Art and catalogues

[Andy Y]

A conversation with BRM's editor, John Emerson, the other day revolved around the artworks of Cuneo, their use on Triang and Hornby catalogues and weathering*.

 

This converges very nicely with robmcg's post here - http://www.rmweb.co....200#entry756420 where he posted this striking image.

 

 

There's a very close resemblance to Cuneo's painting used on Hornby's 1993 catalogue as a return to the style of some of the classic 60s and 70s covers.

 

 

Whether it's because of childhood but I remember those catalogues far more clearly than any more recent ones. I couldn't for one minute say what was on Hornby or Bachmann's catalogue five years ago but images of a Jubilee storming Lickey or simmering at Tyseley stay forever. The subject matter had little to do with the latest releases but for me did a better sales job with something evocative rather than a staged model shot.

 

Perhaps we can live in hope that a manufacturer will again return to art rather than something straight out of the box?

 

*Apparently the mousemeister used to do a bit of model weathering with his oils.

[gwrrob]

I totally agree and that excellent image of Robmcg's would look perfect for the next years catalogue !.

 

I suppose the nearest Hornby have come recently is with this trainpack. Yes I realise its Western.

 

 

http://www.jadlamrac...-j-freeman.aspx

 

What about this image on the front of 2013 Hornby catalogue ?

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

There is a slight difficulty with current art production don't you think?

 

From a choice of Damien Hirst's Porter cut in half titled 'where's my suitcase', a railway seat covered in McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC and Starbucks packaging titled 'My journey' from Tracey Emin; and other assemblages such as a very neat stack of 1750 sleepers as 'Fat Cat TOC', and a moulding of the interior of a platelayer's hut, it's not going to be that exciting is it?

 

Not to be despondent though, perhaps an enterprising catalogue cover commissioner might drop robmcg a line?

[Guest Natalie Graham]

 

*Apparently the mousemeister used to do a bit of model weathering with his oils.

 

He contributed a chapter on' how to do' weathering to the 1962 Tri-ang Railways publication The First Ten Years.

[Andy Y]

What about this image on the front of 2013 Hornby catalogue ?

Posting that reminded me of another certain model.

 

[Andy Y]

Wonderful how much more aesthetically pleasing posts #2 and #5 appear

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness

[gwrrob]

Of course the manufacturers won't use images like these because the loco and rolling stock don't always match what they produce.

 

Robs picture of Hornbys 'Tintagel Castle' is pulling Bachmanns coaches and some of mine have Airfix origins !

[S.A.C Martin]

Agreed that more evocative, exciting artworks could hugely add to the interest we'd garner from the catalogues - but they are just that now, catalogues.

 

Previously you could describe them as miniature collector's manuals, showing many of the models in a city scape, or in a station, in poses which showed off more than the bland, side on pictures which grace the Hornby catalogue nowadays. It's all far too clinical when you compare to even the late 80s and early 90s catalogues Hornby put out.

 

One which I remember is my late grandfather's catalogue which had The Condor on the front, I think it was. Dark, gloomy, offset by bright oranges and yellows of the smoke, signals and yard lamps; a gloomy horizon with blues and greys and a green Cobo pulling its freight thundering towards the reader. A sense of weight and power you simply don't see in the modern day catalogues now. I think it was a Cuneo piece, there was a steam locomotive in outline to the left, a signal to the right of the CoBo and sheer impressionist exaction in detail.

 

Of course I may be making this all up, it's a half formed fragment of memory.

[The Stationmaster]

Agreed that more evocative, exciting artworks could hugely add to the interest we'd garner from the catalogues - but they are just that now, catalogues.

 

Previously you could describe them as miniature collector's manuals, showing many of the models in a city scape, or in a station, in poses which showed off more than the bland, side on pictures which grace the Hornby catalogue nowadays. It's all far too clinical when you compare to even the late 80s and early 90s catalogues Hornby put out.

