DeFreest Larner

I think that D.VII would look just as good with a Richthofen Red nose and the rest left the same!

It was a historical trend! Tons and tons of German pilots did it, but the best example is Jasta 2's Albatros D.Is / D.IIs. Pilots would paint the first two letters of their surname on the fuselage sides as an identifying marking. For example, Erwin Böhme painted "Bö" on his fuselage sides, Karl-Heinrich Büttner painted "Bü", Dieter Collin painted "Co", etc etc etc The 'J2' way is a good way of avoiding clashing identifying marks as well. For example, you might get Luftritter and Labroisse, or Vikner and Vonrd mixed up if they had just 'L' or 'V', but 'Lu', 'La', 'Vi' and 'Vo' are all pretty easily distinguishable Another good example is Jasta 5's Albatroses. They used to paint the initial of their surnames on the undersides of the wings.

True - and they looked real cool with that early camo scheme. As it so happens, I have an early D.VII template in J10 colours lying around from painting Luft's crate. Should any other J10 members be so inclined to paint up a new D.VII, I'd recommend it PSD: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KzLLTIDDP1fDWP8ZohScyDqqePUYx2Rk DDS: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1U4XFj08NHQw1EM4mdKDElHtpIMSnma-g

Hi, all! It seems that the JG1 ranks have been growing really nicely recently, and I've noticed a fair few new additions to the four Jastas. Great to see! Now, as brand-new Fliegers, you have one of the most exciting parts of being in a German unit awaiting you: Creating a personal skin! German pilots have the luxury of being able to paint their machines with much more expression than their Entente counterparts! However, one thing I distinctly remember from my J2 days is that coming up with a good-looking personal skin can be tricky. You want your machine to be distinctive and 'stick out', but at the same time it's really easy to go overboard and end up flying something that sticks out, er, well, too much For that reason, I thought I'd post some of my observations of real JG1 paint schemes and some of the trends that they followed in the hope that it'll give you some ideas on how to create a great-looking skin! (Apologies if this is in the wrong section. If so, feel free to move it wherever it belongs!) Jagdstaffel 4: Jasta 4's standard marking is a thin black band that spirals around the fuselage from the tail to the nose. On its own, the design is quite 'quiet' (meaning it's not too flashy) by Jasta standards, but the pilots tended to 'spice up' their planes with some more decorative markings. From looking at J4's designs, it seems that they were very fond of painting the propeller hubs and tailplanes of their machines, leaving the fuselage largely blank in order to keep the squadron marking 'intact'. Here are a few examples: From these three profiles we can see that the painted tail / prop hub seemed to be something of a trend with Jasta 4, and lent itself very much to their overall aesthetic as a unit. The good news here (if you decide to lean towards a historical-looking scheme) is that there weren't really any 'rules' for what colours / designs the Jasta 4 pilots used for these personal markings - in fact, it appears that they tried to make their personal markings as unique as possible, so long as it kept that all-important Jasta marking intact! So, if you've been assigned to Jasta 4, get creative! Jagdstaffel 6: Jasta 6's standard markings were a black and white striped tail fin. With later designs, the 'zebra stripe' became more prominent in their aircraft - especially Fokker Dr.Is and D.VIIs. They seemed to be a little more reserved at first than the other 'Circus' Jastas, focusing more on incorporating their own colour schemes into their designs, typically having only a fuselage band or a simple black and/or white shape on their fuselage. However, sometimes they did get a little more flashy, with the best example being Ulrich Neckel's zebra Fokker D.VII. Note, however, that even with their flashiest designs they constricted themselves to the Jasta's signature black and white! If you decide to go strictly for the 'WW1 Look' rather than a more 'freestyle' design, prepare to use a lot of black and white! Jasta 6's planes had a simple elegance to them, and they tended to be light on the paint. However, this is made up for by the Jasta's markings, those fantastically distinctive Zebra Stripes. My personal favourite Fokker D.VIIs are Jasta 6's, with those awesome-looking zebra noses! Jagdstaffel 10: Jasta 10's standard marking was a yellow nose. Historically, they seemed to be the 'middle point' between Jasta 4 and Jasta 6. They tended to be a little more reserved in their designs but didn't shy away from spicing up their machines with different colours and some personal embellishments on the fuselage. That being said, Jasta 10 were known to have some pretty distinctive designs! Bands around the fuselage and painted tails were a popular choice between Jasta 10's pilots, with some simple personal markings appearing on their machines. Curiously, their Pfalz D.IIIas seemed to be the most expressive of their aircraft! As seen in the profiles above, some of Jasta 10's historical aircraft were quite 'muted' in their designs, but some of their pilots certainly weren't shy of painting their planes in some very distinctive markings! Personal markings were usually quite simple, but interesting colour patterns made up the difference. If you've been assigned to Jasta 10, don't be too afraid to come up with a simple yet recognisable colour scheme! Just keep that yellow nose intact so that the Ententes know who's coming Jagdstaffel 11: Ah. The famous Richthofen Squadron. Officially, the marking would be a red nose. However, Jasta 11 didn't just stop there - they were very proud of their infamous 'Richthofen Red', and used it a lot. During 'Bloody April' Jasta 11 had some of the most distinctive designs, and this continued towards the end of the war. Living up to their name of the 'Flying Circus', pilots of Jasta 11 used all kinds of designs, patterns and colours along with that famous Red! As seen in the profiles above, that bright red colour was a BIG part of Jasta 11's squadron identity, and it features very heavily in most Jasta 11 aircraft. Painting wheels / struts red was a big trend within Jasta 11's pilots. That being said, the pilots also liked expressing themselves with lots of different colours and simple patterns. If you've been assigned to Jasta 11, you almost have free reign of what you put on your machine! But, remember, it's the Red that the Entente pilots fear! Typically at least the entire front-half of their Albatros D.Vas would be painted in red.

