Flight jacket painting

Mark Sampson · **Joined:** Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:02 pm **Posts:** 300

I was recently looking at my father's A-2 jacket, which was lavishly illustrated in England in 1944. (He was a flight engineer on the B-17 "Section 8", 32 missions with the 529th Sqdn., 452nd Bomb Group, 8th AF.) And I wondered... what kind of paint would they have used on the leather back then? It seems unlikely that there would have been any specialized materials, or that they would have had access to them if there were. The illustrations have survived reasonably well.
Which leads to the question, how would you go about painting a leather jacket today? I'm sure many people on this board will have answers... I'm not going to re-create his design but it would be interesting to know.

Mark Sampson

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11319

Testors model paint is what was used on my flight jacket.

JimH · **Posted:** Tue Jan 07, 2014 12:27 pm

I used Tandy Leathers' Cova paints...one jacket is 20 years old now and still going strong.

jim

Speedy · **Posted:** Tue Jan 07, 2014 12:33 pm

I've painted a handful of jackets. I use water-based acrylic paints. If you use them in several light coats, stretching the leather out between each layer, it actually soaks INTO the leather instead of drying on top of it.

You need to prep the area you're going to paint by using a rag and paint thinner to strip off the protective coating of the leather first.

If you use enamel paints, they are not as pliable and will crack and flake off easier over time as someone else pointed out.

Big Daddy · **Posted:** Tue Jan 07, 2014 4:04 pm

Speedy wrote:

I've painted a handful of jackets. I use water-based acrylic paints. If you use them in several light coats, stretching the leather out between each layer, it actually soaks INTO the leather instead of drying on top of it.

You need to prep the area you're going to paint by using a rag and paint thinner to strip off the protective coating of the leather first.

If you use enamel paints, they are not as pliable and will crack and flake off easier over time as someone else pointed out.

Being a water-based paint, then I assume you wouldn"t want to wear this jacket out into the rain? Or do you seal it with something when done?

Thanks
Don

Cherrybomber13 · **Posted:** Tue Jan 07, 2014 4:19 pm

I always us Liqutex Medium Viscosity Acrylic Matte Permanent Varnish. I mix a few drops in with the apple barrel paints and have washed shirts I have done with minimal issues. I also will give an overcoat sometimes depending on how big the artwork is. Mixing a few drops in to the paint adds a little flex to the paint if the acrylic will crack up after used. At least that's what I have found.

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Tue Jan 07, 2014 5:31 pm

i've had my repro jacket since 99, painted w/ oil based epoxy enamel. brand named "4 in 1 epoxy" based out of the Cleveland ohio area. "international paint co." I believe..... if they are still in business. they made 1 great product!! if you can't google it then email me & i'll give you the name of their distributor. that paint was kick ass, still wears well, marine grade, durable, & can be used on anything!!

fritzthefox · **Posted:** Tue Jan 07, 2014 6:30 pm

Original flight jackets were painted with whatever was readily available...at the time, that would have been hobby enamels, artists oils or aviation paint liberated from the supply pool. My guess is that hobby enamels would have been the most popular, because they were cheaper and dried faster than oils.

Modern flight jacket painters use all kinds of paint, as there are a plethora of options. Acrylics are popular, because of their flexibility. Some still use hobby enamels, to recapture the patina of vintage jackets. I like e-tac, which is an airbrush-ready acrylic-urethane hybrid optimized for textiles.

To answer Speedy's question, water-based acrylics become waterproof once they cure. They essentially become a plastic. Some artists will clear coat their work for additional protection, although many clear coats can yellow with time. (Which may or may not be desirable, depending on the look you want to achieve)

390BG · **Posted:** Tue Jan 07, 2014 7:21 pm

Have painted quite a few jackets using Fiebing's Acrylic Leather Dye - never had a problem with cracking. You need to remove as much of the oil/stain from the jacket using fingernail polish remover or something similar before painting. They also have a clear sealer that is applied on the paint (Resolene). It is called a "dye" but acts just like thin acrylic paint, can be mixed easily.

aeroeng · **Posted:** Mon Jan 13, 2014 7:08 pm

Nice looking jackets!

aeroeng

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Wed Jan 15, 2014 5:12 pm

a truly realistic flight jacket w/ art should only be hand painted, no air brushing. the paint I recommended earlier in this thread is still pliable / flexible w/ no cracking or flaking since 1999 on my A-2!!

