Roy Cross was born in Southwark and began work as an illustrator in Fairey Aviation during World War Two. Over the next thirty years, Roy progressed to top-class advertising art for the aircraft industry and other companies including Airfix. For ten years he supplied artwork for Airfix, with his last painting for the company being the Germany heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen in 1974. In that year Roy set out on his own and he still paints and his glorious paintings can still be found today in art galleries and in private collections. Sadly, much of his Airfix artwork was destroyed and all that remains are the lids of many millions of boxes. He is a resident of Kent, England.