Painted Flight Jackets - Planes, Names, and Dames

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Size 38 Aero Leather painted to represent Lady Mary Anna B29 from the 874Th BS, 498th BG. As new never been worn.

Should be size 38... 24-36! :icon_smil

I need to find another artist. I think the guy who did my 'Visibility Perfect' jacket did a good job for a first attempt. But it's on an Avirex jacket. One of these days I'd like to get a better jacket and have 'Visibility Perfect' painted on it. (I've looked through a lot of nose art, and that's the one that strikes me.)

 

[Silver Dollar]

Lady Mary Anna is definitely first rate.

 

[442RCT]

Should be size 38... 24-36! :icon_smil

I need to find another artist. I think the guy who did my 'Visibility Perfect' jacket did a good job for a first attempt. But it's on an Avirex jacket. One of these days I'd like to get a better jacket and have 'Visibility Perfect' painted on it. (I've looked through a lot of nose art, and that's the one that strikes me.)

It looks like you're not alone in finding the Earl Moran pin-up to be a favorite.

If you acquire a jacket that you want to have painted, this chap seems to do decent work. I don't have any personal experience, just the pics on his website.
http://www.artbysky.org/html/flightjackets.html

 

[442RCT]

I bought a Sefton A-2 last year and it had a blood chit sewn on the back. If it had nothing on it, I would have left it alone and maybe just had a leather name tape sewn on.

I didn't want to do a patched 'Flying Tiger' themed jacket even though I'd been accumulating AVG patches for years...I may later, but with the blood chit, it was going to be a CBI unit. I found a great pieced patch on eBay for the Chinese American Composite Wing (CACW) which was assigned to the 14th AF. It was a terrific, artistic interpretation of a CACW patch. (the originals were probably embroidered silk)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese-American_Composite_Wing_%28Provisional%29

This isn't a painted jacket, but it's still an example of jacket art.

 

[Justhandguns]

Sounds like I just won the bid for this one!!! 38 maybe a size down for me, but the 38-1711-p + Lady Mary Anna is just irresistible for me.........

Will post detail pics later on when I get the jacket next week. Looks like I may have to frame it..........

A fellow VLJer has this sz 38 Aero jacket for sale. Whoever did the paint job did a masterful, fantastic job. :eusa_clap If it'd been one size larger I would have bought it in a heartbeat.
http://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=8327

Size 38 Aero Leather painted to represent Lady Mary Anna B29 from the 874Th BS, 498th BG. As new never been worn.

 

[442RCT]

Sounds like I just won the bid for this one!!! 38 maybe a size down for me, but the 38-1711-p + Lady Mary Anna is just irresistible for me.........

Will post detail pics later on when I get the jacket next week. Looks like I may have to frame it..........

From the measurements it was a size down for me as well, I can live with a size up, but not down. I've bought oversized jackets in the past that I knew weren't going to fit, just because of the artwork...after all one doesn't plan on wearing a canvas. This jacket is a gorgeous piece of artwork. If I didn't already have so many, I might of considered it. Congratulations on your buy.

 

[442RCT]

Nose Art Artist on the 'Net

Cruisin' through the net, I found this nose art artist's website. The name of his website pretty much reflects the way I feel about nose art. He paints jackets and pretty much anything else you'd want nose art painted on. Other than his website, I don't know much about the quality his work, which looks pretty danged good in his gallery, which includes what I'd call 'period theatre painted folk art' to highly detailed professional artwork.

http://www.noseartismypassion.com/Products.html

 

[442RCT]

Nose Art Artist on the 'Net

Deleted - duplicate post ??? seems to be a bug in the program when I tried to edit my previous post.

 

[Mr Badger]

Hey folks, wonder if I could pick your collective brains about summat – out of the blue, a guy I work with said that he's hankered after a 'Memphis Belle' jacket for years, 'like your brown jacket', by which he meant my Aero goatskin A2. After talking to him for a few minutes, I ascertained he wants an A2 with Memphis Belle artwork on the back – am I right in thinking that Avirex produced a jacket like this at some point? Any idea where he could get one, and what's the going rate for a size 36? I did point him the direction of a few places but he couldn't track one down... any ideas?

 

[442RCT]

After talking to him for a few minutes, I ascertained he wants an A2 with Memphis Belle artwork on the back – am I right in thinking that Avirex produced a jacket like this at some point? Any idea where he could get one, and what's the going rate for a size 36? I did point him the direction of a few places but he couldn't track one down... any ideas?

Avirex-Cockpit may have made a 'Memphis Belle' tribute jacket, I can't say that I've ever seen one. If they did make one, their older model 'tribute jackets' are very difficult to find. Even though these jackets were mass produced, they've become kind of a niche collectors item, a few Cockpit-Avirex decorated jackets show up on eBay occasionally. For your friend, even if he found a "Memphis Belle" Avirex, these jackets would be problematic as to fit, the jackets were usually lambskin and are oversized mall fit, the Avirex-Cockpit lambskin size small is a medium/large fit in the real jacket world.

IMHO, his best bet is to find a sz 36 A-2 jacket that he likes and have an artist custom paint it for him. From your post, I'm guessing he's not a jacket head, the good news is an inexpensive used Cooper or similar quality A-2 will be fairly easy to find on eBay. If he wants a premium leather jacket , of course the sky's the limit.

I can pm you the contact info for an artist who's reasonably priced and has done a "Memphis Belle" jacket.

 

[442RCT]

Avirex-Cockpit Blog

I went online to see what I could find about Cockpit flight jackets.
This blog was started by a Cockpit collector

http://cockpitcollector.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-08-13T08:39:00+02:00&max-results=7

Seems early on, the Cockpit sold a line of painted jackets. Those jackets look trimmer cut than the later popular mall jackets.

