Saltaire

Me and Missus Moonbase have just spent a great couple of hours sauntering around Saltaire near Shipley, Bradford. It's a World Heritage Site and great to wander around. Shops, cafes, mills, a canal, the fabulously well renovated Roberts Park and valley floor views to die for. Built by Titus Salt for his mill workers, Saltaire is a model village - not model as in Airfix but......well you know what I mean! Speaking of Airfix, I saw a book about the model company in the Salt Mill bookshop. 

I was fascinated to see a before and after shot of Roy Cross's box art for the Airfix Angel Interceptor in the 60's. It showed how he  had the models built and hung and then professionally photographed before he set to work on his rendition for the box. It made me think whether SWORD box artists did the same thing? Have the toys set in lunar landscapes - diorama style - before setting to work on the paintings. Is that what a professional artist like Mr. Cross would do every time? 

The other book I saw was the Eagle Book of Cutaways. Beautifully published and stuffed full of fabulous cutaways of machines and rockets. Presumably this is where SOLO/TV21 got the idea from? I was hoping to see a Dyna Soar cutaway but no luck. Maybe there was one in an actual Eagle comic?

I'm typing this on my daughter's fab Mac in Bradford. I love the large screen compared to my poxy laptop. And the browser's called Safari! No doubt many readers know this already and it's just me still computing in the pleistocene!