Infinity: Terraforming Bourak

I've aligned myself with Haqqislam in the world of Infinity; a combination of the low-tech miniatures with less of an anime aesthetic (in my opinion) and the background story of a "new islam" reverting to its humanist roots really appealed to me.  The happy coincidence of this choice is that the Haqqislam planet, Bourak, is a desert planet much like our middle east.  I see this as an opportunity to create a playing board a little bit different to the urban landscapes I've seen throughout the Infinity community, with (hopefully) some cross-over into terrain for the modern skirmish wargame "Force on Force" by Ambush Alley Games.  A multi-purpose board will save on storage, time, and money!

I see the Haqqislam faction as having been influenced by the Fremen of Frank Herbert's Dune in addition to the obvious contemporary middle-eastern and islamic cultures.  I've also looked at Tatooine from Star Wars for inspiration; its another well-known science fiction desert setting after all.  I've collected samples of the following art to try and get a feel for how desert settlements can be portrayed in Sci-Fi:

"Dune" by thegryph.deviantart.com.
A mixture of high-tech and desert hovels.

A scene influenced by a middle-eastern bazaar with high-tech elements

Tatooine: Rough structures with high-tech fixtures.
The design of the buildings seems subtly different to contemporary culture,
giving the landscape its own flavour.

I think that the above images will be useful.  I'm not sure that they're exactly what I'm going for here but they've given me a few ideas:

• Subtly changing the shapes and designs of buildings can make them seem both traditional and futuristic at the same time;
• It may not be flavourful enough to just "strap on" a few token high-tech items to traditional style buildings - they may look out of place, and I suspect that the lines of traditional buildings may not be crisp enough for the Infinity aesthetic;
• Deserts are dusty and dirty places - while Haqqislam are supposedly the masters of terraforming, I doubt they keep their landscapes spotlessly dusted; and
• I could recreate the traditional middle-eastern bazaar with an Infinity high-tech theme.  For awnings, perhaps suspended sails with crisp lines, or awnings made out of coloured perspex similar to the terrain pieces made by Micro Art Studios. 

My intentions at this stage are to create a desert themed board with buildings made out of apparently natural material (modelled stone and clay) that blend in and function well with the environment.  This could work with pre-made terrain designed for a contemporary setting, such as the resin pieces pictured below.  In terms of having a multi-purpose board these models would be ideal as with removable/interchangeable parts they could be appropriate for both settings.  My concerns are with this is that they won't quite be unique enough for Infinity in that they don't really fit with the "flavour" or aesthetic of the world so well, and they may not necessary fit in with the background of Haqqislam.  They're the leaders in the fields of medicine and terraforming, so they're hardly likely to be residing in mud-brick hovels.

A resin middle-eastern themed hovel
from www.colonialsteamboat.co.uk

A two story building (converts to ruin)
from the Miniature Building Authority

My favourite: A two-story hovel
from www.crescent-root.com

A single-story resin hovel
from www.thewarstore.com

All of these terrain pieces are fine.  Some better than others, and some certainly more worth the price tag.  I think they'd all be passable with some modification for an Infinity table.  However, they're an expensive option, especially given that they'd need to be shipped to New Zealand; in light of this is "passable" good enough?  I don't really think they fit too well with the infinity aesthetic - there is a bit much damage to the walls of the hovels for my taste, and I'm not too sure how old buildings in Infinity should look.  Bourak hasn't been colonised for that long, after all.

The other idea is to scratch-build buildings using foamboard and other materials.  This would allow me to design the buildings to have clean though subtly traditional lines more in line with the Infinity aesthetic, and would be significantly cheaper, though more time consuming, than using pre-made resin terrain.  Unfortunately, this would probably mean that the terrain wouldn't be appropriate for use with Force on Force.  There is of course a third option - paper terrain.  I suspect that I may utilise this while I am in the process of building more resilient terrain.  I'm not particularly "crafty" or creative-minded (years of doing language based stuff at university probably forced all of that out of me), so I expect that I'd find making buildings slow going.

What do you think?  Does anyone have any relevant experiences with making terrain for Infinity?  Any hints, tips, or favourite products that you could comment on?  Any help would be appreciated!