Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Grappling With Grape Huts

Grape huts. They are fairly ubiquitous in the Panjwayi; massive mud brick structures used to dry the grape harvest into the renowned Afghan raisins. They also made for ready made strong points for the Taliban insurgents, so I figure I need at least one, if not two or three.

But how big?

Here are some pictures I collected to my Pinterest idea board:

grape drying huts afghanistan - Google Search

grape drying huts afghanistan - Google Search

Grape drying huts are often found in or near vineyards

grape drying huts afghanistan - Google Search
Scale (or the lack thereof) is obviously an issue. The first two seem pretty big. The third and fourth are a bit smaller (if we assume the doors are man height).

But look in the background of this picture:

terrain idea


Those two grape huts behind that fairly substantial Chinook helicopter are the size of small castles! I wonder why one would build a grape drying hut that tall? Unless there are interior floors in the bigger ones?

And compare the LAV to the two grape huts in this picture from the RCR website. They appear to be roughly parallel to each other:

Grape hut goes boom, Op Medusa

The one on the left is quite tall.

Many seem to have thatched roofs, but I've also read of troops or Taliban taking up firing positions on top of them, so some must have solid roofs as well.

But at least the interior detail is pretty straight forward if I don't worry about the holes to stick the grape branches into for drying.

grape drying huts afghanistan - Google Search

grape drying huts afghanistan - Google Search

I figure if I have some grape huts, ditches and walls I can start some skirmishing before I even get any compounds built.

6 comments:

  1. Interesting. I ´ve never heard of These before. How big? I suppose you coild make them as large as you want, the two pics (3 and 4 from the top) look a decent size.
    I´ve just googled them..there´s some really Bizarre futuristic sci-fi film looking ones..like this lot:
    http://people.cs.pitt.edu/~mehmud/gallery/arch_art/images/Grape_Drying_Buildings.jpg

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  2. Blimey, some of those are big. Not sure how useful they would be in a fight, with all those holds to let the bullets in. Wouldn't be hard to make out of foam board, as they are basically a giant rectangle.

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  3. You might want to check out the Too Fat Lardies blog as Rich has been on a bit of an Afganistan kick recently. He's done a number of terrain entries that you might want to have a peek at.

    There's a CoC variant that they are cooking up for Afganistan etc called Fighting Season.

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    1. Oh I have been following the Fighting Season development quite closely. I have many of Richard's and Silver Whistles terrain builds saved to my Pinterest board already!

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  4. These huts are a grand idea - something nifty and off-the-beaten path.
    Are you thinking about modelling the grape vines too? They could add some much needed colour to the Afghan desert scene. Can't wait to see the finished product!

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    1. Yes indeed! The huts need to be surrounded by the walled fields of grapes. Lots of complex cover too.

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