Andrew
Well-Known Member
For a long time I have been thinking about trying to produce a reconstruction of the artwork that once adorned one of my originals. The artwork is very faded and when I got it I knew nothing of the owner, his Squadron or the Aircraft he served in. As the artwork is quite faded it wasn't easy to make out the plane's name but it was pretty clearly "6 Hits and a Miss" which was the name of a popular band of the time. If you've been around the forum a few years you would have seen some of the research I posted on it as I only have two painted originals and I really love painted jackets.
Through loads of net scouring and the asistance of some of the members here and others I was able to piece together some of it's secrets. I found out that it had belonged to a Technical Sergeant who was a radio op/ Gunner on a B-26 operating with 575th Sq, 391st BG. He was also a veteran of an incredible 69 missions but unfortunately I don't have any details about them though i'm sure if you could get into the Akron Archive that info would be there, plus he probably has some Rels that could be contacted.
That's him in the jacket pre tour second from the right;
Today Peter G posted an Ebay auction for pinup girly transfers and scouring through them came across a pose that was very similar to the faded outline on my jacket, so that combined with current thinking that I may be selling it in the future accellerated my idea to recreate the artwork in photoshop.
It is pretty much an approximation in terms of font style as i can't exactly match the handpainted '40's fonts and I really can't say what the pinup was wearing in the original but I can say that i'm 100% certain that the pose is the same- as I overlaid the image over the original it fit exactly.
Anyhow, here's the result suitably aged to cover up imperfections in ability- I loved the process and it wasn't all that hard.
As it is now- it's hard to pick out the images in photos, it's much clearer in real life;
As it may have been- you can see the outline of the actual pinup overlaid on the image- I left it there intentionally to show how close it is;
This may be a good technique for visualizing future jacket art imagery. Drop me a line if you want tips.
Through loads of net scouring and the asistance of some of the members here and others I was able to piece together some of it's secrets. I found out that it had belonged to a Technical Sergeant who was a radio op/ Gunner on a B-26 operating with 575th Sq, 391st BG. He was also a veteran of an incredible 69 missions but unfortunately I don't have any details about them though i'm sure if you could get into the Akron Archive that info would be there, plus he probably has some Rels that could be contacted.
That's him in the jacket pre tour second from the right;
Today Peter G posted an Ebay auction for pinup girly transfers and scouring through them came across a pose that was very similar to the faded outline on my jacket, so that combined with current thinking that I may be selling it in the future accellerated my idea to recreate the artwork in photoshop.
It is pretty much an approximation in terms of font style as i can't exactly match the handpainted '40's fonts and I really can't say what the pinup was wearing in the original but I can say that i'm 100% certain that the pose is the same- as I overlaid the image over the original it fit exactly.
Anyhow, here's the result suitably aged to cover up imperfections in ability- I loved the process and it wasn't all that hard.
As it is now- it's hard to pick out the images in photos, it's much clearer in real life;
As it may have been- you can see the outline of the actual pinup overlaid on the image- I left it there intentionally to show how close it is;
This may be a good technique for visualizing future jacket art imagery. Drop me a line if you want tips.
