Nativity Scene – Part 3

It’s that time of year again. The Nativity Scene demands an upgrade.

Last year was a bit of a downer as I started on the backdrop too late, it took far too long to make and was ready around New Year.

This year I made a new ground-/road-section and added vegetation. In time!

As we celebrate Xmas tomorrow, on the 24^th, I have to run off and buy the last of the food, bake some julvört (a Christmas bread flavoured with porter, ginger, clove, Seville orange and other exotic stuff. Excellent!), glaze the Christmas ham and drink far too much mumma.

There will be a post later with more details of stuff used for the Nativity Scene.

Enjoy the pics and have a really great vacation. 

God Jul och Gott Nytt År!

Nativity scene – part 2

Yesterday part 2 of the Nativity Scene was presented (as we celebrate Jul/Yule on the 24^th) to my wife and it is now placed on the mantle-piece in the living-room.

I started building the scenery a couple of weeks ago and been working rather intensely with it for the last couple of days. It was finished on the 22^nd, a day to spare!

Early in the construction process. The base is built and I've started to set the LED-lamps.

I wanted the stables to be lit up and First thought of a small LED-spotlight. But I changed that to a lot of lamps instead, to get a shadow-free light.

A space made for the battery pack. Three batteries are supposed to last around 180 hours. Plenty enough.

Fake fur placed in strips

Painted with a paint-glue mix.

Roof dry-brushed and three-layers of  static grass applied.

"Straw" glued down. One nail to support Josef and the other two to show where the other minis should be.

All the minis glued down with hot-glue. The battery-pack is well hidden behind the wall.

How it looks in the dark.

Where it belongs - on the mantle-piece. More stuff to be added next year.

The kids got four new games this time (guess who bought them) so we will game a lot the next few days. We also had a very different game of chess yesterday, more on that in the next post.

God Jul (Merry Yule) everyone.

Holy Family Nativity Set from Thunderbolt Mountain

So what on earth is this? Has the old atheist turned religious lately?

Fear not, I’m still very much an atheist but this time of year is the time to make people around you happy.

My wife's got relatives that have a rather nice nativity scene diorama big enough to stand in a bookshelf and she really likes it. Let’s just say I stayed rather luke-warm to the whole idea of having one of our own.

But… I do like the sculptor Tom Meier and the figures he makes. At his web-shop, Thunderbolt Mountain, he’s got a lot of great minis and among these a nativity set in 54mm scale. I’ve been looking at it for a couple of years and last year about this time I decided to go for it.

If we're going to have a nativity scene diorama at home I would at least make it myself.

So, here they are. The first installment in the nativity scene - three not totally unknown people that caused quite a stir. My wife got these as a julklapp (Christmas gift) yesterday (yes, we celebrate Jul on the 24^th) and she was very happy with it.

I’ll work more with this to get a decent diorama with a stable of some sort, animals, shepherds etc. I think I have presents for a couple of years at least :-)

Paints used (Vallejo unless noted):

The child:

Skin – Pale Flesh with a wash of Army Painter Soft Tone wash and highlight of Pale Flesh

Manger – Cork Brown with a wash of AP Strong Tone and highlighted with Cork Brown and 977 Desert yellow

Straw – 914 Green Ochre highlighted with 847 Dark Sand and 837 Pale Sand

Blankets – Coat d’Arms 240 Unbleached Wool with a Soft Tone wash

                 972 Light Green Blue with a Strong Tone wash and highlighted 972.

The Mother:

Skin – as the child

Dress – 948 Golden Yellow with a Soft Tone wash. Highlighted with 948 and 837 Pale Sand

Cape – 966 Turquoise highlighted with 840 Light Turquoise

Sash and bonnet – Coat d’Arms 240 Unbleached Wool highlighted with white

Hair – 822 German Camo Black Brown.

The Father:

Dress – 886 Green Grey with a wash of AP Strong Tone and highlighted 886 and 971 Green Grey

Cape – 872 Chocolate Brown, Dark Tone wash and drybrushed 872 and 875 Beige Brown

Rope and footwear – P3 Bootstrap Leather with an AP Dark Tone wash.

Hair – 989 Sky Grey with a wash of AP Dark Tone

Skin – Pale Flesh with Strong Tone wash and highlight Pale Flesh

God Jul everyone!