...of old model kits, I really have to say I miss the box-art of the era.

These guys who did the art were pros, and to a boy this was very interesting and exciting imagery. I can remember standing in front the pegboard at Wool'ys or in the small general hardware store that sold them here in the US and picking a kit not for what the model really was but for the excitement of the artwork.

Then you'd get it home, open the box or the bag and devour the thumbnail history at the head of the instruction sheet while staring at the art again. Then you built the model, but in your mind what you built wasn't the imperfect result of your efforts but the image of that box art. Who didn't hold the result up in the same attitude that the artist painted it, all the while making engine and machinegun and explosion sounds?

You buy a kit now and the best you get is a photo of the finished model, a standard you could never hope to match as a young model builder and not very exciting to look at to be honest; not the stuff of dreams...



Even today as an old man, once I finish one of these old kits I clip out the box art and put it in a three-ring binder to keep. The imagery still excites me like it did.