Hello everyone,

With this report i want to close the Castle-chapter of my planned Clervaux-Diorama.
Some of you did read the last AFV Modelller magazines and are pretty much uptodate (there are morepictures here, so take a look anyway), a lot of european modellers saw the castle on expositions and non-english modelling sites and some of you probably can’t hear the word château anymore.

I stopped updating this board more than a year ago and i suppose that there are still some people around who are welcoming a final picture showdown.
If anyone want to ask a specific question please feel free to do so.

The castle is in 1/35 and is 1.5m x 0.7 m (5x2.3 feet) big.
There are 60 figures in there, everything is scratchbuild.
Here we go:









































I hope you enjoyed this little adventure.
Since a few months i am already working at the follow-up to this part, the village on the bottom of the castle, so expect to see more of my work soon.

Cheers
Claude

Absolutely amazing. So many stories within the story, I especially like the guy listening to the radio and the prisoner kicking the cup. Great work

David's Model Pages

Not !
This is so incredible, visited the Clerveaux castle several times and your work nailed to the last brick !
All the different scenes inside, the details on figures and interior...
Now your going to build the village? Just wondering, where do find the room to build and place all this...

Please don't wait another year to show us your progress !

Jan

Hey there !

This is just incredible.........
Never been there, but it looks so real.
And the obvious skills needed for both construction, modelling vehicles and not the least - figurepainting.

I salute you - you have my sincere respect and admiration.

Keep it up - and enjoy it while doing so...

Best regards from Denmark

Mike H.

I dont know what bits to comment on, its all so full of stunning detail - awesome mate, just awesome !!!!!!!

Respect
Brent

GentlemansWargamesParlour
http://xsorbit28.com/users5/wargamesroom/index.php

...........this hobby. What's the point in continuing when THIS is what you are up against? LOL.


Magnificent work. Stunning.

absolutely great; and the really frustrating thing is that it got ready within this relatively short time. Some pic look like th ereal thin indeed, especially the one where you look up to the partly destroyed building from beneath.

Only points I feel slightly uneasy about are the in parts rather thin floors and the fact that in a Hotel you would expect maybe some electrical lighting which I could not make out.

Good catch Werner about the electric lightning.

Ok, only very little of the castle has been renovated and transformed to an Hotel-restaurant (ceasing to exist again in the thirties)
I made electric wiring in the kitchen. The knights room (in fact the whole left side of the casle was not part of the renovation) probably didn't have it,(the chandelier is a with candles), but i could have layed some wiring in the captain's room (the guys with the map), that's true. The chandelier is a candle on here also, so.... perhaps i choose the easy way here.

The floors are 1 or 1.5 nmm Balsa (i have to check) , i think with 3-4,5 cm thick wood for planks i should be good.

Thanks for your comment,

Claude

PS. I just saw on a second look that i wired the captain's room (left side near the exit door).
That part was finished over two year ago, i can't even remember what i did

Hi Claude

after visiting the real thing, and seeing your castle in real life at Euro, I can only say: FANTASTIC!!!

Can`t wait for that village

Cheers

Stefan

it's me BigJon - great to see your castle in such detail all in one post. There are shots here that definitely should have made the article. Love that one against the real sky too - you could easily be forgiven if you got the model and the real thing mixed up.

Something so ambitious and so well executed, and all in the name of love for the hobby! You should be put on the modelling map for all time! and to think you are working on an extension...

there's a straight jacket and a padded cell waiting for you mate

all the best
Jon

Claude, these pics. are by far the best layout shots I've seen of the project. The pics. with the real sky backdrops are amazingly real !!!!
I remember when you started this project and still have all the updates. It's an even more amazing project when I review them and then this !!!!!
SOOOOOO, ...... any town updates ? l.o.l.
Glenn

Thanks to everyone for your enthousiasm,

The support from the whole internet community during the whole build really helped me finishing this.

Yes Glenn, indeed, when i remember my first build steps


It has been a long journey since then.

Claude

Claude,

I suppose this is about as crazy as this hobby can get! Like with a real castle, you'd need a complete one-day guided tour to see everything...

Some of the details shown here I had not seen before, most notably the civilian refugees and the German prisoners. The guy kicking the can is a really nice touch!

Guess all I have to do now is quit the hobby and go back to Legos...

Salut du Québec!

Charby

After seeing this that's the only response I could muster up...I wish i had the talent to do this! Bravo

Speachless.... just speachless! That is friggin spectacular!!!!!!

