How to make custom user skins (with damaged model)

This is a guide to make user skins for vehicles in War Thunder. War Thunder is a massive free game, and custom vehicle skins are the perfect way to customize your experience. In this guide, I'll provide a walkthrough of how to use GIMP to quickly edit user skins. This guide even includes how to make a seamless transition to the damaged texture, in order to keep damage from erasing custom textures.

Prep Work

War Thunder’s collection of planes is massive, but sometimes your vehicle needs to set itself apart. Enter user skins. This feature gives anyone incredibly powerful customization tools with just a piece of free software. This guide will provide a walkthrough of how to make a custom skin for just about any vehicle. Something to note: it is likely that you are using another OS. This guide may not be exactly correct for other use cases, including non-Steam installs.

Step 1: Get GIMP. This image editing program can have a steep learning curve, but is one of the few ways to work with the .tga file format used for War Thunder skins.

Step 2: Open War Thunder.

Step 3: Pick a vehicle, and create a skin template under the customization option. Here I’m doing it for my SB2C-1c. This will create a folder in your UserSkins folder with a name like template_sb2c_1c, except with the name of your vehicle.


Step 4: Navigate to your UserSkins folder. Mine is at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\War Thunder\UserSkins. My version of War Thunder is running on a Windows 10 computer, so your path may be different. The folder will look something like this:



Step 5a: At this point, if you wish, you can rename the relevant template folder to anything you like.
Step 5b: Open the template folder for the vehicle you want to customize.

Step 6: Open <vehicle_name>_a.tga in GIMP. In my case, that would be sb2c_1c_a.tga.

Undamaged Texture

Step 7: On the texture file, locate the part of the vehicle you want to modify and make your changes. It is vital that these changes are made on a new layer. For this, I’m putting an image of the War Thunder logo as well as a rather familiar snail logo.


Step 8: Using the slider on the right, lower the opacity such that you can see the texture through the image. This will allow the texture of the plane (bolts, seams, etc.) to show through.


Step 9: Go to File > Export As: and overwrite your previous file. This must have the same <vehicle_name>_a.tga name. Make sure the option Select File Type (By Extension) is checked.


Step 10: Click Export on the box that appears.

Step 11: Now, if you refresh the skin in the hangar, your image will appear. Make sure the template is selected.

Damaged Texture

Step 12: There is one problem left: any damage taken will switch to the damaged file, removing your changes. To fix this, open <vehicle_name>_a_dmg.tga in GIMP. Do not close your previous file.

Step 13: In the bar of images, on the top of the screen, open your previous file. Right click then select “Duplicate” on the layer with your edits. Drag the duplicated layer into the icon image for the damaged file, then drag it into the center. Your edits should appear on the damaged texture.


Step 14: Turning the visibility of your image layer off, located damage on the texture underneath. Turning visibility back on, use the erase tool (select a small brush from the grid in the upper right) to remove parts of your image from over the damage holes. Accuracy isn’t very important here. It’s very important to only select the layer with your images, so that you don’t poke holes in the plane.


Step 15: Staying on the erase tool, select texture brushes from the upper right grid. I like a combination of charcoal on top of pencil scratch. Combine clicking in single places and dragging until you have a suitably damaged image. Again, be sure that only your image layer is selected, so that the vehicle’s base layer is not erased.


Step 16: Export the damaged file, overwriting <vehicle_name>_a_dmg.tga. Now, in the hanger, after you refresh the skin and enable “Damaged Model Preview,” hover the mouse over the damaged part of the plane to see the properly damaged plane!

Done!

Now you have a customized, totally unique vehicle! You can repeat this for as many vehicles as you need. This customization ability is one of many great features of War Thunder, and the implementation is such that anyone can make amazing looking airplanes (and tanks and ships and helicopters).

If this guide doesn't work for you, please leave a comment. I want to present the best version possible of this guide.

War Thunder forum user xHDx made another great guide (the guide from which I learned) that is available here: https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/125622-tutorial-creating-user-skins/

[DeHatEzViz]

Good to know

[「Holo San」]

why my template is pixelated and very small in gimp or other apps?

[Kai]

@natsurizu ok dude, what the flip

[AguDK]

@natsurizu what the f

[natsurizu]

gg, thx for this guide, now i can make imperial japanese planes with waifus