Dave: either way, the crown looks really good. Also, I think your fix on the roof slope blends in well, so nothing to worry about there.

Happy Modelling, -zon

Hi Dave,

You throw away the old roof because of my comment and i do not even take a look! :-)
Sorry to have missed that phase, didn't imagine that you would work so fast.

As you say yourself, it was really worth the effort!
This is an error often made to leave such misses untouched, but one has to always remember one of the basic rules of diorama making, notably that the whole dio will be judged on the weakest points! So this few hours of work saved you a lot of frustration later.

I talked recently to a french modeller who showed a very well build church during an expo. Good work, well done, but i fu..d up because he made the roof tiles in complete rows without showing individual tiles.I was the first to tell him that error, ok, others may not be so keen. My advice was to redo it but he declined because of the few hours of work already involved. That was an easy fix! I am sure he will be sorry later as it diminishes the whole work.

What you did recently with the facade is wonderful, and i mean the build and the painting!

Regarding wood coloring i am never using any acryl color directly . Oil washes and drybrushig with either oil or acrylic colors or playing with pigments is how i do it. I recently discoverd a new line of high quality Gouache colors, the Sepia color is wonderful to simulate the very weathered parts.

Cheers
Claude

Thanks for your comments Claude, you know what they say... better late then never. I was glad that the new work turned out as well as it did. So far so good. I am more or less back to work at the golf course now so my updates will be less frequent, but I got a little work done last night on the Panther so I will try to send more pictures. I had planned to get both tanks placed on the layout permanently as soon as I can so I can finalize the figure positioning. It is currently snowing again here so I may get more done today, who knows?

Anyway gotta go take my daughter to the day-home so that is all for now. I will remember your reference to the weakest link theory for the rest of the build. Thanks again for your input Claude.

Dave

Good day everyone! As you may have noticed I have not been able to get much done on the project of late as I am back to work @ my golf course and having going great guns to get things ready for our opening. The good news is that I have a great assistant this year and we will be able to alternate weekends so I wont have to work 75 or 80 days straight this year!

We pulled the tarps off the front 9 holes today and will open for play on Thursday. The back 9 will be ready to go the end of next week. What this means for all my followers here in the forum is that I should get a bit of time this week to upload some pictures of my progress the next few nights and this weekend. I know I am getting close to the end because I am already planning my build for this coming winter...

For those who are curious I will say this. I have always wanted to do a scene from one of the factories where Tigers were produced. But that is all about the next project until this one is in the bag. Again, sorry for those of you who need a daily "fix" from us fellow builders but I will try to post some good pics of the progress soon.

Thanks for looking in everyone!

Dave

An Update!! Woohoo!!!

I have been able to do a bit of work on the church roof lately due to snowfalls & a teething daughter with a fever.... no day-home visits for a couple days last week.

Here are the photos of my efforts to give the roof structure the proper amount of overhang over the recreated roof moulding. I will stain and distress the wood before I glue it to the roof as it will be easier that way.













I am uncertain how to do the " shingles" i.e.. whether to do slate tiles, cedar shakes or I am leaning toward trying a new approach to my old copper roof look.

Any thoughts?

If you are leaning toward slate tiles, does anyone know what shape and size would be appropriate? the tile sheet I used on the first roof section seemed a little small in scale. What is the average size of a slate tile?

please let me know if you have any expertise in the realm of roof coverings... and enjoy the update!

Happy modeling everyone!

Dave

Dave,

Did you ever specify the location of your dio? I went back to page 1 and could not find it there.

Regarding the slate tiles, i am using 0.25 mm plasticsheet.
I am mostly showing 8mm wide x4 mm high tiles. This means that in order to have a tile behind the gap and accomodate for a 2 mm overlap, i am cutting tiles of 8x 10mm out of a sheet of plasticcard. Glued simply with wood glue.

The copper roof would also be good. I have no experience doing that.

Claude

Thanks Claude for your dimensions.

