Afghan Buildings and Compounds

Afghan Buildings
A guide to constructing Afghan buildings and compounds for use with

28mm miniatures
© 2015 PRD Ward

Published by Matakishi's Tea House
www.matakishi.com
AFGHAN BUILDINGS PAGE 1!
A guide to constructing
Afghan buildings and
compounds for use with
28mm miniatures
AFGHAN
BUILDINGS &
COMPOUNDS
The basic buildings
These are some smaller buildings accompany
the Afghan compounds. They can also to be
used for other settings as well. These are a
variation of a set of general purpose modern
buildings that I made a few years ago but with
detailing and painting that ties them into my
existing Afghan compounds.
They are very simple to make and it's possible

to produce a built up table in a very short
time.
The standard buildings are all 130mm x

80mm and fit on a 150mm x 100mm base. 
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AFGHAN BUILDINGS PAGE 2
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Here are a couple of examples that give an idea of the range of

possibilities for placing doors and windows. there's no set For these buildings I kept
pattern so you can do whatever takes your fancy. the doors to a minimum
and often placed the small
windows in pairs.
There's no factual basis for

this, it was a design
decision I made when I
constructed the Afghan
compounds and I like the
look.
The doors are 20mm x

30mm and the windows
are 10mm x 20mm.
The cork tiles I use are

designed to be used as
flooring. They are called
‘untreated cork tiles’ and
are available in various
I'll use the set of components above to construct the example thicknesses (depending on
building. the manufacturer) varying
from 3.2mm to 4mm. They
The first thing I did was to add the doors and lintels. are available from most
DIY or home improvement
The doors were cut from balsa wood and scored with a pencil stores. In the UK they cost
about £10.00 for a pack of
to give the appearance of planking. They can be any size that is
nine tiles, in the USA they
bigger than the 30mm x 20mm doorway, I like to keep things seem to be about double
tight so I cut my doors 35mm x 25mm to make sure they didn't this. A single tile is more
end up fouling the corner posts or the roof. than enough to make a
28mm scale building so
The final touch was a small section of match stick to act as a each building will cost
handle. about £1.00.
The lintels are cut from coffee stirrers and have a 5mm overlap Please note, you need to
either side of the doors and windows. buy floor cork. Wall cork is
not dense enough, place
All these bits were glued on with PVA glue to allow time for the mats are not dense enough,
cheap rolls of cork are not
final positioning.   dense enough. Buy the
right stuff to get good
results.
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I mistakenly cut the dowel

for this building to 40mm so
my roof will be a little
higher than usual. It's not a
problem, different roof
heights add variety and I
varied them intentionally
when I made the shops.
I cut some square dowel to make the interior corner posts.

These serve to help keep the corners at right angles during the
final phase of construction and support the roof.
Cutting the dowel to 36mm will give a final roof lip of 10mm.
The dowels were also glued in place with PVA to allow time to
position them properly.
You will only need a small
set of basic tools to work
with cork. Here are the
primary ones:
Stanley knife or other

heavy duty knife for the
main cutting.
Scalpel or similar hobby
knife for smaller cutting. An
X-Acto is ideal.
Metal ruler for cutting.
I glued the building together with super glue. I find it easiest to Plastic ruler for marking
assemble a short wall and a long wall into an 'L' shape then up.
glue the two resulting components together. This makes it Pen for marking, a pencil
doesn’t show up enough. I
much easier to keep the building corners square. use a black ink technical pen
but used to use a biro. Biro
Once everything was together I glued it to the MDF base.  ink can bleed through paint
though so be warned.
Super glue for main
sticking. Use a medium to
thin glue so that you have a
good capillary action.
Wood glue for smaller
sticking where you may
need time to position things.
PVA will do but a decent
resin based white wood glue
is better.
Cutting mat for cutting
on, you’re going to be doing
a lot of cutting.
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I cut a roof to 122mm x 72mm. Occasionally the roofs need an