Zachary · **Posted:** Wed Jan 15, 2014 5:16 pm

For those who want to try their hand at jacket painting - here's a decent guide for starters:

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2014/cls-jacket/

Zack

p51 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 15, 2014 5:21 pm

tom d. friedman wrote:

a truly realistic flight jacket w/ art should only be hand painted, no air brushing.

AMEN.
Painting jackets used to be a relatively specialized thing, but you can't sling a cat at an airshow without hitting someone who paints them now.
I used to paint them for people, but I haven't done one in a few years...

Pathfinder · **Joined:** Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:35 pm **Posts:** 587

Yes agreed. I painted jackets back in the 80s and 90s thru to about 2000. I'd like to think I pioneered the stripping of the oils out of the area to be painted. Avirex were the jacket of choice back then and they had enough oil in them to lube your car, so you had to get that out. By essentially using a frisket method you could confine the stripping to the exact area to be painted. Specifically the main design feature--pin up, plane or whatever. I was less worried about kill marks or clouds or bombs.

One early customer called after receiving his jacket and said there was a problem....the girl had a crack in her *ss. I said that most people do....and he said the problem is that it ran left to right! That is when I learned that all cows are not created equal. The stripping helped reduce those major crevices and helped the paint stick. I also would put in a thin base coat of white to allow the colors to come back true rather than tan tinged. I used Polly-S acrylics thinned with Ethyl alcohol.

I also recall that famed nose artist Tony Starcer painted several A-2s during the return of Shoo Shoo Baby to the USAFM. He painted great designs on new production A-2s and those fell off within a year. He didn't strip the coats.

BTW I asked a wartime jacket painter once why everybody outlined their designs in black. He said they NEVER outlined their designs in black...what you are seeing is the outline of the clear coat they put on to seal in the art. I don't remember if he said lacquer or varnish. What I took away from that is that they did do overcoating. I used to use matte spray again confined to the original frisketed area.

My jacket on the left and a good friends on the right. Our jacket of choice back then was Flight Apparel out of NJ....now gone I believe. Here are some T-shirt designs I did back in the 90s....

whistlingdeath77 · **Posted:** Fri Jan 17, 2014 11:03 am

Pathfinder wrote:

Yes agreed. I painted jackets back in the 80s and 90s thru to about 2000. I'd like to think I pioneered the stripping of the oils out of the area to be painted. Avirex were the jacket of choice back then and they had enough oil in them to lube your car, so you had to get that out. By essentially using a frisket method you could confine the stripping to the exact area to be painted. Specifically the main design feature--pin up, plane or whatever. I was less worried about kill marks or clouds or bombs.

One early customer called after receiving his jacket and said there was a problem....the girl had a crack in her *ss. I said that most people do....and he said the problem is that it ran left to right! That is when I learned that all cows are not created equal. The stripping helped reduce those major crevices and helped the paint stick. I also would put in a thin base coat of white to allow the colors to come back true rather than tan tinged. I used Polly-S acrylics thinned with Ethyl alcohol.

I also recall that famed nose artist Tony Starcer painted several A-2s during the return of Shoo Shoo Baby to the USAFM. He painted great designs on new production A-2s and those fell off within a year. He didn't strip the coats.

BTW I asked a wartime jacket painter once why everybody outlined their designs in black. He said they NEVER outlined their designs in black...what you are seeing is the outline of the clear coat they put on to seal in the art. I don't remember if he said lacquer or varnish. What I took away from that is that they did do overcoating. I used to use matte spray again confined to the original frisketed area.

My jacket on the left and a good friends on the right. Our jacket of choice back then was Flight Apparel out of NJ....now gone I believe. Here are some T-shirt designs I did back in the 90s....

Can this work on a b3 jacket as well? I need to get the back done but I want to make sure its done correctly by the right person

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Flight jacket painting

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