Cool! I was in a scrap of my own in the furball upstairs, kept catching glimpses of the Dr.I / Camel brawl...cool to see exactly what went down...also, VR looks intense!

Great stuff. Looking forwards to seeing the circus in full regalia.

It's my understanding that GCF, who has been organising the skins into downloadable bundles, is working on compiling a next big 'bundle' for download. It may be worth giving him a shout once you have your pack finalised. I've also been trying to bring a little order to the FC skin situation myself, and I'm hoping to compile a 'master list' of skins at some point. I'll be sure to include the finalised JG1 pack if / when I do.

11mm! Not on my SPAD! Must have been someone else

It was a rough night for all involved! That first battle was something else. We later dispatched a SPAD to J.G.1's aerodrome to drop off a parcel containing the bullets that Hotlead misplaced in my wings

Cheers! Indeed, the Jasta 10 shot was staged.The 'formation' is based on an old oil painting I saw of J11 / J6 Spot on with the pilots! EDIT: Forgot about this one!

Evening, Gents... I have a little bit of a thing for messing around with screenshots and 'stylising' them. I thought I'd show a couple off here! There was one in particular I thought you fellas might enjoy. Bloody Thursday: Wulfe: Ol' Unlucky 13: Yellow Noses:

Congratulations on joining up! You've chosen a great unit to join. Looking forwards to meeting you at some point in the future!

Yup, it's a beaut...looks better in the air!

Awesome! Cheers Vonrd!

for Photoshop I believe you need a 3rd party plugin. I can save you the trouble, though! Looking forwards to seeing the circus all decked out! Jasta 4: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11rKCnmdrXS_kdR3yqiaMrGA3CNc7UWn0/view?usp=sharing Jasta 6: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vn-1igh6sXiUp0XUPoM9OGe8jIWvWLJL/view?usp=sharing Jasta 10: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QyU_sqkdxGG5j26H0WEHV8NQiQK9aJgP/view?usp=sharing Jasta 11: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IhHguQbC1-t1cjTTubIP4VWnFJofuxtK/view?usp=sharing

Excellent! J6 is a great-looking squadron (especially their D.VIIs!). I'm hoping to see the whole circus up at some point!

Links updated with corrected templates.

My pleasure - although, I've only just noticed that I've put iron crosses on the underside of the upper planes rather than the lower! Will get around to fixing it and posting new links.

Salute, all! I have a little present for you all. Seeing as 1C have been painfully slow in releasing 4K templates for FC, I decided I would 'retexture' the old RoF templates to 4K standard. Now, I haven't 'officially' put this out for public use yet, but I thought that I'd drop it off here a little early Introducing: The (un)Official 4k Albatros template! The template comes complete with: Completely new weathering to make the aircraft look like a real warbird! Retextured and recoloured wood, designed to match the Albatros on display at the RAF Museum, Hendon. Retextured and recoloured Metal surfaces, also matched to the RAFM's Alby. New textures to cover parts of the 3D model that didn't exist in RoF. Two interchangeable textures for the wings: 5-Colour Lozenge & Two-Tone Camouflage. Weathering folder's visibility can be altered for more / less weathering, depending on your tastes (Default is 85%). Edited Alpha Layer to eliminate reflective shine from wing surfaces. No Skinning expertise required. Just open it up in Photoshop and paint away! While I was at it I decided to give you something a little extra, and prepared four extra templates with the historical markings of your individual Staffeln, so that if you decide to make any new personal paint schemes, you can jump right into a template with your Squadron markings already in place! Jasta 4: Jasta 6: Jasta 10: Jasta 11: One last thing: Unfortunately, I only have the file in .PSD format. I hope that's not a problem! Owing to the new 3D parts of the FC model, the template can be a little tricky to paint up, simply owing to there being parts scattered all over the 2D image! I'll do my best to explain where all the new parts are here: DOWNLOAD LINKS: Albatros Template: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BsUq9I7dQOXEZihSpvhaf9wf-1k0Dh3W/view?usp=sharing JG1 Default Templates: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lZn91LmrPgUZRLwTmoYgv9cMVYiDcJjN/view?usp=sharing