edge shaving off to get them to fit. Once it was in position I ran
some super glue around the join and used a little super glue
accelerator to speed up the setting.
You will also need some
secondary tools for working
on building components that
aren’t cork:
Razor saw for cutting balsa

wood and wood strip.
Mitre box for accurate
cutting.
Sanding block for neatening
cut balsa.
Masking tape for hinges and
some joining.
Kitchen paper towel.
Palette for glue and some
cocktail sticks or
matchsticks to apply it.
Scissors.
It was a simple matter to make a few more and paint them to

match my existing compounds (basically they're painted in the
three basing colours I use, a dried earth highlighted with two
shades of sand). 
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I also made some 60mm

high garages or sheds with
flat overhanging roofs.
These were even quicker to
build as there are no other
windows or doors apart
from the front loading
doors.
Now that the basic filler buildings are done it's time to move
on to the more interesting ones. Next up will be shops with
awnings.
Shops
Like the basic buildings the shops all follow the same pattern
with variations in window and door placement to give variety.
I'm going to add stripey awnings to my shops which are not

strictly accurate but look good and add some interest, actual
modern Afghan bazaar awnings are quite plain. When these
buildings are used for Iraq, Conan games and other such
settings the awnings will be more suitable.
Here is the cutting pattern for a basic shop:
Once again I used coffee stirrers for the lintels and balsa wood
sheet for the doors. The wooden doors are not really accurate
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for modern Afghan shops which seem to favour metal roller

doors but, like the awnings, will allow me to use these I painted up some trade
buildings in more than one setting. goods for my bazaar. I
mounted them all on 30mm
The long lintel for the loading doors is used to attach the square bases so they can be
awning to the building and will be stuck on after everything is used as resource tokens if
painted. the need arises.
These are all resin pieces

from Ainsty Castings.
Corner posts were cut as before to allow roughly a 10mm inset

for the roof.
Everything was glued together with super glue and the

assembled building was fixed to a 150mm square base leaving
room at the front for the awning and sales goods. 
Ainsty Castings.
www.ainsty-castings.co.uk
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I also bought a selection of

urns from Scotia
Grendel.
Scotia Grendel.
www.scotiagrendel.com
These are the three colours

Finally I cut a roof to size and glued it in place. I use to paint the buildings
and the bases.
The final job was to make the front support for the awning.
I cut two 40m lengths from a bamboo skewer and a piece of

wire 50mm long plus a little extra for the turned down ends.
Once the ends were inserted into the bamboo, (drilling a pilot
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hole makes the job easier but isn't essential), they were
secured with a dab of super glue. Here is a breakdown of the
simple three colour method
Making the front supports the same height as the doors, I use.
50mm, rather than the height of the doors plus the lintel,
56mm, means the awning will have a slight downwards slope I start with a dried earth
towards the front. colour. This is standard
household emulsion mixed
to my specification.
Over this I dry brush a

medium sand colour. This
is also mixed emulsion
which I find a cheap option
since I use it for all my
miniature bases and my
base boards too.
The final coat is a lighter

dry brush of a light sand
colour (more emulsion).
Now the shop needed to be painted before the printed awning

gets added to avoid having to paint around the awning once it's
in place.
Awnings
I printed my awning pattern onto standard 80gsm paper and
cut out a 60mm x 65mm rectangle.
I folded both ends over using the lintel as a sizing guide and
glued one fold to the back of the lintel with PVA. 
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I then glued the lintel and awning to the building itself. I used
PVA glue again to allow some time for positioning.
The front support was glued with PVA to the other fold and the
legs were super glued to the base once the PVA was dry. I left
some 'sag' in the awning to try and help the illusion that it was
draped cloth.
28mm miniatures from
The Assault Group.
www.theassaultgroup.co.uk
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I applied the basing compound with a small palette knife.

