Roy Cross 100th Birthday Tribute

[@stevemercer952]

Thank you Matt. Roy Cross, have a very happy birthday. Your work is so iconic and is part of my youth! Thank you!

[@ericsjaunirsjoekoer8535]

Happy Birthday Roy ! Thanks for the images that influenced my youth and thank you Peter for you homage to Roy.

[@Matteline]

So many great paintings. I love the Sunderland as a plane. They have one at RAF Hendon - which is quite nearby for me - and you can go inside!

[@DavidMorrison-ol7cn]

A great tribute video, thank you for compiling and posting! And indeed, Roy Cross inspired my model purchases and made me an Airfix kid. And my love of aviation art began with him too. What a wonderful legacy he left us all. Rest in peace, Sir.

[@neilhughes9310]

In the history of model kits so many have owed so much to this one man. Every one of his box arts was the inspiration to buy another Airfix kit. He deserves to be knighted. Happy 100th birthday!

[@jeniferallan6693]

Happy birthday Mr Cross. Stunning artwork.

[@tomsenior7405]

My goodness, Roy Cross' Artwork is absolutely wonderful. I spent nearly all my pocket money on Airfix kits, inspired entirely by the Box Art. I have forgotten the name of the Artist who painted the excellent Type 2 Boxes (Blue Edged Boxes) Artwork for the HO/OO range of figures. These were incredibly inspiring for a child. So much so that I still collect these boxes today. No longer do they cost 12p. One must dig deep to buy a mint condition box today. Thank you for this lovely birthday tribute to Roy Cross. Lovely.

[@jaws848]

Awesome artwork,birh hinself and Roy Huxley (Matchbix)

[@mpersad]

Great tribute to the wonderful Roy Cross. I loved the box art of Airfix and kept many of the artwork for years, unfortunately lost in a jose move many years ago. A terrific video.

[@stephengardner5834]

Thanks for this. He's a brilliant artist and the painting of the Sunderland is a favourite.

[@philsmodelmaking2260]

rest in peace Roy. I have no idea how many airfix kits I bought over the years simply due to your fantastic artwork.

[@isjsjwifkdna9611]

May Roy Cross rest in peace

[@Sarah-JaneR32]

The returning Lancaster painting is one which shows lots of emotion, stunning work, I also think his sailing ship’s are very underrated, definitely museum quality art, happy birthday Roy

[@davewhite4206]

Part of my childhood was Airfix and therefore Roy Cross and his fabulous artwork!

[@danlecleir4770]

The artwork is awesome, Roy cross no doubt a Supreme Master artist❤

[@klaatu7492]

Happy 100th 🎉 Roy Cross, your illustrations made a lot of kids want to build model kits! 🚒 🛰 🚁 🚛 ⛵ ✈ 🚂 🚀🏎

[@kitgoodyear9270]

Airfix artwork is a large part of how I learned to draw as a kid. I think a lot of kids learned to draw and loved recreating from model cover art especially Airfix. I remember coming across a couple of Airfix magazines as a kid. The magazines showed you available model kits and was full of great artworks and cool to see them sometimes not on the box.

[@hoppy5631]

Happy Birthday Roy. Thank you Matt.

[@maxsmodels]

I agree 100%

[@petermconnolly]

I absolutely agree with everything you say. You obviously lived through the time when the kit manufacturers were so scared of misrepresentation of the kit, that they put sterile photographs of completed kits on the box! Yuck! Of course, even as eight year olds, we didn't expect to get a formation of B17's dropping their ordnance over Nazi Germany in the box, but the fabulous artwork of Roy Cross certainly ignited our imaginations, and spend our pocket money on a Saturday afternoon. Great memories, and I love your channel.

[@Matteline]

Yes, indeed. I am not sure which was worse. The horrendous built-up kitbsirting on a generic instruction sheet (always wheels down, I seem to recall) or the sanitised artwork that took the original.artwok and painted out all of background (not justvthe war) and replaced it with a nondiscript airbrush blur.. usually a garish colour that did not fit with the lifted aircraft. The B29 stands out in my memory as particularly limp. Both box formats were terrible. The photos were probably the worst as the models generally looked so bad. And you figured that this was probably the best you could expect it to look. It really damaged their sales.

[@jerrybailey5797]

Truely amazing artwork

[@moonbear1st]

happy birthday roy and happy st georges day ..

[@seanmeadows129]

Happy Birthday Mr. Cross. I certainly remember seeing some of those box arts in the seventies especially the hovercrafts and Saturn 5. Excellent work. Thank you for such great art and also thank you Matt for the excellent picture of Roy at work and all the other art you have produced over the course of your videos.

[@Matteline]

Thank You for the kind words. Roy Cross's artwork is really inspirational.

[@Claymore5]

Nice tribute - properly heartfelt.... Roy you are a genius - my favourite - the Apollo Sea King without a doubt. God bless you sir...

[@morgandude2]

I had a wonderful childhood (apart from secondary school) and Roy was a MASSIVE part of that. He had a way of making the young me think I was in the actual scene he was depicting. Certainly tricked little me into buying the occasional 'dud' kit that lurked within the sealed box.😧

[@Matteline]

I agree - the artwork made you want the kit... whatever it was!

[@sergiovasconcellosocriativo]

Amazing job! Thanks for share...Happy Birthday Master Roy, God bless you. Cheers

[@zh84]

Thank you for the video. I built several of these kits, particularly the hovercraft, but I'm afraid it never occurred to me to think about who painted the box art! On another note, you need to delete about the last four minutes of this video which is just silence and darkness.

[@DavidHicksTeslaInvester]

Your doing a great job on this channel. Love it.

[@Matteline]

Thanks Dave !

[@Defiant1940]

I must have belt well over half of the kits shown in this vid as a kid,/teen/young man. Happy memories.

[@Matteline]

And pretty nice kits too. I have the vintage classic re-release of the SRN1 hovercraft.

[@antonyeastham4564]

It was the artwork that got me interested in the kit. He must have been painting and sketching multiple projects at the same time for years.

[@Wild-Dad]

I Love the Airfix boxart covers if the 60's and 70's. My favourites were the Phantom, Vigilante, Mosquito, Storch, Saturn V, and the SN.4 Hovercraft. I guess, in other words -all his work. I still have all those built models, unfortunately worse for wear after almost 60 years (I'm 67).

[@Matteline]

I remember the Vigilante. The size of the plane really made an impression on me.. especially given the Series ut was in..I dontnrecall which series now, but I remember it seemed like great value! Plus it is just really cool looking plane . This was a kiit hat I bought purely based on the box-art. My brother had the SRN4 and did a great job on it. I never finished it.