94th BG B-17G oil study & final art ...

Chicoartist · **Posted:** Mon Feb 02, 2009 9:06 pm

Thanks - but I just wanted to see Kurt Warner get another one. Don't really have a dog in the fight otherwise ...

Elroy13 wrote:

I really like what you've done to the prop on the #2 engine, compared to the others!

Guess that needs some explaining. C. Arliss Watts, the pilot of this 331st BS, 94th BG Fort passed away a few years ago, but before he died his great-nephew (the client who commissioned this project) asked him to write a narrative of sorts of his WWII experiences. I was sent copies of all this, and found it very interesting. Within the red underlined text below, you'll find the setup for this painting, and also my inspiration for the title of the piece ... Temporary Reprieve:

Because the sub pens had not been destroyed, we had to go back to Kiel on April 4 for mission #15. I was still flying aircraft #820, “Roll Me Over”, and leading the second element of my squadron. We reached the I.P. (initial point of bombing run) and started our procedural bomb run when flak became very heavy. I caught a hit in my #2 engine which knocked a hole in my #2 oil tank. I operated the engine as long as possible, trying to hold my lead position in the second element. I thought I could run it a little longer and maintain my position until we reached the target.

However, this was not to be, and I had to fall out of formation and trail behind the squadron. Having lost the oil from the #2 engine, it would not feather but continued to windmill causing excess drag. As we approached the target, bomb bay doors were opened and finally bombs were away. By the time the bombs were dropped by the squadron, we were some 2000 feet below their bombing altitude inasmuch as we were trying to maintain speed by giving up altitude. We threw out our bombs as the squadron’s bombs came by. Our squadron leader and our group commander immediately took evasive action by dropping altitude and increasing speed.

We were totally unable to keep up so we trailed out behind the squadron which would try to avoid flak and fighter attack by moving out of the area as quickly as possible. We trailed along the bomber stream with the engine windmilling and alternately freezing to a dead stop with a terrible vibration to the entire aircraft. As the unlubricated engine cooled, the props would again windmill up to 2500 RPM then freeze with the same jolt. Fearing that the prop might come off, I had Jess Hunter and the boys in the nose of the aircraft go aft behind the pilot’s seat. The drive shaft of #2 finally parted behind the thrust bearing after which the prop continued to windmill with no more jolting freeze-ups.

We continually lost altitude until we passed over an area at the west end of the Kiel canal where a German fighter base was visible. Several German fighters were taxiing for takeoff to knock out damaged bombers such as ours. We used our flares of the day trying to get some fighter protection from P-51’s which might be patrolling the bomber stream in our area. We had no luck with this so we called our group commander and our squadron commander and were told they had been unable to reach fighter support for us.

Finally, in desperation, we fired other flares than those of the day and three P-51’s came up. Two sat on one wing of the aircraft and one on the other and flew us out past Heligoland . The arrival of the three P-51’s put our minds at ease for about 10 minutes [time frame of my painting] until they left us after we had passed the island naval fortress on Heligoland. The Jerry fighters never attacked us. As we flew by Heligoland, we received three or four more bursts of flak as warnings not to come close. We weren’t going to do anything but try to get back home at this stage of the game. However, our adventure was not about to be completed yet.

As we flew 30 minutes past Heligoland, another engine was lost. We were able to immediately feather #3 engine. Now we were flying along with #1 engine and #4 engine running; #3 engine was feathered; and #2 engine was windmilling. Our speed was about 120 miles per hour IAS and we were continuing to lose altitude. The second engine was lost while we were at about 10,000 feet. My original navigator had gone into lead crews and I was flying with a fill-in navigator who was really a bombardier with navigational training. He thought we were closer to home than we were and continually gave us readings of 45 minutes to go (which seemed to us like two or three hours) to reach home base.

We continued losing altitude and after about three hours of flying time, we saw the white puff of clouds which indicated England was there. During this entire time we had been flying over the treacherous North Sea, losing altitude, and nobody wanted to go swimming. As we approached the coast of England, our altitude was only 2000 feet and we had almost begun to hold altitude on two engines. However, in order to do this we had jettisoned all loose armament and armor and thrown out several radio sets – anything we could get loose from the aircraft to lighten the load.

We were able to still maintain radio contact with my set up front and I contacted our home base. After lining up several bases on which we could land in the event of the loss of a third engine, we navigated on into our home base, received a straight-in approach, and made a normal landing. This was the last mission for aircraft #820, “Roll Me Over”, and although I had flown seven missions in it, I had received credit for only five in old #820. Our operations officer, Major Wendt, at this time recommended me for the Distinguished Flying Cross. We had a very narrow escape and luckily came through it all.

Wade

JDK · **Posted:** Tue Feb 03, 2009 5:48 am

Neat stuff Wade, thanks for sharing. How does it go?

"just one mission of just one plane and one crew in one squadron ..."

A thousand stories.

Elroy13 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:21 am

Thanks for sharing that! I figured it might have a story behind it. Im always on the edge of my seat while reading stories like that!

