Anyone found or know where to find images or colours of the "Flying Circus" Jasta 11?

The Red Baron's squadron.

Cheers

GW

I have a book about the subject. It is called´Richtoffen's Circus´ by Greg VanWyngarden, Opsrey publishings Aviation elite units 16. It is about JG1 however so not the whole book is about Jasta 11.

Basicly had all Jasta 11s pilots some parts of the plane red. Often was the nose of the plane red but in other cases it was the tail or other parts of the planes, particularly the DR1s.

These are a few of the planes I seen on the net, the book I mentioned have some more nice colortemplates and tons of black and white pictures where you have to figure out what is what by yourself.

Hope it helps a bit...

how good is that book?

As my wife has bought that book for my birthday should get it in a couple of weeks time [just in time for my b'day]

Cheers

GW

GreyWolf said:

It is rather good actually. I prefer the book about Jasta Boelke myself since this one is about the 4 Jastas of JG1 which makes the info somewhat shorter and it could have had more color templates than it has (It have 41 templates, Abatross DIII, DV, DVa, Fokker DrI, DVII, DVIIF, EV, Pfalz DIII and DIIIa).

Still it is interesting reading and the pictures are great to make planes for Wow of. Particularly planes like the Fokker EV is hard to find good templates on.

Hmm, I think I have some more Jasta 11 templates, I shall have a look and put some up for you.

Here is some more templates (for personal use only):

i72.photobucket.com/albums/i199/Judas_photos/Jasta111.jpg

i72.photobucket.com/albums/i199/Judas_photos/Jasta112.jpg

i72.photobucket.com/albums/i199/Judas_photos/Jasta113.jpg

i72.photobucket.com/albums/i199/Judas_photos/Jasta114.jpg

i72.photobucket.com/albums/i199/Judas_photos/Jasta115.jpg

i72.photobucket.com/albums/i199/Judas_photos/Jasta116.jpg

They should be enough for you to create your own Jasta 11

thx that's exactly what I was looking for.

were they from that book? the one you mentioned earlier?

going to do an order soon for some Fokker Dr 1's see if I can get at least four to start off with get the rest later.

Cheers

GW

GreyWolf said:

Nah, they are from another Osprey series, "aircraft of the aces". From 3 different books, I didn't bother scanning the ones from the book you already ordered, my scanner have a lot of issues right now.

If you order metal planes, get Revirescos . They are actually more detailed than Wows (but needs assembling) and 8 bucks is a nice price if you are gonna repaint them anyways. Avoid Skytrexs DrI, it is one of their worst kits. To be honest I think that DrI isn't one of the better looking Wow models (I have Kempfs and Manfreds), it doesn't look right some way and the struts under the tail is missing, you will have to make them if you use Wow planes since they are one of the things that makes the Triplane look so different. Funny enough is Wows Fokker DVII great looking. You will also need some decals, Reviresco sells them too, even if you use Wow planes you should order some because painting the crosses on is almost impossible, it just doesn't look good.

But the question is whos planes you are going to make? Manfred and Lothar is of course a must. Kurt Wolff shared Fokker FI 102/17 with Manfred (a prototype plane) and he was one of Jasta 11s best. I would probably make Udets 149/17 also from when he flew in Jasta 11.

Lothars Dr1

Here are some more Dr1 templates, from different Jastas: www.fokkerdr1.com/Profiles/Profile_STEFAN%20BASTEK.htm

www.fokkerdr1.com/Profiles/Profile_TODD%20COMEAU.htm

www.fokkerdr1.com/Profiles/Profile_TIM%20WEST.htm

www.fokkerdr1.com/Profiles/Profile_MIKHAIL%20BYKOV.htm

www.fokkerdr1.com/Profiles/Profile_Ronny%20Bar.htm

www.fokkerdr1.com/Profiles/Profile_Bob%20Pearson.htm (This one has several Jasta 11 planes).

Don't forget to post pictures once you are done, I would love to make this project myself (and the "black" sopwith Triplane squadron for that matter). Maybe I will, or maybe Ill do Jasta 2/Jasta Boelke instead.

Once I colect all the images and then get the planes [also get the decals] then I have to decide which part of the war I want to set the planes up for as the decals are very different. I prefer the iron cross decal so will try for mid war Jasta 11 rather then the late war. maybe the period of time when Jasta 11 got the Fokker Dr 1's.

As for pilots:

Manfred and Lothar are a must. will find more pilot bios regarding these great fliers.

will certainly post pics once the project is done.

Cheers

GW

Here is Jasta 11s pilots that recieved Pour le Merité (Blue max), they are probably the ones who's planes you should make:

Manfred Von Richtofen 12/1/17)

Kurt Wolff (5/5/17)

Lother Von Richtofen (14/5/17)

Karl Allmenröder (14/6/17)

Ernst Udet (9/4/18)

Blue max was the most prestigous reward a pilot could recieve and demanded at least 20 victories (even though Immelman and Boelke got theirs earlier, but the numbers of victories to get it got up fast). Any pilot who had it was an ace of aces and are worth their own paintjob. You could of course add a few more that you like or make the entire J11 at a certain time.

