This font comes from nose art from a WWII fighter plane that I’m trying to redraw. Any ideas?
Clearly anything painted on an airplane in WWII wasn’t done using a computer font. So that means you are looking for a font that might help approximate this lettering. Clarendon Condensed isn’t quite as squared off, but it might work, and it is based on a design that is old enough to have been around as a model for this lettering. Another more popular style from the era is Cheltenham Extra Condensed.
Captured from web.archive.org on 14 Jul 2017. view this capture