Flight Jacket Artwork

View the detail of Rita in this painting
View the 1941 publicity shot that inspired this painting

What sort of paint do you use?

At first, I used Ceramcoat acrylics and a tube acrylic for metallic colors. However, I found plain acrylic too susceptible to cracking. I switched to Setterholm Paints for Leather after the first few jackets. Setterholm paints were designed for painting on flexible leather items, and were a acrylic-latex emulsion paints. They remained extremely flexible after they dried, and jackets could take a lot of abuse without any appreciable cracking of the paintings. Setterholm Paints had a good cream-like consistency that made them very easy to work with.

Are you still painting jackets?

Unfortunately, it seems that the Setterholm Paint company no longer exists, and I have not been able to locate any manufacturer that makes acrylic-latex emulsion paints. Since plain acrylic means inevitable cracking of the finished paintings, even with normal use, and I prefer not to have to frequently repair the marred paintings, I haven't been painting any jackets for a couple of years now.

When will you start painting again?

If anyone has information on a manufacturer which makes acrylic-latex paints (or paints designed for leather that come in more than just shoe colors), please let me know. Or get in touch with me, for that matter, if you know where Margaret Setterholm is these days or just how in heck you go about making an acrylic-latex emulsion. When I find or can make a paint that dries as flexible as the Setterholm paints did and is as easy to work with, I will probably start painting again.

So you can get an idea of what this is all about, I thought it would be useful to include an article about me and my artwork. My local newspaper published the story below a few years ago.

The reporter who interviewed me stayed for four hours, and the story included four pictures of me and my artwork, so I think the subject interested him quite a bit. That's also reflected in the accuracy of his story. He done good. I've made a couple of very minor corrections in this copy of the story.

At the bottom of this page are links to thumbnails of many of the flight jacket paintings I've done. This includes all the ones mentioned in the article. You can see larger images of each thumbnail as well. Most of the full-size images are about 500-600 pixels wide, but a few extend to about 800 pixels wide.

Also at the bottom is a picture of Teresa Stokes, pilot and pinup artist, painting the nose art on The Air Museum's B-25 a few years ago.

Warplane 'nose art' is local man's love

Hand-painted reproductions recreate era

By Bruce Phillips
Staff Writer

   Seeing the work of local artist Mike Harney transports one back to a unique time in our history, when the country sent its young men overseas to fight a war everyone believed in.

   Harney specializes in the reproduction of vintage warplane "nose art," a funny, colorful, racy genre of pop culture unmistakeably part of the World War II American flying experience. Artistically inclined servicemen during the war spread their work over aircraft fuselages and bomber jackets. There, on canvasses of metal and leather, pin-up girls with long legs and inviting smiles lolled alongside Disney cartoon characters or reclined among guns and bomb crates. For fighter and bomber pilots, these paintings were a way to show pride and patriotism while maintaining a link with lives back home.

   Harney continues this tradition today, taking new authentic leather bomber jackets and decorating them with detailed painted reproductions of World War II aircraft artwork. His creations have brought him a good deal of attention among war historians and collectors. His work can also be found in two recent books on the subject, "The History of Aircraft Nose Art" and, "Hell-Bent for Leather," both published by Motorbooks International. The latter features one of Harney's paintings on the cover and devotes a page to his work.

   Harney has also earned mention in such specialized publications as the Pacific Flyer Aviation News. Last year, one of his jackets, featuring a Vargas pinup reproduction, was photographed at a USO Party at Hanscom Air Force Base and ended up at the top of page one in The Lowell Sun. The caption mistakenly labeled the jacket as a World War II original, much to Harney's delight.

   When not laboring over a leather jacket, the Wakefield native might be found at Pamet Systems in Acton, where he develops software for use by fire and police departments.

Self-taught

   Those who admire Harney's work are surprised to learn the artist began painting only about three years ago. He began his hobby in 1989, having been struck by the artwork he saw on the old World War II aircraft and bomber jackets on display at the Hanscom Air Show that summer. The show, the first he had attended, also introduced Harney to some of the people who specialize in maintaining and displaying vintage warplanes.

