Hi everyone,

First, you are probably wondering what happened with the castle. As some of you may know already, I finished it a few months ago and already visited some major expositions and was rewarded with a huge public interest. I will have the honour of an article in the next AFVmodeller and was asked to stay the publication of to much pictures on the Net.
I hope you understand that, but it’s only two more months to wait.

In the meantime, after a three months break, during which (apart from simply cooling down my modelling fever) i tried to answer the question about the sense or nonsense of building an even bigger diorama, I slowly restarted my initial project of doing the whole Clervaux-village battle. So, the answer to my question is that I am continuing for now, not knowing if I ever will accomplish the required logistical task to show this on any exposition and am probably only working for a final display place at the castle (who’s autority’s still don’t know anything about my work)

I wanted to show you want I am up to this time but have to admit that it is perhaps difficult to grasp what I am doing.
In short , I am building the aera of the town just in front of the castle. For now that means I need to build a good part of the rock where the castles is sitted on, the old wall delimiting the outer courtyard, a space used as parking (for the tourists) and already some town houses.
Here is a reference picture where I tried to somewhat draw in the part to build now and some more for the detailed view. No.1 is obvious, No,2 is the one i am doing right now, 3 4 are for later, but you get the picture.



Here are the pictures of the rough terrain building, with the usual problems in trying to photograf a piece of 1,50m and 0,70 meter (yes, again !).
Styrodur and plaster, the usual stuff to build up terrain.



This done, I need to build this modul such that it will fit exactly against the castle’s modul.
Here (and this is the only pic of the castle I can show you) I made my preliminary testfits and you can see what this is going to be.

The modul with my finished houses (Hunnegschmatts, Hotel Central) is going to come to the right of this new one. Complicated , isn’t it.



The difficulty is again to think ahead very far to what is coming next to this one. The stairs leading up to the castle’s plateau, the wall with a slight curb, the smashed wall on the lower part etc, slowly the look is hopefully going to be like the original.
I am trying to do the houses according to reference pictures. I decided on this one, (that’s all i have for reference)

so here is my first build up.



The neighbouring ones are my invention, they are going to be smaller and build taking into account the falling terrain and the available space.

So, what ever you take from this pictures i mainly wanted to raise my hands and show that I am still here and building. Also i believe that Glenn should not be the only one showing monster dioramas :-)

I am trying to keep this updates as a Blog, so watch for some more soon.

Questions are welcomes of course.

Cheers and a good modelling year for everyone

Claude

PS.: Watch for the next AFVmodeller mag (ed. 39), it’s going to be a good one 

Great work and all very good but where are you going to live when it's finished

Hi Claude. Congratulations on getting recognised by AFV Modeller ... a top magazine. I have a subscription for this, so I´ll have your article to look forward to, plus even more from your work on the extended village. Should be very exciting. Great start already.

Wow, the monster-size diorama is getting even bigger!

Looking forward to see this all on one of the events here in the region again!

Martin

This is madness!!! You're making Bob Letterman's dioramas look like child's play. The size of this project is unbelievable, nothing seems to daunt you!

Having seen the castle in the flesh though, the effort definitely pays off! Stunning modeling! I must say you are very talented, this progress here is superb, i cant wait to see it take shape further.

I may have to subscribe to AVF just for the article. This will be more to watch.

WOW! Truly of epic proportion and awe inspiring. Looking forward to the AFV article and more of this post.

hi
what can i say, that looks like an amazing dio!!!!! really inspirering

neil

Thank you very much guys,

I have one more question:

I have the idea to put a wrecked (freshly bombed out or only slightly disfunctional) US Truck just in front of the stairs. I'm even thinking to make a damaged Dragon Wagon. Apart from me own lack of experience in doing such vehicles i am looking for reference photos of such kind of vehicles.
I have a few Truck pics from Iraq but need more. Anyone knows where to look? Thanks
( i will ask this over on the AVF forum if nobody knows anything)

Claude

crazzeee Claude, it looks like a fantastic follow-up to your castle, i am really amazed by the sheer size of your projects. yes that follow-up is going to be another story to move from exposition to exposition
I will follow your further posts, keep well and good luck
JB

Hi Claude,

Excellent follow up. Are you building the whole village !! now that woudl be neat lol, lol.

