Thanks for your kind words.
Hi Billy NM. They were made to be aesthetically pleasing rather than 'accurate'. None were made using the plans for known buildings. I like my terrain to 'pop', hence the amount of plaster loss.
On the state of buildings in the middle-east at the time, I actually think many would be in a poor state of repair. The region had suffered from depopulation, especially in Anatolia following the collapse of Byzantine oversight after Manzikert (where I believe I've read that two in three villages were totally deserted).
The ineffectual rule of both Caliphates, internecine rivalry of the Seljuk Emirs, Princes and Atabegs, and hordes of Turcoman nomads wantonly letting their herds / flocks of animals destroy large tracts of previously tilled soil only intensified the move out of rural areas to the cities.
This depopulation of the countryside only got worse after the arrival of the Franks. Many Moslems were 'deported' from areas under Frankish control, or they sought to flee to Moslem controlled areas rather than suffer the indignity of Christian rule. The status of 'Moslem refugee' had (and still has, to a degree) an almost reverential status in Islamic society because Mohammed fled, as a refugee, to Medina rather than renounce his faith. The Franks didn't 'replace' the loss of population – they were ever short of manpower – so lots of their newly acquired villages fell into rack and ruin.
In short, outside of the Moslem cities, the place was literally falling apart almost everywhere. In most Frank held cities whole streets were left deserted following the loss of the Moslem population – it's how whole 'city quarters' could be given over to the Venetians, etc. Jerusalem and Antioch, amongst others, were almost deserted compared to how they were before the Christians slaughtered their entire populations in their sacking.
