I am currently working on a large 1/35 scale diorama that will be similiar to Bob Letterman's first Legacy diorama. The large diorama depicted US forces moving through a french city during World War II. After seeing the diorama back in an early 90's isssue of Finescale Modeler I have always wanted to construct one for myself. At the time I was still a teen and funding for the hobby was slow and I wasn't so much into model building as I am now. Now that I am in my 30's, I finally got the niche to start doing it. I have already constructed the large 4 foot by 4 foot base and have begun to build some of the buildings. The buildings still need more details (lots of signs/ads/posters, exterior lights, curtains, and etc.) along with weathering. I started construction back in July and I am moving along pretty well. I am trying my best to complete this by the end of next summer. I won't start building the vehicles and figures until I have the majority of the buildings built along with the base to include streets and sidewalks.

I am currently working on two more buildings at which one will be a restaurant/apartment and other one being a cigar shop/clock tower. Also, can anyone please let me know if the wording is correct on the large billboard before I set them up permanently? Thanks and enjoy the pics.

Hi Ryan

Impressive workmanship and quite a task you've set yourself. Good luck with it, hope you keep us all informed with updates along the way.

I can't help you with the spelling but I an concerned about the sign in that I'm not sure it would have existed. Maybe I'm just being too stereotyped but I can see this on an American apartment block but not a French city building. They had a tendency to do large advertising signs on the sides of building, a bit like murals, or billboards. Have you any images, pictures to support your choice of sign type, size and location? Even something similar would silence any misgiving I or others may have.

Good luck .

All the best

Alan

Ryan, brother, you are making a cool diorama that appears to be epic. already the two building look like a major project just as is. hope you will provide some step-by-step updates as well in future.

the sign appears to be made of routered letters, is not correct? which material did you use and did you get a sign shop to cut them?

as for the sign itself... the biere needs an accent over the first "e" pointing upwards toward the left. french people are huge sticklers for spelling and the missing accent wouldn't be in an advert.

about the advert, it was more typical of that era to whitewash the ad directly to the side of a build rather than the more elaborate dimensional signage we see today. first they would "blacken" the area before painting the ad text over the stone/brick. this ad is also a bit large for the roof to support, more again with something we would see today and it would need cables likely.

the building the sign is on had a great profile for an advert on its side. either way, this will likely be the project to end all projects. thanks for sharing. mh

PS: the sign says "brigand sells the beers" which may not be the ideal slogan you are looking for. more of a standard "les bieres brigand" would be my suggestion. also, the french flag colours are blue white red... the white text should be in the middle.

Uh, what a project!

"I am trying my best to complete this by the end of next summer."

Why? Any deadline to meet ? Wouldn't you prefer to do your dreamproject the best you can, whatever time it takes?

As for now i see two big buildings looking a bit like toy houses and some big problems looming

On the "Brigand" house (correct answer regarding the sign from hellhoud) i notice the box like borders on the walls. Are you going to cover that?
I am also wondering how you are going to paint the buildings with those railings and shutters attached already.

We are always interested here to hear what material you used, what you scratched or what aftermarket stuff is in there.

Are you going to do any interior in the shops?
Any open houses (seing the interior)?

Claude

@ Alan - Thanks for the encouragement. This is one of the biggest projects I have ever done in this scale. On Bob's Legacy diorama, there was building with a similar large billboard ad on top of one of the buildings. I will try to find a picture of the building with the large billboard on top.

@ Hellhound - The letters are routered wood that I ordered from a craft store website. As said to Alan earlier, I will try to find a picture of the building with the large billboard ad on it within Bob's Legacy diorama. Thanks for letting me know the order of colors as well within the french flag, especially for the signs lettering sequence.

@ Claude - Your work on the Clervaux diorama is what somewhat inspired me to build a large diorama of large proportions. You are right by the way, why I set a deadline for completion, I do not know why. There is no deadline, I will take my time and enjoy the hobby of building since it is something I like to do a lot. Thanks for being honest about the two buildings so far. They do look like toy buildings so far. I have not yet installed minor details and they need a lot of weathering. They obviously look too clean. At the time I took the pictures, most of the items were temporarily installed with just small bits of tape to hold them in place. As for interiors, I will only have items (tables, chairs, etc.) up near the windows at the shop levels along with flooring and wallpaper. There will also be curtains installed in the upper floors that will either be fully closed or pulled back. The interiors are painted all black so the viewer cannot see all the way thru. I will have one very large building (which will be a hotel that is being utilized as an Army headquarters) with no backside so the viewer can see inside at all of the levels. This is the first time I have ever scratch built buildings using foamboard, basswood, styrene, and acrylic paste. Windows, shutters and doors are made of resin produced by the 135th construction battalion and custom dioramics in at which all were ordered off of the squadron website. I plan on ordering your book from Monroe Perdu's website tomorrow (since I get paid) so I can learn some more techniques from a master builder like yourself as I build two more buildings for my diorama. I am still learning to scratch build and so far I like doing it. BTW, my wife's kitchen table is my work space along with the garage, LOL. I am extremely limited in space in my small home. Where will I put this diorama, I do not know? LOL.

Here is the picture of the Legacy Diorama with the building and billboard ad on the roof.



And here is a closer look at the building itself with the billboard.