New
England
Air
Museum
B-29 Restoration Project
Nose Art painting phase Jan. 12-24, 2002
Photo 1 After cleaning the area to be painted,
measurements are taken and noted from original photos of the
a/c and marked on the nose. Then using an alcohol based
marker, the design is sketched on the skin. Photo 2 This is a close-up of the first
caricature. You can clearly see the sketch lines here. The
reason for an alcohol based marker is used is because after
the base color is applied, the lines can simply be wiped off
leaving no residue. There is no specific reason why I chose
blue as the marker color. It just seemed logical to me
because it would stand out better on the metal
skin. After the sketching was done, I started
with the black paint and proceeded the do the hair on all 11
crew members followed by the eyes. The yellow/brass colored radiator was
painted to finish up the day. Photo 3 At this point (day 2), I measured and
sketched the name "JACK'S HACK" at the proper location. I
then painted it red. The main body of the car was done next. I
stopped by the caricature pumping air into the rear tire and
rendered the wheels. The wheels are purposely exaggerated as
per the original design. Photo 4 Days 3 and 4 was dedicated to painting
all the crew members. The black shadowing was also added to the
name. In this photo, the design is nearly
complete. The outlining is the final step. There is a repair being made on the lower
left of the nose. This damage was done from a Hurricane some
years ago. Photo 5 Day 5. The completed art work.
As can be seen, outlining makes the
design 'Pop' out. This is achieved when you do this last. It
cleans things up and adds sharpness. To the left are the 19 missions symbols.
The funny looking tool box (I'm assuming) are the static
ports for the a/c. I was given skin from this a/c that was
replaced with new panels. I will be doing something special
with this in the near future. Gary Velasco
Several attempts and corrections are made so that all
elements of the design are kept in scale relation to the
original rendition. This process takes about 3
hours.