Very interesting - talk about being in the right place at the right time!
I thought so! Let me say something about Jef. I met him when he was a wide-eyed kid who just went to work at Verlinden Productions. He could barely speak English. (He speaks better English now than I do!
Jef was the classic story of the right time and the right place. Another of my good friends is Willy Peeters. Both had incredible talent and just happened to live in the same small town that was home to Francois Verlinden. The unequaled success of Verlinden Productions was the result of these three incredibly talented people who came together at just the right time and just the right place. Each had the perfect talent to compliment the other two.
Until Verlinden and I split up, I had nothing to do with production whatsoever. It wasn't until I bought Warriors and Custom Dioramics that I got involved in making masters and painting box art. I had made a half dozen or so masters for VP, but, nothing of consequence like Jef or Willy.
Jef was and is the best pattern maker I have known and I have known almost all of them. In my opinion, hIs only peer was Canadian Ben Jacobsen, who recently passed away late last year. Jef's ability to create a kit master, which, by the way, is much more difficult than scratch building, is awe-inspiring! a pattern maker has to create the parts from scratch but doesn't put them together until there are castings of all of them, and, they must fit perfectly or you have a lot of modelers screaming at you.
Jef also has this ability to imitate anybody's work. He can build a diorama that I would swear Verlinden had built, and, believe me, he did that a lot! It saved Verlinden a ton of work. He could not only build, but could match the painting, weathering and composition exactly! I could go on and on about Jef. He has risen to a great position at Squadron/MMD and he deserves it and more. On top of all that talent he also happens to be one of the nicest and most humble people you have ever met! In my opinion, neither Jef nor Willy have received the notoriety that both deserve. I believe that without either one, Verlinden Productions or VLS would have never reached the heights they did! Many aftermarket production companies have come and gone, but none ever came close to the success that Verlinden Productions achieved!
It was the perfect storm, three extraordinarily talented people, coming together at the right time, at the right moment, with the right ideas. I was honored just to be connected with it!
Bob