 

One which I remember is my late grandfather's catalogue which had The Condor on the front, I think it was. Dark, gloomy, offset by bright oranges and yellows of the smoke, signals and yard lamps; a gloomy horizon with blues and greys and a green Cobo pulling its freight thundering towards the reader. A sense of weight and power you simply don't see in the modern day catalogues now. I think it was a Cuneo piece, there was a steam locomotive in outline to the left, a signal to the right of the CoBo and sheer impressionist exaction in detail.

 

Of course I may be making this all up, it's a half formed fragment of memory.

 

The co-bo pic was a Cuneo - and while I liked it on the catalogue cover I have to say that it also looks rather nice in real life; definitely a picture I would like to own but it's neither for sale nor could I afford it.

[Pacific231G]

 

 

One which I remember is my late grandfather's catalogue which had The Condor on the front, I think it was. Dark, gloomy, offset by bright oranges and yellows of the smoke, signals and yard lamps; a gloomy horizon with blues and greys and a green Cobo pulling its freight thundering towards the reader. A sense of weight and power you simply don't see in the modern day catalogues now. I think it was a Cuneo piece, there was a steam locomotive in outline to the left, a signal to the right of the CoBo and sheer impressionist exaction in detail.

 

Of course I may be making this all up, it's a half formed fragment of memory.

You're not making it up. I remember it too and found it after a little delving. It is a Cuneo painting and was used for the final Triang-Hornby catalogue in 1972.

This is the best reproduction of it I've found online.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J3q4xxrMybY/T9UPEA0Ef7I/AAAAAAAAGTE/_1OnGBLsSMQ/s1600/tr%60.jpeg

 

The same painting was also used a decade earlier for the Gamages 1961 Model Book. The mouse is quite hard to spot !

[S.A.C Martin]

You're not making it up. I remember it too and found it after a little delving. It is a Cuneo painting and was used for the final Triang-Hornby catalogue in 1972.

This is the best reproduction of it I've found online.

http://4.bp.blogspot.../s1600/tr`.jpeg

 

The same painting was also used a decade earlier for the Gamages 1961 Model Book. The mouse is quite hard to spot !

 

Thank you for that link - a rocketing of wonderful memories came flooding back on seeing that. Bit misty eyed now, I remember thumbing through that sat on my grandfather's knee. Close to a quarter of a century on and it's still clear as day. Wonderful memories.

[Dave777]

You can see the Hornby catalogue cover images here if you want to:

 

http://www.hornbyguide.com/publication_menu.asp

 

Personally, it was the layout on/in the 1980 one that stayed with me - as a 10 year old it was exactly the kind of layout I wanted, and did more to encourage me than a painting ever would. Each to their own though

[Horsetan]

Don't forget the paintings that Airfix used to decorate the boxes of plastic loco kits. Some of that was uncannily true-to-life as well.

[Miss Prism]

I agree with Andy about the ability of these sorts of images to inspire and sell more than conventional ones, although it is true that ability will depend entirely on the emotional memory resonance the viewer has with the image narrative. (If you've never seen a real-life steam engine in full flow, such images are unlikely to turn you on.)

 

Chris Leigh did some very atmospheric cover pics for the Constructor in 1965-66. It would be great to see some of them again - the best one was probably the Triang spamcan trailing smoke at night going under a quickie replica of one of the Clapham 'over-track' signal boxes. December 66 issue?

 

Edit: Found it! (It was the December 64 issue):

 

http://www.payhost.n...on_12_64_FC.jpg

 

Here are some other MRC covers of the time - a bit radical for their day:

http://www.payhost.n...g/MRC_1965.html

[Michael Delamar]

I liked the fast photograped shots of the early 90s, class 90s, 91s etc. night time shots too,

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

It seems that only Model Railway companies have gone down the route of using out the box photos rather than artwork, companies such as Airfix and Revell still use proper artwork on their kits and to great effect as well.

 

I agree that some of the pictures used in the catalogues of recent years are rather boring compared with those of bygone days, so perhaps Hornby / Bachmann should look at returning to it. It would be intereting to see how they would protray some of their Modern Image models!

