Arab / middle eastern style buildings - a review of Art Of War Terrain's stuff

Art Of War Terrain was a shop (link in the usual place, right-hand side column of the blog) I came across when I was searching the web for new suitable terrain for my games set in Iraq. I can only say I was really stunned when I saw the price for the terrain below: the whole set of six (!) houses was only 31€ (~44US $). I then read the item's description and thought I'll give it a try. I got them a couple of days back and here are my findings:

First of all: it is six (!) houses for a very, very decent price. They are going to cover almost a quarter of my smaller gaming table. They don't need assembling and they are pre-painted in a greyish-white colour. Hand-crafted items, made out of thin MDF - very sturdy and not at all bad looking. But let's get a bit closer...
Included in this set, called "wargame terrain DESERT TOWN 15mm / 1:72 scale painted",
are multiple storey houses and single floor houses. Some have flat rooftops others domed ones.

All doors are fixed in half-open positions, all windows cut out.

The set has various shapes of buildings, rectangulars and some with little towers - but all with a lot of space on top to give miniatures cover.

Some houses I will convert a little using the S&S items for satellite dishes and air conditioners. The one on the right-hand side looks more residential, so I'll add some shop signs to the left one.

For a whole set like this I was really surprized how big some buildings turned out to be. The stairs add a nice touch.

Not that I would need this to be the case for Force On Force games, but those little gems even have removable rooftops (all of them!)

They aren't as big as some of the other buildings (other companies' products), but they do blend in nicely with all of them and really expand my collection of wargaming terrain. I like the little holes Ray left to help taking off the roofs - it looks like a door of some sort. Ever wondered from where those Insurgents actually got to the roof? ;-)

Like I mentioned before, you can take off the roofs and all inner ceilings. Something I didn't expect for that price.

Just to prove my statement about inner ceilings!

And then there is something that I would really like to share with you guys: the conduct of the shop's owner: Ray B.

When I ordered those buildings it took a little while for them to show up. When I asked about the whereabouts, Ray turned out to be not only a guy who wants to sell something, but also a fellow wargamer - and a really nice guy to chat to. We exchanged quite a bit of mail about many different things and because I had to wait longer then expected, he even offered a full (!) refund.
What was charged too much for postage, was refunded. This is what a gamer needs - somebody you can trust in and a honest business partner. Ray turned out to be both.

He said he is going to expand his 1/72 scale collection soon and I am looking forward to see it being online for sale. All of his terrain for sale is hand-made, so you got to expect a little time in between his offerings on ebay. But it's well worth the wait!