The castle was a master piece, I'll look forward tio seeing this one.

Cheers

Al

Yo Claude,

Again an amazing story is about to grow out of your hands...great respect for you're work on such a big project. This one i will surtenly follow!
Oh...the brick patern in the castle wall...did you scratch it in with a sharp tool?
Good luck!

Greetz Nico

Jean Bernard, Merci beaucoup,
Alan, did you see the castle in person ? Where? Without introducing you to me?
To answer your question: Apart the three finished houses, the three in work now, i am calculating to build some 7-8 more to get some village feeling.
Nico, do you mean the small wall on top of the stairs on my new part? That's a piece of 10 mm cork where i dremmeled the stone pattern in and later refilled it to a regular level with a Acrylic paste.
The bigger, slightly curbed wall is for now of the same material than the castle (plastillin mould and plaster copies). I will ty to cover it later a bit , so that the end-look is a bit different, but that is still to come. Does that answer your question?


Cheers
Claude

This is a crazy build, I will be watching in admiration.

Stuart

hi
Claude do you have a link to your build log of the castle, i think i saw it on here but cant remember where to look.

thanks
neil

Claude, beautiful, I was waiting for your move to tacke the whole town !!!!!!
This is going to be a great build to follow the progress.
I remember the hotel and town buildings - great !!!!
I only have one DragonWagon pic., but it's in Germany - and not a great pic. at that.
I have some ref. pics.here that will be in my gallery if you need them.
Can't remember where I found them, my ref. pic. files are organized by the Marx brothers.

Claude, one question the second pic. in your post, is that battle damage ? That's a really great pic.
Now get to work !!!!! l.o.l. - Glenn

Hi Glenn ,

Thank you very much.

The damage in my pic is indeed battle damage, but mainly due to the burning roof the germans set on fire the day after my diorama scene , Dec18.

Great references for destroyed buildings from you. I do not really want to destroy the town. Look at pic No1, everything seems intact apart the castle.
A destroyed vehicle to show the first impacts (same as the one hit on the roof of the castle) would do fine. A Dragon Wagon would be nice, because it would not be dwarfed to much against the castle.

I'm glad to be back in the game

Claude

Hi Claude,

great work! I saw it in Mol last year. It is really amazing. I think I once bought a book from you on Ebay. I am actually from a small town near Bitburg and live now in Mannheim. I have a lot of books, also a big one of a Dragon Wagon from Ampersand and others. So if I can help you out with any reference let me know. I will be in the Eifel once a month.

Markus

You certainly have the talent to pull it off. I was stunned when I saw your castle. I couldn't have imagined it was only the start of something larger!

-Matt

Claude,

I saw your castle at Euro-militare and was very impressed by it , aboslutely wondeful work , as you are continuing I wonder are you going to buld the entire European Theatre of Operations in 1/35 scale!!!

Best wishes,

Jerry

Wow! Simply fantastic work!

Very impressed and inspired.

Thanks for sharing

Great progress Claude.

I saw the Castle at Euro, but unfortunately I had only an hour to visit, and when I was down at your exhibit, you had just wandered off.... we'll have to meet up next time around.
You'll need a room for yourself at Euro next year...

Cheers
Henk

Thank you every one !

Sorry i missed most of you at Euro or elsewhere. Yes Henk, Euromilitaire is definitely to small for me now, perhaps i can expose open air on the terrasse.

@Markus, i remember you, i did send the book to your brother , wasn't it ?
I know of this book , it's out of publication. There are probably enough reference pics online from the Wagon, but if in your book you have some pics with damaged ones, i could use a scan and mail.
You may have a look and contact me per IM, i give you my mail adress.

Thanks all, see you soon with a bit of progress.

Claude

Guinness book of Record - Largest Diorama in the world...

Hey Claude

I saw your castle in Mol and this I want to see too when it's finished! 1 word just amazing

Keep us updated

Roel