Jacket art gallery

[flypa38]

Found this on another site and thought it was something you guys would enjoy! I like the "patent pending" the best I think!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18532986@N07/sets/72157626140462192/with/5478527450

[rreis]

Great link! thx!

[The Inspector]

Looks like it's time for an enterprising decal maker to get hot since every slide holder has the s/n and group number on it, you could go crazy doing B-17's with beyond cool nose art

[Pathfinder]

Great to see all of these in one place!

401 BG had (arguably) the two best jacket painters in the ETO--Hall and Villagio. It was very rare for a jacket artist to sign his work, but these two did. Hall did "Heavenly Body" and Villagio did "I'll Be Seeing You". Villagio was a gunner on "I'll Be Seeing You". And his signature appears on the two jackets from this plane.

Years ago, in the early 80s, I contacted the 401 Assn when I saw the artists signatures. The man I spoke to did not remember Hall, but he did remember Villagio saying he was on his crew and gave me his phone number. I got a chance to chat with him and he explained how they did jacket paintings back then....VERY interesting.

I don't recall if it was the 401 Assn. contact or Mr. Villagio who told me that Villagio was asked to paint jackets for another crew and nine of the crew got the same design with the same girl. One man--I think it was the tail gunner--went with a different girl in his design. When the plane got shot down everybody survived except the tail gunner.

When I did my own jacket--after about thirty jackets for other people--I went with Heavenly Body.

[steve dickey]

I always liked "Pistol Packin Mama"

[Django]

Great story Pathfinder!

[lmritger]

Great to see all of these in one place!

401 BG had (arguably) the two best jacket painters in the ETO--Hall and Villagio. It was very rare for a jacket artist to sign his work, but these two did. Hall did "Heavenly Body" and Villagio did "I'll Be Seeing You". Villagio was a gunner on "I'll Be Seeing You". And his signature appears on the two jackets from this plane.

Years ago, in the early 80s, I contacted the 401 Assn when I saw the artists signatures. The man I spoke to did not remember Hall, but he did remember Villagio saying he was on his crew and gave me his phone number. I got a chance to chat with him and he explained how they did jacket paintings back then....VERY interesting.

I don't recall if it was the 401 Assn. contact or Mr. Villagio who told me that Villagio was asked to paint jackets for another crew and nine of the crew got the same design with the same girl. One man--I think it was the tail gunner--went with a different girl in his design. When the plane got shot down everybody survived except the tail gunner.

When I did my own jacket--after about thirty jackets for other people--I went with Heavenly Body.

That original jacket by Hall is one of the most jaw-dropping pieces of art I've seen come out of WWII. When browsing the Nicknames directory on Fold3, I came across the high-res pic of the Heavenly Body jacket and my jaw literally dropped open... it is just that stunning. I've asked an artist friend of mine to replicate the girl on my jacket, but use the name "The Little Admiral" (my relative Fred Ritger flew a mission on this ship with an T/T gunner named James Utz... my wife's maiden name is Utz. Very weird coincidence, a Ritger and a Utz together 60 years before we met...)

Do you still have the jacket, and would you mind posting a bigger pic of it?

Cheers!

Lynn

[Pathfinder]

Lynn--
I absolutely agree with you on the Hall version of the Varga art--Miss January 1945--I will go right out on a limb here and state for the record that Hall actually UPGRADED the Varga girl with an absolutely stunning face.

I have my jacket in a box someplace. When doing customers jackets I always overcoated the art with a clear coat. When I did mine I didn't do that---wanted it to age. So my Heavenly Body took a beating after 13 years of airshows. We did AAF living history from '87 to 2001 so she took a hit from heat and harnesses. Some of her finer points are well worn...but I'll see if I can dig it out.

I put some of my old stuff up on another forum photo gallery here:

http://forum.armyairforces.com/photo.as ... 653&page=1

[Django]

Those are nice. Thanks for the link.

[Shay]

D. Sheley, the owner of that flickr account, is a WIX member. I've been a fan of his flickr contributions for a long time now.

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

[flypa38]

Those are nice. Thanks for the link.

I think you may have seen this link somewhere else!!!

[Django]

Perhaps.