Hi everyone,

I'm not yet done with this dio, still a few years to go! LOL
After the rush with my book sales is over now and i rested enough from he third part, i am slowly regaining traction to continue the build.

This one may be finished faster as, you know that already , it is based on the
houses i did 5 or more years ago as a training for the castle build


The first thing to do was to build the module and adapt it the best possible to the rest of the dio


After reconsidering my layout a bit i took away a good part of cobblestone street, slide the whole row to the side of the dio and got a free space of roughly 30 cm between the houses, enough to insert one more house ( i had in mind already, otherwise i would not have started this operation)


Before starting anything detailed i build my groundwork up to the other modules height.
You will noticed that i destroyed a bit of this one already in anticipation of my original plan. After changing the layout the destruction happened to be unnecessary and i needed to rebuild it (blue Styro on the right side)

After this step

i took the new module in my workroom.


I contacted the owner of a 140 year old textile shop in Clervaux , still held by the same family. The lady of the house was very forthcoming and after a second friendly reminder she finally sends me one (initially talked about a few) contemporary picture.
What did she do? Instead of sending me the original picture and allowing me a high resolution scan with all possibilities of tweaking the result, she send me a photocopy
I do not want to bother her again, so i need to work with that only.

Now comes routine work for me, building a facade. This one has a little extra with 15 openings in a tight space.
Here is the work, with the reference pic visible above.


Acrylic paste to my rescue to close all gaps and holes and a first coat of Gesso to smooth it (unsuccessful and need more work)


That's it for now as i am trying to build the windows.

I marked this as a Blog but i have doubts that i can keep the pace of one as the work is all routine and should be already known from my previous builds.
After this house i will redo some details of the Café and the Hotel (not up to my actual standard anymore, do a meter of cobblestone street and after that probably ad one more house on this part.

Hope i can keep some audience through this adventure and please feel free to comment or add something. Having good page views in nice but having the comment is better.

Oh , and, well, there is still a book out there ...... :-)

Cheers
Claude

Happy new year Claude! Great to see your still plugging away with this! The progress is really positive and its looking great! Please keep it coming!

One thing may I say a meter of cobblestone? are you mad? Good luck mate!


Jaymes.

It´s wonderful to see your work and next progress-steps here!
Thank you for the update.

greetings...
Soeren

Hello Claude!!

Sure, sometimes we just look at it, and forget how important it is to drop a few lines, to give you some boost to battle on with this masterpiece.
But don't worry, I'm sure I can speak for everyone here in the diorama forum, we still look at it with the same wonderment.

For this great update, I can say that the green house isn't at the standard of your recent builds, so fine if you rework it.
I like what you've done with the textile shop. Seems to be a great building to model.

Hope you'll let the update come, we all wait for the next installment.

Happy New Year Claude.

Alexandre.

Hi Claude great to see these in progress shots of a building taking shape.

The saga continues! I'm always looking forward to any updates, no matter how small or repetitive they might be. On the other hand I know how hard it is to keep a blog updated...

Keep us posted and happy new year to you!

Stefan

Nice work, all I can say is awesome, just awesome. Dioramas forever.

I come from a model train back ground so I really like to see big dios. The other thing I really like is that you've built the entire thing to move. The worst thing about a big, fantastically detailed model rr is that usually it can never leave the basement or room where it was built. It's one thing not to be able to bring something like that to a show, it's even worse if you have to move & you have to tear the whole thing down.

Keep the updates coming. Really, this is among the best I've seen. Cheers.

Randy Pepprock
www.dioramasplus.com
www.downtowndeco.com

Thanks to all, great to have you here!

Regarding your quote above Alexandre, this is not what i wanted to here ! LOL
No seriously, i have only one thing wrong with this house but let me post another view of the house here.

The thing i wanted to replace or redo is the big broken window. For the rest , repainting eventually the lower side of the house (the brown part) and do some more wheatering, but otherwise? I am open to every suggestion and critic , let them come!. Repainting the facade is not possible because of the gray colour and the advertisement on the side.

The other thing i will replace are the big doors on the right of the Hotel. They are made of plastic and unfortunately to much curved. Of course the Hotel isn't wheatered at all yet.


Have a Happy New Year everyone

Claude

Hello Claude,

hope that next year we can see how grows your town... and all succes to your book :-)

Congratulations for your work

You really are an inspiration for all the dio builders out there! I lose my motivation when doing a 20x20cm big base and you're doing the hole town. Hang in there and keep up the good work.

Primož

Hello Claude!
Well sometimes it seems that I should shut my mouth...
I have nothing wrong with this house.
The greyish/ green shade of the wall looks perfect, I was speaking about the doors and windows...They don't really look like wood IMO, but they're probably in need of some more weathering.

Cheers.
Alexandre.

[quote]Well sometimes it seems that I should shut my mouth...
I was speaking about the doors and windows...They don't really look like wood IMO, but they're probably in need of some more weathering.
quote]
Do not shut your mouth , such comments force me to relook those items, and i will do that now with the windows and doors.

But, you know that also, a window or door glued in place, with glass already behind and other details is not not touch easily anymore. Perhaps a slight wash here or there, i will see.....

Thanks Alexandre!

hey Claude, first time i see those buildings -I must say the general layout looks like it will be another top addition -the photocopy thing made me smile, that's the way the reference we need comes sometimes, through uncanny ways! I wish you good luck for this add-on and i stay posted as usual

Claude: your work is absoulutly awesome and I would'nt be worthy of your presence as far as my work is concerned. I bow before you
rick

@JBA, thanks! You were not yet a member on Armorama when i posted those buildings! LOL
Time has passed and a lot of Styro has beed used since then! Bonne Année à toute la famille

@Rick, thanks a lot , but watch your back !

Claude

Yo Claude,

Very nice buildings. Superb scratchwork...the hotel is stunning. The village is indeed growwing...in a fantastic way!

Greetz Nico

Impressive work Claude! The houses are indeed amazing!

Hi Cladue,

Happy New Year to you.

Thank you for the updates, the village grows , excellent look forward to more exciting developments.

Al

I have seen model railroad projects built by groups of club members that are ever so amazing . Evrywhere you look is still another fine detail or some little surprise. Your personal project reminds me of such things. This is a labor of love for the hobby and for the art and I can see the heart that you put into it. This will be a hard act to follow for anyone to repeat. Wonderful, wonderful job. What more can I say? Al

I'm still an observer/admirer too! I don't have any constructive comment as you sure know what you're after here. Is it too late to change it to a smaller scale? j/k Fantastic to look over -on

It is good to see your progress. I look for it every time I log on. Are you going to do another book covering all of the add builds? Keep building. Good luck.
Tom

Nico, Alan, Greg, Alfred, Thank you very much, glad to see you around and thanks for the comment
@Tom, thanks to you also,


If enough of you guys buy the first copy i will do a second one !

Greets to all

Claude

Where is your book sold in the us?
Tom

Howdy Claude!
Looking peachy mate.Seems to be a seamless addition to the layout. Pity about those mind numbing extra cobbles having to be re scribed!
The broken window should be 'tweaked' as it looks too symetrical, but I wouldn't go too far; the removal of a couple of shards to leave gaps back to the pane would give it some randomness...
Brad