Painted Flight Jackets - Planes, Names, and Dames

[442RCT]

Sweetheart of seattle- designing women ?

I recently acquired a pre-painted jacket from eBay, "Seattle Sweetheart" For those who don't know, Seattle is the home of the Boeing Aircraft Factory, where B-17's were manufactured. I thought it had 'potential' and got it cheap enough to do a modification of the paintjob. It had the Name and the Plane, it just needed a Dame. I mulled it over and I saw a jacket named "Boeing Belle" with Rita Hayworth as the dame. Hmmm, that had posibilities, I saw a pin-up of Amy Adams, the the actress who played Amelia Earhart in 'Night at the Smithsonian 2', in an updated Rita Hayworth pose. [huh] Yeah, why not use the original Rita instead of updating it, what can I say, I like the photo of Amy.

I thought about using a classic Vargas Girl and found two that were 'sweethearts' and not 'sweet tarts'.

Then I had the idea of using what were the real sweethearts of Seattle, Rosie the Riveter...'We can do it' gals who built the planes. I found a conventional Rosie and an updated Rosie 'type'.

So of the four designs, I'm either going for Amy or the Rosie eating lunch with a beer. :cheers1: If i don't use Amy this time around, I'll use her on my next A-2 project. lane:

The jacket from eBay- Sweetheart of Seattle

Amy Adams in the iconic Rita Hayworth WW2 Pin-up pose:

The cut and shoot mock-ups of the four possible designs (I don't know how to photoshop):

So far, I'm thinking this will be the one I do, she's both a Pin-Up and Rosie the Riveter.

So what do you think ? Should I keep it WW2 period, or go modern ?
It'll take a while before it's done, I'll keep you posted.

 

[MissMittens]

Go with period

 

[cco23i]

Definitly go with the period one. The modern look just doesn't do justice to the jacket.

Scott

 

[ButteMT61]

Definitly go with the period one. The modern look just doesn't do justice to the jacket.

Scott

X2!

 

[442RCT]

I Hear You Guys

Thanks for the input.
Okay, I hear ya :ear: and understand that I should keep it more of period look. Should it be; The Varga Girl ? Rita Hayworth ? or period Rosie the Riveter ? or,
None of the above and keep looking for something else...:gossip:
Whichever it will be, I plan on making it better detailed than the B-17.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Go with the WWII period-correct pin-up. Rita, not Amy. Not Rosie the Riveter or Daisy the Driller.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Great pic!

 

[Silver Dollar]

Well spotted! 91 BG(H), 324th BS.....kudos

I'm standing next to my C-47 at the time. Long story.....the plane was at a restaurant (partial pic to the right) and was given to me when it closed, but it was a basket case - the belly was severely damaged, the airframe bent, one engine on the ground, severe tail damage (a freak storm had hit it). I tried to put a team together to restore it and couldn't come up with the funds, so it passed it to an aviation museum in Maryland where it now sits. The Delaware Air National Guard rebuilt the engines, and the last I heard was they replaced the belly pan but that beyond idling, the plane would never be in flying condition. Shame, although I did come to find out that it wasn't the D-Day veteran I originally thought it was (it was painted with the invasion markings) but was a civilian DC-3 cargo that was ordered by the War Department but was delivered too late, so never saw military service.

You mentioned the Belle....there's an interesting tie in to the Belle with this DC-3. It was owned by Dave Tallichet. Dave owned a B-17 he painted as the Belle. The Memphis Belle Memorial Association in TN didn't like that he called his 17 the Belle. Dave was a B-17 pilot during WWII but did not serve on the Belle or even in the same bomb group as the Belle. Rather than going to court, a deal was struck. Dave would provide needed parts for the real Belle restoration, and no longer advertise his B-17 as the Memphis Belle. To sweeten the deal, he was given this C-47 in D-Day livery. Dave owned and operated a restaurant chain called Specialty Restaurants Inc, of which the Air Transport Command in New Castle, DE, sat. The plane I had briefly, the same one in this picture, came from the MBMA and was traded out with Dave Tallichet.

I had some gun parts which I sent passed to the MBMA in '03. I forget the gentleman's name, but he was director at the time in charge of the restoration, and had sent me a parts list. It was during our discussions on the parts needed, that this information came to light, which was several years before I had the plane.

Will you look at that!! I thought I recognized that restaurant. I ate there during the 80's when I was stationed at McGuire AFB.

As far as the jacket question is concerned, period is the only way to go. I personally like the Rosie the Rivetter.

 

[442RCT]

Sweetheart of seattle

I googled, Sweetheart of Seattle + B-17, to find out any info about this plane and or crew. There was a B-17 with the same tail number as on the jacket back, # 448210 named "The Sweetheart of Seattle". The plane and crew was assigned to the 334 Bomb Squadron, 95th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force. Not much else was found on the internet about this specific B-17, number of missions, nose art, etc. I did find lots of information about the 334 BS and many of their planes did have nose art painted on them. One of them was named the "Victory Devil", as a play on the initials, VD (Venereal Disease), what was ironic is this same plane was later renamed, " Passion Wagon".

This jacket seems to have been painted to honor a crew member or commissioned by the crew member or his family. I've decided not to add a pin-up girl to it and just leave it as a piece of personalized folk art. I'll just start from scratch and design another jacket back for myself.

Here are photos of the front of the jacket with his personalized name tag and a squadron patch.

A photo of one of the crews from the same unit wearing their A-2s.

