# Dave Deal passed away



## superduty455 (Jun 21, 2000)

Dave Deal of Deals Wheels passed away today I heard. I visited Tres website and noticed that he has a note of Dave being very ill. 

My condolences to the Deal family.

http://www.bigdealart.com/

My two cars:


















Chris


----------



## Dr. Pretorius (Nov 17, 2000)

Man, that's a bummer!

I loved building his kits as a kid, and getting the reissues now.

My condolences go out to his family also


----------



## Tim Nolan (Jul 9, 2008)

Very sad indeed. Dave's art will leave a long lasting impression on the model car and automotive world. We also lost two other icons in the model car/automotive world as well. Eldon Titus, Hall of Fame car builder and model car builder, as well as Bob Paeth from the early years of Revell, who did a huge amount of the incredible original box art, both have passed. Eldon was my good friend, and Bob and I had talked as well, and both wil be sorely missed.


----------



## Tres Wright (May 18, 2006)

I have not spoken with his family today and do not know yet that he has passed away, but it is probably true. I spoke with his son Travis on Tuesday and they had brought him home from the hospital and were making him as comfortable as possible. Dave has been battling cancer for a while now. I spoke with him by phone about a month ago and at that time he was still feeling well and sounded completely normal, so this was a sudden downturn as often happens when dealing with cancer. I will miss him very much and I'm sure many others will as well.


----------



## MonsterModelMan (Dec 20, 2000)

WOW! Sorry to hear about that!
Now it will make my Deals Wheels kits all the more special!

MMM


----------



## MadCap Romanian (Oct 29, 2005)

Too bad! I enjoyed making my 2 Funster kits back in the 1980's and hope to make more. 

All my best to the family.


----------



## Duck Fink (May 2, 2005)

NO WAY!!!! Man that IS a bummer. I swear I was thinking about putting my Baja Humbug up on ebay just yesterday and then decided against it. Now I am DEFINATELY not selling the thing. My condolences to the Deal family. I love the guys artwork. So much so that I bought an entire set of 20 signed prints from him about a year ago from Tres site (deal's wheels box art). Not only that but managed to get some signed kits from Dave. It just makes it all the more special now. Man I was thinking about going to his website and getting some more artwork from him just a few days ago. I gotta thank you Tres for being a visible point between the general modeling public and Dave. Without you I would not have some of these great things that I love from Dave so much. RIP DAVE!


----------



## schmidtjv (Apr 7, 2004)

Wow, this is sad indeed. 

The Bug Bomb was one of the very first glue-kits I ever built, and I was hooked on his kits ever since.

Dave, you gave a lot of kids a lot of happy memories. Rest in peace.

John


----------



## Zombie_61 (Apr 21, 2004)

Thank you for sharing this sad news. IMO Dave Deal was a truly talented and underappreciated artist.


----------



## F91 (Mar 3, 2002)

Crap!! Unique vision, truly talented. RiP Dave.


----------



## otto (Jan 1, 1970)

Sad news indeed. At least he will live on through his designs..


----------



## docplastic (May 10, 2003)

*Dave Deal*

When I interviewed Dave Deal for "Remembering Revell," I showed him a draft of the text describing him as a "hearty, bearded, ham-fisted racer." He objected to the "ham-fisted" description, explaining that he actually had the sensitive hands of an artist. So that got deleted. 
He was an amazingly talented artist. Not only did he have the imagination to dream-up his wonderful cars and planes, he could also sculpt the model prototypes himself--according to the specifications of Revell so that they could be broken down into model parts that could be injection-molded--but he could also do instruction sheets and box art as well. 
Well done Dave! You brought pleasure and inspiration to generations of us ten-year olds and your work will live on into future generations. Tom


----------



## Tres Wright (May 18, 2006)

==So much so that I bought an entire set of 20 signed prints from him about a year ago from Tres site (deal's wheels box art)==

Count yourself lucky, there were very few entire sets that were sold over the years. I didn't keep track of them, but I think there were maybe 5 complete sets including mine.

==I gotta thank you Tres for being a visible point between the general modeling public and Dave. ==

You're quite welcome, it was a great thrill for me to be able to communicate with Dave all these years and to share the info with other fans. 

==he could also sculpt the model prototypes himself==

Very true, in fact I have the only remaining prototype that he modeled. He sold it to me many years ago, it was a Porsche that was to be the next Deal's Wheels model. Revell pulled the plug on the line and it never made it out of the prototype stage. He explained that he started with clay, then once it was refined he made a mold of the clay version and cast it in resin. The resin version would then be further refined and eventually used to by Revell to pantograph the final parts and body. He said they would stick pins in it during the pantograph process and by the end of it the resin was pretty much trash. It's amazing that this prototype survived. Here are some lousy pics I took back in '99, I need to take better pics of it one of these days.

http://treswright.vervehosting.com/Pages/prototype.html


----------



## MonsterModelMan (Dec 20, 2000)

Tres,

That is an AWESOME piece of history you have there! And to have it personalized must make it really special! 

He will be greatly missed! I hope that Revell still continues with the re-issues planned for this year.

Bob aka MMM


----------



## superduty455 (Jun 21, 2000)

It would be a fitting tribute from Revell to continue on with the re-issues. I think it would be a disservice to us and Dave if they did not.

Thanks Tres for all your insight on the man.
You've got a great piece in that Porsche. I really wish they would have done that one too. 
Chris


----------



## Tres Wright (May 18, 2006)

Thanks Chris and Bob, it is indeed a treasure! If you haven't seen them I also have a large collection of Deal's Wheels sketches that Dave sold me several years back. I've only posted about 1/4 of them, I fully intended to post them all but life got in the way. I'll get it done one of these days. Until then here are the ones posted so far:

http://treswright.vervehosting.com/Pages/deal-dw-art1.html
http://treswright.vervehosting.com/Pages/deal-dw-art2.html
http://treswright.vervehosting.com/Pages/deal-dw-art3.html

I believe the GTO came very close to production. I have an old Revell release schedule that listed it.

I don't think Dave's passing will affect the rerelease schedule, knowing what a fastidious businessman he was I'm sure he made provisions to pass the copyrights on to his family to keep the ball rolling.


----------



## Duck Fink (May 2, 2005)

You have some real treasures there, Tres. Cool stuff indeed. I would be happy to have that stuff. There cannot be many Dave Deal originals out there...finished drawings OR sketches. Hang onto it!


----------

