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.

Modelismo, Serie H1000, Lodela, Boxart

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

Tribute to Roy Cross

 The Airfix Boxart was made since the sixties, by the great Artist Roy Cross, practically every model of that brand that comes to mind was decorated with a painting of him, unfortunately, he has just died, after a long and productive life, this is a tribute, very peculiar, because it is very familiar to everyone, due to his work.

Their work can be purchased in their SITE.

 

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.

Savoia Marchetti SM.79, Airfix, Lodela,

There was a time when Lodela produced Airfix models in Mexico under license, it must have been at the end of the 80s, and it was a peculiar time, when it was still better to produce things locally, have factories and employees, something that globalization ended, because suddenly it was cheaper to import the products and just pack them or put the import label on them, a concept, which is now being abandoned, because the international trade routes are not safe, because it caused many industries to lay off lots of people and because it is safer and cheaper, from a distribution point of view, to produce everything locally.

The boxart was the classic Airfix, only in gray boxes, with the Lodela logo, but they weren't that well done, the model name was incomplete, the information on the side was almost non-existent, the instructions were a single printed sheet, of both On the other hand, it didn't matter how complex the model was, the images were reduced until they were tiny, on the other hand, Lodela's green plastic gives a unique flavor to those Airfix models, which have always been grey, (good in the 70s for a brief time were silver, but that doesn't count)

The boxart was very good, I don't know the painter, but the composition is excellent, if we see it from the geometric point of view, the main element is in a triangle, well centered, but with its base closer to the diagonal, and the addition of the second apparatus in formation, it is magnificent, it is a similar triangle, inscribed in the main one, the blue colors, intense, à la Vermeer, as it is before the 80s, a battle is represented, but it is barely hinted at, the English fleet below, with the fighters chasing the formation, are secondary actors in this scene where the SM.79 is king.

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.

Serie H-600, Lodela Revell

Pausa Luctuosa

Airfix Box Art by Roy Cross - Nostalgia is a (beautiful) thing of the past!

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

Serie H100, Lodela

Modelando Jo Han Aviones

Airfix Box Art by Roy Cross - Nostalgia is a (beautiful) thing of the past!

The Boxart Den - "Airliner Model Kit Box Art"

Classic Model Kits - "Lindberg Convair B-58 Hustler" - 1959

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.