Yo Claude,

Finally got the time to read your thread here...so mutch progress I see!

Your still the master in vegetation! Stunning work on the riverbed and the sides of it.

Keep following closer from now on...

Greetz Nico

Thank you Nico

I show you some work who must be done if you do big dios stretching over more modules.
Sometimes you must go ahead and look after the fitting of the parts. I figures, that now would be a good time for that. I will start the resin work soon and during the drying times i can continue working on the street. Of course you must define exactly where the street is going to run.

The first view allows for an impression how the new part will fit into the rest


The tree on the top right is the base made from roots to make the birch tree.
I am not very sure if i should place in there or ore to the middle. It would be good in the middle, but it will then be dwarfed by the weeping willow and another fir (still to be build).So i leave it probably there

I glued down some cobbles here and there to indicate me exactly the continuation from the other module, be it for the street layout or the side walk. Now i can work on this comfortably during the next weeks while waiting for the resin and the waves to cure.

Claude

Moien Claude,

been watching "Clervaux" from the very beginning...and I'm still amazed at your guts and your skills!
What an odyssey...and you are still going strong!! Bravo!!

...and thanks a bunch for letting us watch!!!

Cheers

Romain

Moien Romain

Deen Numm klengt awer iwwerhaapt net Wieneresch :-)

Thanks for looking all this years. I suspect that there are a lot more who just look and don't write, judging on the view numbers.
If you happen to be in Lux, i will show the dio in Walferdange in November. See you there!

Today is the day! I will do my first resin pour. I suspect no photos as you can not hold the pot with resin and take pictures. You also have little time to do so.
It will be a low pour, essentially a suck and level pour :-)
Suck for seeing where the river bed is still sucking up resin and level , because on the 1.40 m distance i will have a few surprises regarding level and i need to get a feeling where the resin wants to flow before the next pour.

Have a nice weekend
Claude

an dat as och keen Zoufall

You know that you can use a hair-dryer to gently texture the resin by blowing on it, don't you!
You won't need much (considering that the Clierf in winter is not really a torrential river), but slight movements in the "water" will help to make it look more realistic.
Wish you good luck pouring!!
Most of us are having the same apprehensions about it, as we never do enough water effects in our lives to become experienced!

Cheers

Romain

Romain,

Moien,

I am not sure about the non-torrential river in Winter.
Look at the pics a few posts earlier, those are taken in early April, after a very dry march and start of April with essentially no rain.
The river is flowing pretty well and fast.
So in a December, after a potentially rainy autumn 1944 (i don't go back looking for the météo, but Adolf choose this date because of the bad weather), this good be identical, at least.

I am not going to do classic river animations and put rusty bikes and other stuff in there, so waves and ripples will be the only element to make it lively.

The hair dryer method is known to me (never tried it). It only works at a certain drying time of the resin. Finding that on a 1.4 meter river is not easy and am not even going to try it. I have my idea to make the waves, hope it will work.

I am going to go in the direction of master JBA's work , and do moulds for the waves.

Ok, the first pour is done. (Did the last part just now) The only problem was to get a first regular pour level-wise. It worked perfect..
As i am off now to a "Kommunioun" (Romain knows what that is), i am sure to leave it alone to dry properly.

Have a nice Sunday everyone

Claude

Moien Claude,

if you are talking about this picture....



...I agree, That's also how I would see the Clierf in December 44, not much more and probably not less either. The rain was over, and the additional depth generated would have already disappeared by then. Apparently it was rather foggy, which means that it was not raining anyway.

On the other hand....if the water were deeper, you would even have less waves on the surface, all the stones and debris being under water.

You will manage, I'm sure!!!

Oh yes, first communion I remember well! Lots of stress for the family...and the children! Fine food though!!!!

Cheers

Romain

Very nice building and weathering. It's a perfect continuity of your last work on this amazing diorama.

Fabrice

Hey Claude
Been a while since viewing your progress, so this is indeed a chance to sit back and take your build in once again. Fair dinkum marvellous mate. You have mastered the art of replicating nature's look through appearance and materials. Your structures ain't so bad either
You'll be happy to know I am finally working on another diorama (ie. 'postage stamp' sized in comparison ) so slowly getting back into the swing of things...
Best
Brad

Thanks Fabrice and Bradley,

We are slowly getting old watching and waiting for each others updates! LOL
Thanks for the comment, a lot more vegetation is coming, so much that i fell happy right now that i do not need to build the whole forest i once planned.
I have a very big stash of roots but it is still not enough to have the best possible choice.

Saw your start to another mud dio and wait for a bit more progress. Nice to see you back building.
While you mention sculpting a figure, what's going on with your commercial sculpting career? Any traction there?

Cheers
Claude

PS. I rectified the duplicate picture error from the post above. Why did nobody mention it?

