Some patches I made during the weekend.

[Yogie]

My Friday patch. The 82nd Observation Squadron.

 

[Yogie]

Finished the Sunday patch today. The 77th Bomb Squadron.

 

[ausreenactor]

Finished the Sunday patch today. The 77th Bomb Squadron.

View attachment 88817

Even with the hand out of action? Wow.

 

[Yogie]

@ausreenactor
You confuse something.
Yardstick's hand had a surgical operation. Not mine.
As far as I can see this morning I have 10 fingers in working condition.

 

[ausreenactor]

@ausreenactor
You confuse something.
Yardstick's hand had a surgical operation. Not mine.
As far as I can see this morning I have 10 fingers in working condition.

How did it get a mention here then?

 

[Yogie]

@ausreenactor : Maybe the following is the reason for the confusion.

If you see a fat man, who's jolly and cute,
wearing a beard and a red flannel suit;
And if he is chuckling and laughing away,
while flying around in a miniature sleigh;
With eight tiny reindeer to pull him along;
Then - let's face it - Your eggnog's too strong!!

 

[Micawber]

@ausreenactor
You confuse something.
Yardstick's hand had a surgical operation. Not mine.
As far as I can see this morning I have 10 fingers in working condition.

All on the same hand?!!!!

 

[ausreenactor]

@ausreenactor : Maybe the following is the reason for the confusion.

If you see a fat man, who's jolly and cute,
wearing a beard and a red flannel suit;
And if he is chuckling and laughing away,
while flying around in a miniature sleigh;
With eight tiny reindeer to pull him along;
Then - let's face it - Your eggnog's too strong!!

I have the capacity look only at the pictures presently. Ground rush in our last week. Started at 0445 yesterday to get ahead. 0545 today... If my Warrants could follow direction life would be simple. A 30 year WO2 who shows little potential made our collective lives hell this year...

Will be able to digest it all in a relaxed fashion from Saturday...
Well Sunday. Shooting the M1917 and the M1903A4... so excited!

 

[Yogie]

I am a little jealous. As an earlier sniper, I would also like to shoot the M1903A4.
My baby during the military period 40 years ago was a Heckler & Koch G3 sniper rifle.
The photo shows the gun with the complete Infrared equipment.

 

[Yogie]

The Saturday patch finished today. 460th Bomb Group.

 

[ausreenactor]

The Saturday patch finished today. 460th Bomb Group.

View attachment 89377

Love the version with 460 as well. The font/style is timeless.

 

[John Luder]

OM Flamin' G, The 460th is so obscure, but here's my stepfather in summer 1944 (shot down in July). I painted one of the round ones 45 years ago, put it on a B-10 like the old-man's jacket,nicked 35 years ago. Did one of the 763d Squadron for a bit of variety. He was in the 760th, with the round patch.
I've posted the 34th A-2 in another category. Painted that about 40 years ago. I have to re-do that, now that we have internet and the ability to see the Raiders' jackets much, much more clearly than the old dot-matrix photos in mass-produced books.

 

[John Luder]

It helps to have an "original".

 

[John Luder]

As I've written elsewhere herein, I'm putting together the parts for a Jimmy Doolittle A-2 for the museum. If we have a spare A-2 that's small enough, we might put together the General's jacket for display.
The General, whom I met a few times, told me that his original A-2 was (and I can't remember which) at the Wright-Pat Museum or at the Smithsonian.
There are full sized mannequins on uniforms, in Ohio, standing next to a Mitchell. The Doolittle jacket on the mannequin has the WRIGHT patch, but the color inside the arrow is blue.
I have no way of knowing if it's blue or black. And, as much as I hate it, I've relied on other knock-offs used in movies.
I laid the patch, name plate, and rank over my A-2 for illustration purposes.
I tried two other WRIGHTs a few days before I got serious with this one, but those two aside, it's been over thirty years since I put paint to leather.
In my experience, lettering is the hardest thing to get half-way decent.
I'll be getting to the other Doolittle patches after Christmas when I can have the dining room table back.
Any ideas on the colo(u)r for the arrow?
Much obliged.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good flight (jacket).

 

[John Luder]

Closer-up of the avatar pic, and even closer in flight gear. Why the broken goggles, IDK.
In July of 1944, I'll guess this was the jacket he wore when he bailed out near Vienna. Someone in the Ack-Ack crew that grabbed him liberated his flight jacket.

 

[John Luder]

The Saturday patch finished today. 460th Bomb Group.

View attachment 89377

Yogie,
Amazing work. How much leather do you have after all of these?
I'm curious: You show pencils and markers. Are those for effect in the background, or do you use them? If you do use them, what are they?
When you use acrylic paint, do you use a sealer? I know someone who had an acrylic patch, but sent the jacket with the patch to the dry cleaner's. The process destroyed the patch.
Frohe Weihnachten, Herr Malermeister.

 

[Micawber]

Closer-up of the avatar pic, and even closer in flight gear. Why the broken goggles, IDK.
In July of 1944, I'll guess this was the jacket he wore when he bailed out near Vienna. The "fucking krauts" as he called them to his dying day, liberated his flight jacket. He got something else, but winter 1944-45 was the freaking coldest in decades, and Stalag I was up on the Baltic. There's a photo of him with his barracks mates. Off the top of my head, I remember him wearing a jeep cap. I hope I don't get kicked off the forum for failing to capitalize the word 'krauts'.

Polite request...
Could you post your images as full size rather than attachments please

 

[John Luder]

Polite request...
Could you post your images as full size rather than attachments please

I'd be happy to do so. Problems, though. I don't know how to do so, and I don't want to presume that any of my contributions are full-size material.
I have a Mac desk top; anyone who can advise, I'd be grateful.
Second, which of the pix do you want full sized?

 

[Yogie]

@CAF Docent
I'm sure I still have 4 square meters left at the moment. When I started painting in January I could buy the leather for a ridiculous amount of 34 euros in the bay. And yes, I use different pens (Zmilla acrylic pen sets and noname alcohol markers) to paint the patches. The pencils are my desk mat. I only paint them for fun at first. When I retire in the middle of next year I will put them up for sale. My current employer does not allow a second income. The final seal is several layers of matt acrylic varnish from a Dutch company.

 

[John Luder]

@CAF Docent
I'm sure I still have 4 square meters left at the moment. When I started painting in January I could buy the leather for a ridiculous amount of 34 euros. And yes, I use the different pens (acrylic pens and alcohol markers) to paint the patches. I only paint them for fun at first. When I retire in the middle of next year I will put them up for sale. My current employer does not allow a second income. The final seal is several layers of matt acrylic varnish from a Dutch company.

Thanks. I've never heard of acrylic pens or alcohol markers. I'll have to look into them. Thirty years ago, I used Tandy's brand of acrylic paint. I've now found that Angelus brand has better coverage.
Do you prepare the leather with a base of anything before you start the painting, or do you go right to work on the untreated surface?
There used to be several Tandy Leather stores in the Los Angeles and surrounding areas. Due to the lock-down, we lost a few stores. 34 euros for what sounds like a full steer's hide is a good price. Am I wrong on that? We go by square feet or square yards here, but Tandy sells different types of 'leather' by the weight of the entire piece, be it sheep, steer, cow, etc. I recently paid $13 for what was roughly less than a square yard. A nice piece, thinner than what I used decades ago.
When I worked for the government, I, too, was barred from a second income, though the concern was having a job that interfered with my salaried work.
You've given me great hope for a more productive retirement than sleeping till noon. But I may not give that up just yet.
Is it Meistermaler, or Malermeister? If it's not a secret, where in Germany are you located?