The first in a series of kit model box art illustrators. This first episode is about fighter pilot turned commercial illustrator Jack Leynnwood. AT TIME 8:42 I said this was a book. It was actually an article WINGS magazine...DOOH!
What a talented person!!!!!....this gentleman was and still is the reason that I buy when I can all those 1/32 kits that Revell made....they convey the dramatic actions of aerial combat... photos used on box covers will never in my opinion attract my eyes to any kit for purchase...RIP Mr. Jack L.
Jack was the lecturer of three of my illustration classes. Apart from a master with paints and brushes, He was a funny and wonderful man. He was one of the most loved lecturer at ACCD. I was lucky enough to see all those Revell 1/32 plane box arts’ original illustrations. He also showed us in two separate occasions the comps (concept sketches) and final illustrations for Grey Lady Down and Final Count Down movie poster. He was the illustrator of choice for Charlton Heston’s movies so you can imagine what other movie posters he did. One correction though, the Revell box arts were all done in gouache, not acrylics. Gouache was the most popular media used and recommended by all the instructors at ACCD. One funny note, the art director who responsible in changing the Revell box arts from illustrations to photograph of the actual model was also an instructor in my advertising class! 😄 Good that Jack never met him! Jack, we all missed you so much!
Thank You, Thank You, I'm 63 and your beautiful video made my youth flash before my tearing eyes. My life was very influenced by Jack's spectacular model box artwork. After all these decades you put a face and a history to the person who I thought & still think is an aviation God. To this day I use the REVELL DWK spitfire box artwork on any of my laptop opening page. The one thing that did bug me for decades about Jack's Revell Spitfire illustration is the pilot's head is disproportionately much too small. I'm sure it drives a lot of his fans crazy. Great Work, keep it up. I just hope someday you do a story about the see-thru clear Monogram P-51 Mustang. There are a few thousand around the world of us old Geezers who would love to know how this very functioning model was inspired, engineered and who all was behind it. To millions of modelers in the 60s & 70s, this was the ultimate must-have working model.
Lovely tribute. He was a great teacher, his demos making color theory vividly practical. Funny, gruff persona. And his published work let you know he really had the goods.
Yeah.... Jackie Lynnwood had an effect on my life too. I loved his art work as a kid and model builder but I also had the good fortune of being one of his students at Art Center. I still hear his common sense working man comments in my head as I do my work today. He took the scary out of being creative and replaced it with a process that would always "get ya there". Thanks Mr Lynnwood.
I grew UP assembling models in the sixties and seventies and always admired Revell box illustrations as the best of the best and had several of the model and arts of this video. It brought a lot of memories. Thank you very much for this wonderful tribute to the great genius behind the brush. A big part of my life is linked to these models.
I had the Stuka kit shown. BIG model! Probably 1974. I had a classmate whose father had a cramped basement full of boxes of unbuilt models. We would just salivate when looking at them. His dad finally did a class in model building for approximately 10 boys in our school, after school. The dioramas for the German radio cars and panzers were super. He showed us how to airbrush the paint and other techniques to make them look beat up and authentic. I loved that Stuka. The Swedish jets I also had. I had remembered the color scheme, but got them mixed up with the SR71. Great to see them again! Purple and olive green camo! How cool is that? Funny, I ended up living in Sweden....
Another fine box artist. I was always struck by the realism of his Revell aircraft, even down to the weathering on the surfaces. Thank you for profiling his amazing career.
Excellent video! I took illustration classes with Jack at Art Center in the mid 80’s. Your description of him is pretty accurate. He had attitude, a sense of humor, and his painting technique was effortless. He made it look so easy! The thing I always remember about him is how he loved to tell the “dirt” on the Little Rascals and how he’d say none of them amounted to anything except him, lol.
@@georgetaylor2875 facebook.com/photo?fbid=1077577140283&set=a.1077211331138....Me in 85 at AC. Illustration major I was an Olympic weight lifter at the time.
Great to see Jack being remembered! I attended Art center in the late 70's and Jack was my favorite instructor. He even liked some of my work. I found out he was the man responsible for much of the box art I loved as a kid and still do. Years later I'm doing automotive box art for Round 2. Who would have thought! He definitely had a sense of humor and joked around with the class. That man knew so much. I wish I would have talked with him more. We miss you Jack!
I remember when I was in my early teens and mowed lawns to earn money to buy models. I'd go to TG&Y and look at the models and loved the box art -- all those late 60's- early 70's 1/32 Revell kits especially. I can still remember the smell of the store and the music playing back in those days of the early-mid 1970s. It all made a big impact on my life and I paint aviation subjects for a hobby 45+ years later.
