2021 Manger Project

Lamb's-eye view. I clearly need to get out the Nikon and get some real pictures. And I still need to do something with the round window.

The scene with figures added. The scale might be slightly off, but not quite as much as this picture suggests. It's built at 1/20th scale based on the 3.5in figurine representing a 6ft tall Joseph, so the lower sections are effectively 7ft to the crossbeams and the hammer beams (the horizontal stubs) are at 9.5ft, while the windowsills are 40in off the ground and the door opening is 6ft 9in high.

Finally finished and ready for guests finding no room in the inn. When you think about it, today's equivalent of the manger at an inn would be the parking structure at a hotel. "Away in a Parking Structure" doesn't have the same ring to it, though, and I can only imagine how painful the acoustics would be with a little drummer boy drumming away surrounded by all that bare concrete.

Structure and rooves complete. Just needs the backdrop wall, once the door and windows are glued in place. Note the installed roof brackets under the trusses on either side. The pair in the back had to be cut back on the lower end to clear the crossbeams for the lower roof sections - this added an unexpectedly attractive element of complexity that I wish had been possible on the front as well.

Initial (wrong) installation of the side roof panels - fortunately, the one big oops with the project and easily corrected.

Roof panel glue-up. Spraying alcohol-thinned dye stain on the basswood pieces turned out to have interesting results, in that the unexpected blotchiness mimicked weathering of a creosoted wood roof.

Structural assembly complete, apart from the lower roof brackets.

The completed roof structure, minus the lower set of brackets.

Gluing up the posts and cross-beams.