DCS Aircraft Skins

335th Assault Helicopter Company Vietnam Skin Pack
 
"A" Company of the 82nd Aviation Battalion (82nd Airborne Division) deployed to Vietnam in April 1965 in support of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. In September 1966, A Company was decommissioned and recommissioned as the 335th Aviation Company (months later redesignated the 335th Assault Helicopter Company). The 335th AHC was returned stateside and decommissioned in November 1971.
 
This is a collection of eight skins representing the 335th AHC in Vietnam (1966-70) as well as A Co., 82nd AvBn in 1965-66.
Glossy black of A Co. 82nd AvBn in 1965 (#648)
Two Tone camouflage of A Co. 82nd AvBn in 1965-66 (#625)
Two Tone camouflage of the 335th AHC in 1966 (#561)
Two Tone camouflage of the Gunship Platoon "Falcons" in 1966-67 (#928)
"Horse Thief", a designated recovery helicopter used by the Maintenance Platoon (1966-67). The four-color camouflage scheme was unique.
1st Platoon "Ramrods" green paint scheme in 1968-70 (#373)
1st Platoon "Ramrods" green paint scheme in 1968-70 (#572)
2nd Platoon "Mustangs" green paint scheme in 1969-70 (#252)

 
 
 
All reference imagery was taken from
http://vietnam-hueys.tripod.com/335th%20AHC%20home%20page.htm
 
 
Skinner's Philosophy:
 
Because the 3D models used for the aircrew utilize modern flight gear I have chosen to model the skins as "modern aircraft with nostalgic patterns", as opposed to actual Vietnam era skins.. The significance of this is that I have chosen to skin the aircrew in contemporary flight uniforms. I felt that this was more fitting in a setting that involves modern orders of battle, and is also less of an immersion-killer than seeing Vietnam era "uniforms" on clearly modern objects.
 
Note: the camouflage patterns are not historically accurate, but rather are based on the US DOS pattern by Belsimtek. If anybody can provide me with the patterns for the two tone scheme and/or "Horse Thief" I would be happy to redo the camouflage pattern to historical accuracy. That said, in this case I would rather use an existing pattern rather than "make up" 3/4 of the pattern in both cases.
 
 
A note about the Crew Chiefs & Door Gunners:
 
Since enlisted US troops don't wear rank/rate insignia on flightsuits, their rank/rate is displayed on their nametag. Since there are no specific nametag textures for the crew chief/door gunner texture, I have added a nametag to the velcro on the chest armor (as is standard practice).
 
In choosing names for the textures, I opted for US servicemembers who received the Medal of Honor. SFC Paul Smith received the Medal of Honor posthumously in the Global War on Terror, and represents the United States Army in these skins. Here is his Medal of Honor Citation:
 
Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with an armed enemy near Baghdad International Airport, Baghdad, Iraq on April 4, 2003. On that day, Sergeant First Class Smith was engaged in the construction of a prisoner of war holding area when his Task Force was violently attacked by a company-sized enemy force. Realizing the vulnerability of over 100 soldiers, Sergeant First Class Smith quickly organized a hasty defense consisting of two platoons of soldiers, one Bradley Fighting Vehicle and three armored personnel carriers. As the fight developed, Sergeant First Class Smith braved hostile enemy fire to personally engage the enemy with hand grenades and anti-tank weapons, and organized the evacuation of three wounded soldiers from an armored personnel carrier struck by a rocket propelled grenade and a 60 mm mortar round. Fearing the enemy would overrun their defenses, Sergeant First Class Smith moved under withering enemy fire to man a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on a damaged armored personnel carrier. In total disregard for his own life, he maintained his exposed position in order to engage the attacking enemy force. During this action, he was mortally wounded. His courageous actions helped defeat the enemy attack, and resulted in as many as 50 enemy soldiers killed, while allowing the safe withdrawal of numerous wounded soldiers. Sergeant First Class Smith's extraordinary heroism and uncommon valor are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, the Third Infantry Division 'Rock of the Marne,' and the United States Army.
 
 
Installation:
Copy the folders (except for TempTextures; see below) to your Liveries\uh-1h folder (either in DCS World\Bazar or Saved Games\DCS).
 
 
Optional:
I have included files that have (IMHO) improved the default textures of the pilots and door gunners. They now wear the standard green and grey nomex flight gloves and have pencil pockets on their left sleeves, similar to my USN and USMC uniform textures. Additionally, I included a 1st Cavalry patch that blocks the alpha channel for the First Sergeant rank, which removes sleeve rank insignia from the gunners' flightsuits (enlisted troops in the US services don't wear rank insignia on flightsuits).
 
To enable these textures, just copy the contents of the _Optional\TempTextures folder to your DCS World\Bazar\TempTextures folder. To disable the textures, just delete them from TempTextures and the default textures will be used instead. As of version 1.21, the US Army skins no longer use the default aircrew textures, but they are still improvements over the defaults. In either case, using the revised default 1st Cavalry texture is highly recommended.
 
