Nissiana Posted May 18, 2007 Share Posted May 18, 2007 I finished this piece from my old WIP thread a couple of weeks ago, but the batteries were dead in the digital camera. New batteries this week inspired last night's photo spree, and I can now finally post the results: Entry Hall to the Drakeholt Adventurer's Guild (with figures for scale): Floor detail: Removable door and column detail (I'm very pleased with how the woodgrain turned out!): Now I just have to start on the REST of the rooms..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evilbob Posted May 18, 2007 Share Posted May 18, 2007 I love this. it is so wonderful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSTR Posted May 18, 2007 Share Posted May 18, 2007 Whoa! Yeah this is super cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voladilk Posted May 19, 2007 Share Posted May 19, 2007 Very nicely done Niss! I love the green details and you are right, the woodgrain looks fantastic! I can't wait to see how this whole guildhall turns out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nissiana Posted May 19, 2007 Author Share Posted May 19, 2007 Thanks! Sanael's working on the garden path for this, and now I need to get cracking on the chapel--as long as it took me to finish this room, I think I've got a good year's worth of work on this building ahead of me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Versutus Vulpes Posted May 19, 2007 Share Posted May 19, 2007 This is super cool Niss... makes me want to play with the mini's instead of just painting them. I should look into this Hirst stuff myself... Kind of like model train building... but with dragons!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishil Posted May 20, 2007 Share Posted May 20, 2007 That is really nice. Ishil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deguello Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 I think this is Hirst arts molds Can you tell me which molds you use? and what medium you are using? Plaster of paris comes out ok for me.. but is too brittle to transport.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nissiana Posted May 23, 2007 Author Share Posted May 23, 2007 I use Merlin's Magic dental plaster, and have little trouble with transport. I do take extra care to package well when moving pieces around--foam transports in a hard-sided case. The most brittle things I have found have tended to be glued joints, rather than crumbling blocks. I also am fortunate enough to not have to transport them often myself, since my group meets in my apartment. On the other hand, I'm licensed with Hirst Arts and have listed pieces on eBay in the past, so I've had to get inventive and creative about packaging as well as work with durable materials. I can't say enough good things about the Merlin's Magic--it's a great product, especially if you'll be making large quantities of blocks. This piece is based on a floor tile. Bricks are glued down on the pattern side, cork is rolled out and attached to the adhesive side. I used to base on felt, then on foamcore, and now I'm sold on the floor tile--especially since I bought a couple of huge packages for dirt cheap at Home Depot last summer. The tile adds a great deal of stability (and some additional) weight, and puts things at a fairly even height with Dwarven Forge pieces. I own most of the Hirst Arts molds, except for the Egyptian, SciFi and new Cavern lines. I believe that this particular build used blocks from the following molds: #40 Basic Blocks #42 Gothic Arena Accessories #45 Gothic Dungeon Builder #201 Floor Tiles #205 Gothic Floor Tiles I hope that included everything...I have a set of drawers full of bricks that I cast in plaster-pouring binges, so that when I decide to start a project I can just grab a pile and start assembly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deguello Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 I use Merlin's Magic dental plaster, Does it wear out your mold faster? Also where do you get it? Easy of use? Is it toxic? LOL I have kiddoes around all of them old enough.... You'd think... Set up time etc.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawgiver Posted May 24, 2007 Share Posted May 24, 2007 Simply gorgeous. Love the non-grey blocks. Really livens up the whole thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarkonGnome Posted May 24, 2007 Share Posted May 24, 2007 I use Merlin's Magic dental plaster, Does it wear out your mold faster? Also where do you get it? Easy of use? Is it toxic? LOL I have kiddoes around all of them old enough.... You'd think... Set up time etc.... it doesn't wear out the mold faster, the only thing that will cause the mold to degrade is using resin in them without taking proper precautions. You can get it from Clintsales from Cindy, and it holds up WAY better than PoP (I personally use Merlins as well). Cindy offers samples, but depending on where you live it could be costly for you to get it due to shipping. Non-toxic but you don't wan tto be snorting the stuff, much less pour this stuff down your drain (the water you use to clean your molds off between castings). I have a 3 year old and 13 month toddler, and I dont' have any problems with them around it - in fact my 3 year old helps out when I cast. Set up time depends on how you mix it up. I use a digital scale and I put in 30-35mL of water per 100g of plaster. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes for you to be able to pull them out of the mold. Sooner if the temperature is warm where you are casting. i usually wait until my dark grey plaster is light white on the top (you'll know what I mean when you try a sample). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nissiana Posted May 24, 2007 Author Share Posted May 24, 2007 @Lawgiver: Thanks for the compliment! I decided recently that I was going to start giving my HA creations the same (or at least similar) paint-love that I give my minis. I'm a little tired of castle-grey myself! @FarkonGnome: Thanks for fielding that question--almost exactly what I would have said, and more, since I don't have pets or children around to consider. Cindy at ClintSales is wonderful. And definitely seconded on the mold degradation--I have several second-hand molds, and even those are in great shape after years of casting. @Deguello: I do tend to use a dust-filter mask (the cheap kind you can get at Home Depot or other hardware stores) when I do a lot of casting--the plaster dust is very fine. If I'm only pouring a couple of molds, I tend not to bother. And setup time will vary a lot depending upon humidity and temperature. Farkon is right, you can easily tell by color shift when the bricks are ready to come out of the mold (even though they may not yet be completely dry at that point--I chuck them into an old food dehydrator to finish the process). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiniWargamer Posted May 24, 2007 Share Posted May 24, 2007 I use Excalibur Dental Plaster on all of my personal Hirst projects. I'm accustomed to using it more than Merlin's. Merlin's requires you to be more scientific in measuring your water to plaster ratio, whereas I can eyeball the Excalibur now. I have gotten good service from Lincoln Dental Supply (they have a supplier in Arkansas so shipping time is shorter for me). I use Merlin's Magic dental plaster, Does it wear out your mold faster? Also where do you get it? Easy of use? Is it toxic? LOL I have kiddoes around all of them old enough.... You'd think... Set up time etc.... it doesn't wear out the mold faster, the only thing that will cause the mold to degrade is using resin in them without taking proper precautions. You can get it from Clintsales from Cindy, and it holds up WAY better than PoP (I personally use Merlins as well). Cindy offers samples, but depending on where you live it could be costly for you to get it due to shipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarkonGnome Posted May 24, 2007 Share Posted May 24, 2007 I use Excalibur Dental Plaster on all of my personal Hirst projects. I'm accustomed to using it more than Merlin's. Merlin's requires you to be more scientific in measuring your water to plaster ratio, whereas I can eyeball the Excalibur now. I have gotten good service from Lincoln Dental Supply (they have a supplier in Arkansas so shipping time is shorter for me). The only problem I had with Excalibur was that if you don't wait long enough to scrape, your blocks can become uneven resulting in "short blocks" -- that's why I like Merlins. You can scrape it early or later (I don't suggest later as it can be like 3 day old toothpaste in consistancy) and your blocks are pretty much the same height. I tend to cast 4 or 5 molds at once, and put everything into bins for organization like you see below (which is an old picture as I now have each column 6 bins high): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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