So during the lockdown, I’ve had a thought that I could use the spare mdf that the building come with, to build a market place or it’s correct name, a souk.
The idea was to use the frame mdf, that usually ends up in the bin, and to add market stall to it. These could then be offered in front of the building.
I looked through the internet for others, that had gone down similar routes.
I ended up at the matakishi excellent web site again.
There was a great image of a building, that was adapted into a store.
I thought, I could “borrow” a couple of ideas from this.
Firstly I looked at the market awnings. Now these were attached to the building and I didn’t really want to do that, so I followed his brilliant idea of using cocktail sticks and florist wire, to make frames, for the awning to sit on.
These could then be offered up in front of the building, or taken away if not required.
I also borrowed his idea of where to buy the “goods” from, that would be sold in the market. Most of his goods came from Ansty castings.
So now the ideas were coming together, and I built 4 buildings, that would have market stalls in front of them, using the left over mdf.
Now I needed to cover the market stalls with awnings.
I tried several ideas, soaking tissue and kitchen towel in watered down pva, but then bought a £1 cotton shopping bag from Hobbycraft, and started cutting out awnings from this.
I glued on the cotton material, and did soak it a little in watered down pva glue.
At this stage, I decided to trim the stall base section, and removed the corners that sat around the base of the builds, as I decided the market would be more versatile if it didn’t have to sit up against, and around the building base.
Here is the stand alone market, if required.
Now I needed to paint the awnings. For some reason, images on the internet, show that Afghan market stall awnings, are very popular in red, so that’s the way I went.
Then some basetex on the bases.
A bit of dry brushing on the bases.
After this I added a few tufts of grass, and they were good to go.
So now I had the stalls, but what about the goods to sell and the buildings that they were designed to sit up against.
Going through the internet, I found 3 or 4 suppliers to go to, that sold market goods that would be suitable for the Arab theatre.
I dispatched my credit card, to get the goods, and spent a week painting crates, sacks, bowls, pots and pans, until I ended up with this little lot.
I also had downloaded a page of Arab rugs from a modelling site, so I printed them out. I glued a couple to a table, then rolled a couple round a cocktail stick and glued them to the table as well. So now we have a rug stall for the market.
So now for the buildings. These were from Sarrisa, from their Middle East ruined range.
Here you can see them nearly finished.
So as a trial, I put one row of stalls in front of one row of buildings, and ended up with this.
Just finishing the buildings, and should be able to assemble the souk, and take final pictures later today.