Diorama Clervaux - how it looks now

[Claude Joachim]

Hi everyone,

I know i promised to post here more often, but i am sorry to say that my posting activity was limited to only one forum the last monts due to lack of time. Let me show you some final pictures of the actual look of the dio.
This thing is getting so big that i will simply make a selection for now covering most sides of it. I did not yet take good pictures from everything, so this should do it.
The diorama's size is now 2,2 x 2,1 meter and i expect to let it grow by one more 1,20 meter in the next years.
Every building i added is referenced more or less in old pictures, the layout of the street also is similar to the one in Clervaux.

Let's start with an overall picture

Pictures from the space behind the latest houses


and the front of it



This is the setup on the upper side of the street, some more figures now placed  with woman and child.


The Army theater inside the Hotel, playing a film of Laurel&Hardy


View over the parking area


The Sherman advancing

The new scene, with the scratchbuild lady descending from the Lanz and the Gentleman helping her down.



Here is an overhead picture taken during the Euromiliatire expo and showing nicely the setup


Hope you like it!


Cheers
Claude

www.diorama-clervaux.com

[marc_reusser]

Claude,

Thanks for posting this update..I was hoping to see some pictures of this (all I saw were some poorly lit out of focus ones from one of the shows you recently had it at. Euro?-Mil?)

It looks wonderful. The town buildings and scene are beautifully done, and combined with the Chateau really make an engaging diorama, full of character and mood.  I also like how all the various colores, tones and values really work together.

There is so much to see in every image, in regards to nuances and detail....it feels just like being in a real french town.


Thanks again for the update. Look forward to seeing more.

Marc

[Hector Bell]

Claude,
this is work of George Stokes level and there is no greater compliment from an Englishman than that!
Shame about the military theme, but that's just my preference.

Superb trees.

Martin

[RoughboyModelworks]

Thanks for the update pictures Claude... been wondering how this project was coming along. The overall effect is overwhelming and there are lots of mini-dramas in each scene as you explore the environment. The Laurel & Hardy "Nothing but Trouble" reference is very clever. Would love to be able to see this in person one day... though the photos are excellent, I'm sure there is an emotional element that just doesn't come through until seen in person.

Paul

[finescalerr]

The scenery detail is wonderful. The leaves beneath the trees, credible grass and shrubbery. An outstanding model. -- Russ

[Hector Bell]

I think it a superb piece, BUT... I don't like the people.  Wartime or not, I think they cheapen it horribly.  They aren't a patch on the rest of the work, like they were last minute add-ons, by somebody else.
Apart from that, wonderful stuff, especially the two little garage doors in the middle.

Martin

[okiecrip]

that looks great

[Ray Dunakin]

Awesome piece of work! I especially like the big tree in the front, and the dead leaves under the trees. The buildings look very real.

[artizen]

I like it because I could never build to this level in a fit. Love the big tree and the dead leaves (where did you get them?). Just built a very large tree for my layout and it was a complete pain. And it's wrong so at sometime in the future when I forget how difficult it was, I will try to rebuild it into a more believable structure.

Also love the fact that there appears to be no railway items anywhere!!!!

Your figures look very glossy at the moment, maybe a toning down would make them blend in better? Also love a diorama that tells a story with heaps and heaps of detail - all of it very well done indeed.

[Claude Joachim]

Thank you very much everyone! Love the different opinions and comments!

@Hector, to make it without figs is unfortunately to late. You may remember or know that the backside of the castle is filled with 60 figures!
The figures may not blend in so well  (a few of them) because i am more at ease with structures then figures. Interesting comment!
This sounds good regarding "George Strokes", but i never heard of the guy?  (Forgive me !)

Regarding the leaves, these are from Thymian, harvestet in the "wild", and drying nicely. The ones near the weeping willow are from Garden Thymian, this one is drying more elongated.(corresponding to willow leaves)

Thanks a lot for some slightly different comments, i appreciate

Claude

[Hector Bell]

Claude,
I have a problem with figures anyway, although I carve them as part of my modelmaking service!
I don't like to see figures in an active pose. Fine for a photo, but in an exhibition it looks wrong as they don't move.

George Illiffe Stokes was simply the finest scenic model maker who ever lived, though a few run him close, like Trevor Gravett and the late, wonderful Roye England.  But nobody has ever come close to his perfect model trees.  he modelled actual trees because, as he said, "you can't invent a tree".  You HAVE to model a real one unless you are an arborialist by trade.  He then applied ivy and other creepers to the trunks.  he modelled them in the starkness of winter, though he was perfectly capable of showing the foliage.

Stokes work is still shown in serious magazines 60 years after it was first made and still shames almost all model railway layouts made today.  He was the pioneer of using computer chads as bricks and applied them individually.
He was first and foremost a watercolour artist and architectural illustrator and used those skills in his modelmaking.
Apart from a few individual buildings, he made a bonfire of the entire layout in his garden and started anew.
To my mind, the crime of the century!

I have had the staggering pleasure of actually holding one of his little cottages and it is just as stunning in my hand as in the atmospheric old black and white photos of the article in April 1963 Railway Modeller, entitled "Does your Railway Live?", which led to my becoming a modelmaker.

There are aspects of your structural work which come very close to his work.  Thankyou.

Martin

[finescalerr]

Where can we find photos of his trees and brick structures? -- Russ

[Claude Joachim]

Where can we find photos of his trees and brick structures? -- Russ

Thank you very much Hector for this resumée, sounds indeed great. Thanks for giving his middlename, this brought up some Google results i will check out.  Thanks again for the compliment.

I am planning to ad a squaremeter of forest to this dio, so i have plenty of material to improve.

Indeed, to make my weeping willow i worked with two reference photos to make the look right. It has 50 cm height and is assembled by approx. 40 pieces of roots from beech trees.

I had , to my great pleasure and satisfaction, during the three expos i made during the last 6 weeks, experienced  a few
people who had been overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the scene. They simply stood in front of it during a few minutes and let it in, a bit like Paul said in earlier response here, « there most be an emotional element in this".‎
‎(I'm sorry , my lack of English vocabulary handicaps a better written reflection) ‎

So yes, I am myself happy how this turned out. ‎

Claude

[shropshire lad]

Martin ,

   I know Gordon Gravett , is he any relation to Trevor Gravett ?

   Nick

[Hector Bell]

Nick, apologies.  I meant Gordon Gravett.  I said it to myself and it didn't sound right!! Doh!!
Please apologise to him if you see him, for me.  I met him at Spalding once and had a great chat with him, but I have a terrible memory for peoples' names.

Claude, I wasn't suggesting there is anything wrong with your trees, they are superb!

Russ, I'll see what I can find.  I don't know if there are any copyright problems as the magazines where I have his work are current.

Martin