For the basing. I use a
Once the base was covered I sprinkled a bit of medium railway
basing compound of my
ballast in patches to add further texture.
own devising.
When the base had dried (I leave it overnight to be sure) I dry
To make a batch I mix
brushed it with the two sand colours I used for the building
emulsion paint and PVA in
and added patches of static grass. a roughly 50/50 mix and
  add fine sand until the
consistency is similar to
margarine, spreadable but
not drippy. If you get to a
peanut butter consistency
you've added too much
sand.
It's easy to do, only taking a

minute or two to mix, and is
really economical. I use a
couple of litres a year on
average with a litre costing
about £5.00, about a
twentieth of the cost of the
basing compound I used to
use.
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Here are the next three shop units. I left these with openings
rather than doors to make them quicker to build. As you can
see one is a corner unit.
I varied the roof insert heights to add more variety. The roofs
aren't glued in and won't be until the insides have been
painted.
Here's the finished bazaar:
The Assault Group.
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Awning templates
 
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The Mosque
Here's the simple cutting plan for the Mosque. It doesn't show
the 130mm x 130mm floor for the top section or the drop in
roof which needs to be measured after construction.
All measurements are in mm.
The Assault Group.
The 'buttress' sections are designed to go on the outside of the Vehicles from S&S Models
ground floor walls once they've been assembled. The 'door' is www.sandsmodels.com
an insert that is glued behind the bigger doorway. I added two
small window off-cuts below the front ground windows to give
more texture to the front of the building.
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The small windows are 20mm high and 10mm wide. They are
evenly spaced at 10mm intervals.
Doors are 30mm x 20mm as normal. The front door is 50mm

high at the tallest point and 50mm wide at the base. The insert
cut out is 30mm x 40mm.
The top floor isn't glued to the ground floor so it can be easily
removed during play. The inset roof is supported by
matchsticks glued inside the upper walls.
The dome is a resin one originally made by Ian Weekley and

now available from Magnetic Displays. There are various
plastic, polystyrene or wooden alternatives in many craft
shops. It is glued to the roof with super glue.
The wooden posts are 70mm tall and glued to the base. They
are not glued to the top floor so that it can be removed to allow
figure placement during play. 
Magnetic Displays:
www.magneticdisplays.co.uk
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Tall buildings
The first of my taller buildings is a minaret annex for the
Mosque. It's made up from a minaret tower and a smaller
building attached at the front to allow access.
The tower is a little wider than I'd like but it needs to accept a
stand of figures. There's no point having a tower on the table if
you can't utilise the height.
Here is the cutting plan for the minaret. The top section will
have a lift off roof to allow figures to occupy the minaret
during play.
Here are the components for the simple front structure.
Doors were added as before and the walls were braced and
glued as usual. The tower was topped off with the 60mm x
60mm roof which will form the floor of the top section that the
figures will stand on.
Everything fitted on to a standard 150mm x 100mm base.
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Awnings
Some movable awnings to
add height variation and
more colour to the table.
I settled on a base of 60mm

x 110mm. I marked points
10mm in from each edge to
drill for the uprights.
The posts are bamboo

skewers. I cut them to
60mm and glued them into
their pilot holes.
I added a drop in roof and a small step to give access to the
I decided to use coffee
tower door and assembled the four walls of the top section.
stirrers rather than wire for
the roof supports. I cut two
long sections of 95mm and
two short sections of 40mm
and glued them in place
with super glue.
The minaret roof was made from a 65mm square piece of cork
topped with a resin dome from Magnetic Displays. You could
just as easily use a deodorant top if you want to avoid the
expense of a resin dome. I added a map pin to the top of the
dome as a finishing touch.
I added lengths of coffee stirrer for some simple detailing

around the tower where the join was.
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The roof wasn't glued in place but left to lift off during play.
The short sections were
glued inside the uprights to
keep them the same
distance apart.
At this stage I painted them

in the usual three base
colours before adding the
awnings.
The awnings are 95mm x

70mm rectangles. The
draping edges were formed
by scoring and folding
10mm in from each long
edge.
The awnings were glued in

place with PVA.
 
