Friday 23 June 2017

1/300 - 6mm Middle Eastern Fort

Far away in the mists of time I found three Middle Eastern buildings which looked ideal for 1/300 / 6mm gaming. A few years ago I got round to grafting them onto polystyrene hill pieces and there they they languished long enough to gather a few millimetres of dust. With a new found enthusiasm to tidy up and make sense of the chaos in the loft, I've finally finished one of the buildings which I guess I can use for Iberia, Sicily, North Africa and anywhere else with Islamic influence.

At present, in this scale, I have modern Iraqi, Syrian and Jordanian forces, or Napoleonic Ottomans that might fit period-wise. If anyone out there knows where this building is really from - I'd love to hear :)








5 comments:

  1. Excellent little building,and nicely presented. BB

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    1. Thank you Paul, as is usual for me it was a bit of an experiment and I hope to make some improvements with the next one. Cheers.

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  2. Hello there, Deon!

    First of all, the model you made is incredibly beautiful and the amount of details engraved into it is phenomenal, to be brutally honest. Now, as you've questioned where the design of this building originates from, I'll let you know that you can rely on my information given that I am a wannabe architect studying in High School to become an architect and I do loads of my research on architecture around the world.

    Although I was born and raised in Canada for half my life, I have spent the other half of my life in the Middle Eastern country of Bahrain and a substantial amount of my life in the countries of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, hence adding to my knowledge of architecture in places like the Middle East and South Asia.

    Back to your question with the stories aside, unfortunately, this isn't the building you may want to use in North Africa or the Mediterranean regions as this is actually a traditional courtyard house from the oil-rich country of the United Arab Emirates. (UAE) Although the modern country is known for having skyscrapers shaping the skylines of its cities, the region had its inhabitants living in courtyard houses during the early 1900s and before, which looked exactly like the one you recreated. It is also important to note that the country of UAE is another one of those oil-rich Arab monarchies along the waters of the Persian Gulf. A Gulf that is separated from the Mediterranean Sea by the two landmasses of Syria and Iraq.

    In order to recreate a building from your region of target, my suggestion is to search on Google images by typing words like "old house *some North African city*" or look for any forum on the site of Skyscrapercity which talks about the domestic architecture of the region of your choice.

    Anyways, take care, have a great day and build more! :D

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    1. P.S. I would like to add to what I said about your model. As the model you made was intended to be a fort, it is rather a house with a wind tower, because forts in Gulf Arab countries look different from the houses.

      Here is the Zubarah fort in Qatar:

      https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/historical-al-zubarah-fort-qatar-cannon-477235801

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    2. Awesome info , many thanks , I have the Zubarah fort in my collection so I shall have to get that completed. Really appreciate the feedback :)

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