Mike Maddi’s Kong Kit: in-progress shots!

8arms — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:29:23 +0000

Holy Cow! Mike’s work is just incredible. It looks like I’ll be helping him out with the decals for the Tophatter biplanes – a big thank you to the Vintage Aviator, LTD. (the New Zealand company who built the prop planes for the latest King Kong movie) for the reference photos.

You can see more of Mike’s incredible resin kits here.

2009 Miramar OWC golf tournament work

8arms — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:18:00 +0000

Just a collection of work I did for the Miramar OWC’s golf tournament waaaay back in 2009. About time I posted it…

HSC-85 art drafts

8arms — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:55:26 +0000

The ‘High Rollers’ of HSC-85 were transitioning into more of a Special Operations support role. Their name was changing from ‘High Rollers’ and they wanted an update to their emblem (which was oriented toward gambling). At the time, they were thinking of the name ‘Phoenix’ to reflect the squadron’s heritage doing firefighting support work. I was invited to submit some ideas for an emblem, and did a quick mockup of a new Getz Girl (‘Phoenix’) and challenge coin (among other products).

Ultimately my designs were not chosen, but if you know anyone with HSC-85 or any squadron having a phoenix or firehawk-themed unit mascot who could benefit from the Getz Girl getting finished, please let me know.

You can see the selected design on the HSC-85 Wikipedia page here.

Bombin’ Betty Revisited

8arms — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:13:14 +0000

This Getz Girl Pin-Up artwork honors those linked to the famous US Marine Corps VMFA-121 All Weather fighter squadron. It was inspired by the squadron’s original WWII-era pin-up, which has graced patches, aircraft tail surfaces, etc. (see image below).

The Getz Girl version of ‘Bombin’ Betty’ was developed with input from Green Knight officers and Wives’ Club Members. The new, unofficial artwork presents an updated, easier to reproduce look for a symbol which has inspired squadron members for over half a century.

It was a great honor to work on this, thanks to all the Green Knights and loved ones who contributed feedback.

VQ-1 World Watchers in the house…

8arms — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:44:12 +0000

Just some stuff done for those EP-3 professionals and their families… Buy some of them on products in the Zazzle shop here!

Pen Plane Goodness…

8arms — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:22:13 +0000

Just a few samples of some Pen Plane designs done for NAVAIR folks…

Learn more about pen-and-ink Pen Planes here…

Tiltrotors get logos… and posters!

8arms — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:03:02 +0000

A friend working for the V-22 Osprey Public Affairs Office informed me that there were no emblems for the individual services’ aircraft, so I created a couple, along with posters to cheer the associated Marines and Airmen on. Go get ‘em you guys (and gals)!

These are available for squadrons or PAOs working with either aircraft (the posters can be customized with your squadron emblem) for official use. I’ll try to work on getting some stickers with the logos available in the shop…

Kong Killers artwork in Aviation Classics Magazine

8arms — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:34:37 +0000

Great work by Norm deWitt writing about about VFA-14′s big-screen exploits!

Thank you Norm, Editor Tim and Aviation Classics!

HMM-166 Helicopter Golf poster

8arms — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:02:44 +0000

You may have already seen the retro posters I did for HMM-166 here and here, but I don’t think I’ve posted this one to the blog yet.

In short, my brother-in-law had some mechanical issues occur in-flight and needed to put his CH-46E down safe. The closest spot was a San Diego golf course! No one was injured and the aircraft was soon repaired and flown back to MCAS Miramar. The poster commemorates this incident in a humorous way.

The golf club in the hands of the crew chief was a bit hard to make out, so I overemphasized the shadow a bit to draw attention to it. The aircraft markings match those on the Phrog involved.

TOPGUN 04-11 class gift

8arms — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 04:43:42 +0000

A friend who had advanced to the US Navy’s Strike Fighter Tactics program realized the class of students he was in needed to have a class gift to present at their graduation. Having previously commissioned the Getz Girl ‘Lucille’ – he wanted to know if I could deliver poster artwork with a new Getz Girl pin-up.

My answer was “YES” (duh) and the result was ‘Gracie’ – who eventually appeared on the 04-11 TOPGUN class posters (each class member got one, plus one framed for the gift) and t-shirts.

There were a couple of challenges with this project. First of all, there were 16 members in the class from 13 different NAVAIR organizations. Guess what? Almost none of them could deliver emblems that were high-res enough to look good on the poster – I I had to re-create them all. So, if you’re with one of those squadrons and need your emblem in high resolution, let me know. I can even get zaps and patches made for you with the art.

Another challenge is that no ‘official’ logo exists for the TOPGUN program. Oh, there was that movie logo – but the rights to it belong to the studio. And there is an official patch design too – but that wouldn’t work for the top of the poster. So I created my own original design. I hope to have zaps (stickers) available with the design in the shop eventually. I plan to do a version of it for back-seaters as well…

All the different aircraft had to be represented, as well as the Fallon tower and USMC ground station… It was fun getting them all in there. I even stuck a cactus in there to help set the mood.

Finally, each squadron has specific shirt colors they are allowed to wear under their flight suits when on duty. The design had to work on all of those colors.

So, long story short, everything got done in a compressed schedule and the graphics were made to work on the poster (more colors) as well as on the various t-shirts (one color screen!).

Now I wonder where that poster ended up after the big graduation bash…