Great subject... I am watching the whole Box Top Artists series... you are right, they touch us as kits... and even today. I keep all the box art from the models I built... some of them are or will be, framed and hung in my studio... thank you for another well-researched video.
I built nearly everyone of those 1/32 scale Revell model airplanes and glued all of the box tops to my bedroom wall. They were great kits, and the box art was superb. I agree that Bob's Spitfire painting was the finest box art I've ever seen. He may have considered his work just commercial illustrations, but they are true works of art. Stare at some of his paintings long enough and you'll imagine you're up there with them, battling through the skies. That is the work of a master who loves his craft.
You unlocked a whole stack of memories of those model boxes with this one. Well, the Revell, Italeri, Monogram, Hawk and some of the other videos reminded me of model's I'd seen and occasionally bought and built as well! The box art for the Stuka, Spitfire, Corsair, BF109G especially as I built all of those models probably based solely on the artwork. And you're right--I'd go to the hobby shop or Woolworths(!) and stare for weeks until I had enough money to buy one with my paper route money along with a couple of bottles of Testors paint for $.25 each. Thank you for doing these videos, it's meant a lot to me.
When I see the 1/32nd box art of the Revel WWII fighters it brings back such memories, It's like I had that one, I had that one.. etc Hell I had just about all of um
Definitely touched. I had a thick Revell catalogue from 1977 (in Europe it included Italaerei and ESCI as well) and those 1/32 fighter boxarts had fixed in my memory forever.
Jack's art on many Revell kit box tops fueled many happy hours growing up... The kits were fun too, but his art often had me drooling in the hobby shop aisles for hours (to my dad's amused but exasperated attention - then he'd yell "Just pick one!")
Did Jack's work touch me? Absolutely! Who could resist having a couple of bucks in your pocket and a hot model with such a stunning box art in your hands? His work influenced my very short time as a box artist for Accurate Miniatures from 2002-2003.
@@orangelion03 I worked on the Vindicator, Mitchell and Dauntless but in the end, Russ Berg's F-6 Mustang and the TBM-3D of USS Enterprise VT(N)-90 were my boxings. The Dauntless was my last completed piece depicting Maj "Joe" Henderson of VMSB-241 in action against the IJN at Midway. The painting depicts their interception by the Japanese fighter CAP but didn't make it to boxing. (Another story)
Thank you for the video. I best remember him for his great box art for Revell's 1/32 models. I assembled their F4F and P-40. Jack's box art was what caught my attention and certainly helped in my decisions to buy Revell products. He was one of my favorite artists alongside Jack Kirby and Russ Manning.
Thank you for this Video Max. This was my first time viewing It. Jack was my Friend and a mentor of mine at AC for 3 yrs in the 80's and beyond Until he passed. The only thing you missed was this. Jacks marker work was SO GOOD we mistook them for Hi quality watercolors. He did a series on the Ama Divers of Japan, Exquisite. Jack was as funny as you've heard. I once told him I want to be an artist Like you, to which he responded, "Son, Never call me that." he put both hands in his pockets. He shook on hand and no sound came out. He said that's the sound of an "Artist's" pockets, Shook the other and it clanked with change and he said, " Son that's the sound of an Illustrator's pockets. "Son, CALL ME AN ILLUSTRATOR".. I LOVED Jack.....but I disagree with Him. His pockets said ILLUSTRATOR but his paintings said Brilliant ARTIST!!!! Thank you again for bringing me a glimpse of my friend. Terry Naughton. I've been An Illustrator/animator since the 80's because of Jack Leynnwood.
@@maxsmodels You would have really enjoyed him. As great an instructor as he was. Lunch with Jack was my Favorite part. He and Ted Youngkin used to swap war stories, They liked that my Dad was in B-17s
Why I am watching this? In the USSR we had all-different kits. Ogonyok's 1/50 scale Migs, 1/150 Ans, and later on ex-FROG 1/72 moldings (why that odd scale???? Bloody capitalists!). Lol. Thanks Maxmodels, just love your videos. I've seen some of the illustrations shown and it's nice to know the name behind them. Jack Leynnwood was sure an artist, not just an illustrator.
Did Jack"s work influenced me? Are you kidding? as a child back in the 60"s Ive spent endless time, enjoying his artwork, indeed his Spitfire and Gustav art in Revell"s 1/32 scale kits were my favorite, saved my allowance just to buy a Kit, even the Draken Fighters, I purchased that model for about $ 0.99 , back in the 70"s , because I loved the artwork, after buildinge them, I cut the box-top and framed it in my room....thanks for the memories
There was nothing more enjoyable to me as a 6 to 14 year old kid than buying and building almost all of the kits in the video. The box art subconsciously grew on me and I now have a extensive collection of machine age and modern art. The music you selected is pretty good too.
