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.

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.

Serie H-600, Lodela Revell

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

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.

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.