You should have no trouble using the 1.1 or similar exe's in Great Shot!, Lonny.
I believe the 1.2 requirement is so that you have the all-important eaw.ini file, which controls so much.
Yes, Black Adder made it easier for everyone to play the scenarios. Which were getting complicated at the time
As far as the grey shadows, (transparent, really) that was a choice of the mod maker. One of the 3DZ files which "draw" the aircraft has a shadow file. Opinions varied on what shadow was better (What a surprise! Glad that never happens now.
)
If you want to learn a little airplane designing, you can start with the shadow files.