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Next I made a couple of tall block house style buildings to

serve as central structures for groups of buildings.
There are no windows on the ground floor for defensive

reasons but more than usual on the top floor to allow for all
round fields of fire.
The construction was exactly the same as the standard small

buildings but with 90mm inside corner pillars to support the
roofs.
The Assault Group.
Vehicles from S&S Models
www.sandsmodels.com
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This next building is a little more ornate. It's going to serve as

a central administration building or an important person's
house.
It has some Arabic/eastern design touches (not many) that set

it apart from the very simple Afghan buildings in this set. It
will make a fine centre point for a town.
Here's the cutting plan. The two outer doorways are going to
be false doors and just serve as decoration.
I added a balsa wood door as usual and filled the false

doorways with a couple of cork off cuts. Coffee stirrers were
cut to 150mm and glued under the windows.
Once I'd assembled the building I added a 150mm x 100mm

roof and the porch which needs to extend beyond the foot of
the wall, past the base, to the ground.  
The Assault Group.
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As befits its status I gave this building a splash of faded colour.

Here it is with and without a separate roof dome.
Roof domes
I wanted to have some optional domes to put on the roofs. I
decided to have them separate so that they could be removed
to place figures.
I looked around for some suitable domes but the only things I
managed to find that weren't really expensive were polystyrene
balls that I could cut in half. I chose 65mm spheres so they'd fit
comfortably on my 72mm roofs.
The advantage of the polystyrene is that it's light but it's also
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fragile so just cutting and painting wasn't an option, they

would need to be coated with something.
I began by cutting the balls in half, they had a handy seam to

follow so this was straight forward. I used a razor saw and gave
the halves a light sanding afterwards.
I glued circles of cereal box card against the flat sides using
PVA glue.
I used torn up kitchen paper as my covering. I soaked each

piece in PVA and water and layered them on randomly adding
more glue and water as I went. It was messy but quick. 
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Although the kitchen towel

gives the finished domes a
strong texture I don't think
it's out of place and
everything blends together
nicely at about arm's length.
As you can see they are soaking by the end of the process. As
they dry everything will shrink and they'll end up with a hard
shell.
I left everything over night to dry then painted the domes with
my base/building colours.
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Walls
I want a modular, versatile wall system to help partition my
table area and allow me to recreate some of the narrow alleys
and pathways that tend to channel troop movements in
Afghanistan.
I don't want to make lots of corner pieces so instead each wall

section will have a pillar at one end that will fit the base width
and allow other wall sections to be butted up against it
seamlessly. This isn't strictly accurate for the setting but
shouldn't look too out of place once everything's set up.
After much deliberation I settled on two standard wall section

lengths, 150mm and 100mm.
I found that 12mm square section wooden dowel was about the
biggest I could get that was still cheap. The size of the dowel
decided the width of the bases, they'd have to be 12mm too.
Using a razor saw and a miter box I cut up enough 50mm

lengths.
Then I cut the wall sections and bases. Here are just a few.
The Assault Group.
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I used super glue and accelerator to stick everything together.

Assembling the walls was a very quick job. Rocks
The best way to make
areas of rocky terrain is to
collect some stones and
mount them on suitable
bases.
These are based on

plasticard and have lasted
me 25 years. The rocks are
fixed in place with a
mixture of PVA and basing
With a pillar at one end the walls can be arranged in a variety compound and I added a
of straight lengths or as corners without the need to cut special light scattering of railway
corner sections. grit and gravel to blend the
big stones into the ground
before finishing off with
paint and static grass.
I made doorways in some walls.
These are the 100mm walls, again some have doors. 
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Finally I made some broken sections.