I look at the scene as being somewhere just across the German border & probably early spring or late winter? I am thinking of making it appear as if it had either just begun to rain or a small rain shower had just passed through the area. I am going to try to make a copper roof out of an aluminum turkey roasting pan, and paint it copper, then use some transparent green shades to mimic the patina of old oxidized copper? Washes etc.

the other alternative is a rounded tile profile on the leading edge. Not sure which yet.

Thanks again for your input. Have a great day Claude!

Dave

I love this build. I think scratch building is such an art form and to see people pull it off so well just makes me want to get better at it. I really like all of the work you have done. I am going to have to study how you did your rood as I have to build a few of those and never have before. Again, awesome job. Look forward to the finish and interested to see how you place in the contest. What contest are you taking it to?

My hobby shop carries very thin copper sheet. Try to find some. It's probably easier then to paint alu.

You just need to leave it outside for a few months (or years) and you are good! :-)

Claude

Thanks Brandi. My hope was to enter the Western Canadian Model show, and maybe the annual armor modelers show. One is usually in early june, the other in september both here in Alberta. Those are my aiming points and the motivation to complete. I have followed your build for awhile last year. I hope school went well. You will do fine on your roof trusses. Just remember the basics, measure twice cut once. Most big buildings have rafters on four foot centers, houses usually two foot. Make sure to tie your rafters together with some stringers and take Claude's advice and Do Not paint your wood. Stain it or dye it, but do not paint it!!!!

Claude I would use copper sheet but I haven't been able to find any thin enough and time doesn't permit the oxidization process. Lol.

Take care everyone.

Dave.

Well it seems that spring is not sure it wants to arrive for good yet, making for an interesting last couple weeks of great periods of weather interrupted by blasts of snowy mayhem and cool & very windy days.

So that means I have been able to get a little work done on the church dio. I have managed to get the new wood extension glued on & stained, and the copper roof started.

I tried to use some tin I had lying around to fabricate the sheets of copper out of since I wasn't able to locate any actual copper sheets thin enough to bend the desired way.

A trip to the dollar store produced a nice flat aluminum pan for putting under your chicken or roasts, a drip pan. Ideal for scale metal roofing. Unfortunately I am not very good at tin bashing and struggled for a few hours to make a passible roof flashing and a rain drip edge flashing for the roof soffit. Having less & less time at my disposal I decided that i would be better off constructing my copper roof the old fashioned way... out of plastic sheet and stock.

I hope to complete it this week and test my skills at a faux copper finish. I may even try the Hair spray method for the first time.

Here are some pics to keep the hope of completing of this diorama alive for a while longer....





Just a couple shots to show why you should never run irrigation heads on a night when it is supposed to drop below freezing. Not my idea, but sometimes you have to follow poor directions from those who should know better. Enough said. The tree will survive minus a few branches.













The area at the far right, between the sheet plastic and the edge of the church where the roof damage is concentrated will be covered by a section of copper roof made using the aluminum sheeting and plastic stock so that I can give a better representation of the damage as it is easier to make real metal look like real metal. Makes sense doesn't it?

Well that is all for now.

Take care everyone.

Dave

Dave:
What an incredible job you are doing with this diorama and in particulary with the church.
I follow you and I´m marvelled with your dedication on the details.
Keep going!!!

Thanks Victor, I am trying to get everything to be a good scale reflection of what it may look like in real life and this is what has led me to continue to change things and challenge myself to work out the details to a high degree. I am glad it has paid off so far & that people like you are able to see the work progress through to its conclusion.

I hope to have another update ready in the next couple of days as the weather continues to be too cool to golf after a hard day of course maintenance. I do not subscribe to the theory that just because a course is open that I need to play...

Thanks for your comments again Victor.

Take care, Dave

Just read through this for the first time, wow, that is some scratch building...

I won't repeat the deserved plaudids, for reasons of expediency (yes, I'm running late.. ) , but add some constructive observations if I may.