 

[MissMittens]

Will you look at that!! I thought I recognized that restaurant. I ate there during the 80's when I was stationed at McGuire AFB.

The neat thing about the restaurant is that you could literally fly in and taxi (depending on ground traffic) to the restaurant at the outer marker. There aren't many places you can literally "fly and dine" anymore. I was sad to see this one go :/

 

[Silver Dollar]

The neat thing about the restaurant is that you could literally fly in and taxi (depending on ground traffic) to the restaurant at the outer marker. There aren't many places you can literally "fly and dine" anymore. I was sad to see this one go :/

I visited a couple of other ones from that chain. They were the 56th Fighter Group, the 94th Bomb Group, the 94th Aero Squadron. The food there at each restaurant was equally high quality. They had to drag me out of those places.

 

[MissMittens]

Yes, the food was well above average fare......almost what one would expect from fine dining vs a chain. Dave's restaurants were Specialty Restaurants Inc. The 94th Aero was the only other one I ever frequented. Dave was stationed with my father during the war.

 

[442RCT]

Tribute jacket for a friend

When someone acquires a vintage WW2 A-2 with identifiable name tags or jacket art, they will try to find out as much as they can about the previous owner, his plane and his crew.



When a tribute art jacket is painted, the process is reversed. A friend of mine recently had a jacket painted as a tribute to his friend, who was a B-24 pilot in WW2. There was plenty of material on the unit’s website and his friend lent him the patches he had sewn on his A-2. I asked what happened to his friend, Robert S. Staples (Stan), original jacket. Stan told him he removed the patches because he took a razzing from other members of his unit at a reunion when he wore his still fully patched A-2. Who knows why they razzed him, Stan was a pilot who’d flown 20 missions with them.


This is Stan’s American Airman ID Card.

When my friend Dan began the project, he envisioned a cross section of a bomber with pin-up girls as the waist gunners. After some more thought and consultation with his wife, he decided he wanted a whole formation of B-24’s with Stan’s plane in the forground. I told him, why not just Stan’s plane instead of 4 or 5 small B-24’s, which look too ‘busy’ for the back of a jacket.
These are photos of Stan’s B-24. The 361st BG tail insignia was red top over a red bar, Stan’s plane was # 39.

We decided to copy a B-24 jacket design by Jerome Urbaniak with a few tweaks.

A stencil of the design was drawn up with the edits.

The stencil was chalked and the design transferred to the jacket.

When the jacket back painting was completed, Stan’s unit patches were painted.

The patches were sewn on and the jacket was finally finished.

 

[Rupert]

Hi all,

I've just found this site - love the work that's been shown so far.


I don't have a photobucket account, but here's a link to my site with a jacket I did recently...

http://paintedleatherjackets.co.uk/PinupArtGallery.aspx

It's an A2 with Sally Jupiter, the Silk Spectre from the Watchmen movie. The actual art only appears briefly on the nose of a B29 at the start of the movie but I found a better picture on the 'net and used that.

This is the first piece of nose art I've done (I usually do album art) but I'm looking forward to doing some more when I get the time.

Cheers all

 

[442RCT]

Thanks, very nice work. Welcome to the site.
Y'all don't really need a photobucket account to post pics, just use

after the url.

This is the first piece of nose art I've done (I usually do album art) but I'm looking forward to doing some more when I get the time.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work.

I was looking at some of your other jackets on your site...very, very nice !!! Most excellent work :eusa_clap

 

[Rupert]

Hey 442,

Thanks for posting my pictures, and the compliments - both much appreciated.

I'll be posting more work here just as soon as I can find the time to do it.

Cheers

Rupert

 

[442RCT]

I've been playing with the artwork for an A-2 jacket using Miss Jupiter.

I also liked the poster they already had with Miss Jupiter's foot on Hitler's back. I think that would have been a neat idea for a jacket back.

 

[Rupert]

That would make a pretty good back piece for a flight jacket - very much in the spirit.

I think the Miss Jupiter pin-up is a great piece of work and, from what I recall from his site, quite different from the artist's usual style of work.

Out of interest what sort of varnish do people use once they're done painting, if any? I don't always varnish mine, and the Createx matte varnish that I've got dries to a rather shiny finish which I don't like much.

Cheers

Rupert

 

[MissMittens]

I was looking at some of your other jackets on your site...very, very nice !!! Most excellent work :eusa_clap

OT but love Eddie!

 

[442RCT]

Out of interest what sort of varnish do people use once they're done painting, if any? I don't always varnish mine, and the Createx matte varnish that I've got dries to a rather shiny finish which I don't like much.

Cheers

Rupert

When I painted, I didn't use any post varnish on my jackets, only because I didn't know any better. I also used really cheap paint...usually what was on sale, that is until an artist friend of mine clued me in that the better quality paints had more pigment and bonding agents. Many of my personal jackets, after 15 or so years, still don't show much wear on the paint jobs...which to many of us is good news - bad news. Good news, the acrylic paint is practically bulletproof when applied to prepped leather, the bad news, it'll never develop that 'patina' of a well worn, faded, aged WW2 paint job to which many of us aspire.

Recently I had an artist try to simulate patina with acrylic paint for a commission...after a week of experimenting, he gave up and used diluted enamel paint with an antique wash. It turned out pretty good. Another artist on this forum, posted pics of a jacket he'd done using leather dyes instead of paint. It was a beautiful job.