Here's an example of how
the walls can go together.
On my Afghan table they'll
mostly be used to line the
side of roads but for other
settings they'll have many
different uses.
Having some without pillars means I can arrange small corner

sections if I want to.
Altogether I made thirty-two wall sections. I painted them with

the same three colours as everything else and added some
static grass. I didn't bother adding basing material to the bases

as they were so thin; it would have been a lot of time and effort
for very little gain.
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Terrain bases Here are a couple of

I use area terrain in my games. An area will be designated as examples using trees.
giving cover and any troop stands within that area will receive
appropriate bonuses. It's necessary therefore to be able to
delineate clearly where the terrain begins and ends.
To facilitate this I made some simple ground templates on

which I can place trees, rocks, scrub etc. depending on terrain
type to replace my old areas of felt I used to use. I know,
horrible, but quick and effective too which is why it's taken so
long to get around to replacing them.
I cut irregular shapes from thin flexible wall cork. This stuff is
so thin I could use scissors. I painted these with my usual three
ground colours and added areas of static grass so they match
my playing surface and figure bases.
The cork is very textured on its non-flat side and took dry
brushing well. The whole process was quick and easy.
I made 11 pieces in the end which used up four cork tiles.
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Compounds
I wanted some compounds for my Afghans to inhabit and
defend against the British (and American) forces arrayed
against them. I originally considered making some separate
walls and gates and just putting a screen around my existing
buildings but eventually decided against this for several
reasons, not least of which was that they'd look rubbish.
I made several decisions during the design phase concerning

the size, shape and versatility of the finished items which I'll
briefly outline before moving on to the nitty-gritty of the
construction process.
Firstly the size and shape. I went for a 300mm x 300mm base
because I had some ready cut. This makes each compound a
very big structure compared to my other buildings which
typically occupy a 150mm x 100mm base and occasionally
150mm square for the large ones. To feel I was getting value
for the space used I tried to make each compound visually
interesting but without adding clutter. The easiest way to
achieve this was by varying the heights and roof styles of the
component buildings. This diverges immediately from the
actual buildings these are meant to represent but will look
better on the table.
Versatility was a concern too. These will end up being Afghan,

Iraqi, Arab and even Science Fiction compounds.
Consequently there will be little or no cultural flavour added.
No signs etc. just basic door design, basic window openings
and a couple of removable domes. 
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First compound
Right, that deals with the 'whys' now on to the 'hows'.
Here are the four outer walls. Cut as single pieces for added
strength which was a major concern. The other option of
cutting and making individual component buildings then
adding wall pieces would actually be easier to make but would
end up with more joins than I really wanted for a building of
this size.
To add some flavour and a bit of detail texture to the walls I

decided to add lintels to the windows and doors. The 'real'
buildings don't have these of course but the atmosphere of the
model is more important than its accuracy; it's a bit of gaming
scenery not a museum model.
I cut some coffee stirrers to size, mostly 50mm, with my trusty

Chopper (available from Antenociti's Workshop).
Antenocti's Workshop
www.antenocitisworkshop.com
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And stuck them in place with wood glue. I think they add an
impression of weight to the walls, something I need because
the walls are thin compared to their real counterparts.
The doors were made with scored balsa to which I added some
matchsticks for the main gate because you can see both sides
of it.
Tall Grass
This is scatter terrain that
can be added to river
banks, forests, swamps or
whatever so I wanted lots
of small bases rather than
a few large ones. I cut my
bases out of some 3mm
flexible cork tile. The cork
isn't the type I use for
buildings, it has a much
more pronounced texture
on its rough side which
Door handles were made from pin heads. saves on basing material
later.
I cut he tile with scissors

and got 16 bases out of a
30cm square tile which
made each base about
60mm across.
The small side door is another break with reality but I wanted
a feature on each wall and wasn't prepared to have ground
level windows.
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For the grass itself I

bought a broom off eBay
for under £8.00. That
gives a cost for the 16
bases of grass here of
Now on to the interior walls of the buildings. The top two walls £0.50 each even if I don't
here have the slanting supports for the stable roof glued on. I use the broom bristles for
anything else. This little
decided the positions by eye knowing that the stable roof
project hasn't used much
would be 60mm wide. of the broom at all.
The two doors in the centre lead out onto a roof. I was
originally going to have steps but couldn't be bothered to cut
them for this first compound. I will probably have steps in one
or two of the later ones.
Constructing a building this size in cork is quite problematical.

