Hi Folks, I'm new here, and my name is Seth. I also posted this in Aviation, so I apologize for posting twice. I just want to be sure I'm posting in the right place. Feel free to remove if in the wrong place. I have a few technical questions about nose art. My wife is a 3x NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Champion, and her new team this year is Team Liberty Racing. Her and her teammate would like their bikes to have a WWII plane theme. The bikes will be wrapped in vinyl, and they will be going with a metal riveted look. The fairing of the motorcycle will have the shark mouth. They would also like to incorporate a Victory Girl (Nose art). We really want all the details of the artwork to be as close to historically accurate as possible. Here is my first questions. In the case of a Victory Girl, does it matter which side she is on? Left or right side. Both sides? Is it uncommon to have a shark mouth and nose art? Thank you for your time.
Welcome to the forum. Quite a unique request. I am not an expert but I am sure someone can guide you. Plenty of knowledge on this forum regarding aircraft. Good luck.
Dunno whether it helps but Memphis Belle had a girl on both sides of the nose going by a quick look at Google Images. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=n...tbm=isch&q=memphis+belle+both+sides+of+nose&*
While the American Volunteer Group (aka Flying Tigers) made the sharks mouth famous on their P-40's, sharks mouths were applied to many other types of aircraft. The 308th Bomb Group operating in China used the motif on many of their B-24's. You can find photos of various aircraft here: http://usaaf-in-cbi.com/308th_web/index.htm - many had both the sharks mouth and nose art. There were also sporadic uses of sharks mouths in most theaters of the war. As for which side to display, there was no standard. Some aircraft had art on one side only (either left or right), some had the same art repeated on both sides, and there were aircraft that had different art on each side as below. With a bit of googling, you should be able to find an aircraft with art you like. Good luck with your project.
Thank you for the welcome and the replies. She has been researching artwork, and has come across a lots that she likes. We didn't came across many photos with both shark mouth and nose art. Thank you mcoffee and Owen for those examples. While looking through thousands of photos of nose art it seemed to be more of a trend for the artwork to be on the left side. We just wanted to be sure to try and be as accurate with tradition as possible.
Welcome. Shark mouths were usually on P-40 fighters and other fighter aircraft.Bombers tended to have the pin ups. Google is your friend. Good luck,Tell the wife to motor easy!
I found a few B-24s with shark mouths & posted them on the duplicate thread. http://www.ww2f.com/threads/nose-art.68187/
A rather unique 109 sporting the sharkmouth nose art. As im sure many are aware, the Luftwaffe were not so eagerly inclined to use nose art on the aircraft of any types. But i found this rare pic of a Bf - 109 painted in the field.
Here it is. It will get a full reveal at the NHRA Four Wide Nationals in Charlotte NC April 28-30. Check it out on FS1.
That bike looks like something Judge Dredd would feel at home upon...For what its worth my ten cents... The "shark motif" was first used in the PTO because the Japanese were thought to have a special fear of them...and usually had the to biggest teeth as the first teeth on the side, the front teeth small... With all nose art it was unofficial, the Americans were much less anal about it, but the Poms banned it and allowed only small depictions, usually of a coat of arms or other "shield"...as you would expect this rule became more and more relaxed the further one was from HQ (England). The good (great ) news is there is little/few rules to follow here...one can put anything on the side (a few were ordered scrubbed off) - A travelling artist might stop into a base (In England for example) and ask if anyone wanted a picture painted, sometimes someone in the squadron could paint and did it...other times an artist was sourced and asked to do some work. If its a "typical" painting you're after I would choose a well painted scantily clad young lady, or a cartoon depiction...these two were the most common. Try not to make it too well done...a little amateurishness can give an authentic look....but some paintings were beautifully done. On a personal note, ive often thought about getting a Harley Davidson and painting it army green...and stencil a white star on the tank...bit of artificial wear and it would look schmicka!
