Hi Claude,
Thanks for your reply to my question in my forum. Now I can move forward with the ground work. Thank You!
I like your willow tree. Looks very realistic to me.
I did the same thing, about a year ago, collected the small roots from a tree that had fallen not far from my house. But never did anything with them, and now their all dried up. I could probably make a few small bushes out of them yet.
Thanks Again
Kirk

Kirk , you can do any tree with the roots. Just not bend them anymore.
I needed the roots from nearly 10 such trees (some a lot bigger than the one in the picture) to make one convincing 1/35 tree. Ok, it's a big one, but anyway.
A make a selection of the leftover, throw most away and will see what i will do with the rest.
I found a fallen evergreen recently and collected a big box full of superbe roots. That was a lucky hit!
I got the root fever now and need to find more. It is now a good time because there are a lot of fallen trees in the forrests around and i need to build up a stock for the forrest i want to build.

Thanks for looking
Claude

Hi Claude, without a doubt you've made one of the best tree I've seen in 1/ 35th.
I' m looking at it for 2 days, and I just love it.

Congrats.
Alexandre.

Claude, have you ever though about making a short video of your work? I think it could be very interesting because you could show the views of it from all sides and above. You could zoom in on details and show areas of special interest. A narration could describe what you did and what we are seeing, tell of things that were extraordinarily difficult, things you were still thinking of changing, and even future plans. Such a piece on YouTube or your website or even linked here on Armorama would be great.

This project is my favourite of all times! The work you put into this is more than inspiring. I bought your book and its fantastic too. I would love to see more detailed how you made this tree though. Ive made some trees with wire and would love to try to make them from roots..

Alexandre, Merci beaucoup, va juste falloir le peinfre convenablement maintenenat ! Oops, excuse me

Jim, that would be very difficult and time consuming to make.
And who would buy my book when everything is on video?

There is also a difference between writing english and having the time to look up an online dictionnary and to speak english. I never speak english, so that is a little challenge too.

Thanks Ygnve (?) :-)

I will show you later the two only pics i made about the WIP.
It is very difficult to make pictures because the roots are so thin. I started to document it but was quickly abandonned. This tree took probably more then 50 hours to make, to document all step is impossible. It would double the needed time.
I will show you what i have. Give me a day to look up the pics.

Thanks
Claude

Hi Claude. I didn't mean a documentary or an elaborate production. I was expressing the outer realms of such an effort. Even a silent go round of it would be great with a few closeups of the really neat stuff. Even my digital camera can take video to the limits of my memory card. Uploading to something like YouTube is no more difficult than uploading still pictures to a hosting site. Since it is very doubtful I would ever have the pleasure of seeing it in person I just thought how nice it would be to see it in motion as if I was there walking around it and seeing it with my own eyes. I don't think it would affect your book sales and I believe on YouTube you could even provide a link to your website and sell even more books. I don't know if you have ever viewed much on YouTube before but there are both some amazing videos there and some pretty awful ones as well. Besides ones showing builds of various models and their assembly, detailing and painting techniques I follow a guy called the Kamloopian who builds dioramas and fantasy gaming items including buildings, trees, water effects, etc. It's amazing how much he fits in to the 10 minute window. And, if you speak English as well as you write, you are fine! I am just so fascinated by your diorama and your skills the book has increased my desire to see more.

Thanks for at least considering it and I hope you have a change of heart! All the best! - Jim

Jim,

This is feasable, but i think i need to wait a bit until the dio progresses a bit more, even until the finish.
I probably need to do individual scenes with the modules taken apart as i can't reach the middle the front of the castle anymore right now (for example) and put everything togehter later.

I will memorize your idea for later.

Claude

Ok,

here are a few pics of the work with the tree.

The roots i used are mainly the fine ones as seen in this picture

then comes a rough selection, preselection, more selection and so on.


