Baugi 3907 Report post Posted September 7, 2014 (edited) Spent a few hours watching dmscotty and theDMGinfo videos on YouTube. I'm totally gonna try this 2.5D cardboard thing, to start. I think I may grab one or two of the Hirst detail/furniture/etc ones though. Edited September 7, 2014 by Baugi 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
scorpio616 1796 Report post Posted September 7, 2014 Cheap Mosaic tiles also can help provide the floor pieces for dungeons. Many types are 1" and 2" grids. 4" x 4" section I glued and stained to use with some Dwarven Forge game tiles. 5 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dimsbottle 199 Report post Posted September 11, 2014 I'm currently doing a castle out of Hirst Arts. I'm using pink foam as the core of the thicker walls to reduce weight and cost. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bonwirn 3871 Report post Posted September 16, 2014 Wow! I'm sorry I missed this thread up to this point. Hirst Arts can be rather addicting. It can also be a huge time sink... BUT! I find it is a lot of fun and a lot of creationism goes on as I think of different ways to assemble the blocks. First off: Which molds do I buy? pretty much covered by the other folks... egyptian, gothic/chipped stone, fieldstone or sci fi.... I would suggest limiting yourself to one of the "genres" until you are sure that you are hooked. What material do I use?... Plaster of Paris is a waste of money and time... It's cheap, and won't last as long as the plastic packaging at a shoplifting convention. Hydrostone would be the low end of what I would suggest. Excalibur is on the high end, but is actually cheaper for me to get than Merlin's Magic. Be prepared to pay between $25 for a 50 lb bag of Hydrostone to $45 for a 50 lb box of Excalibur... and then shipping on top of that unless you are lucky enough to find a local supplier... How frequently do should I be casting? Every night! Seriously. It takes about 15 minutes to set up a casting station (I leave mine up since I have plent of room). As long as you can pour one set of molds a night, then on Saturday, you have 5 to 10 casts of your molds ready for assembly. If it is rainy outside on the weekend, I can get 8 to 10 castings done (with 6 to 8 molds per session) all while cleaning house, playing with the kids, etc... How much "inventory" should I have? That depends, but I would have a lot of stuff pre cast, so when the building bug hits, you are not waiting on blocks to set/cure. At any given time, I would say that I have 15 to 20 casts of the non basic molds and 40+ of the basic molds cast and sorted in boxes waiting on the glue. This all takes up space... but thankfully I have a loving wife who understands that I am a big kid. I have seen your basing tutorials and I think you would have a great time with all the HA stuff that you can make. 4 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cthulhudarren 647 Report post Posted September 17, 2014 Spent a few hours watching dmscotty and theDMGinfo videos on YouTube. I'm totally gonna try this 2.5D cardboard thing, to start. I think I may grab one or two of the Hirst detail/furniture/etc ones though. BEFORE you start building these, look at his 2.5 NEXT videos. I think it is a better method, as far as re-usability and portability. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Baugi 3907 Report post Posted September 19, 2014 Spent a few hours watching dmscotty and theDMGinfo videos on YouTube. I'm totally gonna try this 2.5D cardboard thing, to start. I think I may grab one or two of the Hirst detail/furniture/etc ones though. BEFORE you start building these, look at his 2.5 NEXT videos. I think it is a better method, as far as re-usability and portability. At the moment I'm doing a bit of both! Some standard 2.5d stone floor tiles, and some more flexible of the mats with props style. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cthulhudarren 647 Report post Posted September 24, 2014 Spent a few hours watching dmscotty and theDMGinfo videos on YouTube. I'm totally gonna try this 2.5D cardboard thing, to start. I think I may grab one or two of the Hirst detail/furniture/etc ones though. BEFORE you start building these, look at his 2.5 NEXT videos. I think it is a better method, as far as re-usability and portability. At the moment I'm doing a bit of both! Some standard 2.5d stone floor tiles, and some more flexible of the mats with props style. I'm curious about the mats. Are you priming before painting? Sealing afterwards? The video does not indicate either. I am using rolls of cork from Michaels and I think I should have primed first. I wasted an entire can of black spray paint and the mat isn't even done. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Baugi 3907 Report post Posted October 2, 2014 Sorry! Start of school year means I haven't been around much. So far I've just been building the corridors and rooms and stuff and spraypainting them black. I haven't done the detail work yet. I haven't primed or painted my corkboards for the 2.5NEXT stuff yet, but I may use my brush-on black gesso for the purpose, as it tends to do quite well with cork. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Maredudd 2873 Report post Posted October 4, 2014 I find that I must own all of the Hirst Arts molds . . . not there yet, but I'm working on it! BIG STOMPY ROBOTS walking around and through BIG BLOCKY BUILDINGS!!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