   Harney soon began teaching himself how to paint designs like the ones he saw at Hanscom.

   "I had done some pencil sketching before this, but that's about it," he said during a recent interview at his home.

   Harney's passion for World War II aircraft paintings and memorabilia is evident throughout his home. His studio, a small room just inside the front door, contains shelves of books devoted to the sexy cartoons and poster girls popular in the thirties and forties. In the living room hangs a framed picture of cartoon character Betty Boop. On another wall is an original poster from the 1940s movie "Down to Earth" that features a full-length painting of Rita Hayworth.

   Painting detailed nose art reproductions takes time and patience. Using a lamp and magnifying glass, Harney spends long hours laboriously copying old drawings and photographs. He practiced painting on inexpensive cotton baseball caps before tackling leather jackets. His first work on a jacket took about 45 hours to complete. The jacket featuring Ginger Rogers and Donald Duck (see photo) took about 25 hours to finish. Before the actual painting begins, Harney devotes himself to research, making sure his design is historically accurate to the last detail, right down to the shade of Rogers' hair.

   "I have been called a perfectionist," he said with a smile. "That may have something to do with it."

   Harney has decorated a dozen jackets so far, keeping a couple for himself and selling the others. Given the time and expense involved, he only makes them to order. The paint alone costs a good deal of money. Harney uses a special acrylic latex paint, shipped to him from a shop in Manhattan, which flexes with the leather. A finished painting runs about $400, not including the price of the jacket.

   About two-thirds of Harney's work is based on original designs studied from old photographs. Much of the difficulty stems from finding the correct colors from the black and white pictures.

   Harney said he would like to one day try his hand at decorating an airplane, though he would first have to learn how to paint on metal.

Part of history

   As part of his research, Harney studied books on such pin-up artists as Alberto Vargas, whose amply proportioned young women found their way onto B-17 Flying Fortresses throughout the Eighth Air Force. Vargas' calendar girls featured regularly in Esquire magazine during the forties, and later in Playboy. His work proved so popular in Esquire that the magazine trademarked his name, Varga, minus the "s".

   "The women he did were superhuman. They had legs about a foot longer than any real woman, but somehow he made it work," said Harney.

   Copied during the war, the Varga girls often accompanied the names pilots would give their planes, names like "Lady Gay," "Pride of the Air Force" and "Royal Flush" written in balloon letters.

   Though the designs may be deemed suggestive or sexist by some, Harney said he finds them as acceptable today as they were 50 years ago. After all, he noted, they're part of our history.

   "There will always be people who will object to it and say it shouldn't be done. It's kind of like bad TV. You can change the channel if you don't want to look at it."

   Commanders during World War II permitted the artwork, knowing it helped maintain morale among the flyers, Harney explained. This was especially important in the Eighth Air Force, based in England, which provided about 10 percent of the casualties in the war.

   "Those guys were desperate for any reminder of home," he said.

   The Air Force, however, has grown modest in its own age, and no longer allows its planes to be decorated. (Even so, Harney said, the Air National Guard and Strategic Air Command have been known to overlook artistic violations.)

   Airmen doing nose art during World War II were often cartoonists or commercial artists back home, Harney explained. Paintings were done for friends and fellow pilots. "They'd say, 'Give me $20 and a bottle of whiskey and I'll do it for you.'"

   Most of all, they did it for fun, a motivation Harney shares.

   "I wish I could say I make a profit, but I lose money," he said. "I do it for the fun of it."

   Despite Harney's talent, aircraft nose art remains only a hobby for him. He has no plans to turn his craft into a business venture.

   "What's the point of elevating it past the hobby level?" he said. "With all the expenses, I'm not going to make any money at it."

   Besides, he added, "that's too much work."

Pilot and artist Teresa Stokes painting the nose art
on The Air Museum's B-25, "Photo Fanny."
View her completed nose art plus the original "Photo Fanny" aircraft.

Thumbnails: Collection 1
Thumbnails: Collection 2
Other Artwork