The rubble from the courtyard wall, should almost all be in the direction of the Panther, rather than on the pavement. The movement of the Panther would have pushed/smashed it forward.

The work table is too cluttered, especially if they are working on the cylinder heads. And I would not put the jerry cans on there either. Certainly not three.

Will ad some more later
Henk

Henk, old friend, our are you? Glad you are back!

Greets from Luxembourg

Claude

PS. did just read your come back thread, so hop e you will stay for sometime. Good Luck for everything!

Every addition to this church makes it more and more spectacular. Love the hammer beams.
J

Hello Claude, it's good to slowly catch up with old friends, even those one still not managed to meet 'in the flesh' .. We nearly met when you first took your Clervaux Castle to England. It was a joy to see it for real, after following the build on Armorama. Lately I have been catching up with your ongoing progress, which is quit frankly astonishing... and all this nonsense about not expanding anymore because of lack of space? Ha, I bet you are looking at buying a larger shed as we speak..

But back to this beautiful church, I agree that two large armoured vehicles unbalance the diorama. I would suggest leaving the rubble of the wall as is, remove the Panther, and replace with either a small Kubelwagen or maybe a SdKfz 250

Cheers
Henk

Dave:

Great to see you back at it! Also, thanks for the winter shots. That poor tree looks downright mean and reminds me of Narnia in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. (on my brain as my daughter and I just finished it last week).

Anyway, comment time regarding the drip edge at the metal roofing. It appears (from the photos) the drip edge comes up above the roof level, where it should go dow to allow the water to sheet off the roof. Also, If you'd like, I can provide a typical detail for the flashing condition at the change in roof pitches and for the drip edge.

Happy Modeling, -zon

Hey Zon, Thanks for the heads up. I did indeed glue it a little too high. I was trying to give some surface thickness to the edge of the roof sheets as I have seen in some of the online photos I have looked at. I will make the appropriate adjustments before my next post. I plan to add the drip edge below the lower edge of the strip i glued to the end of the panels. give it a little angle out for the rain to roll off of. I think it will look okay when it is done.

The tales of Narnia will be a big hit with our girl in a few more years, when she is old enough to understand them more. We are glad though that she loves her Larry the Cucumber stuffy....

Take care Zon!

Dave

Splendid job Dave!!!!
I'll be watching!!

Congratulations!

Hi Dave,

Just dropped in on this one, cracking project and great work. This shoudl be something special.

Cheers

Al

Thanks Rodrigo, always glad when I read new peoples reactions to my efforts!

Jerry I am unfamiliar with the term " hammer beams" ? I think by it you mean the interior trusses, but please enlighten me for my own edification if you do not mind.

Zon I was contemplating what we both see on the roof & I may have spoken too quickly. I will post a new updated picture set before friday and I believe you will see the method in my madness more clearly.

Alan thanks. I think that is high praise coming from a senior contributor! I will have to keep my wits about me now eh? Sorry for the boldly Canadian slang just there....lol, anyway it must be aboot time to get going on the roof for a bit more tonight.

Happy modeling everyone!

Dave

I work as an architect and I have to congratulate with you for the way that you have rendered structures and details.

That's an impressive and incredibly accurate job

Thanks Mauro, I have had the blessing of being a builder of both homes and a few commercial buildings and have actually been involved in three 1:1 scale churches too, albeit not this style. Those experiences have helped me vastly in my small scale representation you see here.

What do I say, jack of all trades master of some?

Thanks for your gracious compliments. I am striving and moving toward a finish line I can now see dimly in the distance. Here's hoping the details remain consistently high as I rapidly approach the end of this project.

And don't worry, I now have a reputation for fine work, so I won't disappoint.... I hope, lol.

Have a great night? or day?

Dave

Yes,I am referring to the roof supports of the church. I may be wrong(and frequently am,just ask my girlfriend)but that kind of structure is called Hammerbeam as it's main feature is the missing horizontal bottom piece of the traditional tringular roof truss.
J