Box Top Air Power: The Aviation Art of Model Airplane Boxes

Here is another fine book from Thomas Graham. If you like model boxart or just aviation art in general you will really enjoy this book. Every page has a wonderful full color painting. It is amazing to check out the style of the different artists and to see how they bring life and excitment to each subject. This artwork had to grab us kids and our imagination enough so that we would want to buy the kit and build it. It sure worked its magic on me. Lots of memories were brought back from models I built long ago and there is plenty of information about each plane and artist I never knew about. I will keep this out on the coffee table year-round. I hope Tom does a book on automotive boxart next! Buy it - you'll like it!

This is a fantastic book. Being a long time plastic airplane modeler, I remember so many of the superb paintings that were used. As a kid, you really didn't appreciate that excellent art; however, now as an adult, I enjoy and respect that art. Most of these paintings were a "Labor of love" by the artists, and one can only marvel at their talent. I'm in the preocess right now of having a Ray Gaedke box top professionally framed. This book is a tribute to all those artists - as well as a wonderful trip down memory lane.

A thorough telling of the story with lots of great images. A must read for any fan of the subject.

Thomas Graham is famous for writing books about plastic model kits of yesteryear. His books "Remembering Revell Model Kits", "Monogram Models", and "Greenberg's Guide to Aurora Model Kits" (not to mention the revised and expanded version of this book, entitled simply "Aurora Model Kits") are works of art which concentrate on the model kits themselves. Almost everything that you would want to know, and more, about the kits from these companies, as well as short histories of the companies themselves, are contained in these books. I recommend all four.This book concentrates on the box art of these old and faithful model kits. Well, not so much on the art, per se, but on the artists who created these box top masterpieces. You will find work by Tom Morgan, Jack Leynnwood, Mike Machat, Don Greer, Richard Kishady, Jo Kotula, Dennis Davison and many more in the 176 pages of this soft cover book. Most of these pieces of art are consigned to their own full page, with a text underneath explaining a little bit about the actual aircraft itself and a little bit about the artist who drew it. Those of you who might have read similar box top art articles in magazines such as "Wings" and "Airpower" over the years know of what I speak. However, every now and then a valuable piece of trivia raises its head from the text, giving us insight about the machine or the artist who painted its picture. One of these interesting little tidbits that Mr. Graham gives us is: "The Boeing B-52 wasn't exactly born in a hobby shop, but a hobby shop played a role in the story of the inception of the Stratofortress...In October 1948, when Boeing's engineers showed up at Wright Field, Ohio, to present its (propeller-driven) bomber plans to the Air Force, they were told that the Air Force now wanted an all-jet aircraft. Astounded...(they) retired to their hotel and drafted plans for the B-52 in three days -- and also constructed a balsa-wood display model of the plane from materials purchased at a local hobby shop."The concept of this book is great, and I find it interesting reading, but the choice of box art is somewhat limited. Perhaps this is merely a personal view, since I was disappointed that many of my favorite box art paintings were not chosen for inclusion. The information about the artists is, however, first rate. Who knew, for instance, that Richard Kishady was an Fw190 pilot for the Hungarian Air Force during the closing days of WWII and was shot down by a Soviet Yak fighter while escorting Hungarian Ju87s on a bombing raid? And who knew that John Steel served in the Marines in the South Pacific during WWII, went to art school after the war, then re-upped for the Korean War where he was a survivor of the Marines' retreat from the Chosin Reservoir? It's information such as this that make this book not only a visual wonder, but good reading, as well.While not the work of art (no pun intended) that Mr. Graham's other books are, this book is still very much a valued part of my modeling library. I recommend it for anyone who wants to recall the good old days of plastic modeling when box art pumped up the the adrenaline level of us kids about the contents inside, and it literally sold the kit on its own merit.

Great book brings back memories

This is a nicely done book with high quality reproductions of aircraft model box art. I gave it only three stars because I felt that the one picture per page format required the author to omit many kit illustrations that I would like to have seen. I would have preferred slightly smaller pictures with more than one per page illustrating a wider variety of kits or variations on a given kit's box covers. Also, the information in the text reagrding the actual aircraft has been addressed in many other publications and detracts from the primary subject of the book, which is kit boxes not aircraft.Having said this, it is still a worthwhile book, and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in old plastic models kits. I hope the author does additional books in the near future covering ships and "army models", but I also hope that he focuses on the artwork and artists, not the prototypes themselves. .

Awesome book with great artwork from the models I has when I was a kid!

Great book that explores how the artist set up the painting to sell the kit. Facinating stories of those coveted artists of Box Tops.

Literatur über die Grafiker, deren Arbeiten meiner Generation in den Jahren des Heranwachsens das Interesse an der Weltgeschichte wirksamer weckten als der schulische Geschichtsunterricht, obwohl uns doch die Namen der Künstler unbekannt waren und blieben, ist selten. Natürlich kann ein einbändiges Werk weder die Biographien der Schöpfer dieser besonderen Species der Werbegraphik (die Kartondeckelbilder wiederholten sich üblicherweise als Katalogabbildungen und weckten somit sowohl bei heimischer Lektüre der Kataloge als auch beim Stöbern zwischen den in großer Zahl vorrätigen Bausatzschachteln im Spielwarenhandel oder den großen Kaufhäusern unsere Konsumfreude) noch die technische Weiterentwicklung der Luftfahrtgeschichte mehr als nur andeuten und schlaglichtartig fokussieren - aber als formidable Ergänzung zu den Büchern, die die Firmengeschichte der einzelnen Bausatzproduzenten dokumentieren, ist dieses Buch für Modellbauer und Sammler praktisch unverzichtbar.

Dieses Buch gibt erstklassige Deckelbilder verschiedener Bausätze von Revell, Monogram, Aurora und einigen anderen Herstellern der Jahre zwischen 1950 und 1990 wieder. Obwohl Softcover, ist die Aufmachung dieses Bandes sehr hochwertig (dicke Hochglanzpapierseiten), wie alle Bücher aus dem Schiffer Verlag.Pro Seite jeweils ein Deckelbild (etwa halbseitig) und darunter ein jeweils längerer Text über die Geschichte des dargestellten Flugzeugtyps,die Entstehungsgeschichte des Bildes und oft auch noch eine kurze Biografie des Künstlers.Eine rundum informative, kurzweilige, nostalgische und fürs Auge ansprechende Lektüre. Ein Buch zum Wegträumen.