Congratulations, fellas. A Blue Max! Very well done, Vonrd! It looks great in the ol' forum signature!

Wow, look at that chest full of medals! And a Black Watch soldier, too! Those guys are 100% no nonsense! You must be proud

Hey, all! The US103 Skinpack is now available for download. 4K Versions: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c5knfjkRh3sDn-DHGoNgvbXBVhLkz_im/view?usp=sharing (277MB, 26 Skins) 2K Versions: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vlIewaAThX2xZOQy08MQaolDBQCK4sSO/view?usp=sharing (74MB, 26 Skins) SPADs numbered between 3 to 24 are HISTORICAL Spads of the 103d! Aircraft numbered 25 - 34 are our own fictional designs. Future updates will be posted in this thread (This will typically be for flight reorganisations, fuselage number reassignments, etc). Aircraft included are: Unassigned: Soubiran (S) New Recruit / Trainer SPAD (Unmarked) 1st Flight: Baer (33) Cockrell (22) Faith (14) Frost (12) Furlow (8 ) Kirtland (15) Parsons (29) Pyne (9) 2nd Flight: Cannon (3) Dolan (10) Manchester (16) Paris (34) Rolph (4) S.7507 (30) Talbot (26) Waddell (11) 3rd Flight: Cauffman (5) Hobbs (28) Hubbard (19) Hunter (21) Irving (7) Larner (13) Ponder (24) S.15278 (27)

Afternoon, Gents... Just wanted to drop a quick note across the lines about some planned changes to the 103d's skin pack. They will be in 4K, and I know you guys have gone with 2K skins to save disk space, so I thought I'd go through the changes to our pack with you guys, rather than just dropping a DL link off with Butzzell and letting you all take the file size hit Anyway, here are some of our upcoming changes: 1. More Planes! At the moment we have 13 Skins in our pack, all of which are 4K. We are expecting to raise that number to around 25. As the skin-maker elect for the 103d, I've been pouring hours into researching the 103d's Spads, who flew them, what numbers & flights they were assigned, and what factories built them (and the camouflage patterns they used). Essentially, this means that there will be even more 103d SPADs for us to choose from, - all meticulously researched in order to be as true-to-life as possible - and it also means that we will have the historical mounts of any potential new 103d recruits waiting for them in the hangar! Exciting stuff! 2. Weathered Warbirds! Along with the additions of the extra planes, this is the main focal point of the new update. I have totally reworked the weathering on our SPADs to give the impression that they've seen use every day, flying from the aerodromes of France, as they would have done! Every little detail has been completely re-done to best simulate some of the weathering that would have appeared on a real-life SPAD of the great war. With the new additions, the 103d SPADs are set to look fiercer than ever! In addition, the level of weathering is actually tied to the pilot's time of service within the squadron. We have 3 weathering 'levels' - Light, Medium and Heavy. Naturally, the oldest members of the squadron have first choice of the best machines! Of course, as I mentioned before, we are worried that the finalised US103 skinpack will be quite a large file for those that would prefer to keep the file space. However, I am trying to find a possible solution by creating identically-named 2K equivalents, which (hopefully) the game should be able to read as well, for your benefit! Either way, we're very excited about our planned update, and hope that our changes bring a real sense of immersion to you guys when we meet in the unfriendly skies! Salute! - Lt. (Adjutant) G. De Freest Larner, 103d Aero Squadron, 3d. P.G, 1st. Pursuit wing.