KC

This is absolutely fantastic!!! A+++ for this! Have not seen anything like this. Love the overall feel and the nitty gritty details.

WOnderful job! Great job!

Cheers!
Brandon

Wow!!

Those exterior shots are amazingly lifelike. Can't tell it's a model!

What a stunning piece of work...

Thanks for posting this update!

Chuck

thats impressive and big. One question, do you have a big space in your work place?,oh my God really is Amazing Dio.
I don´t have more words.
Carajo, que belleza.
Regards.
Atte, Felix (panzerfelix)

My god! This is awesome. How long did it take to do this?

Outstanding!

n t

no text and anonymous !?

but thank you very much anyway

Should be donated to a good military museum and displayed for all the world to admire.

Amazing work, you should be proud of your efforts.

Cheers mate,

Jose.T.Rodriguez
Tiger Productions Diorama Products

...the best I've ever seen. Can't imagine the patience, ingenuity and talent needed to build something like this. Thank you for sharing.

Claude,

This is simply spectacular. I sent these pictures to my cousin who specializes in making WWII 1/35 battle dioramas. Even in his expert opinion it was and I quote "off the charts". However, with due respect it would have been nice to see more landscaping around the castle. But I suppose this would have taken up too much space. So how long did it take you to complete this castle? Cheers,

-Kevin

Hi Kevin, thanks to you and to you cousin.
It took me 3000 hours of work during two years.

One of the inconviniences of the build was the limit on the wide. I had to pay attention to be able to pass the doors!!
A door in my hobby cellar is slightly under the norm, so i had to limit the module at 70 cm, otherwise it would never have left the cellar.
But there is hope, i am continuing the build with the adjacent village, so, in an end picture of the dio there will be more terrain. Here is a little teaser what to expect. This part comes in front of the "Hotel" sign.


Cheers
Claude

Be sure and post the finish pics whenever it's completed. And I thought 6 months was along time to build a model. Good luck with the rest of your project.

-Kevin

Thank you everyone!

The day could not have a better start after seeing so much praise.

The last month i started discussions with the local autority of the town Clervaux.
The castle itself is now completely renovated and houses a few museums.
A small military museum, the Unesco World Heritage expo "Family of Man", and a museum of models of all the Luxembourg castles. It's nearly 40 years old , probably 1/100 models, very basic. But as consequence to a planned renovation it seems doable to find a place for my dio also.
The National Military Museum in Diekirch does not even have the necessary space to display all her own things, so there is no chance to get a place there.

Thanks again

Claude

Brilliant in detail and touch as well as style.

I can only dream of doing anything half as good!

thanks for posting the pics.

Nick

No doubt... The best ever I have seen for scenery built-up! Wordless... What I can say is, from coarse to grain, it is really fine modelling.

Thanks for sharing!!!
Alex

Sorry, I'm speechless too :D
My sinceres congratulations Monsieur Joachim, your job is ......admirable!!!

Regards From ARgentina

Darío

You know Claude that really is something. I went thru the article in AFVM and really enjoyed all of the different figures within all of the rooms. . It really appears to be painted well. That is most unusual on a project of this size. I love the vines on the exterior along with the large planks of wood in the attic.

Well done.

ANPW

It is the most amazing display I have ever seen. I have no other words. What an inspirational dio.

Mark

Thank you everyone,

Two years of work were not in vain.

Thank you

Claude

Hi Claude,

I had the luck to see this wonderful piece in flesh, last weekend! And man, it is really impressive! Again, congrats for your work and the well deserved medals! Hope to see you soon on any show in the future.

Thanks for showing all this pictures here!

Cheers

Volker

I congratulate you - rather you than me.

I have trouble finishing 1 kit completely and to have achieved this is remarkable.

This is definately museum quality stuff.

Well Done!

Shermans vs Germans, the Big Cat killer Ants RULE M4!

Well not really
Outstanding work I might try and copy it this year and the next ten

Very well done!
Ryall

............this is amazing!

This is out-of-this-world! This is Incredible!

I can hardly believe it!

You're good!

regards
Noel

I mean it Been a while since we've seen this. It's absolutely amazing. The attention to detail and faithful painting of every stone, grain of wood, and crack in the ground is what makes it a HUGE step above anything I've Ever seen before. You deserve way more than a best in show medal for this one, what I don't know, but you deserve something. Great job, way to go, can't wait to see the whole town!

Alex Pistole

"The way to win a war is not to die fighting for your country, it's to make the other poor b@$t*rd die for his"

Thank you everyone!

Cheers
Claude