it in playback. 

 

Go ahead and download them so you can see that black and white 27 screaming past your burning CL.II!

 

Oh I don't doubt the quality of the art, I just have an irrational anger/fear towards personal skins in general.

 

On the one hand I got burnt out making so many of them back in RoF, on the other hand you have people who decide to change skins later on anyway, or who simply stop playing and a ton of completely unused paintschemes are left behind on people's solid state drives. And no I don't want to start messing with symbolic links to dump them on a hard drive somewhere, or sorting them one by one with skin deletion programs. With historical skins, if nothing else you've collected a historical reproduction and it never goes out of style. Then the final nail in the coffin is that personal skins aren't even personal. They're not linked to a player's account in any way, and you can't stop anyone from impersonating you. Again with historical skins I felt honoured whenever I saw someone fly one of my Belgian Camels, but also strangely violated if I saw someone else use my personal IRFC Camel. I mean... why? It didn't even look good to begin with.

 

The solution to all of this is having some kind of personal decal tied to your account, which can then be applied to an official or custom historical skin of your choice. I think that the devs may have mentioned it at one point or another, but it's likely priority #154. (FC. Vol. 2 is priority #155)

 

Anyway, don't mind me, I'm just old and bitter and all these skins look amazing. ?

Edited December 14, 2019 by J5_Hellbender-Sch27b

[SYN_Skydance]

Nice skins guys. 
 

For those wondering about a symbolic link, as mentioned above, I’ll paste a copy of a post I made last year on The Syndicate forum........

SKINS Symbolic link

by SYN_Skydance » Fri Jul 20, 2018 9:24 pm 

How to create a symbolic link, in windows 10, so that you can use your "Rise of flight" skins in "Flying Circus" without using up any extra drive space.

I chose to do each aircraft separately as they are released.

Before commencing make a backup of the original skins. In my IL2 skins folder I renamed mine "FokkerDr1 original" etc

1) Type in Command Prompt in the bottom search bar.
2) When the command prompt pops up, right click on it, so that you can run it as an administrator
3) Click yes on the windows pop up and your command prompt window will pop up.

I have my IL2 stored on my "C" drive

eg - C:\Program Files (x86)\1C Game Studios\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Moscow\data\graphics\skins

and my RoF skins stored on my "H" drive

eg - H:\Program Files (x86)\Rise of Flight\data\graphics\skins

This means I want to place a shortcut (symbolic link) in my IL2 folder directing to the RoF folder

4) You will need to type the following information into the command prompt window.

mklink /d (this is the command for the symbolic link that we require)

the location of the IL2 skins folder (eg C:\Program Files (x86)\1C Game Studios\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Moscow\data\graphics\skins)

the location of the RoF folder (eg H:\Program Files (x86)\Rise of Flight\data\graphics\skins)


This means, for me, I would need to type the following, to create a FokkerDr1 symbolic link in my IL2 folder.

mklink /d "C:\Program Files (x86)\1C Game Studios\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Moscow\data\graphics\skins\FokkerDr1" "H:\Program Files (x86)\Rise of Flight\data\graphics\skins\FokkerDr1"

Please note the quotation marks at the start and end on both addresses. This is because of the spaces in the address. Without them the command prompt will give you a syntax error.

Hope this helps

[No.23_Triggers]

7 hours ago, J99_Sizzlorr said:

How many GB are we talking? Hard drive space seems to be a big factor for me these days. And is it safe to delete your older skins or are you still using them? 

We may still be flying older skins, but only rarely. I've tried to replace all US103 skins in use with the ones in the new pack - so feel free to clear out the old ones. 

File size is 671mb according to Google Drive!
 

5 hours ago, J5_Hellbender-Sch27b said:

Here I'm a bit torn, I'd love to see those historical 3PG skins flying around in multiplayer, but you've also added personal skins. Are those the ones you're actually going to fly with?

 

It all depends! Typically our members with fictional skins will fly those planes, but it's not necessarily a hard rule. As Talbot mentioned before, our fictional skins are grounded in historical basis to be historically plausible. In other words, no gaudy designs or insignia, and nothing that wouldn't have been approved by the real USAS. Sem-Historical might actually be a better-fitting term! 

 

As an example of how the fictional ones 'fit in' with the historical birds, here's a historical SPAD (No.14)  from our old pack next to a Fictional one (No.29): 

That being said, Talbot tends to fly the historical 213th birds as well as his own. Furlow flies historical planes, and I like to alternate between my fictional Number '0' and the historical birds. Hall's SPAD does have ahistorical markings, but has the correct historical number and serial number of a real-life 213th aero SPAD. 

Some of our members such as Cauffman, Bridgman, Bellows, etc, are 'assigned' historical skins, so you'll be sure to see some of the real-life birds in the sky! 

 

The other alternative is to drag all of the Z_3PG files out and have just the historical skins - but you may start seeing some default French SPADs in the formation  

Edited December 14, 2019 by US93_Larner

[BMA_Hellbender]

1 hour ago, US93_Larner said:

The other alternative is to drag all of the Z_3PG files out and have just the historical skins - but you may start seeing some default French SPADs in the formation  

 

Too late, I've gone and installed them all. It's your fault, shouldn't have made them so good looking.

 

Stupid sexy SPADs.

[US103_Baer]

Some skins have to be classified as Fictional simply because for good, logical reasons they didn't actually exist, even if they follow historical guidelines.

 

My chap, Paul F. Baer never flew a Spad XIII, despite flying with the US103rd until shot-down May 22 1918,  he was using a Spad VII only. 

So an S XIII skin for him has to be deemed fictional. 

 

There are no silly fictional skins in the pack, in fact I'd say they're essential and all have a purpose while looking like their historical counterparts.

Larner and Hunter are sticklers for this kind of thing!

Edited December 15, 2019 by US103_Baer

[No.23_Triggers]

2 hours ago, J5_Hellbender-Sch27b said:

 

Too late, I've gone and installed them all. It's your fault, shouldn't have made them so good looking.

 

Stupid sexy SPADs.

[No.23_Gaylion]

.......and then there's this guy.