What type of foil is that. It definately looks thicker than normal aluminium kitchen foil. What are you using Claude?

Chas

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the comments to you all,
I don't really have anything worth to update for now as my next steps are to lay down 3 feet of cobblestones (first cut them out of cork) and lay down the slates of three houses.That's a lot of tedious work without much new to show.


@Tom, i'm happy that you like the book
Guy Alan, Jim thank you stay tuned for more

@Chas, i am not doing any tiles of this sort at all, so no experiencce report from me. I am imitating slate with Evergreen.
Watch Glenn's feature about the church, he will certainly try this out and have some news, but i know that different kinds and thickness of foil can be bought in hobby shops., so you need to check there. That's what i did.

Cheers
Claude

Claude, thanks again for the tip on the tile method.
I picked up some thicker foil today and should have some updates with some roof work in a few days.
I fully understand your pain/pleasure working on the streets and roofing !!!
I'm still at it also, brick by brick, l.o.l.
Glenn

Hi ,

Glenn, tha'ts just what i want to show now!

So here is a little update to show that this is progressing.

Some more details on the first house and completely primed (because of the white mattboard i don't want to run the risk of something white shining througk later)


Here on the backside i show you how i'm doing the façade

Carefully spread wood glue over the whole surface. When i say carefully i mean it. If you miss a little bit, you can't do this bit later, because you will see the difference.
I then sprinkle some fine sifted earth or in this case i tried some bought decoration sand.



Leave it twenty seconds and shake away the surplus. (save it eventually) That's it. I will give this one tones of grey, i will see later.

Cobblestones!!! 3 feet in 1/35 , a rough calculation brings me to 3000 pieces.
Here is the beginning




And finally there was a problem with the hill under the high wall. I didn't really like it and it did not look like the original, so i partially destroyed it . I took away the plaster cover to reveal the Styrodur again, cut roughly some rock structures and sprayed it with a spray not really suited for styro. I wanted it to eat a bit away my rough cuttings. Tomorrow i will look at the result :-) .
On this occasion the wall got also a priming.



That's it

Cheers
Claude

Nice going! Keep up the good work!
Cheers and happy modelling!

First of all , thank you Prato for your support.

So, that's nearly a month from last update! During this time i did work on the dio, doing nothing else than laying cobblestones. It's a very tedious task. The biggest problem is that every piece (over 3000 ) has to be sanded a bit on all the edges! Imagine!
So here is the result after this month of work




That's a meter of street (3 feet for some of you) with the supplementar challenge of a nice curve.
I only need to lay down the gutter rows at both sides.
That's for a week of work to because i am out of material for now.

After that, i can finally continue with the houses.

Cheers
Claude

The sheer volume of this diorama from the shingles to the cobbles is amazing.
The results are great.

WOW
that is awesome
and you must be crazy making 3000 cobblestones, well it does at least look really nice now when it is finished

Incredible Claude!! Really first class work. Your skill and, above all, your patience amazes me. Keep it up. Just looking at your work gives me renewed energy to finish my (humble) dio. (25 cm * 25 cm)

All the Best,
John

Claude, I praise you man ! You are a great help for other modellers, your fine updates are just superb, no secrets ! That's how it's supposed to be ! Thanks ! The street will be great !Greetz Guy.

Oh wow, I missed your latest with the road - what can I say, you really have a sense of efficiency in grandeur, you really manage to do extremely huge things that are incredibly more detailed than the "tout venant" of way way way smaller dioramas
congratulations as ever for your outstanding job
JB

Apsolutely stunning. I missed your last post as well, but I am glad to see your progess so far. You trully are an inspiration!

-Mike

Claude you have a disease with the cobble stones it makes me want to but other wise great work




MATT

Claude, nicely done!!!
Sorry I've missed this update. I've been transferring my modeling room to a smaller room in the house. My daughter wanted the larger room back , so it's a total refit and conversion on both rooms. My nads are in a small knot over this but I'll just have to figure something out till my house sells and we get something larger - put on hold once again !!!!
I like the gentle curve and the grade of the street as it travels uphill.
How are you going to prime the cork ?
I have used grey auto primer in the past. The way the cork is pressed, different levels of soaked in paint make for interesting patterns.
On to the row of houses next ?
Glenn

Thank you everyone for your supperb support. Like i told already for the castle's build, this means a lot and is an important part to finish such big dios.

Hi Glenn, bad luck with your modeling space.
I hope that you will get the new home faster than you got your retirement.

