Paul, thank you very much , i really fee flattered.
How is the magazine article ? It's very difficult to wrap up this two year work into a limited amount of pages, so i hope the minimum is covered in the article.

Regarding an indepth article with every material i have, i have a few observations.

In fact i already started writing on this in january, wrote a good 10 pages full and then got stopped due to lack of time. I thought it would be a good idea to write an Ebook. So i obiously need to get back on track with that, at least i need to write it down before i forget most of it.
To publish a whole book like Letterman's Superdio is certainly a good idea. I admit that i dreamed of that already :-).
But apart of the task to find a publisher remains the question of what to publish.
Stay with the castle or wait and extend it to the potential Monsterdio? This will take years to finish!
It is certainly not the case that the publishers climb over each other to get in contact with me.
Do you know that there was not one demand to get the dio in a magazine article, despite the huge public success on the expos and the internet!

So i certainly have a lot of thoughts regarding this, feeling always overwhelmed by the success the castle got, but unsure what to do regarding publications.

But your post already gives me a kick in the a** to restart writing this Ebook.

thanks
Claude

I like the look of the vehicle. There's just one comment from me. If the pole fell on the deuce and the crew abandoned the vehicle, they would have taken their weapons with them. Especially since the enemy is real close. That would mean that the holders should be empty. Remember that for a soldier the weapon is like his wife - never to be abandoned.

Rob, thank you, of course there shouldn't be any rifles. But that for a change is an easy fix

Cheers
Claude

Claude,
Great looking damage to the truck. However, I don't know if they were using safety glass in windshields in the '40s, but probably so.
If they were, a windshield would break, but the core would hold together even though it bends, and it holds some of the outer glass.
If there any auto wrecking (salvage) yards nearby, you could see what I mean.

Hi Trenor,

Your point and your doubts were one of my early concerns too, but i decided to go ahead like this, correct or not, not knowing how i should model the glass otherwise and thinking that this solution is perhaps more dramatic.

We probably need to classify this in the "artistic licence" folder

Thanks for your input, i appreciate
Cheers
Claude


PS I made a quick search and found that indeed security glass was first made By Ford in 1927.
Also on this picture from the early thirties

it's pretty clear that i am wrong.

But what should i do now? Leave it or elliminate all the glass ? Redo it is not possible, the glass is made out of resin and i probably can't clean the windshield enough to insert some sort of broken security glass.
Hmmmmm??

you could make it so the glass is sitting on the hood, like it broke but fell out...maybe??

also the car you have pictured is civilan, is it for sure military trucks had the safety glass, things were being turned around as quickly as possible, maybe the skipped it???

nice work so far

Hi Claude, just wanted to say the truck looks good, more realistic, are you going to add tent rolls and back packs to it when you finialize it . Also i read that you were toying with the idea of wrinting an ebook on the dio as a whole? i just wanted to say i think that, that would be an awesome idea, then if you wanted to you could even market your creative ideas through that.
keep up the great work Claude its truley inspiring,

Thank you guys,
I checked my windshield again and noticed that there is in fact so few glass left, and more will eventually brake during the last build steps, that it can pass withouth problem, even as security glass.
William, not much equipement, no. The scene is this one: the truck brought soldiers to the Company headquarters in the castle and they obviously took her equipment with them, including the rifles :-).
Thanks for the input
Claude

About the windshield - what is still in the frame looks good, but you probably could add some larger pieces on the hood with scratch marks to show that the glass had broken but the core section was still holding the pieces together. It is sort of like the wrecked building/debris issue - the debris should roughly equal the material that was in the original house unless it has been cleared away.

In looking at the picture of the truck, it really doesn't look too badly damaged to be driven. A couple of guys could roll the pole off , sweep up the glass and be on their way. Unless, of course, the castle was where they were headed anyway - or they were under fire and figured they could evade better on foot or both.
I seem to recall that the castle was held overnight until the fire made it uninhabitable, so heading west from Clervaux in the truck may not have been in their original plan.

Thank you Trenor for your contributon and forwrd thinking.

I will deal with glass debris at the very end , after positinning of the truck on the dio, that can take a few months.
Regarding the truck's presence, you habe it right.
The crew joined the HQ situated in the castle. The pole immobilized the truck due to a lucky hit and/or explosion on the morning of Dec17. At this moment, the german army (will be featured in my dio also) stand on the other side of tClervaux in viewing distance, shooting more and more at the castle. The town was starting to be encitcled also.That was not the time any more to save a unarmed truck, but to take shelter in the HQ behind the thick walls of the castle.

