i was frustrated as i had been at it for seven hours. ok?

Hi Macphail
O.K the game is by default put into Steam/SteamApps/common in the Programes
folder in C:
And the 1cSoftClub in your Documents Folder also in C:
So no Probs.
BUT you have your game in a Seperate Drive Q: and 1cSoftClub in your Documents folder in C: which is where the problem lies.
So all you need to do is Copy your 1cSoftClub folder go to your Q: Drive and create a New folder called for example IL2 CLOD Now paste 1cSoftClub folder into IL2 CLOD then Copy your il2 sturmovik cliffs of dover folder in to it.
then add your skin into the corresponding PaintSchemes /Skins folder of BOTH.
Should look like this:
Q:/IL2 CLOD/
1cSoftClub/PaintSchemes/Skins/109-E4/......
il2 sturmovik cliffs of dover /PaintSchemes/Skins/109-E4/......
Now create a shortcut for your Launcher on your desktop for this location.

Remember that you MUST also retain existing folders in C: as the game needs Steam to Run
I also run Game from a seperate External HDD and these settings work fine .
Hope this Helps
Regards
Keith;)