After that, using reference pictures, you start to mount your tree with suitable pieces, not fearing to cut them as needed. You must use pins to fix it toghether.
The bigger ones are attached with flower wire, but the smaller ones need 0.5 mm drill and small copper wire.
Use super glue to fix them.
First picture , the initial root. Unusable at the end because no rebranching at all. Below the replacement i fixed at the marked place. This one was just big enough for a 0.5 mm hole. (Notice the inserted pin in the other piece (going later in the main branch or trunk)

Now with the new piece

I added probably one or two more pieces to this one before i was satisfied. It is even possible that after a third look i even took it apart again and restarted.
My feeling about the tree and the work to be done changed while building.
Here is a picture showing the pinwork on the trunk (nothing special IMO, but you wanted to see it)

Growing slowly

I am pretty sure that the totality of the branches on top got cut later again and replaced by preassembled entities.
The little one on the left was not good anymore and got discarded completely later.

I am making the bark with self hardening natural clay as soon as i finished a part, this for easier access and manipulation
This looks already a little better

This is the tree again from the other side then the picture shown the day before

I estimate a hundred pins in there!

Here is what i found under one fallen evergreen last week


I hope this helps a bit, it is really not complicated, just a matter of selection and patience, as usual.

@Ygnve , thanks for buyign the book and i am really happy that you like it. Can't ask for more!

Good night
Claude

Well, my hobby cellar for the rough work looks always like that when one modul ais approaching the finishing stage, so don't look to hard :-)

there is not much else to say other than "WOW!"

is this just for the love of the hobby or do you plan on using this in some other way? (school, museum, contests, etc...?) just curious for such a big build. best of luck to you and can't wait to see your progress and ultimately the final project.

~Mike

Thank-you for sharing so much with us! Thank-you for always being ambitious! Thank-you for bursting away from the smallness of scale modeling.

Thanks guys!

@Mike,

Wel , the situation i mentionned already a few times during this whole build hasn't changed.

My wish is to give the dio to the town of Clervaux for permanent display but the officials of the town do absolutely not move on their own and it looks like they are the only ones not appreciating the work.
I got an add for my book from them after numerous interventions, but that's it for now. The mayour doen't even want to talk to me and one official from a Tourist syndicate is somewhat interested and helps me if (getting this add for example) but they are not proactive.
The sitaution is a bit delicate also for me as right now i can't give a commitment regarding finishing time and i need the castle now to see it with the rest.
So hopefully (perhaps after the next elections ! LOL) the dio will find a home near the original castle.

Otherwise i have to find a rich collector

Cheers
Claude

Just wait for the next election Claude.
BTW thanks for the SBS pics.

Yo Claude,

The Willow does look great!!! Great SBS pics.

The tree gives a very nice accent to the square in you're diorama.

Love it!

Greetz Nico

Claude, are there any Veterans Associations or similar groups or facilities in the village that would be interested in displaying it? I don't understand the reluctance by them showing any interest in it. I would imagine the cost of commissioning such a piece would be astronomical, so I don't understand them being so disinterested.

Is there a cultural difference towards the war and remembrances of it in Europe than the way it is here in the US? We tend to commemorate everything, but compared to Europe, our country's history is not very long so events are magnified. I know when I visit the Veteran's Hospital in Indianapolis it is full of paintings, plaques, pictures, and other memorabilia donated by veterans and veteran's groups. The town where I live was one of the places that the Tuskegee Airmen trained and the airport, Bakalar Field now Columbus Airport, was once very military oriented as were a few other air fields such as Freeman Field in Seymour, 20 miles south of me. Those all have small museum areas with models of the aircraft that were based there and other mementos from those times. Just to the north of me is Camp Atterbury which has a long history and was a POW camp during WWII. A few years back the chapel the POWs built was restored.

I have wondered if because Europe has history stretching so far back, many centuries beyond US history, if there is a different perspective of historical events. There have been so many wars, revolutions, and other social upheavals perhaps they are viewed differently. I don't want to divert the content of this thread, but it is a question I have long held.

