Thanks guys! I appreciate

Don't expect the next update very soon
I am still undecided what and how i should build this houses. I would need 5 cm more to build what i really want, but i don't have them!


Claude

Caude,
I would say build build,then build some more! I love watching your techniques and as I have already posted several times I think there are few in the world that are as good at it as you. Incredable mon ami,
J

Hi Claude,
Your progress is amazing! I love watching this project grow! Keep up the amazing work.

Aside from tremedously enjoying the masterclass on groundwork and modeling buildings, I have also found this to be a wonderful 'wake-up call" thread. Who amongst us hasn't toyed with the idea of a Letterman style superdiorama like this? I find it most helpful to have that reality check of the sheer amount of time, effort, and love that needs to be poured into pulling one of these off.

Matt

Hi guys,

Thank you very much for your reaction.

It has been a bit quit the last weeks with my updates, but after i came back from holidays i immediately started a 14 days exposition of my dio in a shopping Mall


That's a lot of stress besides restarting my regular job (attending the dio a few hours a day)

So thanks for still enjoying my thread, updates will be posted soon hopefully.


Greets
Claude

Thanks for all your efforts involved in sharing with us. I hope all goes well for you in your display at the shopping centre and in re starting your regular job.
As mentioned above I admire not only your skill in modelling but your stamina and fortitude in taking on such a large modelling goal.

Cheers from the Heart of North America

Will.

Hi Will

Thank you very much

I think i need to clarify that i probably used some wrong wording regarding the restart of my job. (English is still only my 4th language)

I meant that i restarted after holidays, so nothing dramatic here at all

Claude

Hi Claude,

Do you intend to show the diorama in Veldhoven the second of october?

Greets Johan

Hi Johan,

Unfortunately not this year. As you know perhaps i am only traveling when transport costs are payed by the organizer of the expo.
Robert did that last year and he may repeat that in a year or so if you cry loud enough, but he obviously needs to alternate attractions and his invests for the interest of the viewer.

Sadly enough, i would have prefered to come this year as it would have allowed me to meet Jean Bernard André, a seldom guest at expos and a longtime online friend.

Have fun in Veldhoven

Claude

Thats to bad. Seems i have to wait for another year.

I'm still waiting for the day I can take a trip and meet you, Claude, and see this dio in person. What a fantastic trip that would be!
Good luck with the expos. I always wondered how you got so much work done on the dio...It's hard working and trying to work on a hobby as large as this one. I am just now feeling that pain as I'm a full time student and starting my little dio.
Good luck again! Hope you're well!

Uff, the expo is done! What an experience !
Besides thousands of very enthusiastic visitors (with a few exceptions non-modellers), perhaps the most worthy visits were those of a few eyewitnesses!
Standing out from those was the visit (after seeing an article of the expo in a newspaper) of this young Lady, pictured here with me

who happened to live in the tower (marked with an arrow) as a child until 1943.
It was through this little window she overlooked Clervaux during all this pre war and early war years.Her grand parents happened to be the persons who run the Hotel-Restaurant inside the castle! Wow, that was probably the ultimate eye witness i could still encounter.
I talked to one fellow (83 years old) who watched the germans Panzers shoot at Clervaux from above. I also met a man who bought my book to give to his mother who happened to be one of the civilians hidden in the castle!
Others i met were born in the castle's tower or played in the ruins of the castle during the fifties and sixties.
I could have gotten also more photos, but now it is unfortunately to late for that.

I also met officials from our Government who assured me of their full support to get the do into a museum, probably in Clervaux! Finally!

So i am finishing a superb week with the feeling that finally Luxembourg discovered my work.

Now i need to do some repairs on the dio and in another ten days already i will restart to a weekend expo with an expected 10000 visitors. It will be a multi discipline expo, so there will be a lot of children. Another busy weekend ahead!

Cheers
Claude

Hi Cladue,

Just amazing as always.

Al

Claude, Wow!!!! Huge congrats to you with the government's support to get this amazing work into a museum, where it belongs! You've done a fantastic job, and I can tell just from looking through your forums, you have progressed extensively in your work as a modeler! I am very excited for you and very glad that people that were there in the castle were able to tell you their personal stories. There is no honor greater than that. I'm sure they were all very surprised at the level of realism in your diorama. I wish you all the best at your next expo!

Claude,
Congraduations, I hope that you are able to put it into a musuem. Hopefully one year or another I will make it back overseas. Hopefully reapairs you have to do are not to big. As always look foward to updates from you.
Tom

Alan, Brandi, Tom, thanks guys!

I will have my last expo of the season this weekend and will then hopefully resume to a normal cruising speed until completion of the project.

I want to show you, very short, that between the other expo's i was able to start on those houses and am even approaching the finishing stages of the first one. (well, there is no roof yet on it, so...)

Here is the original house, a bike shop


and here is what i have done so far


I am doing some bikes and stuff to put in the window before closing it with a roof.

I you want , take a look at my website where i linked to a video made last week during the expo. The castle is featured after roughly 1 minute.

Greets
Claude

Hi Claude,

More neat work.

Al

Claude!!!! So good to see even a small update, you're my inspiration for this whole modelling thing in the first place
Is that building wood, then covered in plaster? Your buildings are really fantastic. I wish mine would look half as good!
Excellent work, as always. Nothing short of amazing, like usual!
good luck with the expo, i'm sure it will go great!

Thanks Brandi for your enthousiasm

Well , you got it completely wrong

This buiding is made of 2 mm Evergreen Plasticsheet, the lower part is only painted and the upper part is covered my usual way, sprinkling a fine medium on top of a base pepared with wood glue. In this case the medium is a very fine sand, decoration sand. I think i bought it at an IKEA shop.


I noticed on the pictures what i did not see live, that some of the letters on the upper shop inscription are not aligned. I made this one on Transfer paper. As i did not see it live myself, i will not change i, as it would be very difficult without making some letters bigger, creating another mismatch.
For the lower part i made a decal.

Thanks Alan for still looking after all this years

Claude

Good news about the museum - this deserves a home. I can't think of any other models that would attract so much attention from the public.

PS Don't forget to make time for book2!

No, certainly not, i want it ready when the last stone is set, just take a few more overall pics and publish it. It must be fresh in peoples mind to sell well.

Thanks
Claude

Once again, well done and congradulations. Nice to know that you inspire so many modelers and non-modelers alike. When I show people here what you have done, and they look at my stalled R/R dio, they ask when I'll do something like yours. They of course are nuts. I have a hard enough time to motivate to finish many projects going on all the time. Truely a beautiful piece of art work from you and am glad to have the oppertunity to see it here on armorama and talk with you.

hi claude, thats so amazing that it is going to be held in the museum, where everyone can enjoy your amazing work and awesome eye for detail.its also interesting that you got to meet a person that actually lived there during that time period and was an eye witness to everything. again congrads on the news and cant wait to see your next project.

cheers bill

Thank you Bob and William,

Thanks for your support

Back from the expo. I had great success in the midst of the railroad modellers (i was the only "other" one). People loved to see something else for a change.

The Sherman was damaged. A few hours will be needed to fix it again.
Such things happen unfortunately with 2000 visitors crammed in a relativ thight space.

Will try to return to normal modeling pace now

Greets
Claude

Hi Claude, glad the expo went well, save for the injured Sherman. I look forward to more regular updates from you again!