I just rewatched this video for the 5th time. I bought and built the Memphis Belle that Jack painted when I was young.. Oh god how I wished my models would look as good as Jack’s paintings.
Had him as an instructor at Art Center in the early '70's. He was the consummate 'cool guy'. He had some great stories that would enthrall the class every week.
Back in the 1960s, Revell marketed the box-tops of their kits as, “the box-top art you can frame.” I collected many of their awesome artworks and framed them. 👍
Great video and while enjoying box art and models all my life, I never had ANY history about those beautiful paintings. Oh the things and folks we take for granted. Mike
Thanks Max. This video is fantastic.I had no idea that Jack was a pilot or musician . His artwork on model kit boxes has always impressed me & provoked me to buy the kits. Thanks so much for the information & education. Great job on this video.
another very interesting and informative doc on model illustrators. really enjoyed and learned from it. thank you. It would be nice to learn about some of those who did model car box art in the 60s/early 70s- mpc, amt, revell etc.
I enjoyed the box art quite a bit on models, but I also liked to see if possible, pictures of the actual model completed on side panels. As a young consumer, I told me more of what the real product was, not just the intent of the designers.
The man sold a lot of model kits to me. As a kid, I remember looking at the kits that had close up photos of the finished models, and they were nice. But I was drawn to the kits with illustrated packaging. They told a story behind the airplane (or whatever) being modeled, and that story is what made me want to build it.
Excellent! Was not aware Leynnwood did movie posters as well. I have to agree with you on the Spitfire art...evocative as hell and just about coincided with the release of the BoB movie that my brother and I watched four or five times when it came out. The entire 32nd line artwork was among the best that ever graced a box top. That Lancaster was one of the first kits I got after arriving in the USA and the image has been imprinted since. I'm pretty certain that Jack and others influenced my brother's work...I'll have to ask him specifically. I would rate Jack's work with Shigeo Koike. Back in the day, you could get small prints of model box art from Revell and Monogram...we had several by Dick Locher we ordered from Monogram. Many of these artists sold prints of their work directly; you could find the ads in aviation mags back then. Edit: yeah, he was =) cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/010/778/876/large/william-arance-khesanhcas.jpg?1526193856
Wonderful feature 🙂 illustrated box art is so much more interesting then a photo of the built model or a photo of the real subject. A superb box art illustration draws you in, and Kindles your imagination! Revell had some of the best box art ever. Also, in my opinion, Hasegawa is also right up there. Especially the illustrations by Mr. Shigeo Koiki. It would be nice to see a feature on him as well. I enjoy your channel immensely. Cheers🙂
Great video, I recognised the art work from I was a kid but never knew the artist, very skilled, also Roy Cross did a lot of box art for Airfix, again great talent and always made me want to save up for another kit as it made the planes seem alive
I remember seeing almost every one of those box tops in the hobby shops when I was young. I work a lot in gouache now (though not with that level of skill) and the box art for models has been a huge influence on me.
Damn man you get at my emotions with so many of these videos. My Dad built models as a kid until he couldn't do it anymore. I remember many trips to the hobby shops and I always wanted a kit based on the box art! He kept all the box art and instructions filed in binders. Still have them. Thanks for these videos, brings back so many great memories.💗
You are very fortunate. As a kid I never thought of keeping any of the boxes. Like Neil Armstrong I regret not having kept any of the models I built. I did get a lot of pleasure in building them and I took pride in the quality of the work I die. My older brother introduced me to the hobby and I had a younger cousin nearby who also picked up the hobby. Thanks for posting.
This incredibly talented man got me to gladly give up my allowance money, those many years ago, to purchase a model kit with his wonderful art on the cover. Thank you Jack for your inspiration. And thank you Max for this fine tribute.
Man I am right there with you. I loved, and still do, the boxart. I jad the Ike Kepford Skull and Crossbones F-4U. One of my best I did as a kid and I ised the art to detail it. Sadly it was destroyed in a fire. Still looking for one. I would enjoy working on two of my models around you. I know they would turn out right,and I would learn some thing.
I spotted possibly 5 or 6 models that I built here. ASIDE: My Dad & one of his Navy buddies, bought an SNJ (Navy AT6) from a surplus dump after WWII. (They had both been flyers in other services, and were discharged after VE Day.) The took leave, and flew to northern Illinois, my Dad's birthplace. They were going to my grandparents' place, but decided to show off by doing aerobatics for the chicks on the beach by Lake Michigan. They stalled the thing, and recovered just in time to make a very hard water landing. Lucky for them both to walk (swim?) away with cracked ribs, bumps & bruises. Of course the plane was a wreck. (Cost them $1,200 in 1946 money.)
