Revell's Spitfire, H-611

 

The Revell Lodela H-671 Spitfire was the best Spitfire model we had from this side of the pond for decades. Slightly disproportionate, as Revell models were in those days, it was nevertheless one of the best box art pieces of the era. The diagonal composition covered the Spitfire's wings from edge to edge, creating a slight tilt, while an aerial battle unfolded, complete with smoke and explosions, against a blue background where distant contrails barely hinted at a massive dogfight, like those that took place in the Battle of Britain.

The intense colours the artist applied are superb. Even the Earth and Dark Greens look bright and vibrant. These blues and greens, in different shades, create a perfect background, a peaceful sky that nevertheless reveals, in the foreground and background, the ferocity of combat. In my opinion, this is This is one of the best paintings by Revell artist B. Knight. The painting must be from the 1960s, a time when box art was brimming with emotion and artistry. In fact, the art was so well done that it evokes a range of emotions in the buyer, with form and background in perfect harmony.

This is a piece of art that deserves to be framed, and this version, RH-611, was a paper bag, which I was able to frame beautifully. It decorated several of my offices, although now it seems a bit small. In any case, it belongs to a time when the world was much more beautiful and complex.

SBD Dauntless, Lodela 1/144, H-1027

The H-1000 series, dedicated to 1/144 scale models of World War II aircraft, was produced in the 1970s. It was magnificent, Revell's most technologically advanced product at the time. The small planes were jewels of design and engineering; some had details that models from other brands at larger scales simply didn't have. The complete series was never released in Mexico, or so I believe, because I've never seen H-1001 through H-1004. It was released in two different periods: in the late 1970s in a yellow box. Initially, it included cement in a small glass bottle, but later it was not.

The H-1027 Dauntless belonged to the second series, which came in multi-colored boxes and was glue-free. These were produced in the late seventies and early eighties. The box was the same size, and the box art was among the best we had: Ikematsu's paintings, which were simply magnificent, heirs to Japanese landscape painting. There's a lot of Hokusai in its composition: the plane at a diagonal against a naturalistic background. We could almost say we're looking at a landscape. It gives me the same feeling as when I see The Great Wave off Kanagawa, but with the addition of modern colors and a very realistic paint job for a Dauntless, with reflections, weathering, and that peculiar contrast of the three-tone camouflage.

These little works of art had a very different intensity from the paints of Revell in the US, which were much more emotional, with explosions. Fire, combat, while the Japanese ones are much calmer, and this series only came out in Japan, Mexico and some in Germany, it was never intended for the North American public, unfortunately, it was only released once, a few models managed to be released in blue boxes in Germany, as far as I know, only the Fw-190 and the Me-262.