It is difficult to get right angle joins as the cork flexes and if
one join is off all the others will suffer accordingly. To try and
prevent this and to add strength to the finished model I cut
some balsa wood into columns designed to sit in each corner of
each building. These will aid in keeping the angles square.
To kill two birds with one stone I cut the columns to the
correct height to support the roofs; 76mm for tall buildings,
35mm for the low ones and a set of four 40mm ones for the
roof that isn't going to be inset (the one the two doors lead out
onto).
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I'm going to glue the roofs in place, again for added strength,
so none of these supports will be visible during play.
I used a production line
process, sticking a tall
clump in the centre of each
base and then coming back
and working around these
adding shorter clumps;
one clump per base then
moving on to the next to
allow the early ones to set
fully before it was their
turn again.
Once they were all set I

painted the bases with my
standard base colour and
added just enough basing
compound to cover the
A few minutes with the wood glue and everything is now ready smooth hot glue and allow
me to sprinkle some grit
for the final assembly.
for extra texture.
I started with the rear and right hand walls as they had the
most attached buildings.
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Liberal use of superglue and spray on accelerator allowed for

some speedy construction.
Once I was happy with the first set of buildings I added the
front and left walls, the point of no return.
Once everything was dry

(I left them over night) I
dry brushed the bases with
my two basing colours so
they matched everything
else and they were done.
The broom bristles are

very tough and hard
wearing so I'm expecting
these to last a long, long
time.
Not too bad. The centre building wall slotted in without

trimming which was a surprise but the right hand building
against the front wall was thrown a little out of square.
Nothing too noticeable though so I just cracked on.
Three more walls and the buildings are all in position. These
last two are not critical as they don't influence the placement of
any others so by now the stressful part is over. 
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River
Everyone needs a river. I'm
constantly drawn to the
fine examples displayed on
other people's tables and
offered for sale on various
sites around the net. I have
an S&A Scenics river that
is functional, it even has
some custom sections I had
made specially. I'm not
entirely happy with it
because I don't like the
colours but the basic river
pieces are a great starting
point. So, rather than go to
the trouble of making a
new river from scratch I
decided I could just repaint
the one I had.
I cut roofs to size and glued them in place. The tops of the Here is the S&A Scenics
doors prevented the two roofs on the tallest buildings from river, as you can see it's
sturdy and functional and
sitting flush. Next time I'll be more careful when I trim the the variety ofstraights and
balsa wood for the doors. It's not a huge problem, like the off- curves is good.
square building it even adds a certain authenticity to the I sent the bridge away to
proceedings. S&A and he kindly made a
river section to fit it, the
I chose to glue the roofs in place to add strength as I river junction was also a
mentioned. There is more than enough room in the compound custom piece.
for troop placement without needing the interiors and I've
noticed in games that the insides of buildings aren't actually
utilised unless the building has a sloping roof that prevents
troop bases being ballanced on top. I intend to have less open
buildings from now on as it saves time and paint and makes
building them easier.
S&A Scenics
http://scenics.co.uk
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I needed a river that

matches my tabletop so the
green had to be changed to
sand.
I painted the banks in the
three shades of sand/dirt I
use for my table and my
figure bases.
Next the water. Muddy
brown water might be
accurate but I want a blue
river. I began with a cheap
dark blue as a base before
moving on to the three
shades of lighter Foundry
Sky Blue that would be the
final colours.
Finally three coats of gloss
varnish for the water to
complete the
transformation.
The basic river was £20.00
and it took an evening to
transform, much cheaper
than collecting the
materials, measuring and
cutting everything myself.
The stable roof is made from card with some teddy bear fur for
thatching. The fur will be far less bulky once it's soaked in pva
to make it solid. This roof will be removable as it doesn't add to
the structural integrity of the compound.
I haven't added trap doors for roof access, they just become
things to get in the way of troop placement. I may add them
later if I think the roofs are too bland after I've painted them.
Similarly water tanks and stuff might appear but they'll
probably be separate components anyway.
For now, the first compound is finished.
The stable could probably do with a central support but I may

leave it since it would take up room and be quite delicate. 
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These are the three colours

