Wop, Wolfram & the last flight of the Red Baron: cards for a Camel and a Dr1 repaint

[Pas de Nomme]

Gents: to make the last fight of the Red Baron a bit more interesting, here are cards for the two culprits that started it:

Brown’s rookie Ltn. Wilfrid Reid ‘Wop’ May, and the Baron’s rookie Ltn. Wolfram von Richthofen (his cousin). They were both ordered to stay high and out of the fight. There they met, with May going after Wolfram. Manfred intervened and chased Wop down to ground level, where Brown saved him. Then the machine-gunners on the ground got 1 round through Manfred: he landed and died.
Manfred made two critical mistakes: getting into a fight with only one functional machine gun (actually only half-functional: it could only fire 2-3 shot bursts at a time), and getting down to tree-top level, where small arms ground fire might hit him (many aces died from the same mistake).

Wop’s Camel is finished as per new regulations. His squadron was a bit slow following these and was ordered a week or so before the fight to remedy this a.s.a.p. We can assume Wop’s plane was new and thus painted according to the regs. Btw, this included a roundel between the squadron's bars on the fuselage sides (photos not showing this were taken during the short period that the squadron’s Camels were being repainted).
Wolfram’s Fokker probably was factory-fresh as well. One of the schemes that Fokker rolled the triplanes out in was olive drab streaks over light blue. That’s what I used here, because one after action report by May seems to refer to a blue plane. This top view is borrowed from a Mehusla decals info-sheet.

This is a nice repaint project for the Red Baron & Brown boxing. Working on mine already.

Cheers,

PdN

[Rabbit 3]

There is a theory that Wolfram was in fact flying one of Manfreds "spare" aircraft so its a perfect excuse to have him flying the Red/Green Dr1 while Manfred gets the all red one!
There isn`t that much info on May`s plane but it was from the same squadron and flight as Brown`s so it probably had a red cowling and a red/white tail but with a slightly different pattern. It also may have had some sort of geometric design on the upper wing. The white lines on the fuselage would be the same as Brown`s as they are new RAF style squadron and flight markings painted over the geometric lines that were there while the squadron was still with the RNAS. One photo with May in his plane shows the name Joy painted just forward of the cockpit.

[john snelling]

BJ,
nicely done!

[Pas de Nomme]

Thanks guys,

I picked the blue Dr 1 so I could have a red, yellow and blue Richthofen trio, provided Lothar isn't in hospital and Manfred still alive. Add a partially white and partially black and you have a colourful handful.

Wolfram's might have had a red cowling and struts and perhaps wheel discs, that depends how long his new plane had been at his unit. Perhaps Wop might have had a red cowling and perhaps wheel discs too. But otherwise upper and sides would have been green with only roundels, coloured rudder, and the 209 squadron emblem (3 vertical bars on the fuselage). All the other markings had been declared illegal. The squadron had been ordered to ensure their planes were stripped of all their RNAS livery and comply with RAF colours ASAP a short time before this engagement (at least, according to Rogers in his "British Aviation Squadron Markings of World War I"). My thinking is that Brown would be the last to do so, because as commander his plane had to be easily identifiable in the air, while May's was new, so complied.

Cheers,

BJ

[Boney10]

Nice cards for this scenario

[Flying Officer Kyte]

It will be interesting to see the scenario unfold BJ.
Those cards are very well done.
Rob.

[Rabbit 3]

Thanks guys,

I picked the blue Dr 1 so I could have a red, yellow and blue Richthofen trio, provided Lothar isn't in hospital and Manfred still alive. Add a partially white and partially black and you have a colourful handful.

Wolfram's might have had a red cowling and struts and perhaps wheel discs, that depends how long his new plane had been at his unit. Perhaps Wop might have had a red cowling and perhaps wheel discs too. But otherwise upper and sides would have been green with only roundels, coloured rudder, and the 209 squadron emblem (3 vertical bars on the fuselage). All the other markings had been declared illegal. The squadron had been ordered to ensure their planes were stripped of all their RNAS livery and comply with RAF colours ASAP a short time before this engagement (at least, according to Rogers in his "British Aviation Squadron Markings of World War I"). My thinking is that Brown would be the last to do so, because as commander his plane had to be easily identifiable in the air, while May's was new, so complied.

Cheers,

BJ

With May probably it would depend on whether or not he was assigned a new plane or had to make do with an old one and also how much feet dragging was going on with the repainting of all the squadron aircraft. Like some of the other ex RNAS squadrons the pre RAF colour schemes were rather elaborate with colour coding of the respective flights. All in all it gives us a bit of creative license as to how we paint our models!

[mikeemagnus]

Nice one BJ