Happy 100th birthday to Roy Cross, the artist who painted the iconic covers of Airfix models – so close to the heart of so many oldies now. Roy turned 100 on St George’s Day.
In 1942, when Roy was only 18, he had his first published work with line drawings of aircraft in the Air Training Corps Gazette. In the war, he joined an aircraft factory to draw illustrations for manuals for aircrew and maintenance personnel.
After the war, Roy painted the boxwork art on Airfix kits which sold by the millions. Over 10 years, he did more than 200 Airfix pictures, beginning with a Dornier Do 217 – the ‘flying pencil’ German bomber.
He also drew the middle-page spread in the Eagle comic, with meticulous pictures of the Flying Scotsman, the Queen Mary liner or some fab new car.