I started to paint the truck, but have some more housework to do this weekend before i definitely can restart uninterupted modeling.

Thanks guys, this thread definitely brought a lot to me.

Cheers
Claude

claude , i have to say you are a very lucky man to have all those famous landmarks of those battles over there near you for references photos, etc.. i myself am working on a dio that takes place during the closing end of bulge. i have one question and maybe you can help me with it , "i am tryng to find one of the many towns over there, that the Panzerabteilung (Fkl) 301 occupied during the ending stages of the arddennes offensive. i think they may have been towards the britsh section, but i am not sure and i was curious if you knew of any?"

William,
I don't know anything about Panzer-Abteilung 301, but i tried to find some info this mornig (i speak german also and may have some more luck). After an hour of looking it's pretty certain that a clea trace of this unit in the Ardennesoffensive is not to find. In every research there is a gap from Dec15 to Jan8
It was assigned to Heeresgruppe B for the BoB, but no mention of any town anywhere to find.

Here are some links with timelines and order of Battle of the unit in different languages, but not what you asked me. Sorry!

a german forum
timeline

Have a nice sunday
Claude

Ok guys,

Here is an update of the Deuce,
basically finished
- the green spot on the bumper is pigment, will be removed,
- the tarp will get some pigments applied wet later, they didn't stick drybrushing,

I made the ropes in the cabin and around the tarp and also replaced the rifle holder with a scratched empty one.
The telegraph pole will be added later. In this scene, i need to do 3 or 4 of those, and i will do them later.






In order to get you some more to look for this update, here i a picture of the start of the roof work i just started on the first house. I am trying a new slate tiling layout, because i don't want the whole village look alike.
The gutter is fixed, the dormers also, the chimney is next.
Hope you like it



Cheers
Claude

Excellent Work, Claude. I really enjoy following this build. Please continue the great work.
A couple of questions though: what did you use for the window frames? and what did you use for the gutters?

Hi,
the windows are basically made out of plastic stripes . I say basically, because sometimes i do resin copies of them.


Here is a better picture of a finished one


After completely painting them, i am doing the glass with clear resin.

The gutter is made from aluminium foil

Hope it helps, if not, feel free to ah again

Cheers
Claude

Wow....!You're a super Modeller

very good as usual, just love those buildings, and that window close-up -wow
keep on the good work!
JB

Claude, nice work on the deuce. I like the scratch work you did to show the downed pole on the truck. With all the beautiful work on the castle and village I wouldn't be too worried about the glass, it looks fine to me. I know as modelers we want to get it right , but after placing this addition to the dio .............. with so much else to see and appreciate I don't think it will be taken to task.
Glenn

Thank you all, also for your patience, after all this years it must be difficult to find a convincingcomment :-)

Glenn, you are right, i need to find the right balance for everything. It must fit well quality wise with the castle but not take to much of my time, otherwise i will never finish in this life.

Cheers
Claude


PS. I need input about the telephone/electric lines. What did you guys already use for this, what works? I did not yet think about it, so you can have a first shot.
I need meters of it, so no exotic material please.

Hi Claude,

Great work so far. I especially love the damage done to the truck.

Telephone wires: First thing that comes to mind is copper wire (cheap and you get lots). You would of course have to paint it black. Other than that, fishing line which will remain completely straight and not bend like copper wire can.

Chas

fishing line. 200 foot spool would only cost a few dollars
you can buy in diffrent thickness and paint it black

Gotta agree with Chas , fishing line won't sag and form to the things you want to do with it. The cheapest way is to find an old lamp or other appliance and strip the insulation off - plenty of linear 1/35th scale feet of copper wire there.
Glenn

Wow......im completely speechless at the detail and extent of this project. The main question is though, where are you going to put this thing when its all done.

Thanks guys,
regarding the wire, now that i think of it, i have a considerable stock of thin copper wire, i must check the diameter, but i will probably use that.

@Jordan, i don't know yet where to put it.
I started inquiring with Clervaux town officials. There is a fitting museum inside of the real castle of Clervaux, but it is owned by the governement. So i probably have to ask them.
Can you imagine what it means to get contact to a responsable person from the culture departement at the governement and ask him if they are interested in such a dio! I first need to start explaining scale modeling to this person.
Pretty sure is that, without sponsoring and assistance from an modelling expo organizer, the whole dio will never be seen on an expo.
Let's see and finish it first. I'm taking great pleasure to build it, so let's hope the rest will follow.

Claude