Claude, it seems that government representatives are the same in every country and they simply prove Murphy's Laws: any job will be taken (sooner or later) by less appropriate person...

Anyway, I've written it before and I'm going to write it once again - this is the biggest and most impressive project I've ever seen so far

Andrzej

Ha, ha, it's good to see all goverments are basically the same.
Give a small man with a small mind and large political ambitions a menial government position, and wallah - you have your bureaucratic toady !!!
I'll wager if some of his superiors or the towns people see the scope of what you've buit it would be an instant " must have ".
Glenn
Claude, good luck, I would think they would be very pleased indeed to have such a tribute.

Claude,
If you do want to get it into the castle museum, I agree that the likely way to get the official's attention is to go public - newspaper or tv -best time probably would be at some anniversary of a battle when the media will be looking for material.

Your cobblestone road shows far more patience than i could ever achieve. I made some rubber molds for cobblestone roads also flat tile roofs.
if you work with cast plaster, perhaps a mold for the roofs might save you some time for the one-off items. I will be making a new copy, as my original is getting brittle, and could probably make you one also. It is 14 by 44 CM.

Hi Trenor ,

Thank you very much for the offer, but I don't think i will need it for now. First of all, the tedious , long castle roof is done. Now i am doing houses with some 30x15 cm roof sides , but broken up with dormers and chimneys and so on, so there would be a lot of problems to solve to lay the copy of the mould around those obstacles and than fill out correctly the joints.
I am also trying different tiling styles to avoid an uniform look troughout the village.

I tried myself to make copies (i didn't try very long i admit) , but because i am actually using only 0,25 mm thick (or thin) plastic sheet, i did not get a confincing result. (no relief)

I would love to see a picture of one of your roofs or the mouldcopy. Who knows, i could be tempted after all.

Regarding the castle display. I don't want to push the issue to much right know, because i want to keep the castle myself until the whole dio is done. That will take years.
I already got a negative response (indirectly by telephone) from the Clervaux autorities because of lack of space. If i am getting serious of disposing the castle i will do that officialy, through the towns counsil. I will also contact the real owner of the museum, the governement.
There is a another museum in our country who would be a wonderful choice to dispay the dio. (would even be my first choice)
It's the National Military Museum in Diekirch. It is probable in the top five of Military museums world wide. But, it already lacks of pace to display their uge inventory. They are in the process of expanding the rooms. I doubt that it would be possible to reserve a whole room for one diorama. I will try to make a first inquiry soon.
If nobody wants it, i will show it in my garage and place my wife in front of the door to be the cashier :-)

Thanks for the offer and have a nice day

Claude

I have been turned down on the prospect of displaying one of my diorama's (in progress) in a local museum because of 'lack of space'. The difference is, my diorama is only 30x30cm in size!

I don't understand why these people reject an entire, complete visual history on events which are supposed to be of importance to a particular community.

Keep trying Claude,

Chas

L.O.L. , ...................Standard bureaucratic menial underling position holder answer # 37 ............ " I'm so sorry but we are quite short of space " ................ A whole friggin castle .... no space ?
I agree with Chas , once it's seen it'll be a whole different game. Besides you now also have a magazine piece on the build as a notch on your resume.
I think as you progress on the build and it gets even more amazing, things will be different.
Glenn

Oh and make sure the wife dosen't let any relatives in for free ..............

Thanks guys for your concern, i'm sure i will find a home for the castle.

The ultimate plan is to find a rich son of a 28ID veteran who buys it for a considerable amount (not wanting to specify the amount right here). A sheick with a WW2 interest would do it also.
But let's be serious and go on with the build first.

Update on the house will come soon as i nearly finished the roof.

Cheers
Claude

Hi Claude, I have an idea for you, why don't you when your finished with the dio, take some really nice photos of it (not that you haven't already) and then publish a historic fact book about it using your photos, and then publish another book about the techniques you used to accomplish the construction of such a large scale model representation of the castle and village. I think you'll be surprised with the outcome of it all. Considering the feedback you are receiving now from everyone.
You know I just finished a quarter scale model of the medical facility my partner and I are trying to establish over here. So I understand what you are going through in creating the dio. And I only did one building with 39,000 sq ft, and it was nearly 7 ft long.

Good evening William,

I am in the process of writing such a construction text, not knowing yet what i will do with it.
Doing an Ebook, a real book, wait till i finished more, i don't know ?
Like the dio, i think it will be a longterm project.

Cheers
Claude

I finished this little add-on already this morning, so here it is.
I soldered and glued this stair-rail. The twisted wire is made from a normal square one.
I put one side in a vise and the other end in my new drill and round it goes.

