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Every month during the editorial board of
INFO Eduard magazine, we also plan the popular
boxart stories for the content of the following
issues. They were first written about in detail by
my colleague Richard Plos in April 2022. Most of
the one-page articles are written by colleagues
who prepared the kit or were involved. We also
frequently write boxart stories for re-releases.
If the kits were issued a few years ago,
the writer has a relatively easy job. I will explain
why it is so at the end of this article. But if it's
a painting that was done ten or nearly twenty
years ago, it can be quite a challenging task.
Just such a conundrum is the painting created
by our late friend Martin Novotný in 2006 for
the 1/48th scale Polikarpov I-16 Type 10 kit we
are re-releasing this month. It shows the I-16
in a dogfight with Finnish Brewsters, one of
the Finns is obviously in serious trouble. After
nearly twenty years, none of my colleagues
remembered how the brief for Martin Novotny
was defined. When Martin created the painting
in 2006, he was apparently given a fairly loose
brief and painted a very lively scene.
Since I am interested in Finnish - Soviet
air battles, I can imagine what the process
might have been back then to create the
I-16 “Red 4” markings in the kit instructions.
In the publication Polikarpov Fighters in action
Pt. 2 - Aircraft No. 162, there is a colour profile
of this machine and a cropped photo. The author
of this photographic booklet, Hans-Heiri Stapfer,
has, in my opinion, quite realistically estimated
that this is probably a trainer aircraft from
late in the war, probably from 1944. In fact,
the fuselage side sports an insignia which
design was not introduced until the second
half of the war. The text in our instructions
was written in this sense. In the re-release, we
have mistakenly stated that it is a 1941 aircraft,
but the details of the text do not contain this
typo and the year 1944 is given.
The quality of aviation-historical research
is constantly evolving, so today we are in
a much different situation in terms of available
information than in 2006. I have gone through
all the volumes of the history of the Finnish Air
Force co-authored by Keskinen and Stenman
for the years 1941 to 1944. Unless I missed
something, not a single Finnish B-239 was shot
down in a fighter engagement in 1941, and in
1942 most of these American machines were
credited to Hurricane pilots. But both in August
and October 1942, one Brewster was shot down
by I-16 pilots of the 71st IAP KBF. In 1943, when
one of these rugged aircraft was destroyed in
combat, it was credited to aviators with modern
domestically produced planes or Airacobra
pilots. Same in 1944, only in late 1944, during the
so-called Lapland War, the German flak became
the enemy of the Brewsters.
This detailed information was not available
at the time the boxart was created and the I-16
in Martin's painting certainly does not belong
to the 71st IAP KBF. Moreover, Polikarpov had
a yellow band on the fuselage in the original
painting. This was recommended by the In Action
publication, but back in 2006 we pointed out in
the instructions that the band was probably
white. Therefore, we adjusted the colour on the
boxart of the re-release. I still think that this is
a great painting to remember Martin Novotny by.
Today we approach the preparation of
the boxart in a completely different way.
The aircraft that will become the main subject of
the painting is chosen by a team of colleagues
from the final selection of machines whose
decals will be included in the kit. Depending
on the edition of the kit, we choose the theme
for the boxart from four to twelve aircraft and
believe me, this is sometimes a difficult choice.
The aircraft we select for our kits are the result
of a vote on a usually much longer list of
aircraft.
When we agree on the aircraft that will
eventually appear in the painting, we prepare
a detailed specification for the artist describing
the situation in which the aircraft and its pilot or
crew should be depicted. We often work with an
analysis of the reports of both fighting sides and
try to keep the details of the terrain, altitude,
cloud cover, and the intensity and coloration of
daylight according to the day and hour of the
fight. Often we also call in outside consultants
for details of the fights. I think our artists
kind of hate us for such detailed commissions
sometimes. Although Piotr Forkasiewicz told
me recently, it is these extremely detailed
painting briefs that he really likes and suit his
style of work.
The amount of information that we gather
when preparing a boxart led us to the idea of
starting a one-page boxart story a few years
ago, because we were sorry not to share this
valuable and interesting historical information.
We felt that our customers did not know how
realistic the situations we present on our
boxarts were. I believe that we are the only
manufacturer that is this careful about the
historical veracity of the paintings on our kits.
I hope you enjoy the work of all my colleagues
who work on our kits and boxart stories.
A friend recently told me that the boxart story
is his favourite reading in the morning over
coffee. I firmly believe that there are many more
coffees to come with us!
HISTORY OF ONE BOXART STORY
Jan Bobek
INFO Eduard
129
February 2024