News & Events

A Hugo Luyten Vignette

Posted on November 28, 2023

This last October 2023 Daiana and I were off to Holland for the annual Scale Model Challenge concorso before pressing on to London to see Mighty Madge perform at the O2. I say annual, as Pre-Covid it fell on a certain weekend in October yearly. But we had a little wait for this one. 2019 was the last SMC. We had to wait near four years for another thanks to Covid.  Nevermind. World Expo at the same location in 2022 helped heal that wound for those of us jonezing for our concorso fix in Holland. So then. October 2023. I met up with a couple of the KMK “Blueshirts” from Belgium who — as always — had an impressive clubstand of their works, and a poignant tribute to not only Hugo but also Francois Govaerts who also passed away in ’23. Herman Vuerstaek brought with him, by pre-arrangement, one of Hugo’s vignettes. It was my favourite work by Hugo. A Tamiya 222 he had done up to the nines and painted beautifully. I first saw it on the KMK clubstand at Euro Militare 2006. So enamoured by it was I, I took the opportunity to photograph it now 17 years ago. Rudi Meir, who at the time was the only KMK member I knew, introduced me to the modeller — Hugo Luyten. After his death this last January the piece was offered to me and I accepted the offer gladly.

I carried the vignette with me on two aeroplane flights to get home. One from Holland to London, where Daiana and I were stopping for a few days to see Madonna. The second was our return flight to Barcelona from London. The vignette arrived intact, fortunately, minus a loose helmet and one driver knows. The 222 Vignette now proudly  sits with my other dioramas in an enclosed glass doored cabinet in my atelier where I often look upon it and fondly remember our friend Hugo who shuffled off this mortal coil ten months ago. 

Look after each other. The journey is everything.