Nose Art Plus! Give IsTail, Cowling and Spinner Schemes

[Yello1]

Two Points as to nose art, one why not put it on both sides of cockpit? Not historical but its already real tough to check out someones art as it is! Next why not add Tail, Spinner, and Cowling Art?  This could either be allowed to be ornate, or limited to simple patterns or color schemes. This could be individual or by the whole squad too. The nose art as is is cute, but not informative - you cant see it basically.  But if the tail and nose and spinner had a color scheme then you would say Ah look Yellow MArkings, thats a Yellow Flight Squad Plane, for example. This would add something to the game I think. You could also, if you were so inclined allow the lettering on the planes to be variable so a pilot could select his own lettering as well - thus the plane would clearly be in a given squad by its tail/cowling/spinner coloring and then the letter would tell you which pilot it was ( ie if the letter by the national insignia was Y1 and the markings were all yellow you would know it was Yello1 of yellow flight for instance).  If you wanted to be historical you could make the first letter squadron wide with the tail markings etc and then the second the individual but not sure if that would allow enough variables for the number of peeps in a squad. Much easier than trying to see the little nose art which often is behind an engine or wing. Its a little thing but would add to the enjoyment of the game I would say.  Why need to get shot down to know who you are fighting!

[Yeager]

It would be a benifit to the community to have squadron specific skins, or segments of skins (nose/wing/fuselage/tail) that could be uploaded or included in optional add-on packages.

The only thing I would ask for is historic, or at a minimum, realistic designs.

Y

[Kratzer]

Just make them subject to approval, ala the current nose art.

Honestly, I would guess we are a good ways off from anything like this.  But it would be cool if a squadron could specify their own designator... e.g. reichsdefense bands on LW aircraft.

[Yello1]

There are enough historical types that you could make a variety of selections available and have the players be able to fill in those or select color schemes for them. Just look at the art above here to see the various Squadron markings on these planes (B17 broad yellow stripe, 109 white nose, other B17 white square on tail with letter etc). These markings make a planes unit identifiable at a distance and a glance.  Yes you would want it to not be naked dancing dragons on a tail, that would not be identifiable at a distance and would be silly ( or worse disgusting !). But either review of each submission or standard templates would allow this to be avoided. Just to clear up what I mean by templates, here are some examples of templates.  Rudder and horizontal stabilizer is colored tail otherwise normal. Choose color.  Or Horizontal colored  band in middle of rudder and vertical stabilizer, choose color. Or Large Triangle with letter in middle of vertical stabilizer, choose color, letter and color of letter. Etc Etc Etc. Spinners would be simply a color and maybe variety of stripings (some schemes would be possible that did exist but were only detecable when engine off, such as spiral or quartering but this would serve no game purpose).  Nose would be like tail, stripes, solid, or lettering on a shape.  You could also have wingtip colorations or even symbols (such as the white arrow now on our Corsairs).  Well I think that is pretty clear at this point, clear as mud heh.

[Sturm]

I would love to see this implemented, the squad we represent had the most colorful designs of the entire Luftwaffe.
 http://www.stormbirds.com/experten/profiles1.htm  http://www.stormbirds.com/experten/profiles2.htm  http://home.att.net/~jv44/jv44wurger.htm
You cant get a good look at the bottom which sets these fighters a part from other LW AC.  Bright red stripes painted on the under wings to identify them to AA units at the fields.  I believe the skins might get thrown out of porportion but only allowed if they were real WW2 skins for planes.

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Sturm 6 StaffelKapitän
JV44 Platzschutzstaffel
Airfield Defense Squadron

[Yello1]

It wouldnt have to be actual Squad artwork. This would be a hassle as limiting and more importabtly people squabbling about is historical is not historical etc, too much research too for HiTech. Just make the rule be it has to be in the flavor of period squad markings, and subject to the subjective final word approval of Hitech. This keeps out the idiots who want a Metal Band logo on the tail yet allows freedom and variety and forgoes book work to make a squad color.