 

Simon

[hmrspaul]

I agree with Andy about the ability of these sorts of images to inspire and sell more than conventional ones, although it is true that ability will depend entirely on the emotional memory resonance the viewer has with the image narrative. (If you've never seen a real-life steam engine in full flow, such images are unlikely to turn you on.)

 

Chris Leigh did some very atmospheric cover pics for the Constructor in 1965-66. It would be great to see some of them again - the best one was probably the Triang spamcan trailing smoke at night going under a quickie replica of one of the Clapham 'over-track' signal boxes. December 66 issue?

 

Edit: Found it! (It was the December 64 issue):

 

 

 

Here are some other MRC covers of the time - a bit radical for their day:

http://www.payhost.n...g/MRC_1965.html

 

Chris wrote an article about the production of some of these covers in:

Model Railway Constructor Annual 1983 pp 5 -11. edited by Leigh, Chris.

There are illustrations of two versions of the SR bridge signal box.

 

By the way, and OT, this Annual is quite an interesting book in the development of publication of our hobby. Trev Mann and me were allowed 20 pages to write about PLATE wagons and their numerous conversions, including 4 scale drawings. This was our first publication in the MRC Datafile series, but didn't include any colour photographs. Apart from this, Chris wrote up about modelling an engineers train and there is an article "introducing" departmental coaches. Engineers (I believe "On track plant" wasn't a description we would have recognised then) engineers coaches were largely unrecognised by most publications and modellers. There were very crudely produced "Roneo-ed" A5 booklets - and they didn't include all railways of the coaches. The Platform 5 books followed soon afterwards in 1984 and interest steadily increased in non passenger carrying rolling stock.

 

Paul Bartlett

[Miss Prism]

Thanks Paul. Re the much-lamented MRC Datafile series, they don't produce mags like that anymore! The drawings in the Constructor were excellent.

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Agreed that more evocative, exciting artworks could hugely add to the interest we'd garner from the catalogues - but they are just that now, catalogues.

 

Previously you could describe them as miniature collector's manuals, showing many of the models in a city scape, or in a station, in poses which showed off more than the bland, side on pictures which grace the Hornby catalogue nowadays. It's all far too clinical when you compare to even the late 80s and early 90s catalogues Hornby put out.

 

One which I remember is my late grandfather's catalogue which had The Condor on the front, I think it was. Dark, gloomy, offset by bright oranges and yellows of the smoke, signals and yard lamps; a gloomy horizon with blues and greys and a green Cobo pulling its freight thundering towards the reader. A sense of weight and power you simply don't see in the modern day catalogues now. I think it was a Cuneo piece, there was a steam locomotive in outline to the left, a signal to the right of the CoBo and sheer impressionist exaction in detail.

 

Of course I may be making this all up, it's a half formed fragment of memory.

 

 

 

This was the 1972 "Tri-ang Hornby" Catalogue. By 1972, it should have been Hornby Railways, but the catalogue was already printed...

 

[Chris Turnbull]

I agree with Andy about the ability of these sorts of images to inspire and sell more than conventional ones, although it is true that ability will depend entirely on the emotional memory resonance the viewer has with the image narrative. (If you've never seen a real-life steam engine in full flow, such images are unlikely to turn you on.)

 

Chris Leigh did some very atmospheric cover pics for the Constructor in 1965-66. It would be great to see some of them again - the best one was probably the Triang spamcan trailing smoke at night going under a quickie replica of one of the Clapham 'over-track' signal boxes. December 66 issue?

 

Edit: Found it! (It was the December 64 issue):

 

 

 

Here are some other MRC covers of the time - a bit radical for their day:

http://www.payhost.n...g/MRC_1965.html

 

When I asked Alan Williams about these covers a couple of years ago he told me that Colin Gifford was the photographer and that he still had one of the sets in his loft - the roundhouse one I believe.

 

Chris Turnbull