This F6F-3 Hellcat will be the lead ship in a special fantasy “legacy flight” oil painting commission I recently received from the Flatley family depicting a 4-ship formation of aircraft flown through the years by their amazing family of naval aviators. Jimmy’s son will be in the slot in his F-4J Phantom, and on the Hellcat’s wings will be Jimmy’s grandsons in an F-14A Tomcat and an F/A-18A Hornet.
The formation of four aircraft have been plotted using perspective projection by descriptive geometry. The picture below shows the general progression for each plane - a DG plot, a refining pass based on the plotted chosen points of interest, and finally one more pass to add most of the details.
Each plane will then be ‘studied’ in a drawing such as this one before I bring everything together with a full-scene concept drawing and then the final oil.
In addition to a stellar career as a naval aviator and officer, then Yorktown CAG-5 CDR Jimmy Flatley led the introduction of the Grumman Hellcat into combat on 31 August 1943.
Completed 2024
Collection of Megan Barton
This F6F-3 Hellcat will be the lead ship in a special fantasy “legacy flight” oil painting commission I recently received from the Flatley family depicting a 4-ship formation of aircraft flown through the years by their amazing family of naval aviators. Jimmy’s son will be in the slot in his F-4J Phantom, and on the Hellcat’s wings will be Jimmy’s grandsons in an F-14A Tomcat and an F/A-18A Hornet.
The formation of four aircraft have been plotted using perspective projection by descriptive geometry. The picture below shows the general progression for each plane - a DG plot, a refining pass based on the plotted chosen points of interest, and finally one more pass to add most of the details.
Each plane will then be ‘studied’ in a drawing such as this one before I bring everything together with a full-scene concept drawing and then the final oil.
In addition to a stellar career as a naval aviator and officer, then Yorktown CAG-5 CDR Jimmy Flatley led the introduction of the Grumman Hellcat into combat on 31 August 1943.