Jef Verswyvel began his model building career when he received a model kit from his parents on his 6th birthday.   His interest in WWII history began when he was about 12 years old and found a WWII helmet in his uncle's attic.

Born and raised in Belgium, he had the opportunity to collect several WWII artifacts.  When he was in his early 20's he got an offer for his German WWII collection and sold it all.  If he'd only knew !  Luckily many of the other European artifacts were stored in his parents' attic until he decided last year to make full size figures to put on display.  One thing let to another and soon the room he used for his collection - which expanded rapidly - was too small so he opened a museum where his business was located.

In 2009 he moved the collection to the Old Rowlesburg High School, now the Szilagyi Center for Cultural and Visual Arts.

On the photo above you see Jef at work on one of the figures who's face he sculpted with putty. Then it is painted with oil paints to get the result as shown here and in other photos on this site.

Jef also works on his famous 3D paintings (dioramas).  These are shown in a display case at the museum. A perfect combination of life-size and scale models.

The dioramas are all made from scratch.  Different materials are used to obtain a scene that not only looks real in setting but is accurate to the last detail. Over the past 25+ years Jef has acquired a lot of knowledge and research material to built single pieces or elaborate scenes.

Although Jef's passion is WWII, his subjects can be of various nature.  From the Roman Empire to modern warfare.

Jef has the skills to accomplish 3D paintings that are called "Art" by many. But Jef doesn't consider himself an Artist, just a man with a talent, a good eye for detail and an enormous interest in world war history. More photos available on the "Gallery" page.

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