A Nativity Scene

Given the dates I think it's appropiate to show my progress on my very own sci-fi Neapolitan Presepio, as there are a few new things that can be seen.

I'll start with an idea which eventually ended up turning in some kind of obsession. I wanted a Tatooine feeling into the board, and that meant round hollow spaces in the ground, in the style of Luke's home at the moist farm. Of course you are already familiar with the spaceport and the bazaar, but I really wanted a third kind of space, this time a residential one.

Of course there's no room for a whole dwelling in the style of the moist farm, but there's still one single piece I can fit in and make work within those 15 cm of depth...

I don't know what you were thinking of, but I'm talking about an old DVD can

 Sooo, what's this new silly plan? A kind of small patio, a relaxing space for the upper class, maybe part of the Governor's residence. Let me explain. On this Emperor forsaken corner of the Eastern Fringe, where life is a constant struggle and life conditions look hard and miserable, this tiny recreational space is a true luxury, a privilege of the rich (most likely outworlders that dominate the economy of the sector). Though I have the Governor's palace in mind, it can be a Rogue Trader residence on the planet or any other thing, this is still to be determined. The thing is that I wanted a fresh place in the middle of the desert. My most immediate reference are those small Andalusian patios, conceived precisely to that very purpose of refreshing, made of tiles and whitewash and full of plants and flowers. Let's start with the basics...

As usual, just painted paper

An access door, so you get an idea of the dimensions

To add another usual element in these structures, I also built this little fountain:

Yup, that's a Stormcast head

It's a pretty basic piece. Once again the background is just an image downloaded from the first link I browsed and printed on regular paper.

Now let's think of where this patio can (or must) be placed. Being set as a privilege of the upper class rather than a communal space, it cannot be accessible -not even visible! It must be placed on the upper part of the board, where it's users can relax without anyone seeing them.

OK. First of all, to get to that place, I need to build the access to my previous part of the board:

Seriously, at this stage of the project I hate building stairs

You can see the entrance to an inner corridor of some kind. I honestly couldn't be bothered with placing more doors or tiles: everything you see in there is just painted. Don't worry, at tabletop distance it works.

 

Of course it has its own light

Making that vaulted corridor was tricky and time consuming. Seriously, these last couple of pics took an insane number of hours, both in terms of planning and building; but in the end I think it works, and that's what matters. I want to represent a place dug in the rock, so I plan to add rough texture later.

But in the meantime, let's get back to where I think the Andalusian patio belongs...

 

I mean, up there

 That's part of its concept, to be unreachable. So it had to go as high and isolated as I could make it. At this time I had to face some structural issues, mainly regarding the weight of the plastic can and how to place it. I mean, as you can see I'm putting the cart before the horse, I'm starting the structure from the upside and it will condition all the building beneath. Yeah, yeah, I know, typical me.

I tried to find solutions, as I needed to meet two conditions, basically volume and sturdiness, but combined with the less weight possible. The structure of the patio is exactly the whole depth of the board. I cannot make a light structure on the upside and a monumental, larger building beneath it, there's simply no room for it. On the contrary, I'll need to have some hollow space on the lower part so I can move miniatures and stuff.

I had this other idea. Instead of building the whole structure with foamboard, I simply used this card box:

 

A lot of volume, reasonable sturdiness and essentially no weight

Now the patio can rest on that structure and I can keep on working downwards, knowing the measures for sure and not depending on hypothetical calculations. Of course I could have started this building in the regular way, like normal people, from the floor and upwards, but after the experience with the previous platforms, this method somehow looked easier. Yes, as you may have gathered, I'm not an architect. I'm a simple man of Law, and it shows in the chaotic way I face these projects. Nevertheless I'm confident that this will eventually turn into something playable.

 

A better view of this mess

 I had to cut out that corner as it will be the place where a new stair will be, downwards to the right. The good thing about cardboard is that I could cut those windows on the front. I cannot do that on foamboard, so I took my chances here to make those three windows really close.

Let's go now on the lower space:

These tiles are becoming quite a hallmark here

 

The structure wants to recreate the idea of corridors within the mountain

A closer look, just  to see what's this about

I simply painted those tiles on the floor

I think I've talked about this before, but planning ahead about the lights is a pain in... well, a pain in everywhere!

But it's the only way to ensure it will work and that light will reach the correct places

 My plan is to make this the entrance of a cave:

 

Room enough for my hand to fit in!

 Again, a miscalculation. As I had to make the entrance wider than originally planned, the eye sees what wasn't designed to be seen!

 

Ooops!

 Don't worry, I made another wall and...

I mean.. yes, yes, this was planned from the beginning. Yes, all the time

So this is what you see from the outside:
 

Oh, do you recognise that sign?

Don't you??

What about now? XD

Right, it's The Place that Sends you Mad, from The Twelve Tasks of Asterix. I'm afraid that this belongs to my childhood in a way difficult to explain to anyone who hasn't shared this experience. Anyway, a crazy layout of an impossible maze of a building. I feel it really fits in :D

So this is what I got:

Oh, it looks ugly. Let me just a sec

A sec later...
 

Rock, stairs (and lights behind thse windows!)

Well, now everything begins to fit. The patio is in place and I have connected the left part of the module with this area. In future installments I'll have another set of stairs going down from there towards the right part, as said before.

But I believe you will see all of this better with some more colour:

Better, I hope. A few decorations too, but I guess I should ad more details

 

Oh, and the lights, of course

But all this madness started with a mockery of an Andalusian patio, so I think we can go back and see how it ended...

This is luxury

 I added some water to the fountain (just some white glue; once dry it makes the trick) and some mould. The rest was just a matter of adding pots of flowers and a table (coming from a pizza! I finally got to use a pizza table!!)). I printed a tablecloth and used a couple of resin bottles. I didn't add any chairs just to make the patio playable:

I had trouble to take this pic with the phone!

 I'll leave it here. I have a general idea of what to build next, so I hope I'll be putting some work on it in the next few days.

For now I can only wish you a very merry Christmas and send you my best wishes for 2026!

All the best. Cheers!!