No, Hirst Arts. Just...no.

[pogre]

I am a huge Dwarven Forge and Hirst Arts fan. I own almost all of the molds. The buy-in is expensive, but as many others have mentioned it's worth it long term.

However, I have seen some outstanding terrain created from foam board, pink board, and balsa. One of the coolest 40K terrain pieces I have seen was created almost entirely from a foam cooler.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

there was an awesome castle creator rubber mould set here in UK back in 70s
I still have it, can't recall the name of the product though, doh! Needot find the booklet for it again
it added sculpting to otuside faces of the bricks, had moulds for windows/doors, battlements, butresses etc
the blocks were solid, not thin, usually about 3/4 of an inch square in cross section, going up to about 3 1/2 inches long for turret rounds, and inch half long for straight sections
curves (for turrets), straights etc

 

[Iconik]

GREAT replies. Loving it.

You guys and gals have given me a plethora of ideas. Getting mold #60 that Naloomi was talking about almost sounds worth it. Now, where do I get Hydrostone? Is that something I need to buy from HA as well? I mean really...this seems like it'd be a fun hobby and a nice team building exercise for my group (not that they need it). It'd give us something to do as friends on nights we don't game.

The foam and pink board ideas sound intriguing. Dammit, I'm going to have to buy a TV for my garage. Or just use the one I'm not using! This sounds great!


EDIT: Isn't foam board too light?

EDIT: I'm looking for a way to customize dungeon walls. Maybe I should just go get some Bendy Walls instead. I don't need anything elaborate. You spend 3 weeks on a scene and the party is only there once for 1 hour? haha.

 

[Wicht]

If you go with molds, keep in mind that its not really a great team activity during the pouring and molding. Its an activity with large swathes of empty time best spent doing other things - like learning to cut and shape foam board. However, once you have enough blocks, there's certainly enough work to go around glueing and stuff.

Since there are so many Hirst fans here, what glue do people find works best on the blocks. I've settled on using a mixture of white glue and modeling glue which hardens quickly (white glue on the bottom like mortar and then modeling glue on the other piece) but I'm not entirely satisfied with this as it is also more brittle. White glue actually seems like the best glue long term, but the blocks too much while its drying and its slow. Modeling glue by itself is just too expensive for large projects.

 

[thedungeondelver]

I am a huge Dwarven Forge and Hirst Arts fan. I own almost all of the molds. The buy-in is expensive, but as many others have mentioned it's worth it long term.

However, I have seen some outstanding terrain created from foam board, pink board, and balsa. One of the coolest 40K terrain pieces I have seen was created almost entirely from a foam cooler.

GAMES WORKSHOP has their "Bridge at Khazad Dum" model in the "How to paint LORD OF THE RINGS" book, and it's 2x4s with Great Stuff expanding gap-filler foam sprayed on it in layers and allowed to drip down as it dries.

Brilliant!

 

[naloomi]

Now, where do I get Hydrostone? Is that something I need to buy from HA as well?

No, the Hydrostone is not something you can get from HA. There are many suppliers nationwide of Hydrostone. You can use US Gypsums website to find a local distributor. Gypsumsolutions.com - Leading Manufacturer of gypsum based products used in Flooring, Food & Polymer Fillers, Cements, Casting, Tooling and ceramics

I mean really...this seems like it'd be a fun hobby and a nice team building exercise for my group (not that they need it). It'd give us something to do as friends on nights we don't game.

While it is a fun hobby, casting itself is not really a team exercise. The building & painting can be, but not so much the casting.

Isn't foam board too light?

That is one of the things that appeal to people using it is the lightness of the end product. It allows extremely large builds without a large weight problem.

I'm looking for a way to customize dungeon walls. Maybe I should just go get some Bendy Walls instead. I don't need anything elaborate. You spend 3 weeks on a scene and the party is only there once for 1 hour? haha.

Well, in this aspect you have many options. And this is a very popular discussion over on the HA boards. Some of the popular options are separate floor and wall sections. This allows you to make whatever rooms you need at any given time, and have limited sections that you have to store. One of the drawbacks of this design is you do not get many variations.
Another primary option is actual dungeon tilesets, much like what Dwarven Forge utilizes. Here are some 3x3 & 4x4 tileset designs that a buddy of mine came up with that many of us use.

