As a child of the sixties, I grew up in the latter part of the original Golden Age of Modeling.  My father hooked me on plastic modeling from a very early age.  Before I could build them myself, I would sit beside him as he built model planes, tanks, ships, and other things for me to play with in the sandbox and the back yard.  Soon enough, I was building them myself using Testors tube glue, a paring knife, and Testors enamels (for when the plastic wasn't moulded in the right colour to begin with).  I may not have been nearly as skilled a modeler as I aspire to now, but I was certainly prolific, and I had loads of fun with them. 

 

A lot of my early model kits were Revell aircraft.  Just seeing the box art for their 1/72 scale B-17F "Memphis Belle" brought back a whole slew of memories for me.  The box art illustrations are one of the great selling points of this book, and provide powerful evidence of why so many young boys got hooked on plastic models in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.  Who could resist the superb Jack Leynwood artwork on those boxes?

 

This book provides a great behind the scenes view of the rise and decline of the first great age of plastic modeling, when the majority of boys in North America listed plastic modeling as their favourite hobby.  Revell was right at the forefront of the creation of the hobby, with kits like its 1/535 scale USS Missouri (the very first injection-moulded plastic ship model) virtually creating the market for plastic models.  The story of Revell's rise to become a dominant force in the plastic model world is laid out here, with some great anecdotes along the way.  One of my favourites involved Lloyd Jones doing scaling out Revell's 1/72 scale model of the ultra-secret YF-12A Blackbird interceptor by using the grid lines on the concrete runway in a photo to calculate the (classified) dimensions of the plane!  This book gives real insight into the very small fraternity of businessmen who created and nurtured the plastic hobby industry through its first three decades and makes for fascinating reading. 

 

Approximately 1/3 of the book is a complete listing of every kit produced by Revell from the 1950s through the 1970s, complete with annotations and approximate prices today.  This, coupled with the colour illustrations throughout, make the book an invaluable reference for both collectors and builders of classic kits.  It's easy to forget just how imaginative companies like Revell were in their releases.

 

A both a modeler and a historian, I loved this book; I couldn't wait to get home to read it.  Highly recommended both as a part of the history of our hobby and as a great stroll down memory lane.