Fighting Colors: The Creation of Military Aircraft Nose Art [Hardcover]

Gary Velasco (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2004

This new book by Artist/author Gary Velasco is an illustrated history on the creation of military aircraft nose art. This comprehensive volume covers the technical aspects of how nose art was applied to vintage military aircraft and the uses of materials, supplies and development of nose art designs as researched through discussions with surviving nose artists. The author examines and analyzes the WW II era b/w photographs and reveals their color content along with many never-before-published photos, thereby recreating step-by-step actual flying warbird nose art restorations for the first time. Fighting Colors is a graphic tool for all enthusiasts of pinup and vintage aircraft nose art. For artists, this book will outline what the masters knew when the age of sign painting, along with a little bit of imagination and brushes, was a common trade. For veterans and their families, Fighting Colors will serve as a source of reflection and inspiration for years to come.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Turner; 1ST edition (September 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563119870
• ISBN-13: 978-1563119873
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,062,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A book on colors - in black & white?, October 30, 2010

By 

James Pernikoff (Marietta, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fighting Colors: The Creation of Military Aircraft Nose Art (Paperback)

The new paperback edition of this book is an outright abomination, and anyone who buys it (as I did) is a fool. The original hardcover edition had a fair amount of color, as any book on aircraft nose art should have. But here is what is said on the title page of this paperback edition:

"NOTE ON COLOR: This book was originally printed in hardback with color. This version is black and white so references to color may not apply. To see color versions of nose art restoration, visit fighting colors.com."

And if that's not bad enough, the reproduction of the now black-and-white photos in this edition is terrible! And they dare to charge a color-book price for this piece of trash? And what's the shame is that Velasco's editorial content is excellent, but it's wasted here.

I am returning my copy for credit. I urge anyone contemplating buying this paperback edition to turn the other way as quickly as possible, and try and hunt down a good copy of the original hardcover editon instead.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What our fathers and grandfathers painted on their fighting aircraft., September 22, 2010

By 

Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fighting Colors: The Creation of Military Aircraft Nose Art (Paperback)

This is a soft cover black & white reprint of the highly regarded hard cover color version that documented so much of the nose-art that was all the fashion on bomber and fighter aircraft during World War II. This book focuses on the art that flourished in the Pacific Theater where the art form was less restricted than in Europe. The author, Gary Velasco, is not only a scholar of the genre, he is an artist and paints restorations and recreations of nose-art for restored aircraft and those interested in having "panels" (the section of the nose with the art - mostly painted on "skin" from old aircraft or recreated to appear like the original aircraft skin). I am delighted this book exists because most of this artwork is gone. Some were lost in battle, others were destroyed by repainting and re-use during the war (even though many worked to retain their artwork despite repainting), and much was lost to scrap after the war. We need a document such as this book and its related website to preserve this heritage.

The author provides you with a history of the practice and how it was done. Frankly, I was a bit taken back by how risqué much of it was. But then again, if you consider that they were young men, far away from home, and fighting for lives you can easily understand why scantily clad and naked women would be on their minds. But many are also cartoon characters, religious symbols, and others are just stylized lettering. You may object to the nudity, but history is what it is and the art was what it was. By today's standards it is mostly tasteful and relatively tame. But you should be prepared for what is here.

Each chapter gives as much detail about the men and the aircraft as the author has. I was touched by one dispute over the exact color scheme for "Sack Time". The author disagrees with the color scheme of the skin on display in a museum in Texas. But he notes that the crew members who were alive at the time the book was originally published did not remember the color scheme. The author makes his case for his doubts by discussing the surviving black and white photos and the ways color were displayed in various shades depending on the type of black and white film used.

The last chapter discusses the author's restorations, the materials used, the research involved, and the difficult conditions under which the originals and the restorations were painted.

Fascinating stuff.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Saline, MI.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book!, September 9, 2007

By 

Carlos Reinhard - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fighting Colors: The Creation of Military Aircraft Nose Art (Hardcover)

The book is historically accurate and extensively researched. There is no R-rated material in the book. The artwork on the planes reflects young men at war, who lived like there was no tomorrow. For a number of them, there was no tomorrow. Buy the book.