Airfix – Fort Sahara

Description:

Another classic part of the Airfix history is the Sahara Fort, usually coming with the French Foreign legion and Bedouins. It has been a while since the last reissue, so is not an easy to find box.

The Fort Sahara was first time issued around 1966, as play set format including a full set of each French Foreign Legionaries (of the first Airfix French Foreign Legion type, tooled in 1961) and Beduins (Airfix – 01719 – Arabs (Bedouins)).

Around 1993 the kit was reissued but including the second type (and better) of Airfix French Foreign Legion (Airfix – 01710 – Foreign Legion) tooled in the late 60s.

Eventually the Fort was released also alone without include the Beduins and French Foreign Legionaries figures.

Fort itself consists of just 14 parts, a basic 4 walls sections (1 with an entrance door), a square tower and parts to create a sort of covered barracks area in one of the walls section.

As all the other Forts released by Airfix at the time, it’s bit small for a real 1/72 size decent fort, but it’s shape is’t quite accurate and makes a nice model once build, and not being hard extend it by adding one, two or three more Fort Sahara models though it’s not tooled as a modular kit. A good reference (or inspiring reference) is an old article about French Foreign Legion forts from Airfix Magazine by Terry Wise.