Rocking the Casbah

Another 6mm terrain piece from the archive pile.  This is most of the massive "Oriental Stone Fort" from Irregular's 6mm collection.  I bought this some time ago, so the entire thing is cast in lead.  It has 31 separate elements, not including the seven I left out in the final construction.  This thing runs about $40 US today, but I think I paid around $15-$20 originally.  (Blame the spike in White Metal costs.)

While whiling away the better part of an afternoon cleaning and filing the pieces, I was reminded why I never built this thing when I first got it back in 2003/4.  The pieces are solid lead, so there is a lot of warping/bending.  The flash ranges from small mold lines to 5mm chunks of solid metal.  I probably should have taken the time to fill and sand the piece appropriately, but I ran out of steam after the initial cleaning.  That, and I really don't see me using it for more than window dressing in 1-2 games.

I based it on a 7-hex piece I got from Gamecraft for my 4" tile set project.  I actually had to leave out several wall pieces and another gate to keep it inside the boundary.  I sprayed the entire structure in Armory black primer and then went after it with a series of heavy dry-brushes using Army Painter "Skeleton Bone" and RP Stone.  I opted to leave the interior unadorned in order to fit troop stands for games.

Baccus 6mm Fatimid Egyptians defending their fortress.

It makes nice background piece for period games, and can also serve for modern microarmor games as well.

AAA Parked in the compound.

An interesting piece overall, and definitely a massive chunk of metal.  I have the village and Mosque that go with it, so they will eventually get completed as well.  I have a variety of 6mm Middle Eastern buildings now from numerous manufacturers, and should probably throw up some comparisons.  My favorite tend to come in Resin as they seem the most robust and hold detail the best.  JR Minis do some nice Terracota/Clay buildings, but they do tend to chip and wear.  The advantage with Middle Eastern terrain, however, is that buildings tend to be rather bland, blocky constructs so the lack of detail on the plaster casts isn't as much of an issue as it would be for European style buildings.

On a related note, I found a pic from a WWII Spearhead game I ran at the Spokane Game Faire around 1999 that included some scratch built city tiles I did for "Sidi Omar" in North Africa.  These were done with plaster over Balsa and Plasticard.  Unfortunately, someone liked them enough to steal them while I was setting up the next game, so I will have to try again some day. (The Palm trees are trimmed pipe cleaners)  I did these in 3mm since it was a 6mm game with 1 stand = 1 platoon)  Wrestling with terrain scale is another monsters I will need to come to terms with eventually.

Italian Infantry Battalion establishes defensive positions in the city.