My next challenge was finding a sculpture that had the detail I wanted. There are many replicas out there and I've probably seen them all, but I settled on one from the Bradford Exchange. However, it has a base that I don't particularly care for, so I'll be cropping it out for the painting. In addition to, the flag on the statue is also terrible - Its made of plastic and is very un-flag-like. I managed to find a cloth flag with 48 stars on ebay that I will substitute it for. Yep, 48 stars - Alaska and Hawaii were not states in 1945; aren't details fun?
Below is my non-perfect photoshopped reference photo with the statue's base removed and the cloth flag. This is how I want the painting to look.