Life Imitating Art Imitating Life...

[Brad Cancian]

Hi everyone,

 

World exclusive – the seldom seen super-rare box tops from some of the classic kits! Feast your eyes!

 

 

 

 

Just kidding ….or am I…? 

 

Have we gone back to the future? 

 

Is this life imitating art imitating life? 

 

Nup, I am definitely kidding. 

 

Every now and then I feel inclined to have some fun with our hobby. I remember some of the boxings of Revell and Airfix kits from the 1980s, which featured built up models, often in odd settings or clearly done in a hurry.  For example, I remember fondly the old Revell Fokker Triplane with the mis-placed undercarriage. So, I decided to have some fun and ‘create’ my own ‘retro box art’, reminiscent of these old kits.

 

I have built a couple of these old Revell and Airfix kits more recently, so they were prime for my little experiment. What I also did was make sure that I picked models that were never actually released in these specific boxing styles. 

 

The Revell Sopwith Triplane and Nieuport 28 were never released in these ‘red border’ boxes, which tried to portray the aircraft in a ‘natural’ setting (sky or ground in the background). 

 

The Nieuport took inspiration from the old fokker triplane box:

 

The Sopwith took inspiration from the old Fokker D.VII box:

 

Likewise, the Airfix Albatros was never released on the blueprint box. These boxes were released during the “Palitoy” era, where Pailtoy owned Airfix. The models were unusually displayed on a blueprint. The blueprints, strangely, usually had nothing to do with the model itself. For example:

 

All of the ‘trickery’ was done 1980’s style – in camera (no funky photoshopping here), using printed backgrounds:

 

Anyways, just thought it might be something fun to do… I hope you don’t mind me indulging myself!

 

Cheers as always,

 

BC

Edited August 7, 2020 by Brad Cancian

[TME3]

That’s awesome... well done!

[dad's lad]

That Sopwith looks much better than the constituent parts. What did you use for the cowling? It looks nothing like the kit part.

[bigbadbadge]

This is brilliant, congratulations you had me fooled at the start of your post. Great work.

Chris

[Viking]

Well you had me fooled, I thought they were real box tops. Original and brilliant idea!

 

Cheers

 

John

[lasermonkey]

A novel and effective idea! Nicely done!

 

Cheers,

Mark.

[SAT69]

I agree with all of the compliments given above. This is the kind of thing it would be fun to see some more of.

[Toryu]

Nice to see the old box tops, but the original ones (I mean the box art from the earliest edition) are real art works. Great models that you make from those vintage kits!

[John Masters]

Wonderfully fun!

 

 I swear, there's a Brad Cancian that has been around for years...can you really be a new member? 😁😉

[Abandoned Project]

Love the way you have stuck to the old school methods. Fantabulous!

[the MDman]

Lovely concept, and very well executed! 

[Lightningboy2000]

Haha! That's how they should have looked, completed models to aspire to! I remember the old photographed model box tops became unpopular for a reason. That wouldn't have been the case if you were building & painting them!

 

Martin

[Luka]

Great looking builds and very convincing boxart. I bet it would drive people on Scalemates crazy trying to find these 'super-rare' releases!

[TonyW]

Really nice work, very convincing. 

 

On a Collector Forum I belong to, there was a long standing tradition of incredibly rare kits being discovered on April 1st each year. One year, I discovered this scarce kit...

 

 

 

... another German rarity!

 

Tony.!

[Brad Cancian]

Thanks all!

 

Tony, that's awesome, looks like the old bagged kit box art - how did you do that one?

 

Cheers again,

 

BC

[TonyW]

6 hours ago, Brad Cancian said:

Thanks all!

 

Tony, that's awesome, looks like the old bagged kit box art - how did you do that one?

 

Cheers again,

 

BC

It's a virtual box Brad, done in Photoshop. It could be printed I guess.

 

A photo was taken of a Type four box, then the area of the kit picture removed. A photo of a Type 3 bagged kit was then modified to fit the hole in the T4 box and added as another layer. The T4 script was removed, the background filled with colour and the new script added. I've done a few of these over the years...

 

 

Apologies for the thread hijack,

 

Tony.

[Uncle Pete]

Dear Mr Cancian,

 

You're hired.

 

Regards,

 

Airfix Art Dept.

[Uncle Pete]

Didn't Spitfire-sized kits used to come unboxed in a clear plastic bag with the "box art" and instructions stapled to the top?  I seem to remember that from the sixties.

[Graham Boak]

Yes.  This was the norm for Airfix kits until they changed to the blister pack and the larger subjects were forced into boxes in a higher series.  Some of the other cheaper kits also used plastic bags - I think the Remus re-runs of Frog fighters may have been the last (but wouldn't bet on it.).  If you go to the Airfix Tribute Forum you should find a description of how the bags/boxes changed through the years.

[Mike Dean]

I'm one of the guilty parties Tony named up-thread. This is one I "found" on April Fools Day this year. It's a physical box not just a trick photo. Sorry about the watermark, but I've done other fake boxes before and the images have been stolen and copied elsewhere. I do these for fun, but draw a line at theft.

 

The kit is the Hornby/Marks & Spencers issue 1/32nd GT40, with aftermarket decals from Indycals in the US. It's a lovely kit and the Airfix Porsche 917 driver fits a treat.