France's premier fighter unit - Group de Combat 12, nicknamed "the Storks", was formed in the Spring of 1916 from existing French fighter squadrons and pre-dated the more-famous German "Flying Circus" by a year.

As famous as its pilots were the markings of N.3’s aircraft. Its squadron insignia was a stork, a bird known to nest annually in the chimneys of Alsace-Lorraine, which had been in German hands since the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. N.3’s stork symbolized France’s determination to return and retake those provinces.

Within the squadron, pilots had become associated with the numbers that identified their planes -- 1 was Brocard’s, 2 adorned nearly all of Guynemer’s aircraft, 3 was Deullin’s, 6 was Chainat’s, 7 was Alfred Auger’s, 8 was Joseph-Henri Guiguet’s, 9 was Georges Raymond’s, 11 was Heurteaux’s and 12 was Dorme’s.

Ace Rene Dorme once observed that his sportive combats provided a "gala spectacle" for the "brave infantry in the trenches." These pilots, worshipped by the public, became the focus, even the prisoners, of a cult of heroism, fostered by journals like La Guerre Aérienne. --
Authority, Identity and the Social History of the Great War  By Frans Coetzee, Marilyn Shevin Coetzee

On 25 May 1917, Eduard Riter von Schleich was engaged in aerial combat with an opponent of considerable skill. The identity of his worthy opponent was discovered to be the famed Frenchman, Lt. René Dorme. Later Dorme's gold watch was retreived from the wreckage and was later dropped into French lines with a note saying that he had died bravely for France.

http://www.pourlemerite.org/wwi/air/schleich.html

Art,

The silver gray seems to be the one which is most accurate for the FRENCH-flown versions... but the AMERICAN-flown versions seem to have incorporated camouflage of some sort... tans and browns in large areas... some dark/light greens... along the same lines as the AMERICAN-flown SPADs.

But... you are the artist, my friend, and I will leave the decision to you. You know the general gist of my story and my desire to use a few screenshots as illustrations. I greatly appreciate WHATEVER you are able to do for me. Your talent is exceptional and your generosity in sharing your craft with me is more than anything anyone else has offered me in this endeavor.

Thank you for whatever you are able to do to assist me.

Steve