Roy Cross: Airfix Illustrations

Sometime ago I bought a Messerschmitt Bf 109E Airfix model to build up on a quiet Sunday. Perhaps it was a cry for help, perhaps it was childhood regression or perhaps it was simply the alluring box art that persuaded me to do such a thing. I think (and for the sake of tattered reputation) we shall say it was the latter.

Since being a child I have gazed at Airfix boxes with wide-eyes. The fantastic detail of the painted illustrations on their boxes has been a trademark that lives on to this day (although more CGI art has sadly started to creep in). The box art has always served as a lucid flash of the potential circumstances that a model maker could evoke from the kit inside – a sort of invitation if you like. The artwork often depicted absurdly action-packed scenarios that in reality never truly reflected the drab plastic tangle inside.

Roy Cross was Airfix’s main box artist and coming from a technical illustration background working for Fairey aviation, he was damned good at it too. But it was his peripheral environmental observations and charming apprecaition of comic style dynamics that made Roy’s work irresistible world over. Looking at some his work now I can see how his imagination must have unfolded the scenes sequentially and how a story might percolate through the piece as it developed. An enemy plane here; some fog there; perhaps a few sun rays peeping through the clouds.

There is a superb book about Roy’s Airfix work during the vintage years, which I received as gift over Xmas (thanks Captain!) and I can heartily recommend it for its large and well notated images. Sadly, Roy passed away back in 2008 but you can see more of his work online in various places or perhaps watch this little interview with James May: