Clause I want congratulate you for your achievement, you piece have museum quality and worth a place in a museum. Cheeres Besides the satisfacction of making the models this give us another thing that I like and enjoy, this talk with eyewitnesses of the piece that you are making. Double satisfaction

Thanks Carlos! Glad you are still looking

Claude

So guys, for once, i can give you an brand new update, in fact, the resin is certainly still hot downstairs in my working room :-)

As an intro, i must tell you that in order to use up my resin in the one year shelf live time frame, i already made the ground work of the last module, No. 7. This one gets another 80 cm river part, along with somw vegetation and a prestigious Villa.
This picture shows you the river bed with the first coat of resin and hopefully the highlight of this part, the fallen evergreen. I added this one, a) to put some more interesting stuff in there and, b) to hide the joint to module 6, at least regarding potential photos.



Just now i added a second layer of resin who will fix also the tree. You will notice that i added cones, made from clay.


I will do the waves and ripples after that and probably put it aside for a year or so until i finished module 6

Hope you like it

Claude

Hey Claude, you forgot the squirrel eating the cone seeds! No, really looks fantastic. One of the better pine trees I've seen. What did you use for the boughs? bob d.

Bob, thanks,

i used some moss for the tree, here is a picture of the build, you will recognize the stuff better


I got a question by PM how i build my "groundwork and grass/foliage" and get this good look? I must first thank for the praise .

Considering i have now a dio of nearly 6 square meters with plenty of different groundwork and grass/foliage the question is a bit vague. You must consider also that whole books have already been written to explain diorama groundwork. So i can give only a bit of an answer here.

Here is an actual picture of one of my working desks. (specially taken for this answer)


I am using plenty and plenty of natural stuff, roots, moss, and other grasses, leaves , Thymian and more, combined with the occasional synthetic stuff and Heki Wildgrass for the meadow.
To do groundwork realisticaly you must have also patience as a lot of stuff fits into a certain space. Basically, if you think that you are done, add more.

Use reference pictures, this helps more than you think.
Here is a wall in my room (notice a picture of a fallen tree in the lower left)



I do frankly not know better how to answer this question for now, the theme is so fast and i probably covered alot of it already during the last years.

Point me to some specific area and i will try to answer more precise.

Claude

thanks for that claude, i never knew that people would use natural stuff for it.
thanks again

Hey Cluade, is that asperagus fern for the tree. One more question, did you use glyceren also? Thanks, bob d.

No Bob,

this is Aspargus Fern


The one i used for the "River" tree is different, i may find the name soon.

IMO Aspargus is good for small Evergreens, for taller ones, Aspargus is to thin and other plants should be used for a better look.

Here is a picture i posted years ago.



It shows , from left to right

Aspargus Fern, synthetic stuff (i think it is Mininatur), the moss i used also now (just the nicer tips of the mossin this case) and a moss who grows on the bottom of small stems in hedges (mostly in humid areas)
I used that last one here a while ago


I don't treat my stuff with glycerine, just spraying some Hairspray over it (ifi don't forget) and colour it.

Hope it helps

Claude

Hi Cladue,

More excellent stuff. Your ground work and trees are just terrific, well everything is so it's hard to comment on one thing.

This the most amazing build and alwasy a pleasure to view.

Al

Beautiful, just beautiful! Such fantastic, accurate and passionate work!
May I ask what you used for the earth (mud)? It looks very convincing!

Looking forward to more
Regards,

Thanks Cluade, that clears up a mystery. Was wondering about the glycerin cause some claim that it keeps the plant from getting brittle and falling apart. I had that problem when I used Queen Anns Lace which I cut apart into the small seperate sections that make up the flower. After it dried, I glued it in place and painted it up. Looks good for small clumps of flowers, but became very brittle and lost some of it to the painting.

The river bank? It's just plain sifted real earth, mixed with what ever my cellar bids at one particular moment to lighten the mix a bit up, for example, wood dust or cork dust, maybe some sand to alter the colour, It only serves as base cover and will be covered with grass later. That allows me to stretch the Heki grass matts apart, lighten the look up (avoid the Golf green look ), and it will only show the earth beneath. Alternatively i can immediately start to set hedges, trees or ferns where ever i want.
Thanks for the comment, glad you like it.

Bob, the Glycerine may help to keep it more flexible, but until now i did not need it.
The moss trees (near the Marder vignette) are roughly 6-7 years old and do still look the same (i had it with me recently at the shopping mall expo)

Some of my Aspargus trees have 5 years and are still looking the same (when not burned from a Halogen lamp like it happend during the same shopping mall expo).

I'm just back from a walk in the forest (sunny day here in Lux) , took my camera with me, but just today i did not come along my usual moss collecting place, so it's for next time. I think i need to make a feature of it in my next book. There is so much interest in the modeling world for tree making, there can never be enough info out there i have the impression.

Claude

also moved my complete dio from the garage to the hibernation room :-) until the next expo season (if invitations follow). Always a lot of work to move it around but my car wants the garage back before the winter.

For some time, I have problems focussing on one particular item.
The i want to finish the resin, i need to finally put together that house, it's cold here, and there and well, here is a picture of my living room computer desk (yes, i invaded that one also ) with all the stuff i worked on at the same time.

and yes, i worked on a Harley! Here it is already, finished with less problems then i feared after the first reviews talking about potential fiddly modeling.


Handle bar and front wheel are not attached as i do not know where to put in on a dio. I will add a driver and do a dynamic pose., probably in a left curve. All the stuff not getting Olive Drab colring is left out also.
I will put it aside for a few months now.

Here is also some of the interior for the shop windoww decoration. The tricycle is scratched and the bikes a mix of PE stuff from Royal Model, Lion Roar, a MK35 bike and the old Tamiya bikes.



Cheers
to all

PS. I have already an invite for Eurospoor train modeling expo in Utrecht next year (2000 visitors in 3 days).

Thanks' for the tip. I love the tricycle!

Regards,

Thank you Vlad

The bicycles are great! And the build of the trike - briliant

Thanks Scott!

Another small update here, or is it a bigger one?

I was not satisfied with the shop lettering )i showed a month ago) and pondered around for a few weeks, tweaking here and there. I finally scrapped it all away the day before yesterday, made a decal and replaced the lettering.

I also fitted the shop windows with the bikes, the tricycle and some bike wear, featuring the Peugeot Logo (very small decals i made).

Please take note that the decal is fresh (from this morning), no weathering at all on the build and more signs will be added on the exterior.
This is WIP!



PS: pictures from this weekend trip to Clervaux to get some needed pictures on my Blog!

Claude

Those bikes are over-the-top nice,details like this are one of the reasons that your work is top notch.
J

Love seeing your process - cool stuff!

Beautiful !!!

greetings...
Soeren

Claude, you are really unbelievable! When I think you can't add more life to it you always top it again. Close it away in Christmas otherwise the whole town will turn into a modern Nutcracker story!

Jerry, Greg, Soeren, thanks guys!
Hi Lazlo, finally finding the time to take a look at the forum! Good to see you !

This must probably be the house i struggle the longest with. There is so much to think about before being able to close the house (i started to glue it together yesterday) and it isn't over then.
Do i need an interior? That depends on the level of darkness inside, hopefully not, i do not really want to do that also. I prepared aready two old Tamiya bikes to put as background against a side or back wall. You will not notice the rough spokes.

I did also put stuff in the shop with the focus of the later view people get from the house, and that is very oblique and narrow fom the left side.
My progress for now on the whole dio is really the slowest since i started and i am not very satisfied about it. And the house is far from finished, two nice shop signs and window guards must still be scratched.

Next house, after covering this one, will be an open farm house with a lot of scratched items to fit it. Full interior, one side a barn, the other side living area, hopefully i can get back to normal speed again, otherwise it will take forever.
But i have some nice and original ideas to put in there.

Anyway, glad you like it all until now, that's after all the most important thing after all the work.

Greets to all
Claude

Evening Claude,

Firstly, the Seasons Greeting to you. The bikes look terrific and thank for another year of excellent tips and modelling. The Village is a brillient project, you must have the patience of a saint. It's a real pleasure watching this all develop, just terrific.

Thanks for sharing the build and keep up the great work. This is probably the most awesome build I've ever seen, love your work.

Cheers

Al

Thanks a lot Alan, great year end festivities to you to.
You guys keep me going since all this years and i appreciate that.


While we are at Christmas season, at least for European modellers it's still time to order my book for the present table. Orders over the pond may come in just in time if ordered today and tomorrow, but i can't guarantee that one of course as it is not in my hands.
Sales have really be doing very good, thanks to all for that, but there may be some newcomers still without it! Look at my website for direct ordering or choose one of the resellers near your location. Thanks in advance

Claude

Fantastesch!!!!

the fir tree in the water with cones....!!!!

an d'Velosgeschäft!!!!!!!!!

Bravo yet again!!

A happy Christmas to you!!!!!!

Cheers

Romain