Merry Christmas everyone! I put the door layout on hold for a while to concentrate on restoring my parents old Nativity set that my dad gave to me a few days before he passed and he asked me to make sure I set it up. The figures have seen better days but are still usuable ( I may get someone to touch up the nicks and dings) but I had to remove the old straw roof that had 65 years of old glue and straw on it. It came off remarkable easy for the most part, I guess the old hide glue that my dad used didn't adhere to well to what ever paint and stain he used. I did find on the back of it where he had signed and dated it when he built it.
I used some of the tried and true modeling techniques of wet water and diluted wood glue sprayed on to affix the new straw roofing, I used EZ Straw from True Value since it already comes pre-chopped and looks good as a ground cover in the scene also. I also used a lot of Crazy Glue to "spot weld" a lot of the pieces that were coming loose from old age. While I was working on it I decided to dig out the old trains that my grandfather and dad had run under the tree with the Nativity and set them up with the Nativity set under the tree for the first time in in more than 50 years.
I was a little disappointed with the sluggishness of the set but after an evening of cleaning the wheels and oiling everything they ran like I remember them, the light bulbs still worked too!
I had always thought that the "boards" on the manger were painted on but while I worked on it I realized that my dad had used one of those graining tools to paint fake wood grain on things was how he did it. When I built mine I did it the hard way, I made it with individual pieces of basswood to simulate actual planking, my dad used an old orange crate for his material of choice and painted the boards on.
A quick side note, when we were kids one of the sheep got broken and lost a leg, my dad replaced it with a match stick and painted it white with a black foot, unless someone pointed it out to you you'd never even notice it, but over the past few weeks that sheep has become the center of attention and is now known affectionately as Lt. Dan. 
( Yes, I do realize I'm going to the bad place, I'm just working on a good seat right now and it's not like I won't know anyone there )
Well I'm going to go get me some dinner ( we made kielbasa this past weekend) but I wanted to share this with you guys, it's good to be posting again and if I don't sign in before Christmas I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and please don't forget the real reason for the season... to make it socially acceptable for grown men to play with toy trains!
Jerry
