Haha, not alot to go wrong until this point ! Happy new year to you also, what about your projects Jean Bernard, do you have something new in mind?
Or is it LEGO time with your son?

Cheers
Claude

WOW !!! Claude what a masterpiece you have going. Thank you for sharing it with us. Also, thank you for the window techniques, good idea. My friend is stationed at NATO/SHAPE at Mons Belgium and I plan on paying a visit in mid May. Would it be possible to see your work of art? Thanks again !!

great work, can't wait to see this finished

Ok guys, i wrote some time ago that i would make an update in a day or so, apparantly the *or so* won. I admit, i am working every day on the dio but i am a bit lazy to do updates, don't know why,
While i am already some hundred work hours ahead i am showing you some pictures about the mount of the roof truss, a small SBS of sort.

The height of the roof is determinated mosty visually by comparing photos and getting a pleasant look. So as seen on this pic i am simply finding the right height by playing with two sticks.


The height and the first lenth fixed , i am building the first beams. All is done with those sticks from firecrackers. (sorry for some inappropriate english here, those terms are not in my normal use)


From her on i let speak the pictures







As the roof is to be seen from the inside i am doing real planks all around, Balsa wood, 1 mm, cut in long stripes, as from the inside you will not be able to see where the planks would stop (always nailed on th beams) and from the outside it will be tiled anyway.




As the dormers would also be partially destroyed i needed to build some a bit like the real ones.
I build three dormer windows out of plasticcard, one of them without with frame and window separted as the would brake off. The forth one desintegreted in the blast.
For now that's a base to work with as i need to see how this should be looking when i am about to tile (or not) this part.



The small front dormers are not going to be detroyed so i am doing the structure with plasticcard in which i glued some bals on the inside.


I am going to start the tiling tomorrow.

Meanwhile, with the help of Bradley oi finished 80 % of a Sherman ( no pics, it's a Sherman with some PE and pics are blurry). I also am doing a extensively detaied destroyed interior.
Pics are coming one of this days - or so

Hope you like the little tutorial

Cheers
Claude

finaly a update i've watchted every day for a new update because i love this clervaux dio! And i find a lot of usefull stuff here en also some inspration for my own building. The one i showd you on benelux

keep on the good work claude!

greets Peter

Super work Mate, It is fantastic.

Martyn

Superb Claude!,

Can i ask what do you do for a living ad ever thought of becoming an arcutect .

Outstanding work as normal!

And Claude keeps building ! This topic is better than any book about modelling, all the effort you put in this great project...and the way you keep the thread alive : respect Claude ! You are a true ace in modelling.

Terrific. The roof work is excellent.

I could spend hours at looking at this materpiece.
You give us lessons of patience and composition.

Bon courage,


A.

You are very good at scratching Buildings.

One could learn a lot from this right here.

Ever think of taking more pics along the way and doing a Blog?

I cringe when even having to do a few bricks let alone a Million.

Final thing excellent work on a grand scale.

Jeff, it is a Blog!! Just that i am a bit slow to do updates.

Thanks for all the comments, i really appreciate.

Claude

Claude as always you amaze me, it looks so realistic, so how were you planning the damage to the roof, cause it looks great, i don't know if i would if i were you. my other question is, how heavy are those sections? , how are you making the stone work? is it like a sheet casting of paster?

William,
the individual sections of the dio are not so heavy, the biggest weight is the 12mm thick wood, the rest is styro and plaster. Easily to carry with two people (4 for the castle).

As for the destructed roof , i am entirely improvising on the go.
As you have noticed on the pics i only did about half of the truss, that's because the rest will be collapsed. Even one of the support beams will be taken away later. It serves only as support for me now.
Here is one picture (a teaser) of the collapsed part. Work is on a early stage


This setup is for dryfitting only. The inner part is not fixed as is the roof.
I will mount the ruin from one level to the other, fix it in, cover with the attics floor, tile the roof, fix it on the attic and crash it ! I will take a way the last support, break one or two main beams, i don't know yet, as i said, improvisation.
When i am done i will lay the last tiles according to what is left to tile.


The stonework: Yes, you may call it a sheet casting of plaster. For two years i made them with this mould


Plastillin bordered with Legostones. Only recently i got the very obvious idea ( shame on me) to make a Silicon mould from one copy. This saves me now the tedious cleaning of the parts i needed always to do. Better getting the idea late then never!

Back to tiling now

Cheers
Claude

Nice work on the building!

Great work.

Martyn

I spend too much time fixing my own nostril and I forget the work of the friends
I must say your roof SBS is a delightful thing to look at, as is the speed of your work!
-great to see you use the silicon, but will you ever try and do homemade photoetch ?
legostones to use as a border is a very nice idea.
Anyway, your new building really looks very great, it's so much better looking than what most professional companies are offering at heavy price, really keep on being a flag for those that take the hard way
JB

Then i notice you work with a scarf and jumper, what? Mrs Joachim doesn't let you work on the Clervaux castle in the living room?

Superb Wok Claude .

Do you have any pictures of the Sherman?

Wow ! That's really awesome. "Now's that's commitment, determination and talent on a whole other level".
" Real nice work Claude, very inspiring". I'll be watching this one with continued interest.

ralph

LOL, she probably would if i asked. I already moved in the living room with the Sherman build because of the cold in my normal modelling space.

JBA, regarding photoetch, i do not know. Until now i do not see the use of it in regard of the hassle to get it to work. If i see your explanation in "Soko" me head already spins with all those technical items to deal with.
Thanks for your praise regarding the scratch buildings, indeed , the Miniart offerings are certainly not helpful to the diversity of the buildings shown on dioramas. On the other side, when i see the modelling space i use, i can understand that people to not go this way.

James, yes , i have photos

Seriously, it's a Sherman, that's all, build up hopefully to a level good enough for such a big dio. I will show you pictures after i got the DS tracks and completed the build.

Thanks Ralph


Cheers
Claude

Simply amazing work Claude!

Phenomenal! Your scratch work is an inspiration!

So guys, here is a little progress from me

Remember, this was suppoed to be a youth hotel sometimes before the war, that's why i choose to add some more colours

I started to build up the destruction and rubble from ground up.
Because i did not want to paint the rubble pile later (to avoid spoiling the side wals, the dyed wood and the flagstones) i painted some rubble in advance


I did also build a simulation of a cooking machine without detailed front. Nobody will stick his head into my house! Doors and switches were made
Start of the destruction making

The upper door frame broke accidentily , so i continued to work with this part destroyed already.
Broken intermediate floors are prepared separetely and placed together with more rubble


Now comes a funny part!
I wanted some beds for the youth hotel, but not the standard PlusModel ones. So i scratched this double bed myself. It is composed of some 150 pieces of brass parts.


I did two more regular ones, the middle part did not need to be detailed as a half house is supposed to crash on it.

Placed on the rubble, barely hanging around. There was to much work put into this, so i did not want to put it into the rubble, just some pieces of wood on top of it (later)




Notice the nice poster from Clervaux, a tourist poster from those times.

Now im only fixing this part into the inside of the structure, ad a lavabo and the two beds


This is work in progress, more rubble will be added

Enough for today, have fun and a nice weekend

Claude

Edit: hope the pics are fixed

Now this is a ruined room ! What a great idea to make these beds and the way they were destroyed. G.

Brilliant Claude! The beds look brilliant!

Claude some superb work the beds especialy !.

Claude, Your work is truely an inspiration for me! As a matter of fact, I'm going to get off the computer right now and go work on my dio. I've enjoyed watching your progress over the months. Keep up the good work!
Your wife must be an angel