I use to paint the buildings
and the bases.
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  Gardens
To add some variety and to

help fill up my table I made
some small gardens and an
orchard. These are
designed to be used in
multiple settings like most
of my generic modern
stuff.
There's a small pool to

match my river as well.
These were very quick to

make, just some cut up
sections of fake grass and a
couple of small trees. The
walls are added to enhance
the man-made effect and to
make them easier to pick
up.
!3 6
!
Second compound Raised ground

I designed this compound to be a little more upmarket, It's
I wanted some hills for my
generally busier with less open ground. I want it to have a
desert board and I had
domed building and some steps both for visual interest and to
some packs of 9mm cork
invoke some extra 'feel'. In actual fact it looks less like an
wall tiles to use up. You
Afghan compound than the first one but more like what I want
can use either PVA or wood
to see on my games table.
glue to stick the tiles, I
Here are the outer walls. prefer wood glue because it
doesn't shrink and is
waterproof when dry.
It's best to do the gluing the

day before you want to
actually cut your hills. Pair
the tiles up and glue two
together, one on top of the
other, it's important that
the edges are flush. Each
tile has a smooth face and
a more 'open' face, I
wanted the smooth sides
showing so I stuck the open
faces together.
Once the tiles had been

And the rest: glued and left to dry
overnight (just to be sure) I
marked them up and spent
a few minutes cutting them
with my handy electric
saw. They don't take much
to cut by hand so don't be
put off if you don't have
access to a scroll saw or a
jigsaw.
Finally they were covered

with several coats of paint
so they matched my
existing table.
I began with the buildings against the rear wall as they fill the
entire width and will give a stable platform to build everything
else from.
Then I fixed the other three outer walls in position. 
!3 7
!
Here are the finished hill

sections. I decided this was
the best assortment of
parts for the most
versatility on the tabletop.
Ridge top, a single tile cut

at 75mm and at 225mm to
give three lengths. The two
thinner sections are placed
back-to-back to form a
copy of the middle section.
!3 8
!
2x Ridge base sides, two

tiles cut at 150mm. The
sides are placed back-to-
back to form the base layer
of a ridge.
Once the main shape was aligned it was a simple matter to

position the remaining buildings.
Finally the roofs were cut to size and dropped into place and
the steps were added.
I made the steps from strips of cork cut to size, shortening by

4mm each time. The walkway is a block of balsa.
You can see where I've used beads of wood glue to fill some
largish gaps. As it dries it will shrink and once it's painted will
be unnoticeable.
!3 9
!
 
Corner edge, cut from the
mid point (150mm) of one
side to the mid point
(150mm) of an adjacent
side to form an inner and
outer corner edge.
Base level ridge end (x2)

an end cap cut irregularly
using the full width of a tile
(300mm) for its straight
edge.
Top level ridge end cap cut

irregularly and 150mm
wide at its straight edge.
!4 0
!
Here's the basic ridge, just

over 900mm (three feet)
long it provides a sizeable
area of high ground. The
levels are 18mm tall which
suits me as a reasonable
trade off between looks
and expense. There is
nothing stopping you
laminating more tiles to
increase the heights if you
want to.
The ridge can be split

along its length to form
two spurs, either equally
Here's the resin dome in place. I'm not going to glue it to the like this or with a long and
roof so it can be removed for storage. Also it gives me the a short section if preferred.
option of not using it it occasionally.
!4 1
!
With the addition of the

corner section the ridge
can be expanded to form
an 'L' shaped hill. As you
can see it covers a good
amount of table space, it's
overhanging this 2ft x 4ft
(600mm x 1200mm) table
section.
When you're done the

