My repro 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy), 401 Bombardment Sq

[crazychevelleman]

Anyone have a bomber jacket? :lol: Well, I am getting an WWII Government Issue A-2 Jacket military grade horsehide from "cockpit USA". I provided a pic of the one I purchased. I am a artist some what always have been, so I decided to make my own reproduction squadron patchs, and do the nose art on the back. The patch is made out of leather painted with acrylic and is 5" diameter. The unit that I chose is the 8th Army Air Force, 1st Air Division, 1st Combat Bomb Wing, 91st Bomb Group (Heavy), 401 Bomb Sq. "The Ragged Irregulars". The plane they Flew was the B-17 "Shoo Shoo Shoo Baby" Enjoy!

These are the original patchs

 

[Tim P]

welcome, nice work., I have always felt that the group and squadron patches constitutes a bit of over gilding and would normally follow accepted practice of the time and just use one or the other. it is of course your jacket and with your patches so nice I can see why you would want both on there but with the rank and SSI on there too it will be at the top end of what would have been badged.
I hope that the finished product will be good and that in due course you will post pics.
regards
Tim.

 

[MikeyB-17]

Hi, welcome. I was about to agree with Tim and say that most WWII aircrew only had the squadron patch on the left breast, and that wearing the group patch on the right breast as well was fairly uncommon, but I've just taken a casual glance through 'Art of the Flight Jacket', and there are more jackets in there with two patches than I'd expected. The single patch, sometimes with a nametag, appears to have been the more common, but it seems the two patches wasn't as rare as I thought, although some of the jackets in Maguire's book may well have had commemorative patches added after the War.
I guess if I don't say it somebody else will-there are more accurate reproductions of a WWII A-2 available than the Cockpit's. The Cockpit's is a modern adaptation-it really isn't an accurate reproduction of a WWII A-2. Not meaning to criticise-it's by no means a bad thing, it's a comfortable, practical jacket, but if you want to reproduce a WWII A-2, there are several companies making more authentic reproductions. If it's not a problem to you, great, but I feel somebody ought to point that out. (Tin helmet on-incoming! )

 

[crazychevelleman]

Thanks, for the wonderfull and helpfull info. I was thinking of placing the 91st group patch on the left side or Painting the name "The Ragged Irrigulars" with 25 bombs under the name as to depict the bomb missions she flew. But both patches are so purdy! Most likely I will keep true to the norm for the average jacket. but I have sum time to think about it, the jacket hasnt come in yeat.

 

[atkins]

Hi CCM,

Post photos of the Cockpit jacket when it's arrive will ya?

Regards,
Atkins

 

[crazychevelleman]

sure thing

 

[CBI]

Here is a 91st Bomb Group Aero leahter jacket I painted about 6 months ago. The jacket has since been given away to an excellent employee at my company. It has been posted before.

Not crazy about the jacket itself (Aero Real Deal) but a fun project.

Best of luck, glad you are interested in doing your project. A word of warning: if you are a member of VLJ you are probably going to get the bug very quickly to upgrade to a better A-2 (Goodwear, ELC). Even if they are pricey for you, you will WANT one. Unless the artwork is top drawer (and even then its tough) if you do all the patching, etc and decide to put the jacket on eBay, etc to sell it, the artwork really cuts the value of the jacket way down. Also, just my 2 cents but AVOID the rank insignia, it pisses veterans off. I have seen this happen many times before. There have been lots of threads about jacket art, rank insignia, wings, etc. painted on jackets - the pros and cons. Rank being the most offensive. Since many pilots did not put rank insignia on their A-2's (but did include art, patches) you can still have a cool looking jacket w/o rank. Also, since you are doing the painting, consider going to the hobby store and buying some flat enamel model paints and paint a patch. I think you will be very happy with the result, more so than acrylics (which we not really on the market until the 50's). Enamel is what was used in the day (however it was lead based then).

 

[Anonymous]

I agree 100%.

 

[Django]

Hey, good to see you over here. :mrgreen:

 

[crazychevelleman]

Here is a New patch I made, 8th USAAF, 91 BG, 323 bombardment sq.
Opinions welcome!