Douglas AD-5 (A-1E) Skyraider

Koike says he's always admired the design, and the utility, of the Skyraider, particularly when considering all the oddly-shaped aircraft that came before and after it, often meant to perform only a subset of the duties possible with this highly capable plane.  "I like the AD-5, and rather than the full gray which I've drawn many times for box art, I wanted to draw a pretty girl in midnight blue wrapped with a red polka-dot ribbon."  The aircraft he choose is a plane of Marine attack squadron VMA-322 seen around 1955.