Wolff who was one of the best aces (and Manfreds best friend) died unfortunately just after the first triplanes arrived so a J11 at that moment would only have 3 Dreideckers and the rest Albatross planes. Wolff was BTW Jasta 11 second leader, he took over command when Manfred got promoted to leader of JG1.

But my recomendation is to start with this bunch, and possibly someones else who's plane you really like.

The DrI might be the best choice, at least for many of the pilots since the color templates for DR1 is easiest to find. A fun fact is that Von Linsingen didn't have a drI but flew a Pfalz DIIIa. I havn't found a template for it however but it would be a nice touch to add it.

I think you can find painting templates from most of the planes but in some cases you might have to use black and white photos and guess the color if you plan to make the whole Jasta. Even worse (and cooler) would be making the whole flying circus (J11, 4, 6 and 10). A project that would take a lot of time but would be incredible cool at a convention.

And that german movie "The red baron" from last year might be a bit of inspiration, it has some cool flight scenes even though it had to much yakking in it.

So the "Flying Cricus" was made up of different Jasta flights?

I have a copy of the Red Baron love the flight scenes but the "drama" was a bit to much.

it was the planes in that movie that got me interested in painting up a the Central Empire planes. I have a book coming from Osprey. ‘Richthofen’s Circus’

should be fun will look at those pilots you mentioned and see what I can do.

Cheers

GW

GreyWolf said:

Yes. The thing was that the germans only had 25% the aircrafts of the allies. From the start was the scouts (scout = 1 seater plane for dogfights, Fighter = 2 seater for dogfights and observation) placed out together with the 2 seaters in "Kastas". Then did Oswald Boelke, Germans leading ace at the time and Manfreds sensei, form Jastas (fighting wing or squadron). The first Jasta was Jasta 2 (later renamed Jasta Boelke after Oswalds death) which included Boelke, Richtoffen and some other really famous aces.

A Jasta was supposed to be 16 planes and pilots but it often had less, in many cases particularly early shared 2 pilots one plane. Manfreds idea was to put 4 Jastas together either in one airfield or more often in a few that are close to each other to get air superiority in certain important parts of the front. They rarely flew together in formation, most often did they fly in smaller groups, 4 to 9 or so. JG I, or the flying circus was so named because the British thought it was everywhere (they moved a lot) and had the theory that they moved on trains like circuses.

Each Jasta had their own special marking so you could easily see which jasta a plane came from with a quick look, a kind of modern heraldry. That made it a lot easier to solve claims than for the British who had very similar looking planes. The French and Italians werea bit more relaxed than the brits but nowhere near the Germans, Americans and Austrians were however often using paint jobs that competed with them.

So the flying circus was in theory 4 times 16 planes even though they often missed some pilots or planes. Note that Jasta 10 was Bavarian and never had Fokker DrI, the flew Pfalz DIII instead and were the first Jasta to receive Fokker DVII just days after Manfreds death.

The book will tell you most of what you need but this is the basics.

I play German myself (well I have a Austrian pilot also) in our current campaign, we both play Wow and the classic Blue max there (with custom conversion rules, BM is better for large scale battles in my opinion). We will change sides once the war is over but I have gotten a lot of German planes now, both from Wow and other manufacturers. My campaign started at Verdun February 1916 and we play once a month until may 1918 and twice a month for the rest of the war after that with custom rules for skills, random missions and large scenarios. I think we had 15 players or so all together but we are most often 6. We also use heavy bombers (we have 3 right now, I have a AEG GIV and a Breuget 14B2, a freind have a Gotha GIV and I have ordered a Caparoni CA33 in Resin but it takes forever to get Resin planes because they are only made after you order them).

Most of my planes are painted after aces I like or just standard planes but some are custom painted for my own pilots.

I'll start with Jasta 11 for now.

Got some decals on the way from Dom's Decals.

Been trying to get some WoW Dr 1's but nothing so far. Will keep on trying. I think I finally found a WWI deluxe box set just waiting to find out what the postage is going to hit me with.

Cheers

GW

GreyWolf said:

Yeah, the deluxe box is really nice, I have one myself. It has Manfreds DrI (but it needs a bit of work, you need a pilot and the struts under the tail to make it look passable).

Wow DrIs are hard to find, Just get a few of Reverescos DrI instead, they are actually top class.

Note that they got those struts under the tail that Wow misses. They cost 8 bucks a piece but they do demand you to glue them together. As long as you use a gel type super-glue you will be fine. I can also recommend their lozenge camouflage decals if some of the planes demands that for the wing, I can't remember any of the planes having it directly from memory but it is likely some had it and it is impossible to paint good.

Anyways, check out this web store (is in US but ships overseas, It took about 2 weeks to get my box sent to Sweden from there): www.tin-soldier.com/ Just click web store and scroll to aircraft kits.

I am not sure where you can find any Wow models from the first series anymore, I wish they reprinted them.

got my book today will certainaly give me a bit to read and study before I sit down and start organising making up the Flying Circus. not sure if I'd ever go so far as making the full 50 planes but certainly look at the 14 planes that would have been in Jasta 11.

Cheers

GreyWolf