Great video about a Great Artist! Unfortunately my childhood in Hungary meant "model photo" boxes of both Revell and Airfix/Heller... I was a fan of Jaroslav Velc (KP), Roy Huxley (Matchbox) and of course the mesmerizing Koike Shigeo (Hasegawa)... unfortunately the ESCI boxartist signature was barely spellable (maybe Dollini?) but I liked those boxarts as well... I'd love to see something similar about them...
What a great video. Jack Leynnwood was truly a great illustrator/artist. I purchased a lot of kits in my early years due to the cover art on the box. It really was impressive. Thanks for posting this story about Jack Leynnwood. He deserves the recognition. Many times when we purchased a kit we would see a name or signature on the box of the artist, but never though of anything other than "Wow, what a great picture". Thanks for putting a name, a face, and most important, a story about him. There are many others who did the artwork and without the recognition they deserve they are just a name on the box.
When the whole engine spins around the crankshaft it's called a Rotary engine. Coincidentally the Wankel is called a Rotary too but the spinning components are internal. The fastest car I ever drove was a Mazda RX4 with a 13B bridge port. 145 mph, more than double the allowed limit
Oh Mr Max you have nailed it. How did you find this great information? I think we all dreamed of being able to achieve Jacks level of competence through our kits. Ah, the fantasies we entertained.
Every time I watch one of your videos concerning modelling, I am always very excited and touched. How plastic and balsa model airplanes have influenced my life, my entire life. Keep up the good work. You are doing a fantastic piece of history by keeping all these treasures alive and well.
Glad to see you included the magazine cover art from Wings magazine. Wings/Air Power are two old time publications I'm so sorry are gone. Great information for WW II aviation buffs and historians, great illustrations also.
I had a class with Jack at ACCD in the 80's- he was a great personality and didn't waste any time. At that point, he advised us to skip Illustration altogether and only do marker comps- a talented friend of mine did just that and made a bundle of money.
The box art on the b17 and f4u corsair are the reason I bought and built several of those kits as a kid in the 70s Thank you and please keep up the great videos Rick B aka Plastic butcher
Another great video! Seeing some of Jack's artwork really takes me back. I built so many of the kits shown here but some of those images, specifically the B17, the Lancaster and the HE 219 whisk me back to a certain era when, as a kid, I frequented the stores looking for the latest releases. In the small town where I live and grew up,..a couple of the places where I bought models back in the day, the buildings are still standing but there are different businesses there now, but every time I drive past one of those places I think of where I first saw Jack's illustrations which still move me all these years later.
Max smacks Jack's pack's! If Jack's illustration for the Revell C-130A marks the start of the "second golden age of Revell" that means that one of my best friends and I *both* built every single Revell aircraft and U.S. Navy ship kit from the first golden age of Revell and most of those from the second while building many Monogram and a few Aurora, Hawk, Lindberg, Renwall, etc. The issue of the C-130A was an event since there was a delay of several weeks between the time the retailers could order it and told us it was coming and when it appeared on the shelves. Revell promoted it with professionally built and finished models mounted on on a piece of Masonite (or something similar) made to represent an AFB ramp scene. That was the first time we had ever seen Revell do anything like that. The hobby shop owner had a silent auction for it. Some adult got it for $30 or so. Way out of my bidding range which was probably $10. Then I didn't have the money anyway.
I used to make paintings like that for my own enjoyment, never got paid much for commissions. I like Jacks definition of art, it is like what I say, "If it looks like crap, call it art".
Superb trip down memory lane. Being British, the American box art was always more "exotic" to us back in the 60s. Whilst Airfix had good box art, it wasn't as "dynamic" as Revell.
Fun fact: in the 1950s monster movie, "The Magnetic Monster", there is stock footage of an F-86 Sabre refueling from either a KB-50 or KC-97 (I forget which). The refueling doors were ahead of the windscreen. I never knew that either. So, even though it may not have been widely adopted, the F-86 could refuel mid-air.
Great job again Max, always loved the box art on the kits, did it influence the kits I bought you bet it did without ever thinking about it. You knew that with that box art your model was really going to be cool although they never quite turned out that way.
Excellent! I have to say, I think this is my favorite of your videos so far. As something of an artist myself (if you count online comic strips anyway) I'm really interested in learning more about Jack Leynnwood. Where did you get your information about him? I don't see any books about him. I'm looking forward to more videos about the artists. Thank you!
