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Post by daoleguy A.J. Hoehn (deceased) on Jul 17, 2008 2:40:25 GMT 9
I am just curious about a few things being a former 27th'er. Prior to the checkboard design what was the tail art? Also it would be really great if if our resident 27th artist would give some background on the checker board pattern - hint hint - hehehe :angel: BTW do you have any photo's of an in progress tail and how you got the checkboard so well? (I am an illustrator also and always played hell with that pattern)
Thanx AJ
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Post by Jim on Jul 19, 2008 13:40:49 GMT 9
I am just curious about a few things being a former 27th'er. Prior to the checkboard design what was the tail art? Also it would be really great if if our resident 27th artist would give some background on the checker board pattern - hint hint - hehehe BTW do you have any photo's of an in progress tail and how you got the checkboard so well? (I am an illustrator also and always played hell with that pattern) Thanx AJ Prior to the Six- ie: Deuce and 94C.......We had no markings... The design was from one of the pilots- a contest was had for a design....I remember some of the 94 and deuce pilots were wearing a yellow and black checkerboard scarf '56-59 at Griffiss..Don't know how Mark did it electronically, but if you would like, I can tell you how I painted the first 10 at Loring ::)The Old Sarge
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Post by daoleguy A.J. Hoehn (deceased) on Jul 19, 2008 20:35:50 GMT 9
Sarge, t'would love to hear the tale! That stuff interests me.
Back in late '74 at Andrews I got the bug on tail art and old aircraft art when we were refurbishing the P-40N for the Smithsonian (I did the cockpit work). I had been helping the painter do the nose art on it and he started talking about some of the ships he had done over the years both active and restored.
What had me curious on the 27th was the significance of the falcon and checkerboard patttern. As we know all aircraft art has a base for the design and emblems.
Thanx AJ
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Post by Jim on Jul 20, 2008 2:42:38 GMT 9
AJ, (Watch the IRISH tenor on ye right),OUR patch was first approved 4 Mar 1924 and replaced the one used during WW1 which apparently is similar to the one used today... The one used today was approved 17 Sept 71, meaning ours lasted 47 years or, thru almost 4 wars..WW2, Korean,part of Viet Nam and 21 years of the Cold War....If I was computer literate, I could post it here..... The significance of the checkerboard-dono- The 1st sqdn I was assigned to -302nd TAC RECON SQDN (then-1953- at Shaw AFB) used red and white, the 303rd used blue and white...side track a wee bit- "I was sent for tale" I was sent to base supply for 2 gal of red and white checkerboard paint-- the supply sgt was laughing his ass off and asked me if I believed there was such a thing and I told him NO. I asked him for a gal of white and a gal of red and a sheet of red paper and a sheet of white paper.....He looked at me and asked me if I was going to do what he thought I was fixing to do. Told him yep--He said I want to help with this....So we sat there and cut squares out of that paper and carefully made checkerboards on top of the paint...He gave me a ride back to the flightline ( 2 miles)......We walked into the flight shack and I asked the crew chief whether he wanted red and white checker board or white and red checker board paint.......Guess he thought he had found a real dummy because he had the flt chief, line chief and the engineering officer (Term for the politically correct Maint Officer) there.......He was laughing rather loudly until I opened the cans and there were those checkerboards..........Everybody began calling him "Checkerboard" after that............. I had to sand the hell out of that gray paint-nitro-celluoise wouldn't stick- Convair-sand till the gloss is gone (and this in the days before vibrating elect sanders- had to use that noisey air sander-no wonder I can't hear today). The yellow went on first,then the black squares were laid out- in the days before double stick tape.......It took (I believe-1960 was along time ago) 5 hand cut stencils to do the patch.Couldn't keep the red from turning pink-didn't make any difference whether I did the white or the red first.......So I had to do the red last and use International FarmAll tractor red enamel- paid for it out of my own pocket because SAC didn't carry any gloss red enamel...Fun keeping the masking tape straight when masking to do the delta shape..........Corrosion Control AFSC didn't exist, so we didn't have sqdn painters......The young kid I had helping me went on to become an artist with a spray gun and made his own airbrush...I gave him all my pinstripping brushes (in the days before decal stripes)..I learned to pinstripe while in the home of the street rods-yep Calif- George to be exact.......I used to have the links at Maxwell AFB that would give you the info youwant, but they don't work any more.......Will scan and send you some of what I have........Any of ye other Falconeers want any of this and I will email it to you individually ::)The Old Sarge
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Post by Tom Dlugosh on Jul 21, 2008 5:00:22 GMT 9
Does anyone have pictures of the 50th anniversary of the 27th FIS that must have been held during the winter of '66/67?
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Post by Jim on Jul 22, 2008 1:24:11 GMT 9
I was long gone by that time- but in 1962, someone flew in a Spad replica,(with the old patch on it) and we had a ww1 Sgt maintainer that was a member of the sqdn in France as a guest.......We grunts weren't invited to the celebration, and cameras were forbidden (by SAC) on the flight line, maybe the 27th FtrSqdn historian at Langley may have something on both events...... AJ- The falcon is a bird of prey and doesn't hestitate to attack, this why so many patches or logos have falcons,hawks and eagles as part of the design........The Old Sarge As I said earlier, I have a copy of the history showing bases, a/c flown, medals etc that I can email if anyone wants it.......
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