About the cork. I will not really prime it. I will cover this all with an pretainted Acrylic paste. So i will get the joints and irregularities filled in one step and also the whole thing primed.
I will then overspray it greyish and drybrush later with a final wash for the joints.
I will try to make pics of the acrylic covering step.
Basically i can continue with the houses, yes. But soon, i would have to cover those roofs and be in the middle of another long task. While it's not a castle's roof, it will take some weeks after all.
I want to portray a partially destroyed Dragon Wagon on this module, (on the right side of the cobbles, there is a bigger empty area). I thought that the Dragon Wagon would not be dwarfed by the castle. In order to train a bit for this task i just started to make a 21/2ton"Deuce", with some damage. If it turns out ok, i can use it later.

Guys, allow me to show you this link
http://shop.afvmodeller.com/customer/product.php?productid=17279&cat=&page=&XCARTSESSID=3f765b7c6ef63554dfe66d1d1a42e17d

AVF Modeller Edition 39

Cheers
Claude

congrats

Tremendous Claude my friend! High plaudits indeed with the cover of AFV modeller. Well done! I am getting de ja vu (I'm sure there are more little squiggly things over certain letters here, but I have not the powers to make my keyboard to produce them, or the knowledge as to where they go;) regarding the cobblestones. If it aint them, it's roof tiles! You are making me want to get back into my small diorama which has been on the back-burner for some time now. (What's that smell?) Truly, well done on the road. You could train a trunk monkey to stick 3000 plus cork pieces down next to each other, but like the original stone layers, there is definitely an art to getting it right! Have you done any finger exercises since?
The high curbsides and walls add a great sense of the topography too.
Good stuff
Brad

Koen , Brad, thank you.

Brad, i just replied to your sculpt post over on Timelines. I really am happy that you succeed so well to sculpt this whole figure (including face). It gives me the confidence that it is indeed possible and one of this days i will give sculpting some more attention.

In fact, regarding fingers, i am pausing now for a week before laying the rest down, because i sanded down the skin from a finger tip, together with the pieces of cork.

I played with the thought to make some master and simply lay down copies, but with the curve making almost half the distance, it would not be worth it , because to much rectifications would be needed. I will try to make a copy from the first 10 cm of the street after i filled the joins. Maybe i can take the easy way on a later, straight part of the village road. Yes, there is more to come.
Cheers
Claude

I stand in awe. The work you put in your amazing dio's is incredible.

Do you sand the cork cobble stones before you apply the acryllics paste?

Jesper, thanks.

No, i'm not sanding it, there is no need to. The individual stones got already smoothed on the edges, that's why my fingertip skin is missing now. There are no hard edges anymore(mostly, because i certainly missed a few hundred :- ) )

If you sand it now, you flaten it again, and that is not what i want.
Of course, there are a few ways of showing cobblestone. Flat and regular, or what i prefer, a bit more rough and old looking. It is also the best way to see that the stones are handmade and not a commercial product.
Claude

congrats on making it in the afv issue. your work and effort to maintain the detail is flawless, have you ever done any work for any of the local museums. cause you certainly have the skill. i am still admiring the first posts on the castle. congrats again

hey Claude, congratulations for AFV Modeller!! i didn't buy it for ages, but i think i will do!
hé, va pas ruiner ton bô diô avec ton Dragon Wagon hein? fais gaffe à ce que tout s'tienne..
JB

Good morning everyone

William, no work for a museum, no, i don't no if that would be the right motivation for a good job. I just Emailed the officials from the town of Clervaux a few days ago but do not have any answer yet.

Jean-Bernard, your right about the Dragon Wagon. I will pay attention.

Here is the situation and i would really like to have input of everyone interested (i admit, it may be difficult to get the picture).

The castle is occupied by the GI's. The german army is still on the opposite hill. Only some infiltrated germans and (probably) a few retreating americans where in the town at the moment i want to picture. That's not a lot of action to show for a diorama. If i don't want it to be to static(only buildings) , i need to show something.
Look at this picture

The whole area at the bottom of module No.2 and 3 is going to be empty.
I may showing a half dozen of GI?s retreating , that's all and not a lot for 2 meters of space.

That is why i thought to put some vehicle in there, an american one, damaged by a lucky hit on the morning of Dec17. Normally , all non combat vehicle would certainly have been removed.
Because the place is situated right under the massive castle, i presume that a tiny jeep or so would not do it. Here came my idea of the Dragon Wagon, impressive and also did i never see a destroyed one. This is also obviously historically not correct, because nowhere was this wreck mentionned in the history books.
I am training on a 21/2 ton deuce now. Maybe, if it turns out good and looks good under the castle i will use it and keep the DW for anywhere else. These are my random thoughts.

It's not easy, but does anyone have an idea. Would an nearly empty space, sandwiched between the two army's perhaps be good enough after all? Give the eye something to rest?

I don't know. Do you ?
Thanks
Claude

I am speechless about your work.
Regarding the empty space or give the eye something to rest dillema, I would suggest to give the eye something to rest.
Only buildings suits better to an architectural maquette and you are building the most amazing dio I ever saw
two jeeps, a 2 1/2 , a prime mover?
cheers
petros