Modelismo, Serie H1000, Lodela, Boxart

LODELA BOX ART - A Retrospective Look at Illustrating Model Kits for Rev...

Revell's 1/144, Shoki

Lodela's Boxart is unforgettable, for those of us who lived in that time, it was our reunion with beauty, art, and an invitation to have fun, it was not unusual for us to choose the model to buy because of the boxart

The H-1000 series was 1/144 scale models, in square boxes, the H-1006 Shoki belonged to the last era of that series, they lost the classic orange box, for colored boxes, but they remained in their shape, on one side the boxart, on the other side the instructions and on the sides, images of other models.

In this particular case, the composition is the plane is diagonal, on a blue background, with stormy clouds, which makes a perfect contrast with the natural aluminum of the plane, which is painted in the bright red colors of a fighter unit.

Soviet Boxart

 The poor Soviet boxart has a very deep reason for its existence, it is not simply because things became ugly under socialism, but because there was a theory of art behind it, in fact a Political Theory of Art, according to the Marxist principles, Punin said:

"The element of representation is already a characteristic element of a bourgeois understanding of art."

From there to say that Art is Bourgeois and therefore contrary to the People there was only one step, and they took it, Soviet Art cannot be beautiful, because beauty is what prerevolutionary art was looking for, while art for the People seek to spread a political message, and whoever does not do so does not deserve to be done, things like Color, Composition, Form, Current, are bourgeois concepts, (even Cubism and the Most Impressive were despicable Bourgeois Art).

An example, two colours Boxart,

It is true that there were attempts to get out of this rigid scheme, but unlike the West, artists who did not agree, were placated by the KGB, accused of being counterrevolutionaries, the Stalinist Terror kept at bay any type of discrepancy from the orthodox theory Marxist.

And so we have Boxart that we can hardly call Art, the old Frog models, manufactured in the USSR, only had a reduction to two colors or sometimes to one), of the Original Boxart of the British manufacturer, basically an example of Industrial Art, where the Boxart only indicated the content and was made using the least amount of materials possible.

After talking about so much Marxism, I go for a delicious Ham-Bourgeois, so that the Stalinist Marxist artists writhe in their graves.

Iconography of a Decade

 Each decade can be identified by its iconography, and this is usually a reflection of the soul of that generation, the seventies were in the world of modeling, a great era, boxart was going through its best time, before the Laws on it, to me. The best opinion was that of Revell, but in reality there were very good painters in various brands.

Art could very well enhance emotions, unlike current decorative art, there could be explosions, combats, all those things associated with great emotional energy, that gave that Boxart a strength that others do not have.

A few samples

Boxart not for everyone

 Matisse considered that:

"" The only audience that can claim avant-garde art is an educated bourgeoisie"

And this is absolutely true in Boxart, this type of art only has a small group of followers, even within the world of modelers, not everyone appreciates it, although in reality that is to be expected, because Modeling is a Modern Art, and the modelers, usually do, more than see, we are artists in every expression of the word, but our works are three-dimensional paintings, very attached to realistic art, perhaps the last representatives of such art.

And in the same way, we are specialists in techniques, colors, shapes, any of us could have a very good conversation with Da Vinci or Picasso, so the Boxart is only a small part of our artistic appreciation.

But in the seventies, art was superb, (now reduced to a simple decorative art, by law); But at that time we could hang a framed Steele's boxart painting and feel the deep emotions of the painting, in fact I remember having in my room the boxart of the USS Essex and some Lodela planes, along with a poster of Turner's Storm and a photo of a mural by Siqueiros; I liked art, because it makes you're live more complete, it makes your day to day more beautiful and profound.

Revell's USS Intrepid

One of the beautiful boxes of the H-300 series, by far, the series that I liked the most of Revell Lodela's Boxart, and with some of the best ship paintings I have ever seen, is as usual in that series is by John Steel, and represents the USS Intrepid under attack.

The colors are intense, a naturalistic background with an orange sunset in the ocean, very much like the Turner, but with the aircraft carrier in a slightly off-center composition, with the waves denoting a forced maneuver, the ship is dodging the attack and we can almost feel that the roof is tilting and you have to hold on to something.

