Yes Robert, i googled him already. This guy gave us modellers plenty of references to build. Beautiful pictures indeed.

John, Robert, one thing after the other! LOL

Thanks for your enthousiasm, i will print two more then!

Seriously, if you have time, i made a lengthy post about the book in a Blog entry on my webpage a few days ago.

I am already working on it. I am running both things parallel right now (when i am not writing an article for a dutch railroad hobby magazine like just now).
I am finishing the dio and as soon as I am done i want the second book to follow it as long as I am fresh on your guys mind. For now i have 50-100 visits each day on my webpage but who knows how that will go if i stop being present on the message boards for a while.

I am dreaming of getting the book ready for the october expo! It may defintely be finished to find a place on most modellers Christmas wish list.
Isn't it? ( I hear at least a thousand "yeah's)

Mr Antom Pieck is a man after my own heart! Another reason I am glad I look in here.
J
J

@ Jerry
Yeah Anton Pieck was a really skilled artist. I have several books with his works. I love his use of colors. He manages to create really nice scenes.

No update does not mean no progress!

I am at the point already where I need to detail different parts because I will not be able to reach them later. That takes time.
I also redid a few parts a few times and spend a lot (really a lot) of time on a lead glass window. The pattern is a simple rectangular one, but I want to make it look real, meaning lead on glass and not something printed on. It's nearly done.

One overall picture to show progress. Note the octagon who did not yet have the pleasure of a photo of his own.



After the weekend I think I will have completed the whole complicated part of the Villa, the rest should be routine, not easy , but doable.

Ok, the chapel will be a hard nut to crack, I forgot that one.

Greets
Claude

Just when you thought you had seen it all,it gets more spectacular!
J

beautiful work as per usual!

thank you guys!

Claude

Claude, Thank YOU, for showing us your impressive work, which is more than amazing... superb!

Cheers!

I am pretty sure that nobody in the world has build a chapel the very same day a new pope got elected! I am not saying that I offer a chapel to the pope because that is definitely not me. He is to be satisfied to have another one in the world
Here it is, at least the shell construction


I will invite the pope for the consecration

Just a notice. This has just been glued together. It will get a stone cover and all the joints, as inexact as they are, will disappear

its always interesting to see your buildings come together Claude, how many hours a day do you build?

Looks almost like another castle! Still watching with interest and still amazed!

Cheers!
Stefan

Thank you Pablo
Thanks James, I work about 2 hours each evening, about 8-10 on saturday and 6-8 on sundays.
The pace should get a bit higher soon when I am covering those roof and the temperature in the workroom gets a bit higher.
I put myself a bit under time pressure because I want to get all done by July to get the book out in sept/Oct.
I even take sometimes 2 hours off from work to get a bit longer modeling afternoons.

Fortunately this chapel work went a lot better then I feared. I made the eave already , the whole surface has bben covered in putty yesterday and roughly scribbed. The rest will be made today. I am doing decals for the coloured windows (hopefully I have enough in stock).

Thanks Stefan, indeed , more complicated then the castle. Just imagine that I even downsized the Villa by a 1/5th!
It should be even bigger!

With the chpel smoothly done, the most complicated parts are behind me. The front is routine.

I did not spend a minute on the planning of the roof as it was to complicated to think in advance. That will be some exciting hours when I will plan the supports of this one.

Claude

Hi Claude , very cool addition .
Excellent work as always , looks like you've got your work cut out for you on all the roof angles .

I found this pic and thought it would interest you .
The back of the photo claims there's an American and German tank under the snow , any idea where this is - in or near your build ?

I know it's a long shot but thought you'ld like it .

Well, I am glad to see you still around!How are you? Hope all is fine.

Thanks for the photo, it is indeed interesting and I never saw it before.
Here are some other views



This is in Clervaux, outside the village and is part of the scene I initially planned to do but will not because of space issues.
The Sherman got shot there and pushed aside on Dec. 17 but the German one landed there during the retreat in January.
I was told that it was not shot but actually towed because out of order and the towing vehicle could not manage the hairpin curve and the Stug landed in the road side.

Glad to hear from you

Claude

The build is going on very good. No wonder if I even take off from my job for an afternoon here and there to get some more done and do about 16 hours of modeling on a weekend.
I have this time table to get all done by end of June at latest and there are, apart from the Villa, still a lot of things to do.
I have an expo in July, a little one, but this will give me a great opportunity to make the final overall photos meant for the book. In my garage I have hardly the space to do that.

Ok, now for the short update with pictures.
The chapel is finished.

It is an Octagon with sides of only 3 cm. The roof top is finishing so small (8 times) that i prefered covering the roof with lead foil. I added a gutter later

Here are all the pieces necessary to complete the whole Villa. Would I build a street row with this pieces as facades, I would have a road of 2 meters!
.

Here, i started glueing together the complicated part of the Villa


Compared to the original and considering the difficulties I talked about before the build regarding downsizing it all I think I am doing as good as possible.
The only problem (difficult for anybody then me to see) is the difference in size of the rounded house part and the terasse part.
I downsized the round part but kept the terasse and stairs to a maximum because this is an entry with a gate and I wanted a nice ratio with a person's height. That leads to a certain discrepancy of course and I hope it wil not have to much consequnces on the roof work.

Starting friday I am 10 days off work and will certainly use them to make some more progress and even start building up and covering the roof.

Claude

Wow! Amazing work!

Nice work as always. What started as the nightmare of an architect has now become your nightmare.
J

I say let's all drink to Claude's nightmares....they make up for fascinating and inspiring posts on this forum!!

Thank you Claude! Villmols merci!

Cheers

Romain

So!

I spend a whole month doing nothing else then tiling this roof. 120 hours! and this

is the last tile of Diorama Clervaux!

I did not and will not count them but I easily surpassed the 100k, considering that the castle has already 30k

After another week of gutter placing and doing other finishing I consider the Villa nearly finished. It took me 5 month overall.

For those counting on a lot of pictures I must say that a) I barely had the time to take any and
b) I must keep unpublished pictures for the book

This is one I made using my new wide angle, bought specially for book pictures.


I already choose and primed 5 figures to put around the Villa and am definitely seeing the end of this whole adventure.

I hope for your understanding regarding the lack of pictures, the potential buyers of the book will certainly.

Wow, I am nearly done!

Greets
Claude

Claude, you're absolutely bat-poop crazy tackling a project this big. But I mean that in the nicest and most admirable way possible, and I can't wait to see the whole thing finished.

-Conor

OUTSTANDING WORK

Always cool to see how you go about solving all of the problems involved with this extensive project.
J

Hi Claude,
Wow! Nearly there...I can't imagine how you must feel! I am very much looking forward to buying your second book. This looks wonderful!

I love the photos of the two tanks in both winter and summer.

I do a 165th Signal Photo Company Combat Photographer reenactor impression and I know several photographers from the 165th and 166th. Great to see their work showing up on this blog site!

Cheers

Oh nonditjö!!!!!!!!!

grandios!!! Einfach émoleg!!

What a beauty! Even the angled corners on the shingles are there!!
Another book to buy in the near future then!!!

Biggest compliments!! Alles Gudds!!

Cheers

Romain