For me this was a walk down memory lane...where my love of painted flight jackets began when I was a poor college student.

Can anyone tell me which country this blogger is in ?

 

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For me this was a walk down memory lane...

I remember when The Cockpit's catalogue was a little 5"x8" thing, and in the middle they had original items for sale. They had a white flying helmet and white gloves. I don't remember if they were original or repro. Probably the latter. As a teen I thought they didn't look 'manly' enough. At the time I didn't know about the 'prestige suits' worn by some RAF pilots in the '30s. I wish I'd bought a set.

 

[Mr Badger]

Avirex-Cockpit may have made a 'Memphis Belle' tribute jacket, I can't say that I've ever seen one. If they did make one, their older model 'tribute jackets' are very difficult to find. Even though these jackets were mass produced, they've become kind of a niche collectors item, a few Cockpit-Avirex decorated jackets show up on eBay occasionally. For your friend, even if he found a "Memphis Belle" Avirex, these jackets would be problematic as to fit, the jackets were usually lambskin and are oversized mall fit, the Avirex-Cockpit lambskin size small is a medium/large fit in the real jacket world.

IMHO, his best bet is to find a sz 36 A-2 jacket that he likes and have an artist custom paint it for him. From your post, I'm guessing he's not a jacket head, the good news is an inexpensive used Cooper or similar quality A-2 will be fairly easy to find on eBay. If he wants a premium leather jacket , of course the sky's the limit.

I can pm you the contact info for an artist who's reasonably priced and has done a "Memphis Belle" jacket.

Thanks chap, that's so helpful. I passed on yr valuable info to the fella in question and he was very thankful. I'm gonna keep an eye out for a Cooper A2 on Ebay for him, so could you please PM me the contact details for the artist in question? Many thanks in advance...

 

[442RCT]

Jacket Artist and Patch Maker

There's an artist who's a member of VLJ who makes kick ass pieced and sewn partches. The CACW patches and CBI on my jacket were made by him. He sells them on eBay as a2jacketpatches.

http://stores.ebay.com/a2jacketpatches?_rdc=1

Sean is a true artist, and I've acquired quite a few examples of his work for my A-2 jackets. The big news is that he's decided to paint jackets again ! :eusa_clap

These were done using combination airbrush and paintbrush about ten years ago. Face and hair details are done by hand, and it is pretty obvious what was airbrushed. I plan to get back into it using more of a classic hand painted look overall. Anyone interested, let me know.

 

[442RCT]

Witch Craft Jacket

I unabashedly copy designs for jacket backs, either original or new. I'll tweak it here and there to make it different, and I'll even do some googling for the history of the design elements. One of the A2 jackets posted on VLJ was Witch Craft with an Elvgren pin-up girl dressed as a witch. I liked it a lot, so I commissioned it to be painted on my Flight Apparel Industries A2 recently acquired from Hamsterbear.

Witches on planes are not an uncommon design, in WW2 several B-17s had a Petty girl witch. The Elvgren pin-up witch didn't come out until the mid 50s, after WW2, but the anachronism didn't stop me from using her for the jacket. When I initially saw the pin-up and Witch Craft logo, the plane that popped into my head was the P-61 Black Widow, a night fighter. I decided to find a P-61 squadron for the theme of the jacket. Th 421st NFS was chosen because I liked their unofficial patch, it was a stylized black widow holding a dagger in each 'hand' and beams shining from her eyes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:421st_Night_Fighter_Squadron_-_WWII_-_Emblem.png (the official unit emblem is Bugs Bunny sitting in a cockpit of a plane holding a flashlight in one hand and a carrot in the other.)
PETTY GIRL AND B-17S

ELVGREN, PETTY AND MODERN WITCH BASED ON ELVGREN WITCH

WITCH CRAFT A-2 421st NIGHT FIGHTER Sqn

 

[Whithead]

Gene is still working on mine but I'll have a picture of it up as soon as I get it...


Here is the photoshop mockup he is working off of...

 

[442RCT]

Gene is still working on mine but I'll have a picture of it up as soon as I get it...

Don't you just hate waiting for the artist to finish ? [huh]I know I do. :eusa_doh: I have 2 jackets waiting to be painted. One is a copy of an original WW2 paint job and one a 'tribute' jacket.

I thought you were going to try to paint your own jacket ?

 

[442RCT]

Spring Plowin Jacket

A VLJ (Vintage Leather Jackets Forum) member posted his collection of original A-2 jackets, one of the jackets had the artwork, "Spring Plowin".
http://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7120

I really liked the artwork on the jacket so I commissioned a jacket artist to reproduce it.
The picture of the original jacket:

The reproduced artwork on my jacket:

The artist, Mike, normally paints with acrylics. I asked him to see if he could paint a 'weathered' looking jacket back, like the jacket in the original. He said he'd give it a go.
Mike experimented with various techniques and found that it was difficult to artificially age acrylic paint.
He decided to paint with enamel and use a 'weathering' coat over the paint. He said, with the thin enamel paint, it would naturally develop the patina of crazing found on old paint jobs.
I've got to say, I'm really happy with the results. :eusa_clap

 

[Whithead]

Hell's Belle - Done!

Just got the finished photo from "Harp Player Gene" (gene@genecrippen.com) and it looks AWESOME!

At least I think so!

Very reasonable price from Gene and excellent communication during the process...I can highly recommend his work.

I'll get a photo of it actually on when it arrives.

I thought about going "weathered" but (a) I am about 80% through private pilot lessons and (b) I hope to have this jacket for a long time...I'll weather it myself.

 

[442RCT]

Gene is without a doubt, a mighty fine jacket artist, the paint job looks great !!!:eusa_clap
I'm looking forward to seeing your pics of "Hell's Belle" when it arrives.