pieces fit together to form a
light and compact pile,
easy to store and
transport.
The done is available from Magnetic Displays.
Third compound
Here are the measurements for compound three. This one has
a dome and a large open roof.
These are the outer walls.
28mm Britannia
Miniatures to show scale.
These are the inner walls. There is a roof access door cut into
the long wall which is going to face the rear wall.I have marked
it up on the part that will be hidden once everything is
Magnetic Displays:
assembled. 
www.magneticdisplays.co.uk
!4 2
!
Here are all the walls propped into position so you can see the
layout.
!4 3
!
And here is the finished compound.
The roof over the open stalls isn't glued in place yet, I will paint
everything under it first otherwise it will be impossible to get a
brush in. 
!4 4
!
!4 5
!
Fourth compound
The fourth compound is more of a fort. It has a gate house and
a main 'keep' and then continuous side buildings whose roofs
act as fighting platforms.
These are the outer walls:
These are the inner walls. Like compound three there are walls
here with doors facing both ways and these will need to be
marked up on the part that will be inside a building to avoid
ink showing through after painting.
!4 6
!
Here is an 'open' shot showing the balsa posts that help keep it
all square as well as acting as roof supports.
And here's everything in place with a couple of small steps up

to the gate house doors from the side roofs.
!4 7
!
!4 8

Afghan Buildings and Compounds

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Afghan Buildings and Compounds

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Afghan Buildings

A guide to constructing Afghan buildings and compounds for use with

© 2015 PRD Ward

They are very simple to make and it's possible

The standard buildings are all 130mm x

Here are a couple of examples that give an idea of the range of

There's no factual basis for

The doors are 20mm x

The cork tiles I use are

I mistakenly cut the dowel

I cut some square dowel to make the interior corner posts.

Stanley knife or other

I cut a roof to 122mm x 72mm. Occasionally the roofs need an

Razor saw for cutting balsa

It was a simple matter to make a few more and paint them to

I also made some 60mm

I'm going to add stripey awnings to my shops which are not

Here is the cutting pattern for a basic shop:

for modern Afghan shops which seem to favour metal roller

These are all resin pieces

Corner posts were cut as before to allow roughly a 10mm inset

Everything was glued together with super glue and the

I also bought a selection of

These are the three colours

I cut two 40m lengths from a bamboo skewer and a piece of

Over this I dry brush a

The final coat is a lighter

Now the shop needed to be painted before the printed awning

28mm miniatures from

The Assault Group.

I applied the basing compound with a small palette knife.

It's easy to do, only taking a

Here's the finished bazaar:

28mm miniatures from

The Assault Group.

All measurements are in mm.

28mm miniatures from

The Assault Group.

Doors are 30mm x 20mm as normal. The front door is 50mm

The dome is a resin one originally made by Ian Weekley and

Here are the components for the simple front structure.

Everything fitted on to a standard 150mm x 100mm base.

I settled on a base of 60mm

The posts are bamboo

I added lengths of coffee stirrer for some simple detailing

At this stage I painted them

The awnings are 95mm x

The awnings were glued in

Next I made a couple of tall block house style buildings to

There are no windows on the ground floor for defensive

The construction was exactly the same as the standard small

28mm miniatures from

The Assault Group.

Vehicles from S&S Models

This next building is a little more ornate. It's going to serve as

It has some Arabic/eastern design touches (not many) that set

I added a balsa wood door as usual and filled the false

Once I'd assembled the building I added a 150mm x 100mm

As befits its status I gave this building a splash of faded colour.

fragile so just cutting and painting wasn't an option, they

I began by cutting the balls in half, they had a handy seam to

I used torn up kitchen paper as my covering. I soaked each

Although the kitchen towel

I don't want to make lots of corner pieces so instead each wall

These are the 100mm walls, again some have doors. 

Then I fixed the other three outer walls in position. 