Model Box Art Part One

One of the best answers to the not-infrequently asked question “Why so many model kits?” would have to be “The box art!”  Most of us modellers can probably recall the fascination these colourful boxtop paintings held for us as kids, and it’s likely the agonizing decision of which ONE kit the allowance would accomodate was helped in no small measure by which one had the best box art.

Airfix knew how to grab ya! 

Whoa!

Sometimes it’s just the overall look of the box too – I vaguely remember being able to buy models at the drugstore (!) several blocks from our house, and it seems to me it was there that I first encountered the Tamiya 1/35 WWII figure kits I loved to build and paint during my latter childhood phases of modelling, before other things came along.  Their four-figure Afrika Korps boxing is the one I really remember; the art was nothing too special, but something about it grabbed me.  It might have been my first encounter with a Japanese model box, and doubtless all the Japanese characters fascinated me.  I liked the Tamiya logo too, and the whole thing just seemed to have an irresistible air of mystery to it (Shizuoka City, Japan?  Where is that?)

I can even call back the feeling of that afternoon, sitting at my desk with the old gooseneck lamp, gluing, painting and (helmet) decaling the figures.  I was entranced by the diorama photo on the instruction sheet, and loved how the figures went together. 

It was just coming on dusk as I reached the decal stage; my mom was cooking in the kitchen, and I remember the particular pattern on the small bowl I borrowed from her for warm water to activate the decals.  To this day the sight of the Tamiya logo on a kit box strikes a chord with me, and they certainly have their share of fine aviation art too.

These days I’m more likely to have Hasegawa kits kicking around, since their 1/72 line seems to be a little more extensive, and it’s hard to miss some of the awesome box art on these things.  Their star artist for many decades has been Koike Shigeo, and recently I had some fun taking close-ups of a few of my favourites.

This kit looks pretty venerable; the grossly overscale raised rivet lines kinda give it away as a tooling first marketed back in the 1960s, but Hasegawa keeps on reboxing it to this day.  This unusual yellow boxtop is an example of Koike’s adventurous use of colour, which is apparently one of his trademarks.

Today’s current boxing of the same massive sprues sticks a bit closer to a realistic light, while creating a similar illusion of the aircraft floating in a sea of air (as opposed to merely “flying”).

Personally I think the H8K Emily is one of the most fascinating Japanese planes, which explains why I have two of these monsters and will one day find myself trapped in a world of endless, excruciating sanding and rescribing.  For the moment it’s a lot easier to play around with the camera:

Apparently I've maxed out the available file storage for one post, so I'll continue with part two.