Episode 53: Francois Verlinden
/In this episode, we chat with one of the legends of the hobby: Francois Verlinden, who is alive and well at age 78. He retired to Palm Beach, Florida, after the company that bore his name closed in 2016, but he is occasionally painting again “just for fun”—including some of those Warhammer minis the kids love!
Verlinden is the last of “the Four Horsemen,” which, according to another, Bob Letterman, “was a term used by some of the guys back in the day to describe the four of us: Shep Paine, Lewis Pruneau, Francois Verlinden, and me… Some believed we, collectively or individually, helped popularize the then-new world of the diorama,” especially among armor modelers. (Below: Shep, Lewis, and Francois at Mastercon in 1990, from this article Bob wrote about his involvement with Verlinden Productions.)
Some of the signage and memorabilia from VP, which was based in St. Charles, Missouri, along with some of the “superdioramas” built by Letterman and Pruneau, recently went on auction at the same house in Beloit, Wisconsin, that conducted last summer’s auction of the Ralph Koebbeman collection (including other pieces by Pruneau and Letterman and several classic Shep boxes, a subject on Episode 36 and in this blog post). That, combined with our pal and former podcast guest Greg Cihlar putting us in touch and patiently coordinating logistics, made this a great time to catch up with Francois, whose name at the peak of the company’s production adorned some 2,700 products in those little green camouflage boxes, as well as a library full of books and periodicals.
Francois charts his history with the hobby from discovering models at age 11, to opening a shop in his native Lier, Belgium, and from finishing kits that he set in dioramas that eventually connected him to Tamiya and Italeri, to producing some of those accessories that populated all his dioramas, as well as buildings and other scenery, figures, and the first widely distributed aftermarket parts to enhance existing kits.
Francois did not sculpt or build the masters for the majority of what VP produced—an output that, he says, at one point required ninety tons of resin. His story is as much about being a visionary, if accidental, businessman as it is that of a painter and builder whose work inspired many others. The hallmarks of the “Verlinden way,” he notes with a chuckle: Filling his scenes with “lots of stuff” and drybrushing, as seen in the photos below, including, at the bottom, some of his recent work.
Indie manufacturers today may find it hard to believe, but there was a time when this small hobby could fund living relatively large. Francois laughs about his fondness for sports cars, and says he is grateful for all of the opportunities the hobby brought him. And he is glad so many modelers remember his name.
This episode ends with your hosts chatting about their current “buddy build” of the Gecko 1/16th Universal Carrier Mk. II. That phrase was new to Jim before Barry used it, and Barry now denies he suggested this project, although the evidence is there at the end of our last episode. (Warning: Building two 167-link lengths of track with five clean-up points per link may be making your hosts a bit loopier than usual. Below: Barry’s efforts as of this taping at left, and Jim’s at right.)
Finally, for once, Jim turns Barry on to a new and very useful tool (it’s usually the other way around): the DSPIAE electric reciprocating sanding pen. Those damn links were too small even for this wonderfully compact new toy, but it has already proven it has dozens of other uses!
Thanks as always for listening, and happy modeling in 2025!