AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2020 - 68

68 | AOPA PILOT February 2020

it took license with naming it Diamond Lil.
Velasco researched the Diamond Lil original (based on a play written by Mae West
in the late 1920s) and painted his version
on the CAF's B-24.
"Most nose artists were just guys in the
outfit. The brass would let them get away
with it-they may not be there tomorrow,"
said Velasco.
"Get away with it" is a nice
way of saying the
painters could be a
lot less politically correct with their images.
While many nose art
examples are cartoons
and insignia, the nose
art Velasco connects
with are the sensuous
pin-up girls that graced
many aircraft. They are
based on work by Esquire
magazine artists George
Petty and Alberto Vargas.
Vargas painted the leading
stars of the Ziegfeld Follies
before eventually replacing
Petty at Esquire for the publication of the first Varga Girl
calendar in 1940 (publisher

BOTTOM: COURTESY GARY VELASCO

NOSE ARTISTS

Velasco has written the book on nose art,
Fighting Colors: The Creation of Military
Aircraft Nose Art, and Fighting Colors
is the name of his company, located
near Charlottesville, Virginia. If he feels
an affinity to the nose artists of World
War II, it makes sense. He was a housepainter; most nose artists were sign
painters in an era when everything had
to be hand painted. Because nose artists
were "a dime a dozen," as Velasco says,
the "artwork" was often crude and usually unsigned. He has collected more than
8,000 original photographs of nose art and
uses them as guidance for the art he creates. That includes the art he has painted
on actual aircraft-Diamond Lil on a
Commemorative Air Force B-24, Madras
Maiden on a B-17G, Memphis Belle insignia and bombs on a B-17, and Doris Mae on
a TBM Avenger.
Velasco studies the historic, black and
white photos to determine the colors of
the original work. That said, he also asks
if he can have creative license when he
paints on the aircraft. The CAF aircraft
that is Diamond Lil was never an actual
fighting aircraft in Europe, so when the
organization restored that specific B-24,



AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2020

Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2020 - Intro
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2020 - Cover1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2020 - Cover2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2020 - Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2020 - 2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2020 - 3
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2020 - Cover3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2020 - Cover4
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