The upper rail is a strand of soldering tin.

Slowly the house gets a bit of a look.






See you soon with the roof tiling pics.

Cheers
Claude

thats really neat , i like the idea of the twist

very impressive man,can't wait to see it finished

If I could just figure out how to get my pictures onto e-mails ....
Your twisted stair rail posts are really great! I suppose after seeing the castle, we should have known you could accomplish almost anything!

Good morning,

Trenor, just post the picture here. I'm sure others will also be interested in alternative solutions for roof tiling.

Thanks
Claude

Claude, your work is an inspiration to all of us, not just your techniques and your materials but also your approach to modelling and your open "This is how I do it" attitude.

I hope to see this part of the dio in AFV modeller too, so I've got both parts on my shelf for future reference!!

cheers
Jon

Hi Jon, how are you?

I did not yet get my courtesy copy of edition 40 of AFV so i hope the included good pics.

How did you like the article? Besides your comments I did not get any feedback at all :-(
As was my first article ever, i am a bit wondering if the article and pictures were inline with what the readers expect.

Thanks to you

Cheers
Claude

PS. Yesterday i dreamed (yes, that's how i'm working sometimes) of a scene to display near the stairs.
As the general theme will be a big retreat in direction of the castle, i thought of a civilian couple, hastily leaving the house. The wife going down the stairs with a suitcase and the husband on top of the stairs, either turning the keys of the door or , more dramatic, taking back in the american flag he had displayed to greet the liberators. He would take it back in fear of frustrated german reactions against a house drapping US colours.
A GI could stand beneath the stairs hurrying the couple.

Very nice Claude - and the idea about the fleeing civilians are great too.

Great tip on twisting the brass. It looks fantastic.

Claude, I am well thanks! I see you are well (still insane but well )

I find it hard to believe noone else has mentioned the article !!! I found it very easy to read, albeit lacking in the step-by-steps and in-progress shots that we usually get from you. To be honest though, you could fill a book if you did this so It was expected.

The article was basically the look around the castle I wished I could have had in person. I showed it to my mom and dad too, who both found it to be most impressive !! I think you did an excellent job with the article.,,,the fact that you made the COVER and the article was spread over TWO issues is something to be very proud of !! I would certainly hope that the second half of the diorama gets the same exposure. It makes a nice change to read about a historically accurate, well researched and well made diorama as opposed to all this "What If" German stuff you get everywhere these days.

Keep up the excellent work Claude!!

Jon

Looking GREAT! I've been following this project, and i got to say i'm amazed by your work! All the houses, streets, the whole little infrastructure looks so good. The pole-smashed truck look good too, and is going to be an eye-catching detail. This is going to keep you busy for a long time, like it has done already!

Hello everyone,

First, @Northmodels , thanks for your last comment.

I finally finished the first house of this row. It took me longer than anticipated. Soon after my last contribution here i realized that my stair-railing was to high. I had to cut the upper part and replaced it with some needle heads.


The roof tiling was not so easy this time. The tiling system really requires exactly cut hexagonal tiles.
a few hundred times exactly the same! This is nearly imposssible so i had to deal with some irregularities to get this covered. It looks not to bad, but i am not entirely satisfied.


I scratched everything else of course, from the entrance door to the canopy (sp) and also the latern.
I just finished this evening and i will add a shutter to the one window on the headside , where you can see a unpainted area. Also the down spout is barely coloured. I wanted absolutely to give this update this weekend to excuse this unfinished business.

Come'on, let's simply see what you thinking about it fo now.
Any questions welcome, of course. Critics and comments also.







I am finishing a scene to go with this house, it's nearly done, so this will come soon.
Adfter that i will go back a bit for landscape and roadwork.

Cheers
Claude

What could I say that hasn't been said before in this thread, except a truly...

W O W .... AMAZING!!!!

Very inspiring for the rest of us!!!

Thanks a lot for sharing your superbly job!

Cheers, mate!

Absolutely amazing work! What an artist....WOW!

Claude, As a dio builder myself I take my hat off to you. When people see some of my dios they say I'm nuts. My reply, I show them your build. That always shut them up and leaves them trying to pick their jaws back up off the floor. Have been watching your build since I joined the show here at armorama and find it just ducky to see the leap into insanity you have undertaken, just love it. Best of luck on the rest of it ( like you need it, ha ha) Look forward to more updates. Later bud.

It is always inspiring to see a master at work. To me not only showing the finished product but sharing the technique is what makes one a master and you sir are definitely a skilled master. All I can say is, if the musuem dosen't want it then that is definitely there loss and the publics. An absolute piece of art, in 3D no less. Some people have no vision.