Manfred von Richthofen, Albatros D.III 789/17.

[Lucky13]

First kill for jasta 11, 23 January 1917, MvR was flying the Albatros D.III 789/17, opponent was John Hay, flying the F.E.8. 6388....

"Le petit rouge", 16 January 1917, "For some reason, one fine day I had the idea of painting my bird bright red. The result was that my red bird was an absolute eye-catcher. Even my opponents seemed to be aware of this."

Now, would the wings still be camouflaged as I've seen both being claimed to be accurate....

 

[Wurger]

Jan ... IMHO even Richthofen didn't know. If you have a look at the D.III kites of the Jasta 11 you may notice that the wings of these are light. The Pattée crosses seem to be not overpainted like these on the fuselage and the rudder. Also a kind of smudges of dfferent tones can be noticed at the wing tops. If these were repainted in the way the fuselage was, the tone and appearace would be different there. However it can be seen the kite was repainted a couple of times. Unfortunately Rittmeister used a couple of different planes. IMHO the one with the camouflaged wings looks more interesting.

the pic source: the net.

 

[Lucky13]

Jan ... IMHO even Richthofen didn't know. If you have a look at the D.III kites of the Jasta 11 you may notice that the wings of these are light. The Pattée crosses seem to be not overpainted like these on the fuselage and the rudder. Also a kind of smudges of dfferent tones can be noticed at the wing tops. If these were repainted in the way the fuselage was, the tone and appearace would be different there. However it can be seen the kite was repainted a couple of times. Unfortunately Rittmeister used a couple of different planes. IMHO the one with the camouflaged wings looks more interesting.

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the pic source: the net.

I agree!

23rd of April 1917, members of the Jagdstaffel 11 in France. The Commanding Officer, Manfred von Richthofen, is seated
in his Albatros. Other pilots include; unknown (possibly Karl Allmenroeder), Hans Hintsch, Sebastian Festner,
Emil Schaeffer (on wing), Kurt Wolff, Georg Simon, Otto Brauneck. In front: Esser, Lothar von Richthofen (centre) and Krefft.

 

[GrauGeist]

I beleive the MvR's D.III had the wing surfaces painted.

It was pretty much up to the pilot's preference, for example: Udet's D.VII had it's fuselage painted red and the upper wing was vertically striped red and white, but the lower wing retained it's 5-color lozenge camo.