Warbird Information Exchange

Generally speaking, women were a hell of a lot better looking back in the day...

I strongly disagree, but concede that THIS one is a real sweetie of ANY era. She reminds me of actress Sherilyn Fenn (probably most notable for Twin Peaks).

That picture appears on page 121 of "The American Aircraft Factory in WWII" by Bill Yenne, 2010 with the following caption:

"Irma Lee McElroy, a former office worker, paints the American insignia on airplane wings at the Naval Air Base in Corpus Christi, Texas. When the Office of War Information released this photo during the war, the caption noted that she did her work 'with precision and patriotic zeal'. Her husband was a flight instructor at the base." Photo credit is Howard Hollem, Office of War Information. Just FYI.

Randy

That is a British Horsa Glider. It appears that there was a crude field attempt to apply the US Insignia over the British roundel.

A number of Horsa gliders flew in US colours, usually with much more complete US insignia! Interesting picture.

Perspective is a big deal as well. It's easy to screw up something and not see it until you stand back and look at the "big picture" (for me, anyway). The last set of markings I did I just handed off to our local vinyl graphics shop and they were thin, fast, and perfect. After a couple of days in the sun the vinyl had snuggled right down into the flush rivet heads and you can't tell that they aren't paint.

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

I'm wondering how she doesn't have paint all over her dress where she's leaning into the wing.

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remember the Oogahonk!
old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers

She seems to be wearing overalls

...and remember that back then, these industrial/promotional photographs were all carefully posed and lit. In no sense were they candid snaps, especially considering the cost and difficulty of shooting color in those days. So It's likely that there was very little actual wet paint in that photo.

It looks like we've discovered an inaccuracy in Sierra Sue II and the other recent hyper-authentic warbirds. They probably painted their national insignia by taping a mask on the plane and spraying it. Now we know that to be accurate, they needed to have them painted by hand by attractive young women in immaculate coveralls using a 1-inch paint brush. Time to raise the bar again, restorers!!



August

Precisely!!! that's why it's so important to accurately preserve history.

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“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

gotta get it right always ...


USAAF Mosquito (N, serial number NS569) of the 25th Bomb Group.

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“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

I'm sure you are correct about the poses and lighting. The caption on the attached image is in part "Sporting a brand-new pair of work gloves (possibly acquired expressly for the photo session)…" found on page 139 of "The American Aircraft Factory in WWII" by Bill Yenne.

Randy

For the modeling types, Ventura decals (#V4857) once put out a decal sheet for that plane and included national markings WITH the stencil marks included.

Darn those Canadians for getting the USAAF insignia wrong