Building the Harem - North African Architecture - Exotic Locations

[Furt]

I have to chime in with former user and critically point out that the authentic 'haram' is much, much larger. People of an average 175 to 185 cm height would be able to move around in them.

    

[Hammers]

   

[Dr. The Viking]

Lovely work!

I love the methodic approach you make.

[Elbows]

Am I the only one who got a chuckle of Harry Flashman on the ledge in the last picture!?    Surely not...

[Poiter50]

No, , I have that figure in my lead pile.

Am I the only one who got a chuckle of Harry Flashman on the ledge in the last picture!?    Surely not...

[FramFramson]

Poor Mathias has probably been waiting three pages (and as many days) to see who would finally point that out! 

[Mjolnir]

Great work

[Malamute]

 

Wonderful model and the Flashman touch is genius

[Hammers]

Wonderful model and the Flashman touch is genius

It is.

[Dr Mathias]

Not much to include in an update unfortunately.

I set out the components of the six Modellbau Najewitz North African buildings and shook my head at the sheer number of palm trees I planned to use.



Then I started on the buildings, which are quite the pain in the ass. It took about eight to ten solid hours of work just to them to this stage. Even though I wore a dust mask I'm sure I knocked a decade off my life, there was so much dust generated from the belt sander I needed to flatten the backs of the pieces.  This was necessary so that I could clear out the window screens and get an even fit on the walls. The depth of the components varied a lot- they're cast from open face molds. This is a big problem on the crenellations, which are separate pieces. Some pieces were missing corners because the pour was too thin and the mold was not level.

The wood support bars are cast in one piece with a perpendicular bar to support the roof… these do not fit right and required clipping and breaking apart to get them spaced right- not to mention having to bore out square holes to get many of the beams in. I discovered I was shorted beams for two of the buildings, so I had to acquire a piece of basswood to use for the missing pieces. I wish I'd started with that method because it went much quicker. If you intend to get these buildings, bin the included beams and make your own.



I think they will look good once the filler is sanded and they're painted, but I was not expecting this much work. If not for this project page I'd have set them aside

[6milPhil]

That's oustanding, is that Flashy I spy? 

[Lt. Hazel]

I feel with you! I once built Najewitz roman Villa, and I can tell you There were moments in which I was very close to a breakdown. When Jens Najewitz startet his venture his houses were lasercut from Mdf. I guess that worked much better. That said his stuff is beautifull when assembled and painted.

[Dr Mathias]

I feel with you! I once built Najewitz roman Villa, and I can tell you There were moments in which I was very close to a breakdown. When Jens Najewitz startet his venture his houses were lasercut from Mdf. I guess that worked much better. That said his stuff is beautifull when assembled and painted.

Thanks for the emotional support Lt.

The interesting thing about these buildings is that I could tell that the masters used to make the molds were laser cut mdf. It's clever how there's two layers to produce the screens and depth in the wall.

As you know those MDF kits can have some really nice tight tolerances but when translated to resin there's going to be warping and a whole host of other problems.

I'm sure at the end I'll have forgotten the bad points, I have a habit of doing that

[Prof.Witchheimer]

I'm sure at the end I'll have forgotten the bad points, I have a habit of doing that

The same here A great start, Matt, these buildings are looking very promising, looking forward to see what you're going to make out of them.

[warburton]

Excellent work. I am reminded that an artist always suffers for their art.