Django · **Posted:** Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:39 pm

Best of luck Wade!!

How did you happen to pick that particular FG as the escort?

Chicoartist · **Posted:** Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:43 pm

Django wrote:

. . . How did you happen to pick that particular FG as the escort?

Good question -

I'd like to take the credit there, but the client spent a lot of time researching this particular project on his own as I was working on other jobs. At this time via email we were 'nailing down' the basic scene to be depicted, but I was just "yeah, uh-huh", "OK", and filing all the data he gave me in a file folder I keep for each project. He has a military aviation library second to almost none, and he slowly researched the participating groups that day. It turns out that the 353rd specifically stood out as being charged with (I'm going on memory here) "Target and Withdrawl Support" for the 3rd Air Division's strike on Kiel on 4th April 1945.

We didn't have hard evidence that 353rd Mustangs, per se, were the ones that 'dropped by', but the pilot was no longer with us to ask if he remembered, and we went with "best evidence" based on solid research. He ended up thinking we should go with the 353rd, and I had no reason to disagree.

Typical of a commission of this sort, the basic requirements from the client were that the pilot (his great uncle) and the colorful 94th BG markings at this late stage of the war should be shown prominently - along with the nose art. That pretty much determined the 'view' of the Fortress as you see it. Past that, I was "left on my own" to do some of that artist-s**t I supposedly do sorta-well. :lol:

Accordingly, I made the decision to "leave off" the third Mustang since we wanted to have the Fort prominent, but since there are still two shown (these two, Mascara Maggie and Beautiful Dope are documented as flying that day as well, thanks to the client's research), we didn't sweat leaving out the third P-51. Of course, I also composed the overall scene, including the lighting and background and position of the Mustangs.

Having a good 'researcher' saves a LOT of time, and some 'professional' aviation artists I know use them regularly, but that being said in such cases I always take what the client gives me and I do my own 'vetting', for lack of a better word ... not to challenge the 'help' I've been given, but more in order to better wrap my own brain around what's going on, and why I'm showing something like I am. I will do a much better job if I know the 'why and how' in addition to the 'what'. Once all those details are settled in my mind, the 'art' part begins ...

Hopefully, this piece will hang in the Mighty Eighth AF Museum at Savannah, Ga. later this year as part of the ASAA show:
http://asaa-avart.org

Wade

Holedigger · **Posted:** Tue Feb 03, 2009 2:56 pm

Great post. It is always interesting to get the back story and how all the research came together. I was trying to workout the lighting, figuring lat in the day heading back, the shadows seem to put the plane on a SSW track. Just artistic lighting or was part of their track out around Denmark to avoid flak and fighters and then tacked more southerly? I'm spoiled by my 3-d program. Punch in time and Lat/long and it puts the sun there! I almost never use it, I put the sun where I want it for best light, even if it has to come from the North!

Chicoartist · **Posted:** Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:12 pm

The sun is where it is because I, as god of the canvas, needed it to be there! If it happens to conform to 'reality', more or less, all the better, but on the canvas I trump even Mutha Nature, moving the heavens as I damwellpleeze! :lol:

My artistic license is current, with three cloud depictions and the five tones of light rendered within the last 90. :wink:

Wade

Holedigger · **Posted:** Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:20 pm

I totally concur. That is great light for her curvaceous body! Full sun just flattens her curves out, this partial backlit lighting really makes her pop. It's what makes YOU one of the Great Ones! :drink3:

Chicoartist · **Posted:** Wed Feb 11, 2009 2:50 pm

Overdue for a quick pic for my Blog ... what you see here was completed a while back - as the busiest area on the canvas, I think I'm done %$#*&%ing with it! :lol:

Wade

Holedigger · **Posted:** Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:01 pm

Cool! Really coming along
Thanks for the update

Django · **Posted:** Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:29 am

Very nice!

Chicoartist · **Posted:** Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:06 pm

Thanks, fellas - I've just been watching Steve Connor's Flying Legends '08 DVD, and I've got a sudden hankering to do a mass takeoff scene on grass ... :lol:

Speaking of film footage - here's a question for any experts in the crowd: I have ~20 minutes of ultra-rare 4th FG film shot at Debden by one of the 335th FS crew chiefs, but it was given to me on DVD and though I have the full registered version of the screen-capture software "Fraps", I can't get a full-frame capture to show highlights to friends. The 'capture' is squeezed into the left half of the 'frame', with the right side being black. No problem with any other DVDs I have. I should mention that the DVD is listed as being "export-controlled".

Wade

Chicoartist · **Posted:** Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:16 pm

The fuselage and tail group are complete - wings next!

Wade

daveymac82c · **Posted:** Thu Feb 19, 2009 9:58 pm

You're doing some great work there! Quite awesome detail. I don't know how you do it.

Thank you for taking us into your world of warbird painting!

Cheers,

David

Dan Johnson II · **Joined:** Tue May 04, 2004 1:49 am **Posts:** 659

Any chance there will be prints available of that one Wade? It's a beauty!

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94th BG B-17G oil study & final art ...

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