Wednesday 7 February 2018

Egyptian Village - Part 1

As a part of the French in Egypt project I need an Egyptian village to fight over. Plans for this have been in my head since December and a couple of weeks ago I sketched up the floor plans for three structures.

The first structure is a fairly substantial one, consisting of three parts: a two storey residence with external stairs, a smaller residence, a stable and a courtyard, all contained within an outer wall with wooden gate.


The other two are to be fairly simple, single storey structures.


I chose to start on the largest building first and quite quickly cut out and assembled the three key components from a heavy card, using matchsticks to frame the windows and make the doors.

The two-storey dwelling (with external stairs).



The single-storey dwelling (with arched doorway and stairs connecting with the roof of the larger dwelling)


And the stable


All three components dry assembled as below:


I stayed pretty much true to the original plan, although I altered some of the dimensions to constrain the overall size and dispensed with the arch in the courtyard wall.

With the cardboard forms constructed I then applied the outer finish. For this I used the artist modelling compound that I use for basing figures, with a few pinches of fine sand added for texture. I applied this with a pallette knife and left to dry.



I then glued the three pieces together.


Next I glued the whole structure to a base and added the courtyard walls.



I added the front gate then the whole structure was  painted with the same sand colour I used for my French in Egypt bases and washed with a thinned down coat of GW Seraphin Sepia. The doors and window frames were painted and the window cavaties blackened. Finally I drybrushed the whole model with two lightened shades of GW Tallard Sand, the second shade being almost white. Then a few water stains and  it was finished.





So for this village, one model down, two to go.

16 comments:

  1. Clever, creative, interesting and beautiful...I love that!

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    1. Thank you Phil. I figure that every army needs a town or village to fight over.

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    2. Lovely looking buildings Mark...
      A timeless design... stick a satellite dish on it and you are in the 21st century..

      All the best Aly

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    3. Indeed you are quite correct- this model is loosely based on some photos I took in 2009

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  2. Thank you for posting and very cool! That is a great model and the process well illustrated đŸ˜€

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    1. Thanks Stew. The other two structures, much simpler models, are under way now.

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  3. Great job, and inspirational!

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  4. Lovely terrain work and I really apreciate the work in progress shots.
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain. WIth the promise of a wet weekend I may manage to get some more Egyptian buildings finished.

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  5. Really well done. I especially like the work that has gone into layering the steps.

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    1. Yes the steps give it character. With yet another cyclone heading our way (that's about the third in three weeks) and the prospect of another wet weekend, I may get the rest of that village finished by Monday.

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  6. Briliant stuff Mark and so functional for a number of different projects. Finally managed to get my French on the table, your postings have pushed my remaining figures up the paint quere.
    Cheers
    Stu

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    1. Thanks Stu. I have the next buildings under way. At the end of the month I will order the first of the British in Egypt and by May I may actually get something on the table.

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