Gents, a beta mod allowing you to place BoB Sqn codes on Spits and Hurricanes
Read Me:-
Mod: “New Battle of Britain Hurricane & Spitfire Squadrons: Defenders of the Empire”
This mod adds 40 new squadrons to the game, plus custom skins and MATs and thus allows all 52 Hurricane and Spitfire squadrons that fought in the Battle of Britain to appear in game with HISTORICAL SKINS AND MARKINGS. Now we don’t need over 600 skins to represent each individual aircraft (there are in fact only 32 new skins in this mod). MatManager IS NOT needed to use this mod. As an added bonus, I’ve included Spitfire Mk. I skins for use in Compans’ “Under the White Rose” Campaign. If you want to use these, you will not need to use his MatManager files and will also need to edit the mission files to use the Spit I and 609 Squadron.
–HOW TO USE THIS MOD
Once installed (see below), first select your aircraft (Hurricane or Spitfire), then select RAF in the arming screen and make sure markings are on, then find the skin you want (all skins are named by squadron numer. e.g. 19.bmp or 74-152.bmp etc for those that can be used for multiple units) and finally select the corresponding squadron number in the pull down menu. The correct markings will now be displayed. You are now ready to fight. You can of course use any unmarked skin with roundels and tailflash, but be aware that you will need to edit Spitfire Skins to use the in game unit codes as the markings sometimes don’t display at the wingroot depending on the unit letter; just look at a skin that corresponds to the unit of the one you want to use and make the same small edit by copying and pasting the two small areas of grey from my original skin into your skin.
This mod has been tested on two IL-2 installs on different machines with and without MatManager and has worked flawlessly on both…
–For those of the rivet-counting persuasion, please note that this is an almost exact reproduction of the “Battle of Britain II Wings of Victory” game’s “Multiskin 2.07” but for IL-2. If you have any problems with my choice of skins/markings, take it up with the BDG over at the Shockwave forum, not me, thank you.
Here is an extract from the Multiskin Readme for your consideration:
Some comments on RAF Fighter Command paintschemes 1939-1941.
The colours Dark Earth and Dark Green were standard for upper surfaces until May 1942. There was little variation in the patterns other than a mirror-image application.
The two s were designated ‘A’ and ‘B’ schemes. (‘B’ schemes are
modelled here).
Undersurfaces and underside national markings were subject to a number of changes:
-In early 1940, the official scheme had a white right wing, black left wing and split fuselage colours to match. In fact, the
manufacturers interpreted this as requiring an aluminium finish to the fuselage, which was an error, but it was not corrected
for a long while. No underwing roundels. (Before this date various versions with and without roundels had been used)
-On 18th May 1940 Roundels were reintroduced, but with a yellow roundel ring on the left wing. The entire fuselage and tail
surfaces were now split white/black for new aircraft. Black was intended to be the specific colour ‘night’, though this did
not always happen.
-On 6th June 1940 the colour designated “Type S” was introduced for undersurfaces, without underwing roundels. With modern
perspective (and communications methods), it is easy to be critical of the problem that neither manufacturers nor existing
squadrons actually knew what “Type S” looked like! More than one written clarification was made, but the effect was to
introduce a range of colours in the field from ‘Duck Egg Blue’ to ‘Duck Egg Green’ to ‘Light Grey’. To compound the problem,
official stocks of “Type S” paint were not available freely until over a month later than this. Each squadron/maintenance
unit and each manufacturing location had to interpret what can best be desribed as ‘imprecise’ instructions. I have modelled
a common ‘Duck Egg Bluish Green’, which is indeed how one Ministry correction described the colour. (Later on, the Ministry
would correct the description to be ‘Sky’, but by then the term ‘Duck Egg Blue’ was popularly established.)
-On 1st August 1940 large (45/50") roundels reintroduced.
-After the official end to the battle, from 27th November 1940 a black left wing was reapplied, along with a sky spinner
and tailband.
As some of these changes were introduced in the middle of the Battle of Britain there was considerable field variation, as one might imagine.
Hawker Hurricane
Unit specific emblems for Squadron Numbers 1 (wasp), 3 (spinner), 85 (hexagon), 87 (cat), 242 (booting Hitler), 303 (National), 310 (National) Squadrons.
Scheme 1- night/white undersides, no under-wing roundels, full-fin flash
Scheme 2- night/white undersides, under-wing roundels, half-fin flash
Scheme 3- blue undersides, large fuselage roundels, no under-wing roundels, half-fin flash
Scheme 4- large fuselage roundels, no under-wing roundels, full-fin flash
Scheme 5- no under-wing roundels, half-fin flash
Scheme 6- small under-wing roundels, full-fin flash
Scheme 7- standard underling roundels, small fin flash
Scheme 8- night/sky undersides, under-wing roundels, sky-blue tail band/spinner
Supermarine Spitfire
Unit specific emblems for Squadron Numbers 54 (kiwi), 65 (East India), 66 (spinner), 234 (mailed fist).
Scheme 1- blue undersides, no under-wing roundels
Scheme 2- no under-wing roundels (standard early battle scheme)
Scheme 3- oversized fuselage roundels, blue undersides, no under-wing roundels
Scheme 4- underside roundels (standard late battle scheme)
Scheme 5- wingtip underside roundels
Now that’s out of the way, let’s get on with it 
INSTALLATION
Take the contents of the “PUT_IN_MODS” folder and put it in your Mods folder
–Next, do the same with the “PUT_CONTENTS_IN_SKINS” folder
That’s it!
This will work with or without MatManager, though if you have any custom Mat type mods in your Mod folder, you should either disable them by adding a - in front of the mod (folder) name or add an “a” to the start of this mods name to make sure that it loads first.
The only problem you might have with using MatManager is that some British Roundels might not appear on later war aircraft if you use the “Markings On” option in game. Just diasble this mod with the “- in front of the folder name” trick and all will be well. If problems persist, disable this mod and clear your cache (add ClearCache=1 in conf.ini GAME section; please note Cache and Clear have the first letter in CAPS), then go to MatManager and reload your settings.
Thanks to :
-Gaston, wingflyr and ILV_Aquila_Noctis for work on adding squadrons, and all the people at http://www.allaircraftarcade.com/forum/index.php for their pioneering mod work
-QTim for making this possible
-CanonUK and Kristorf for the great skins that underpin this mod
-Oleg Maddox for this wonderful sim
-The men and women of the RAF who defended my country so valiantly in 1940.
that allowed this to be taken to IL2