Chapter 3: Raids. The cold weather only worsened in Early January, and as our SPAD 13s sat on the ready line, their camouflage was whited out by the softly falling snowflakes. As we were soon about to discover, the snow turns to daggers in the air, whipping and stabbing at your face. To try and protect ourselves, we wore our scarves over our faces, but the cold and the pain would not be denied. Our first assignment of the day was a patrol of the front lines, led by our indomitable C.O, Capt. Hunter. Shivering violently, we made our way through the blinding snow. I wondered all the while, "what madmen would be up in this weather, except for us?", but as it turns out, I was about to find out exactly who. Mere moments after we crossed into the line, I heard a terrific metallic snap as bullets rung off my flying wires, and one passed close enough to my head to chip the metal windshield frame. I was being bounced! No time to look back - I threw my machine violently into a hard dive. As I screamed towards earth, I found a chance to look over my shoulder, and saw an Albatros with a bright red tail twisting in among the three Spads of Hunter, Ralph and Warren. Feeling anger boil up inside me, I pulled out of the dive and circled to the left, climbing back up towards the fight. The aviator in the Albatros demonstrated excellent skill - but his situation was hopeless. He was outnumbered four-to-one, and all of our number were killers. I reached back up to the fight, my engine straining as I demanded a steep climb angle from it, and put my gunsights on the offending Albatros. In one moment, he pitched up to take a shot at Hunter, and hung motionless right before my guns. Exacting revenge, I let my vickers roar out, and the Albatros fell away into a spin, disintegrating as it went. My 10th victory. Not long after, we watched from above as a mass of German two-seaters approached the lines. At the time, we thought nothing of it - probably a Schlasta, headed for the trench lines, but later we spotted that the R.F.C base downriver from our own aerodrome had been raided, and almost completely destroyed. This marked the start of our rear-area patrols, fighting Rolands and Halberstadts. The fighting was tough, the onslaught endless - but in the end, we returned home victorious. Edwin had scored 3 victories, seen by us all - two Rolands and a Fokker D.VII. Hunter's score had risen to 18 - an awe-inspiring score. Hobbs and I each claimed two victories, and Talbot one. A victory for every pilot in our flight, and not a soul lost. My score now rests at 11. To our surprise, there was no sign of the circus today. We wondered if they had been moved to another sector, but the R.F.C pilots reported fighting them earlier in the day. Again, no word of the Wasp has arrived, and we are beginning to think that perhaps he has been killed by another unit. By any means - we were amazed not to see them in the thick of the raids today, for it seems that they have been involved in every other major Hun offensive until now.

Chapter 2: Hypoxia. The high patrols are freezing in Summer. In the bitter winter cold of January, they are unbearable. We sat, numb, in our Spads at 15,000 feet or more, biting down on our knuckles or holding the flight sticks between our knees and clapping our hands to try, in vain, to stay warm - by this point, we didn't even care to search for the enemy. To be killed would at least deliver us from the awful cold, and the constant gasping for oxygen that simply wasn't available. Over Christmas, we had received new machines. Spad XIIIs, an improvement on the older Spad VIIs in firepower, speed and climb. I had become an ace - that is, I had brought my victory tally to 5 - my last two being scored in the new type. We weren't the only ones to receive presents over the festive period, however - the Circus had swapped out their Pfalz IIIs for the new Pfalz XIIs. Their machines could climb far higher than our own aircraft, and we had lost the speed advantage. However, the faithful Spads could still escape in a dive. As I flew along with Ralph on my wing, I was snapped out of my frost-daze by the sight of tracers to the West. Overjoyed at the prospect of a fight (for this point we had been up above 10,000 feet for an hour, and the lack of oxygen was dizzying), Ralph and I headed for the scrap, arriving just in time to see two Spads of 1st Flight diving for our own lines, two Pfalzes of the Circus on their tails. We circled above the enemy machines carefully - the Circus seldom flies only in pairs - and planned out our attack. I checked my fuel gauge, and - disaster! I didn't even have enough fuel for the trip home! Cursing myself for not paying attention before we had the enemy so close, I signalled to Talbot that I was 'washing out', and begun to drop my nose. Below me, I saw one red-winged machine, and decided that in one last insolent show of defiance, I would throw a few bullets at the machine on my way past. Diving down hard, I fired a quick burst at the Hun machine, and continued out towards the lines. As far as I could tell, my bullets didn't find their mark. The Pfalz halfheartedly attempted to follow for a few seconds, before Talbot's lingering presence above convinced him to retreat into Hunland. Just before I reached our trench-lines, my engine coughed, and fell silent. I listened to the long sigh of the wind as I glided down, a strange sense of peace coming over me as the oxygen flooded back to my lungs, as I scanned for a suitable field to land in. Later, Fokkers and Gothas appeared over our lines, alone or in twos, lambs to the slaughter. We knocked down 9 or 10 of them in total - four of which were mines. Why they insisted on coming over in this manner I cannot fathom. My last victim of the day landed upside-down in a pool of water...I only hope the poor Hun inside was shot dead, to save him from drowning.