 
Optional:
The release of DCS World 1.2.4 added the ability to add texture paths using the file "autoexec.cfg" in your Saved Games\DCS\Config folder. This will allow you to save hard drive space as long as the skin filenames are unique. My skins support this, so any DDS file with the same name will be identical.
 
In order to enable this feature, add the following line to autoexec.cfg (be sure to create the file if it doesn't exist):
 
table.insert(options.graphics.VFSTexturePaths, "C:/Users/<username>/Saved Games/DCS/Textures")
 
You can use any path (even a different drive), but you must use forward slashes for your path. Backslashes won't work here.
 
Then, you can move all of the DDS files from each of the skin folders to this new folder you've added to your path. Allowing overwrites is not a problem, as I use unique names for each file. Finally, be sure to go into each description.lua file and change all "false" entries to "true."
 
 
 
 
Special thanks to upuaut for assistance with the more "exotic" material names, as well as the assistance with custom rotor colors.
 
You are free to use any of the textures in other skins or projects as long as proper credit is provided in the readme file.
 
 
 
 
-Home Fries

ModMan 7.3 with the November 2012 update is required to use this mod. If you arent using ModMan 7.3 (Nov 2012), then see the bottom of this file for manual installation instructions.
 
This mod replaces the default 1024x1024 pilot texture with 2048x2048 pilot textures based on the pilot texture for the F-15C. The high resolution textures were ported over and adjusted where required to maintain compatibility with the slight differences in the A-10 pilot texture.
 
On top of this, I have added unit patches to each of the default USAF squadrons included with DCS World. This also includes unit morale patches on the right shoulder where applicable and the proper Major Command (MAJCOM) on the chest.
 
I have also tweaked the description.lua files to apply the F-15 helmet (the Kevlar grey helmet), replacing the default white helmet that is better served for USN aircraft. I did not replace the helmet texture to ensure compatibility with other aircraft; should you wish to apply the kevlar helmet to other 3rd party A-10 skins you can analyze the description.lua files for the proper lines to add to your other files.
 
Finally, I added a default pilot_a10.dds file to TempTextures, which ensures that the high resolution skin is available for 3rd party A-10 skins. Since there is no designated squadron for a generic skin, I used a "Hawgsmoke 2012" patch on the right shoulder to add color. If you do not wish to use this for the default A-10 pilot skin, just remove pilot_a10.dds from the Bazar\TempTextures folder, and the original A-10 pilot will be restored for all other skins.
 
 
Manual Installation:
If you wish to manually install this mod, then back up your Bazar\Liveries\A-10A and Bazar\Liveries\A-10C folders. Once you have done this, then just unzip the files to your DCS World folder, ensuring that the recursive folder structure is intact.
 
Manual Removal:
1. Restore your original Liveries folders (you did back them up, right?)
2. Delete "pilot_a10.dds" from the Bazar\TempTextures folder
3. Delete the folder Bazar\World\Textures\A-10 (don't worry; the original files are in the A-10.zip file in the Textures folder)
 
 
 
 
Enjoy!
 
-Home Fries

This is the template I used to create the pilot skins for default A-10 aircraft. The template is 2048x2048 to accommodate the higher resolution F-15C pilot skin, though the original A-10 skin is available as background. Since the F/A-18C pilot skins use the same texture (albeit shaded), I have added USN/USMC units as well.
 
The template includes green, desert, and black flightsuits, the SRU-21P survival vest, different unit patches, morale patches, A-10 type patches, and pencil patches. In addition, there is a modular nametag set that allows different colored nametags, different types of warfare badges (e.g. USN Pilot & NFO wings, Jump wings, etc.), and a place to add your name.

The pack includes 2 standard paint scheme of hungarian air force
 
Extract and copy this folder to:
Bazar\Liveries\mi-8mt

Extract and copy this folder to
 
Bazar\Liveries\su-27

Extract and copy this folder to
 
Bazar\Liveries\su-27

Extract and copy this folder to
 
Bazar\Liveries\su-27

This a fictional repaint of the DCS World/FC3 Su-27 Flanker in a Ukranian AF low-viz "Splinter" colour scheme.
Please read the readme file for installation.
 
Thank you.
 
Rob(viperrm64)Mason.

This is a fictional skin pack (seven in all), for the DSC World/FC3 Su-27 Flanker. This is actually version 2 of this pack and contains seven repaints, all fictional, but trying to keep within Russian Air Force colour and colour scheme parameters. They are really just a play on colours using G.K.'s superb PSD DCS Su-27 template but some are more extensive repaints than others. You will notice skin RM7 is missing, this was removed for version 2 as it was TERRIBLE!!!!!, but I hope you will like the rest of them.
Please read the readme file carefully for installation. Please note the skins have been updated since I took the included screenshots.
 
Thanks for downloading my skins.
 
Rob(viperrm64)Mason.

A fictional repaint of the DCS World/FC3 Su-27 Flanker in Low-Visibilty, Ukranian Air Force colours and markings. I hope you like it.
Please read the readme file carefully as this has custom marking to install separately.
 
Thank you for downloading my repaint.
 
 
Rob(Viperrm64)Mason