This box preserves the label of the extinct Gigante Store, model in the private collection of Sergio Tellez

Plymouth police car

I recently just got this wonderful box is one of the classical models of the seventies, a Plymouth Fury, in Police decoration, from the long missing mark Jo-Han, this brand specializing in cars and trucks, producing only a few planes, and no ship, the Boxart is not signed and is a bit simple, to slightly rough. Some time ago, I buy the model, but in mexican customs opened the box and this came empty, only turret, and I think incomplete, it appears that the stickers were for three different police forces.

DC-8 Lindberg

Come back to the 80s on, this is the boxart of one of the models from the commercial series Necomisa Lindberg, produced in Mexico under the seal of Pegasus, the model was very modest, the mold comes from the sixties and was one of the Lindberg first works, the DC-8 at the time was one of the most advanced aircraft in the world, and represents very well the technological trends in the modelling industry at that time, solid wings, few parts, no transparent parts, an exhibit based (absent in this version) and very simple decals.

In Mexico was reissued again and again, always keeping the same Boxart, I assume Necomisa buy the molds sometime, for some reason they never made decals for Aeromexico, the national airline in a local version of the plane.

The Boxart represents a plane of Panam, and was always the same, is not signed, it must be an American painter of the sixties or seventies, because the version of Lindberg has the same paint. This is the last national edition, and the box includes a novelty, an Airport model paper to accompany the model.

Brand Necomisa under the Pegasus seal, unknown artist, circa 1980, collection Sergio Tellez

B-58 Hustler, Revell

This time, the boxart of a model of the best times of Revell Lodela, the Convair B-58 Hustler, H-143 a magnificent model, despite its age, Hustler went out there from the time that models S was the most famous, in Mexico was reissued several times, this is the box for the latest edition in the eighties, flatten and store out there, I found her recently.

The boxart was very well done, with the insignia of the different strategic Air Forces of the United States, the Boxart is top, the signature is unintelligible, belongs to the series of air power is employed Blues of all shades, from Midnight Blue, light Blue up, reaching white, practically blue on blue, represents very well a plane flying at night over a city, dramatically highlights the light color against a black background, in the private collection of Sergio Tellez.

F6F Hellcat, Airfix

Another box of the era of the seventies or eighties, this time an Airfix, is the model of a F6F Hellcat in 1/72 scale, at that time was the best Hellcat in the market, whith correctly parts, in reasonable detail, you could assemble one of two versions, the F6F-3 or a F6F-5 with decals for English and other USN apparatus. 

The colors in the boxart are matte, somewhat opaque, with a background just scribbled, barely visible, the composition, focused on a blue plane of the Fleet Air Arm, attacking a Japanese airfield, the painting is signed, unreadable, seems to say Jallo, but not sure. Sergio Tellez' private collection

Black Cat PBY-5 Catalina, Revell

A close depiction of Reality, the same words that move the gratest Rennaisance artists, is the central objetive of the Boxart, at least in the Model making world, many paintings are a close match of colours, proportions, numbers and terrains. Norn in the XX century, in the begginings with primitive one colour printing (perpetuated behind the Iron courtain until the 80's), until the Revell's hipperealist art in the seventies, paasing throught the simplistics photos of the Ceji era.

It's my opinion, that the Boxart's best times are between the sixties and the seventies, wint hands like Steel, Hinomatsu and Knight, not only technically perfect, as any classical painting, but also with a strong emotion, in the same way that Ucello or Caravaggio, I almost can smell the burning planes in the foreground of a perfect composition, with the plane in the perfecto position. Perfectly harmonized, by example, a Black PBY-5 in a black ocean, ina a black sky, and even all illuminated in a clear night composition.

This is one of my favorites, a Black Cat¡s Catalina, flying at night in a combat scene, a usual in this art, is not signed.

Welcome to the Boxart's Blog

Welcome my friends to my new Blog, entirelly dedicated to the Boxart, in a more exact words, the modelling Boxart, one of the Applied Arts used to commercialize the plastic models kits. In many ways heirs of the classical painting, using the same tecnics, the same materials and a reality close depiction, with a touch om emotion, the Boxart has their own great artists, many of them now forgotten, in the goal of this site, to render the appopiate honour to this artists and their work.

You friend Antony Teller proudly presente this new Blog.