No, Hirst Arts. Just...no.

[Iconik]

My gaming group and I have decided that we want to dedicate some of our Saturday nights to drinks, food and tile/landscape/wall building. We began looking around and found Hirst Arts all over the internet. But, non of us could really justify spending $35 on one mold. Not to mention that we'd actually need more to make it worthwhile.

While I have no doubt that Hirst Arts makes a great product, the price isn't justifiable. And this is coming from the guy that has spent copious amounts on gaming products and a nice gaming room.

So, with that said, do any of you know of any good resources for homemaking this stuff from scratch? You'd be doing me a big favor. My group would appreciate it too as, well, our Saturdays are horribly barren.

PS: Notice I didn't bring up Dwarvenforge. Because if Hirst is too much...Dwarvenforge will be way too much!

 

[NewJeffCT]

My gaming group and I have decided that we want to dedicate some of our Saturday nights to drinks, food and tile/landscape/wall building. We began looking around and found Hirst Arts all over the internet. But, non of us could really justify spending $35 on one mold. Not to mention that we'd actually need more to make it worthwhile.

While I have no doubt that Hirst Arts makes a great product, the price isn't justifiable. And this is coming from the guy that has spent copious amounts on gaming products and a nice gaming room.

So, with that said, do any of you know of any good resources for homemaking this stuff from scratch? You'd be doing me a big favor. My group would appreciate it too as, well, our Saturdays are horribly barren.

PS: Notice I didn't bring up Dwarvenforge. Because if Hirst is too much...Dwarvenforge will be way too much!

The folks from Games Workshop have a pretty good book on how to build terrain for miniature wargames, which works pretty well for D&D as they're generally the same scale.

Miniature Building Authority has some pretty good finished buildings - painted and pretty solid in construction, though some of their nicer stuff can start getting expensive. You can get it for a small discount (10%?) on eBay through some online dealers, though I have not checked for a while.

 

[Wicht]

As someone with a tight budget, who has also bought Hirst Art molds, let me chime in and say that the molds will last long enough to make the initial investment worthwhile. I have several of his molds and they are as good today as when I bought them (about seven years ago). I have used them for my children's school projects, vacation Bible School crafts, and, of course, minature war gaming. The $35 seems like a lot but he's likely only going to sell them to you once.

The real investment with them is time, as building any large projects takes many, many plaster pourings with each cast taking approximately 40 minutes to an hour to complete.

Now, with that being said, you can actually, I understand, make your own molds (in fact instructions for doing so are on the Hirst aRts page iirc). You just need to by the material and have an original piece you want to pour around. But I suspect you will find the buy in to making your own molds just as expensive as buying the molds and plaster (which is why I haven't done it myself.)

 

[Ourph]

Hirst Arts is really the best deal out there if you want solid construction. You can easily build all the dungeons you want with 4 molds (not all of which cost $35, IIRC the accessories mold only costs $15). Once you buy them you can cast thousands of blocks (great value for your money) and you can defray the initial investment by sharing the expense of the molds among the whole group.

If you want something cheaper, there are several companies that make paper models that are fun to build and look really nice. There are also a bunch of free resources with plans for paper models on the internet, just google "paper fantasy models 3D".

 

[Wicht]

The folks from Games Workshop have a pretty good book on how to build terrain for miniature wargames, which works pretty well for D&D as they're generally the same scale.

The games workshop terrain book is well worth it for ideas. I, just this last year, used it as well for teaching my kids how to make terrain. (We did the GW book and then did some brick molding.)

Again though, the initial investment for supplies for any project will run you at least $20-$40 as you buy putty, glue, paints, brushes, knives, etc.

 

[Wicht]

If you want something cheaper, there are several companies that make paper models that are fun to build and look really nice. There are also a bunch of free resources with plans for paper models on the internet, just google "paper fantasy models 3D".

Paper models are also fun. And paper minis are great.

But they do eat up that ink. There really are no modeling solutions that don't cost money in one form or another.

 

[Pbartender]

So, with that said, do any of you know of any good resources for homemaking this stuff from scratch? You'd be doing me a big favor. My group would appreciate it too as, well, our Saturdays are horribly barren.

Also look into similar supplies used to build model train sets and dioramas... They could be less expensive, depending, and are especially great for wilderness terrain and features.

A store like Hobby Lobby is a good place to start.

"S-Scale" (1:64) railroad models would correspond to roughly 1" = 5' (1:60).

 

[Iconik]

And this is why I love ENWorld.

 

[Ourph]

Now, with that being said, you can actually, I understand, make your own molds (in fact instructions for doing so are on the Hirst aRts page iirc). You just need to by the material and have an original piece you want to pour around. But I suspect you will find the buy in to making your own molds just as expensive as buying the molds and plaster (which is why I haven't done it myself.)

As someone who has tried making my own molds, I will say that (for me at least) it really wasn't worth the time, trouble and expense. It takes a LOT of practice and material to get the molds right. The stuff you're working with (especially the mold release compound) is toxic, smelly and expensive. Plus, I poured 5 molds and still didn't get anything that turned out blocks as nice as the HA molds. I feel like I'm being a total schill for HA, but I don't have any connection to or investment in the company... just a big fan.

 

[Peter Lee]

When I began making casts of my own minis, I bought a resin starting kit from an online supplier - it came with the 2 part room temperature vulcanizing (RTV) rubber for making molds, the 2 part 5 minute resin, mold release (for both the rubber and the resin), clay for making molds, stirring sticks and plastic cups. It was pretty much everything I needed.

I learned how to make molds from the Hirst arts website. The end result: lots of time spent and more than $35 in failed experiments. It was fun and educational, but if you're balking on $35 molds, you're going to be disappointed with your final price tag. One air bubble in your mold and you either have a ton of clean-up work with your final product or worst case you have a mold you just can't use.

The hirst molds are nice, high quality work and they will save you time. If you insist on making your own molds, here is the best "how-to" on mold making I've ever seen:

Hellboy bust and matrix mold making tutorial - ConceptArt.org Forums

Obviously, you can get away with a one piece mold for simple blocks, but this shows the rabbit hole you may be climbing down.