Another Desert terrain unboxing/review today – this one is a little more interesting in some ways. Though I’m aware that Battlefront do re-release a lot of the same models with new product codes in the FoW proper range of tanks and other armoured vehicles, I’m not sure if their sister company, Gale Force Nine – which the Battlefield in a Box brand comes under the umbrella of – does the same. Assuming that the product numbers are consecutive for many of these sets, this model is actually a re-release of a previous set called “Mosque” (BB178) from their Fate of a Nation game, which is basically Flames of War set during the Arab-Israeli wars from the 1940’s through 80’s. The difference simply seemingly being that the FoaN kit also comes with a Minaret tower and a “Golden Dome” that sits atop the roof of this building. As an aside, they also used to sell a set called “Mosque Walls” (BB179) which looks like that same Minaret combined with four of the larger walls from the Desert Walls set that I reviewed previously and a pair of gates from the same set.

Once again, this review will very much follows the same format as the others, and even includes some copypasted text (including this sentence!), since the point is really to give people a good solid look at what you get in the boxes as there’s not a lot out there aside from the glamour shots on the box and GF9 website when you’re looking around to see what you get and how it all looks. As seems to be usual, there’s a cardboard reinforcement around the inside of the box with the actual terrain piece taped inside some bubble wrap.

The building escaping from it’s bubble wrap….

…aaaand unwrapped. The roof section was also wrapped in bubble wrap and inverted for protection in the roof cavity.

And “assembled”! This is the tallest of all the Desert range I’ve come across, though the total footprint is still smaller than the Desert Administration Building that I also reviewed recently..

Interestingly, while the interior walls are painted black (again!) the floor has an interesting pattern on it, and is actually painted. This obviously relates to the building initially being sold as a Mosque, but even here it provides a bit more interest than the usual sand-textured paint floors that GF use on these buildings.

Here’s the usual scale shot alongside some vehicle and infantry models. But one of those infantry stands is a bit wonky – what’s up with that?

It’s because they decided to stick a crate randomly not in the corner, but located so as to make it difficult to rest a fourth infantry stand on the rooftop. An odd choice, certainly.

Given the intent of this review, which is to provide some images and simple thoughts on a set that I was unable to find any information on online aside from box pics, I’m not going to “score” the set. I purchased it myself from an online retailer and while it wasn’t exactly cheap, even compared to GW’s plastic offerings, I’m pretty happy with this one. It’ll provide a centrepiece or an objective when needed, and stands out nicely from the smaller, much more plain Desert Buildings in the range.

Once again – with a small amount of effort this building could be made to look a fair bit better, and by now you’ll know that since this review is going up now that I’ve been working on that very thing – though it’s not quite ready yet.