I am not sure either, unfortunately.

no matter, i was lookign at the textures in photoshop, and it just alters the color density of the image, so i just save with whichever looks best. btw, looking in the carcasses file, which of the lion_cruisers is the one the player gets, none of them refer to _player or _pl0 as most player ships do, i dont want to accidently give it to the ai. of the mk2's there is:
Mothership_Lion_mk2
Mothership_Lion_mk2a
Mothership_Lion_mk2a_vks
Mothership_Lion_mk2_grey
Mothership_Lion_mk2a_grey

The one Viper gives you is Mothership_Lion, the one Trump gives you is Mothership_Lion_mk2a_vks. Neither are used by the AI in any way, shape, or form.

So, if i take the one Trump gives me, i need to change in carcasses under
"Mothership_Lion_mk2a_vks">

<flat_image>Lion_Cruiser_MK2_A</flat_image> to
<flat_image>Liger_Dreadnought</flat_image>

<mapping_name>Lion_Cruiser_MK2_A</mapping_name> to
<mapping_name>Liger_Dreadnought</mapping_name>

and keeping <mesh_name>Lion_Cruiser_MK2_A</mesh_name> as it is, if i guessed right

flat_image stays the same, mesh_name is what changes. Otherwise, you got it right.

I've just adapted a Starhammer model to replace this ugly Astarte tube. Even with the same equipment he is slightly better. Thanks to his skeletal construction turrets have wider field of fire but it's really hard to find good place for main guns and turrets.
Screen shows "mk2" version with 2 main guns (firing forward), 2 main turrets, 4 small turrets and 4 systems (and a little logo on the side;)).

This is interesting stuff, didnt know there veven were mods for SW1-2. I do have aquestion is it possible to bring in other moddels from other games, say like Wing Commander 4 Lance a.k.a Dragon, Banshee & Privateers 2 ships Heretic, Icarus?

It's always possible but usually you need to know how to use 3dsmax, photoshop and sometimes other editor to put all things together. Unfortunately, I can't so I'm editing existing models and adding old from SW1,2.

grrr, that logo is seriously crappy, ive tried altering it in photoshop, by selecting the area that the logo would be on top of, and replacing the spot in the image where the logo is, cancelling it out, but now for some reason, everytime i try to save the damn thing, i get a cant save due to disk write error, which is odd since i can save it as any other file type :(

right, ive managed to save it as a jpeg, if anyone can convert it back into dds, and test it

http://i63.servimg.com/u/f63/14/73/67/21/lion_c10.jpg

Edit: I am going to try to convert it and see if it works.