These tilesets use simple floor and walls and look much like:

Glue - Honestly, I find that Aileen's Tacky glue works best for my use. It is cheap, easy to come by (any craft store like Michaels or JoAnn's), easy clean up, and it's easy to fix mistakes.

I hope this helps.

Naloomi
Naloomi's Workshop

 

[dclunie]

Terrain Building

First a little self promotion Check out my gaming blog d4d6d8d10d12d20 there are some ideas for creating your own terrain projects (current have a video series of creating your own water tiles for similar to the dwarven forge for cheap) and some other papercraft templates and freebies.

Overall look into papercraft products, once built they are pretty durable if you store them correctly, and if you use foam core for the base you'll have plenty of durable game terrain (similar to dungeon tiles)

Initially I also looked at the hirts arts products and was in wonderment of what you could build for your campaigns. The only drawback I saw was the initial investment, and decided to construct some of my own molds.

I'd say the easy route is just to pony up and get hirst arts molds most of his stuff is designed in a way to worth with most of his other molds without too much effort. I spent a month straight of working on clay models of "stone work bricks and bases" to cast my own tiles/bricks and i'm still not 100% happy though 85% is more accurate. Also the stuff is "heavy" to transport around.

The one thing that you've got to know about the "build your own models brick by brick" hobby is that casting your bricks and then building them takes a lot of time even if you have a "system" down. Think of it exactly like legos, building small things fast is pretty easy doing elaborate buildings will take a while, and unlike legos those bricks don't "interlock" you've got to glue em together. (btw I used quick casting resin which cut down time, but then you have to wash the demolding agent or paint won't hold, and I found that most glues don't adhere well quickly to resin so i used locktite gel supergul which worked great on resin casts, which i did a write up of the various adheasives you can find and put it up on my blog d4d6d8d10d12d20)

Also making your own mold will be somewhat pricy too depening on what silicone you use (which is really the only thing you should use to get some nice detail) tin based silicone is less expensive, and platinum is of course more expensive but worth the price as its more durrable and typically you can get it in one to one mix ratios which is important. (tin usually is a 1 to 10 ratio so its kind of a pain to use)

Again I would suggest you go with a hybrid of dungeon tiles (you can make them with foam core and google images really of stone floors, etc.) and paper craft products with a smattering of railroad trees (which you can make too on the cheap) with a small subset of these tools you can set up almost any encounter, then if you know what the group is coming up against say a chess floor with some weird runes on it, you can quickly customize a new piece that fits in perfect with your old terrain items.

anyways, I'll think i'll start a write up on my blog regarding the process I did when I was making my own tiles, soon since I've had a few requests of the same nature as your original and I took pictures as I went along too so I have the content just have to put words to paper, so to speak.

-david c.
d4d6d8d10d12d20 - my game blog

 

[Steel_Wind]

I think the investment in time is far more significant than the investment in money. In comparison to the value yielded, the cost of the moulds is relatively low.

It depends on your perspective of course; but I look at my gaming room with a few thousand minis, hundred+ recent hardcovers (ignoring 25 years of RPGs from before the 3.x and 4.x eras -- and that's a large number of books and magazines, I assure you.

Add in dozens of board games and a few LCD projector units, megamats, battlemats, tables, chairs...

It's a lot of money I have in my hobby. In comparison to the value that some hardcore plaster casters have obtained form their modest investment of $150 in moulds?

It's a pittance. Do keep that $150 in perspective please.

I would add that this thread lead me to rewatch some videos and reconsider Hirst Arts castings as a fun diversion. I may just pick spme moulds up at Gencon next week -- so thanks for this thread

 

[pogre]

Glue - Honestly, I find that Aileen's Tacky glue works best for my use. It is cheap, easy to come by (any craft store like Michaels or JoAnn's), easy clean up, and it's easy to fix mistakes.

That's what I use too. It's held up fairly well over the years. Walmart has the best price for it in my area.

 

[Ourph]

Since there are so many Hirst fans here, what glue do people find works best on the blocks.

I use Elmer's wood glue (the yellow, creamy kind). It's more viscous than the white glue, so there isn't as much spillover and it dries hard within ~10 minutes on the material I use. I use Ultracal instead of Hydrostone, which I have heard affects the glue drying time. I think the Ultracal forms up a little more porous, so the moisture in the glue is wicked away and the glue sets up quicker.