Modelismoaescala.com

Interview with Marcel Jussen

Author: Alberto Villasana Creation date: 17-Nov-2010

Greetings fellow modelers ¡!

We opened this section by presenting a great modeler Marcel Jussen, some may already know him others have not so we$re going to talk a little about your modelling work and history (the T-72 of our site was built for it).

We hope you enjoy this interview as much as us.

Interview:

Alberto: Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who is Marcel Jussen?
Marcel: Marcel: I'm a 42 year old modeler from the Netherlands with an affliction for post-WW2 armored tracked vehicles. My wife and I live in a town called Landgraaf in the most southern part of the Netherlands only a few kilometers from the Dutch-German border. My profession is that of an IT systems engineer and I work for a large Dutch ITC company.

Alberto: I'd like to know how your first interaction with the hobby was. How did you get involved/started into modeling, and what do you like the most about it?
Marcel: My parents introduced me to modeling when I was just a 6 year old boy. I believe it was my mom who bought me a 1/72 scale airplane and I loved putting it together. My mom did not allow me to paint the model as she was afraid of the mess I might make. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun and soon I started building more planes and hung them from the ceiling of my bedroom.

A couple of years later, my parents bought my brother and me a scale train set in H0 scale for Christmas which pretty much meant the end of my airplane modeling career. I was fascinated by the electronics of the train set and it made me choose to pursue a career in electronics.
As a student I stopped modeling for quite a number of years.

After I ended my military service as a Leopard weapon systems engineer in the Dutch army I took up modeling again. The intention was to build a model of the Leopard 1-V I served on but after almost 20 years of modeling that Leopard 1-V has yet to be build. My military service has played a major influence in my choices of subjects to model. Though I love to see a well build and painted WW2 model, I'm so much more attracted to post-WW2 vehicles, especially tracked vehicles.

I'm a sucker for the weird and few. I particularly love tracked recovery and engineering vehicles and anything post-WW2 Russian has my sincere attention as well. The best thing of modeling is the creativity that comes with it.

Alberto: Are you part of a modeling club, or would you like to be called an independent modeler?
Marcel: Like many modelers I've started the hobby by myself and for many years it has been a solo past time occupation. At the moment I'm one of few Dutch members of the Belgian modeling club KMK of which a couple of members are well known in the AFV modeling community. I joined KMK six years ago because I needed the interaction between modelers and the desire to deepen my modeling skills. Joining a club like KMK has been the best choice in modeling I ever did. I own my friends at KMK a lot!

They taught me to enhance my painting and building skills in ways I could never have achieved if I stuck to doing it all myself.

Alberto: We have witnessed great conversions of modern military vehicles from you. Do you work with all kinds of models, or you consider this to be your major "forte"?
Marcel: : I love the rare and exquisite AFV and that comes at a price. There are not many kits in styrene that cater for my appetite so converting vehicles with update and conversion sets has been part of my modeling career from the beginning.

But such conversions usually require a lot of work so now and again I limit myself to building models that require almost no additional work. But I have to admit, almost all my models consist of photo-etch parts, workable tracks, resin or scratch build items. I'm always very picky about details.

My modeling friends have tried many times to get me to build an airplane or even Sci-Fi but I need to be in touch with a subject to complete the model. I actually once tried to build a WW2 wheeled vehicle once but lost interest after merely two weeks. I just didn't have any inspiration to the subject.

Alberto: When you are on the full creative and design process, can you tell us where do you get the reference from when it comes to developing a certain model, which accessories, conversions or parts are not sold?
Marcel: I learned the hard way to first do research and then plan the build, painting and weathering stage. In the past I started work on a model by simply pulling a kit that I liked from the stash and start to build and paint it. During the build stage I made my painting plans and often found myself stuck because certain details like camo scheme or decals did not fit the type or version of vehicle I had in my mind.

Currently I'm researching quite a lot before I start modeling and the Internet is my biggest friend. Of course a substantial library of books on modern vehicles helps too. In the past 20 years I bought a lot of books and when I scrounge the Internet for images anything I can find that suits me is saved on disk. In some cases the research of certain models like the rare Egyptian T-34-122 took almost a year because so few information is available.

The same goes for finding the right materials like parts or decals for a certain vehicle. There is so much available with so many companies, almost anything can be bought. But with modern AFV's that is not always the case. Especially figures are a definite weak area when it comes to modern AFV�s. In the past few years I started to scratch build parts. Not always out of necessity but more because the commercial offerings did not cater my taste or my wallet. Scratch building is an art on its own.

I envy people who have the skill to build entire vehicles, buildings or even figures from scratch. I've learned it takes more than average skills. Thorough research to make scratch build parts is even more important.

Alberto: Have you commercialized some of your conversions? Where can we find and buy them?
Marcel: : I've been asked a couple of times to do some commercial modeling work. Either be it to make some masters or even to sell complete models. But I believe the hobby should stay a hobby and not another job so I've consistently declined such offers.

Alberto: What would you say is your best project to current date?
Marcel: Undoubtedly one of the projects that consisted of a lot of scratch building. Resin conversions do create a unique model but a model that you created with your own self made parts is definitely more rewarding. The Egyptian T-34-122, the Polish WZT-SU or the Czech Vt-34 comes to mind. If I have to make a choice between them I would say the T-34-122 as it has been on my mind for a very long time, it was technically complex to build and it was a great learning experience.

Alberto: How do you get inspired to start afresh into a new project? How much time do you spend on it?
Marcel: : I'm blessed with a patient wife. That definitely helps! We have no children so that creates a heap more spare time for other activities. I have the luxury to spend a lot of time on my past time interests. But modeling does not occupy my entire spare time. In fact, I have cut down on modeling compared to say 5 years ago. Non-stop modeling is neither smart or healthy. Better planning helps to create good models too.

Alberto: Have your work been published, or been featured in a magazine or book?
Marcel: I have published modeling articles in the past. Articles of mine have been published in English, French, Italian, German and of course in Dutch magazines. It takes a lot of time to build a good looking model, but writing an article on a model is something very different. Gosh its hard! I have contributed to technical AFV publications too. But you won�t see me giving up my day job to make a living in plastic modeling though.

Alberto: Do you have an admiration for a certain modeler or artist? Or have you followed an advice from someone?
Marcel: There are a number of modelers whose work has been a major influence on me. Miguel Jiminez, Adam Wilder and Mike Rinaldi for their elaborate weathering skills come to mind. But I also look at the works of guys like Staf Snyers, Mario Eens, Hugo Luyten and Marijn van Gils. I have the rare opportunity to see and speak to these guys on a regular basis and getting information like painting and weathering advice from them is important to me. They know I need their help badly and I thank them for helping me.

We thank Marcel for agreeing to answer these questions, we take to show of his work which we hope will be an inspiration to all of you.

The website address of the club that owns Marcel is as follows:http://www.kmk-scaleworld.be/index-regular.html
The personal website address of Marcel is: http://www.mjussen.nl/

Greetings and best regards.
Alberto

All material displayed on this interview is protected by copyright and was published with the permission in writing from the original owner.

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