Hey Claude
Thanks for going the effort of documenting your tree building approach. YOu have a wonderous talent to be able to switch from Building construction to organic construction!The trees really reflect the effort you are putting in.
And just off to the side of the 'fallen' tree photo is your truck with chains hooked around the trunk, right?
Brad

Jim,
to make it a bit shorter.
Our commemorance to the WW2 and more specially for the Battle of the Bulge is enormous, also in Clervaux! Anniversaries, museums,everything you can imagine. Just yesterday a new litlle monument was inaugurated in Luxembourg-City. One of the few veterans still able to travel was present.
The problem the town has with my dio is either a personal thing by the mayor or they do not really know what it is all about.
I send the whole council got material from me two years ago already with copies of all the articles about the castle dio.
I heard from one that he never saw anything.
I send them the book and also send them an invitation to see it live on the expo in Lux in Nov. Of course nobody showed up.

Let's admit that it will not be easy to find a suitable public room of this size open for public. Wait and see, i wil find a home for the dio!

@Brad, thanks for the comment.
LOL, tearing one down myself to reach the roots! LOL I planned this already, but i like also the intact nature, so let's wait for the next storm!


Cheers
Claude

Claude,

I have taken much inspiration from you and your build as I start my next few projects - from your techniques to your attention to detail, everything looks amazing. Keep up the great work. I was hoping to know more about the molds you use... how you mold the buildings? Are your molds handmade? How can I get/make a stone mold for buildings? I've taken to the idea of hand-making the buildings because they are a bit pricey to buy already made ones.

Hope you can help!

~Mike

Mike,

Thank you very much for the kind words!

Regarding the moulds, here is a picture about the mould used for the castle

It's non hardening plasticine in which i press whatever stone design i want. I pour plaster in it and have my copies.
Out of respect to the hundreds of modellers who bought my book about the castle build and in which the mould making is explained a bit more i will keep it with this short description. I hope you understand this.

But that's the basics, from there on, there are no limit's, just try it :-)

You also have to remember that i needed a replicabable wall because of the monster surface of the castle. If you do only one house or part of the house, you may scrib whatever pattern you like directly into hardening clay.

Cheers
Claude

Thanks for this tips! I'll definitely give it all a try and I'll have to look into purchasing the book..

Much appreciated!

Mike

Edit for the post above, the picture is somewhat missing.

Here it is


Claude

Hi everyone,
I am alternating the tasks now and am back for the final treatment of the cobblestone before finishing the houses and placing them.
I filled the joints with a plaster, sand, glue mix.
You notice on this photo that i started to paint the wall also ( no access from behind when houses are places!) and covered l with those other stones (a good soul will fill in the righ word)


Cheers
Claude

I think, I know what you mean. The pictures speak for it-selfes and help to show some progress!
Great work as always!
I´ll try to be "good soul"... I think you mean the "sidewalk" (the part between the street and the house/wall).
Yes, this looks interesting and perhaps this will be an eyecatcher (or one of them), when you place some people or a thing/ animal at this place.

greetings...
Soeren

Claude,
Everything is looking great as always. Have you ever thaught of producing your own line of resin and plaster products? All of the molds you have had to make for your project. Have you ever checked with the any of the museums in Bastonge itself? To try and display your diorama. I remember when I visited ther in 1996 there was a couple of different museums. Well keep up the great work.
Tom

No No Soeren , i mean the stones on top of the wall, i think capstones may be the right word. (i had the time now to look it up on my favorite online dictionnar www.dict.cc)


Thanks for your concern Tom. Bastogne has nothing to do with my dio. My diorama represents Luxembourg national history and is of no interest for Bastogne which is in Belgium i am sure you are aware of.
There is one alternative i would consider and it would even be better regarding visitor frequentation and that is our National Military Museum in Diekirch, a superbe museum about the BOB, but unfortunately already full packed and hardly a space to put anything more in from there own reserve.
In a year or so i will put more effort in finding a home for it and certanly will find it in Clervaux. Just need a bit more of lobbying the right persons.
You know, Luxembourg is very small and i will even be able to come very near or even speak to the national culture secretary if the need would arise.

Thanks guys

Claude