François Verlinden and his Models

During the years that I started model building, I built (glued) kits from Airfix, Aurora, Heller, etc. I built ships, planes, cars, a Saturn 5 and lots of other stuff. As time passed, one of the names that really started my interest in military models was François Verlinden. One of the first products I puchased from him, somewhere during the early 80's, was a DCS model set for a diorama. It was in fact a bunker. I still have the original models in my stash. As time progressed, Verlinden did some amazing work as a model builder, diorama builder and ofcourse his line of aftermarket products that in my humble opinion was real pioneer work in this field. And wow what a lot of fine kits he produced. Resin, photo-etch materials and in every scale for every modeller to choose from. During that years I was a frequent visitor of Verlinden's shop, the "François Verlinden's Modelworld" at the Berlaarsestraat 13 in Lier near Antwerp in Belgium. I was lucky enough to see some of the diorama's in real life during the building process that were later shown in some articles and books. I can really say, that he was the inspiration for me to go military vehicles and diorama's. Before I built a lot of other stuff too, but here I got the "green virus" (sorry for the expression in this corona time). As a tribute I built this page. You will find a listing of (almost) every book and kit produced under the Verlinden label. In one way or the other I was attracted to, as he called it later in some of his publicattions, "The Verlinden Way". Unfortunately I was more or less stopped by external influences in my personal and professional life from model building during the early 90's. But I still managed to collect some of the early stuff produced by Verlinden. I was very much influenced by the way he built and painted his models. I still like this style. But also Shep Paine, Bob Letterman and Tony Greenland were personal favourites of mine as you will see in the other articles about these fine model builder artists. They were all great on their own and made very beautiful creations. What made François Verlinden special was that almost everything he used in his diorama's was from his own design. May it be scratch or from his resin and photo-etch kits. And he was a pioneer and inspiration for all the after mart companies that followed till now. After finishing this article there was a nice tribute to François Verlinden in the Modell Jahrbuch 2023 from the Modell Fan magazine.

Starting with some DCS (Diorama Construction Sets). Above the first kits (sets) I purchased from Verlinden's Modelworld, Below some others. Besides these there were other sets like crates and brick rubble. I still own these DCS sets above and below in the original state.

Below the first DCS catalogue I know of and still own, obtained in the modelling shop of Verlinden
The date I noted for the purchase was 30th of January 1981 ! Wow that long ago !
If you like to see the contents of this Catalogue, please click on the cover.

I collected a lot of books, but also catalogues of different manufacturers. Here I show the publications of Verlinden. I still own the first 7 of his catalogues and a lot of his leaflets shown below and in the lists that are accesseble through the links I provided.

The very first of the Verlinden Productions catalogues. This one and all the following were worth collecting because they showed almost all of the products in a built and painted state and all these catalogues also provided nice ideas for making your own little gems. These catalogues were in fact modelling handbooks in itself.

It was also nice to see that a firm well known then and still today for their fine model kits, was interested in the models and dioramas that François Verlinden built. They were shown in a Tamiya's own publication.

During the 80' and 90's the Verlinden, Letterman and Stok (VLS) company, as it later was known, produced a huge amount of models, figures, diorama accessoiries, after market kits and publications that gave us modellers a huge boost for our hobby. Below I have realised some links for your convenience to look into what they gave us as modellers, and me the drive and inspiration to yet come back to my favourite pastime. I was saddened to hear that Verlinden stopped producing models and after market kits in 2016.

Link to Listings of Verlinden Products including the books and magazines - Click on the Logo below !