Blue Max movie accurate enough for.......

[Allan31]

reference for painting WW1 uniforms? They LOOK accurate but I don't know for sure. Especially the colors used.



Any thouights?

[NigelR]

It depends what you mean by "accurate". On the ground, many pilots wore the wartime version of their regimental uniform (as most transferred in from other units). In the stills, it appears that every pilot appears to be from a Uhlan regiment as they all seem to be wearing Uhlan uniforms, which is of course what MvR wore. So they are not a bad starting point if you are doing MvR. But if you look at any picture of a group of German pilots you will see a wide range of uniforms and personal items as well. So cap band colours, shoulder boards and various uniform distinctions would depend on the original unit (which you would need to know to paint an "accurate" figure).

The Air Service had its own uniforms, so any ground crew would wear those and officers/pilots recruited directly into the Air Service would wear those. Plus of course any pilots from other units might decide to wear them as well. Officers would wear a double-breasted jacket (originally a litewka, then changed to a "kleiner rock"), here is an original example of a litweka: https://militarycollectables.co.nz/shop.php?code=50141. The Air Service had its own arm of service distinctions (for example, light grey collar patches)

Colours? Jackets and caps were generally "feldgrau". But that varied widely - just take a look at this thread of original kleiner rock jackets: https://gmic.co.uk/topic/26958-kleiner-rock/ . Trousers were generally grey rather than feldgrau, but officers would typically wear private purchase items (the ones with the original litewka appear to be darke blue or black).

AK Interactive do a set of German WWI uniform colours and these are a great starting point for any German WWI feldgrau uniforms IMO.

[Allan31]

Thanks Nigel, CLEARLY, you're the man to ask.

Yes, I'm looking to do the bust included with the DML Triplane.



I have noticed that the collar photographs darker than the uniform, grey or red? I've seen it interpreted both ways.



Also the buttons on the front of the tunic are dark, not a silver as some call out. Pewter?
What epulets would he have had on?

Thanks, you're a huge help.

[NigelR]

Bear in mind all officer's kit was private purchase, and once MvR left the Uhlans he was not under their dress regulations, so he could wear pretty much what he wanted. The regulation uniform for his Uhlan regiment (no. 1) started with red piping to the collar, cuffs and plastron. Epaulettes were white with red edging. Here's an original officer's tunic from the IWM. This is regt no 2 but the only uniform difference compared to regt 1 is in the epaulette colour: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30095688. Later in the war his unit's piping colour changed to white, but he does not appear to wear any tunics with white piping. After all, red was "his" colour by then.

So a grey collar is "regulation" but it does appear in some photos that his jacket collar is a different colour. I would say it's up to you.

The official button colour for his regiment was yellow metal, so a brass-like colour is appropriate. But again, he could do what he wanted.

If you want to see pretty much every picture of him, this is a great site: https://www.meettheredbaron.com/ They have attempted to reconstruct what he actually looked like.

[Allan31]

Thanks Awfully !!! I will probably stick with gray.
That AI imaging is kinda creepy....