Nose Art

McGruff

Banned
The picture with the recent news story on Forstchen got me thinking about nose art on WC fighters. Are there any examples other than the two I can think of - the teeth on the Thunderbolts, and the little "Killer Bees" logo on the WC1 Hornets? Has there ever been any published in the many books and manuals that I haven't seen?
 
Well the arrow has teeth painted on its front...at least I think it did in WC3...its been a while.
 
The Rapiers in the movie all had nose art -- you can see it in the Confed Handbook.

Bear talks about having a Bear painted on his first Ferret in one of the novels.

Centurions have teeth in Privateer.
 
arent there lightning bolts on the rapier in wc2? not nose art but art in general.

Yes, on the rudders at the ends of the wings, as seen here (from the WC CIC Ships database Rapier II entry).
 
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The Panthers and Shrikes in WCP have that pattern that looks like a Black widow on the body
 
Yes, on the rudders at the ends of the wings, as seen here (from the WC CIC Ships database Rapier II entry).

The Panthers and Shrikes in WCP have that pattern that looks like a Black widow on the body

I remember seeing a bee painted on the side of a hornet during the launch sequence in Wing Commander when you were flying with the Killer Bees, but I don't think they ever mentioned the name of the Concordia's Rapier squadron. I know that Panthers and Shrikes were flown by the Black Widows, so I would assume that, based on Wing Commander and Prophecy, markings are based on the squadron flying the ships.

I don't know if personal markings would work out well on a ship, since there just arent enough ships for each pilot to have their own. The US Navy, for example, allows squadron markings like the Jolly Rogers' skull and crossbones and the Starfighters' star and lightning bolt, but did not allow personal markings except in extraordinary cases, and even then, only with writing or tiny drawings.
 
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Well, it depends on the time period. During WWII, there most certainly was authorized personalization of fighter aircraft in both the US Navy and the US Air Force (Army Air Corps). In addition to nose art and aircraft names, pilots would have their personal information such as name, rank, and kill marks on the side of the aircraft as well.

I think one of the reasons we see that less today is the fact that few pilots achieve ace status. Aircraft still have pilot names and callsigns on the sides of the aircraft, though to your point, they can be more easily removed today than in conflicts past.
 
I don't know if personal markings would work out well on a ship, since there just arent enough ships for each pilot to have their own. The US Navy, for example, allows squadron markings like the Jolly Rogers' skull and crossbones and the Starfighters' star and lightning bolt, but did not allow personal markings except in extraordinary cases, and even then, only with writing or tiny drawings.

Wing Commander generally does seem to have a one-to-one fighter to pilot ratio -- there's 45 fighters on the Tarawa and 45 pilots, for instance.

It also has pilot-specific nose art. Bear's bear was mentioned earlier... and we see it a few other times. All the Rapiers in the movie had pilot specific art -- you can see it in freeze-frame, or you can find it in the Confed Handbook (Angel has an angel, Maniac has a green monster, Blair has a family shield and so forth...).
 
Is there any evidence that WC pilots painted their kills on their spacecraft? If so, I wonder what graphic they used to represent each kill. A silhouette of a kat's head seems kind of silly...
 
Yes, the Rapiers in the movie had kill marks on them --I believe they were little Kilrathi logos (it's hard to see exactly).
 
Yeah, they're hard to see exactly. Here's some screenshots. Right after where it says Ejector Pod theres a group with little square pictures af varying amounts depending on whose fighter. Right after that - below the cockpit glass - theres' the Pilots name that the fighter is asigned to, which is very clear when Blair gets out of Bossman's fighter. And after that is some kind of Logo that LOAF made mention of.

So far, In all the shot's I could make out, Angel seems to have the most kills (see the slighty blurry screengrab below. You can almost count them at least. The lighting only makes 22 visible but the number is probably closer to 38 judging that the rows should start near the top of the ejector pod label and probably have ten in each). And At the end of the movie, Blair looks to be credited for three kills.
 

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Who is the Hartmann of the Wing Commander Universe (human, kilrathi, or other)? Blair was up there, but he wasn't the all time highest scoring ace, right?
 
Blair was 11th in kills during the Kilrathi war, IIRC (Maniac was #12, again IIRC). The pilot with the absolute most kills of the war, at least on the human side, was never, TTBOMK, mentioned.
 
LOAF pointed me towards this slightly clearer shot that was taken on set of what appears to be Angels fighter. Some of the kills are blacked out, and the indicidual squares look like various blobs with big red X's through them. THey almost look like they could be different for each kind of enemy ship that's shot down.
wcexpo17.jpg
 
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hmm, the two ships that seem to be Angel's have different numbers of kills. Though she probably is scoring kills as the movie progresses, it seems to be a huge increase.

heh, maybe they did put the face of a 'kat with a line through it to represent a kill!! :D
 
Is there any evidence that WC pilots painted their kills on their spacecraft? If so, I wonder what graphic they used to represent each kill. A silhouette of a kat's head seems kind of silly...

End Run mentions that the most elite of the Marine regiments had a Kilrathi skull with crossed daggers painted on their landing craft. The design even caught the attention of Thrakhath himself.

heh, maybe they did put the face of a 'kat with a line through it to represent a kill!! :D

Or little X's for eyes :D

Who is the Hartmann of the Wing Commander Universe (human, kilrathi, or other)? Blair was up there, but he wasn't the all time highest scoring ace, right?

Damon Carnes?
 
hmm, the two ships that seem to be Angel's have different numbers of kills. Though she probably is scoring kills as the movie progresses, it seems to be a huge increase.

It almost looks like there's only eight per row which puts the end total to 30 and that last picture at 26. That's only 4 kills. Plus, part of that area looks spray painted black... maybe as a scorch mark from enemy fire.
 
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