You just continue to amaze me with this project. What I like is that you are not sacrificing any detail even though the size of this thing is enormous.
J

Hmmm...if you had started this whole diorama in 1/72 you could have modeled the entire Ardennes Offensive in the same space .

LOL, for sure, but i believe that 1/72 structures are not so appealing for viewers, not even talking about the lack of figures in this scale (look at the 60+ figs in the castle). Vegetation is harder to do also.
But i should indeed try a 1/72 house one of this days to see myself.

Thanks for looking

Claude

True, one or two buildings in 1/72 is not very spectacular, but if you do an entire valley, river, village and castle, on different levels then it does become very spectacular. Some model railroad sceneries in 1/87 are almost as realistic as your diorama. As for figures most are not very inspiring, but I think Pegasus makes the best in soft plastic. And, of course, Dragon makes the best vehicles in this scale.

1/72 isn't that daunting... Awesome work correcting the bridge Claude it's still great following your work! I daunt envy you with all of those road cobbles.

~ Jaymes

Hey Claude
Yep, as soon as I get some free time I will start to bulk out the base.
As far as sculpting, be assured I still am, and I have a couple of 'irons in the fire'

Huh, three weeks no update! rest assured , i am working on this every single day and made good progress.

I finally poured three coats of clear resin in my riverbed, as i said, every time split in two, as the little rapids in the middle did not allow to set it completely level .
In the end, i nearly f...d up as resin slowly spilled over the rapids (while i was not present any more) and voided the slope in the riverbed.
I am also slowly doing the little stream coming from the side . I am slowly accumulating acrylic gel, some pretainted , some not


I also started a few days ago to add my waves and ripples, made of moulds



The right side does not have waves yet.
How does it look? This is my first ever water!
If you say, no, not good, then I am sorry as there is no way back
I'm stuck now as i have no stock of waves and i need to pour some more before continuing.

I also nearly finished the birch tree. Only some painting of the twigs to do and also some twigs to ad on the lower branch.



(The white strip on the picture is the barrier for the resin)

Thanks for your opinions

Claude

Hey Claude, excelent water. I am puzzled about the mold for the waves, were they one continuos peice are seperate for each. The river section I did for mine I used the acrylic gel and am not too happy with it, and like you, stuck with it now, just doesn't look right, but yours are top notch. I tried to pick the gel off/out but no such luck. Maybe something like your would work over it if you could explain, I'd really appriciate it.The small stream looks very realistic, well done. On the inside curve under the bridge you said there were no waves yet, but it looks good that way as the turbulance would be to the outside of the flow by force.

Bob,

I am of course inspired by JBA's mould making of water sections.
I downsized it a bit and made (out of plasticine) a 7-8 cm big piece of water surface, with the waves i wanted, based on a reference picture. For the moment i have three moulds , two of them being part of the picture i showed .
I am pouring the mould as thin as possible. Gaps and holes are later easily filled with resin again. It's glued on the resin river bed with a thin coat of resin.


I think the advantage of this method is the more three dimensional look it has as the base where the wave starts to rise is not always at the same level to the contrary of acrylic waves starting from the resin bed. ( i doubt that anyyone understands what i want to say here)

To answer the question, on this little part of river i glued 5-6 mould copies.
Gaps in the wave design and gaps to the borders are completed with acrylic gel.
The only thing i need to look at is the lack of contrast as everything is clear resin. I will try with bit of shadow and highlight later.
Hope this helps

Yo Claude,




Pfffhewww...wath a braincrasher...

So you make a mould, resin over it and glue it on the scene...or mould on the scene and than the resin...

But beyond the braincrasher lays a great looking river..sure about that...great!

Colorssetting on the rocks is spot on.

Greetz Nico

Exactly :-), but only the resin copy and not the mould of course.

But that is only the "How to".

For all of you who needs a little drawing to understand what i said about the look,


Top line is traditionnal, waves on top of the resin bed.
Below is me, a hopeful natural flow of water (except my sunday morning trembling)

Clear?


Thanks

Claude

Hey Claude
In a nutshell, you are suggesting that the wave peaks and troughs go both above and below the static water level respectively
I garnered this from your first post no worries!
It has a very realistic feel to it, and I'm sure there are veteran model train enthusiasts that are stepping on their tongues at your first effort...
Brad

Moien

Most time I just look and saw your dio in Eindhoven last year, very impressive.

I follow the water making with interest because I want also to try to use resin for water. Your water is looking good, but I think a bit more wave like the part from the JBA example is looking more realistic, but as I said I have no exceperience with resin water only with still water from Vallejo what works good for small pools.

Thanks for sharing!
Johanna

Really nice water. JBA's applications are on the edge and always top notch. Nicely applied.

How much more are you going to add to the creek where the mini water fall is? The 'white' water in the fall carries more weight and quantity than the splashing at the base. So adding more will give you the opportunity to add some extra splashing.

Hi Claude,

Impressive, I think you have the water looking just right. Excellent work, everything is loooking top notch. Very effective technique.

Al