In Memory of Walt Langhans
By Dennis “Wachtmeister” Jensen
On Sunday, January 19th, 2020 the gaming world unexpectedly lost Walt Langhans, an industry professional, and dear friend. Along with his wife Michele, Walt was one of the owners of and it’s lead designer.
Walt’s designs were excellent and showed what MDF terrain could aspire to. He was one of the first people to integrate non-MDF elements in his projects, to include drinking straws, acrylic elements and PVC pipes.
Walt also took steps to minimize visible lugs in his terrain, often using other pieces of MDF to cover visible lugs and seems. He always had excellent customer service.
I remember one time I wrote him to say that a terrain piece I had ordered didn’t come with the plastic drinking straws but I was good to go because I pulled one out from my painted pipe set. Walt almost shipped out an extra drinking straw because of the error. I couldn’t accept this of course, but it just goes to show how great his customer service was.
When he recieved word that the supplier of his MDF was going out of business, Walt needed to scrap a large part of his line due to a change in thickness of his MDF. Walt gritted his teeth and moved on with new designs.
All of this of course only talks about Walt the business owner. Walt was more than a designer and business owner. Walt was extremely generous with both his time and his products. Walt donated products for multiple classes as Hobby University such as 28mm Quonset huts and street scatter for MDF classes.
In addition, Walt designed an MDF tile with different textures for a painting class. When I mentioned that I needed bases at the last minute for a class, Walt reached his hand into his tub of bases and handed them over. Hobby University is in his debt. Additionally, Walt donated tons of product to the Wednesday Night Painting Group’s Toys for Tots auction. If you want to get your hands on some of that terrain come out to Fall In! 2020 and get ready to bid. We will be painting them up to get the most out of Walt’s generosity.
Walt, may your metal dice always roll sixes and may you always be surrounded by hazard stripes. We will miss you, buddy.
If you are interested in donating in Walt’s memory Michele has requested you do so at the
-Wachtmeister