Scalpel! Glue! Paint! Coffee?

By John Freeman on August 14, 2008

In the last few years the revitalised plastic kit manufacturer Airfix has been re-releasing some of their classic kits in addition to creating new ones on such modern subjects as Wallace And Gromit and new Doctor Who. After some years in foreign hands Airfix is now owned by Hornby which also owns other well known British hobby brands Scalextric, Humbrol and Corgi.

Traditionally Airfix used paintings on their box covers to illustrate the subject of the kit and one of their hardest working artists was Roy Cross. Back in the 1960s Roy Cross worked for Eagle and Swift comics as one of the cutaway artists on Eagle and as a cover artist on Swift signing his work mainly as Cross. His box art for Airfix includes images so familiar to model kit enthusiasts as the B-17 Flying Fortress “A Bit O’ Lace” (named for a 1944 Milt Caniff illustration) dropping bombs over Germany or Polish ace Jan Zumbach’s Spitfire Vb taking off from a grass airfield.

After many of his Airfix illustrations were included in the excellent art book Celebration Of Flight: The Aviation Art Of Roy Cross, Airfix have begun producing drinks coasters with many Cross paintings included in their slowly expanding range. Cross subjects include a Short Stirling heavy bomber and a Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet rocket fighter as well as both the B-17 and Spitfire mentioned above. These coasters cost £2.50 from the Airfix web shop which currently has a buy four get one free deal running on them.

A full list of the coasters available can be found on the Airfix website.

Celebration Of Flight: The Aviation Art Of Roy Cross is available from Amazon.

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.