shadowlight
First Post
Saturday Night Fever
So by Saturday, I'd made 9 casts of each mold. After about 2 or 3 casts, you get pretty good at guessing when you should scrape, and how long you need to wait before you remove the pieces from the molds. I definitely recommend using a 4" putty knife (rather than a massive 12" knife like I used initially). Also, the wet water method is REALLY helping my pieces come out with noticably fewer bubbles.
Before I started any gluing, I built a square form from Legos (see the first picture below). This is basically a guide to help me keep all of my blocks straight and square while I glue them.
I picked out all the pieces for my first room (a 25' square room, so 5"x5") and laid them out against the square. Some of the pieces had bulbous bottoms (because I didn't do my first few scrapes very well), so I sanded them off to make the floor relatively even.
Once all the pieces were sanded I used Aleene's Tacky Glue (white glue in a gold bottle that you can find at any craft store for super cheap) to glue the pieces together:
Ahh, Taste the Rainbow!
One thing I should mention is that I decided to add a half inch border around my room to build the walls on (they're all 1/2" thick). Bruce Hirst's Dungeon Tutorial says to build them right on the 1" squares, but I wanted a complete grid in the room rather than having only 1/2" rectangles next to the walls. Here's the finished floor:
5" x 5" Floor!
I should mention that I glued on a sheet of tin foil so the floor pieces wouldn't stick to the table.
While the floor was drying, I started work on my 2"x2" modular rooms. These were a lot easier because they were smaller and because I'd built up my confidence a little
Here they are:
Cornered!
10' x 10' Pieces
And here's the final shot of all my pieces:
My Modular Dungeon is Coming Together
Well, this is all a lot easier than I thought it would be! I ordered the molds on Sunday, and by the next Saturday, I'd made all the pieces above.
Here are a few random suggestions I'd make after building my first few pieces:
1) Use a square form made from Legos. It's SO easy to get everything square!
2) Build the piece completely before you do any gluing. There's always a piece or two you'll have to sand
3) Learn to use the wet water technique. Water + Jet Dry = Fewer Bubbles
4) Have a lot of Ibuprofen around! My back was killing me by Saturday night from hunching over the table. In fact, I ended up putting cinder blocks under the table to raise it up several inches. I took a break on Sunday and Monday, and my back's feeling a lot better
Next steps:
- Paint the dungeon!!
- Base the dungeon!!
- Order a few more molds to feed the growing addiction!!!!!
So by Saturday, I'd made 9 casts of each mold. After about 2 or 3 casts, you get pretty good at guessing when you should scrape, and how long you need to wait before you remove the pieces from the molds. I definitely recommend using a 4" putty knife (rather than a massive 12" knife like I used initially). Also, the wet water method is REALLY helping my pieces come out with noticably fewer bubbles.
Before I started any gluing, I built a square form from Legos (see the first picture below). This is basically a guide to help me keep all of my blocks straight and square while I glue them.
I picked out all the pieces for my first room (a 25' square room, so 5"x5") and laid them out against the square. Some of the pieces had bulbous bottoms (because I didn't do my first few scrapes very well), so I sanded them off to make the floor relatively even.
Once all the pieces were sanded I used Aleene's Tacky Glue (white glue in a gold bottle that you can find at any craft store for super cheap) to glue the pieces together:
Ahh, Taste the Rainbow!
One thing I should mention is that I decided to add a half inch border around my room to build the walls on (they're all 1/2" thick). Bruce Hirst's Dungeon Tutorial says to build them right on the 1" squares, but I wanted a complete grid in the room rather than having only 1/2" rectangles next to the walls. Here's the finished floor:
5" x 5" Floor!
I should mention that I glued on a sheet of tin foil so the floor pieces wouldn't stick to the table.
While the floor was drying, I started work on my 2"x2" modular rooms. These were a lot easier because they were smaller and because I'd built up my confidence a little
Here they are:
Cornered!
10' x 10' Pieces
And here's the final shot of all my pieces:
My Modular Dungeon is Coming Together
Well, this is all a lot easier than I thought it would be! I ordered the molds on Sunday, and by the next Saturday, I'd made all the pieces above.
Here are a few random suggestions I'd make after building my first few pieces:
1) Use a square form made from Legos. It's SO easy to get everything square!
2) Build the piece completely before you do any gluing. There's always a piece or two you'll have to sand
3) Learn to use the wet water technique. Water + Jet Dry = Fewer Bubbles
4) Have a lot of Ibuprofen around! My back was killing me by Saturday night from hunching over the table. In fact, I ended up putting cinder blocks under the table to raise it up several inches. I took a break on Sunday and Monday, and my back's feeling a lot better
Next steps:
- Paint the dungeon!!
- Base the dungeon!!
- Order a few more molds to feed the growing addiction!!!!!
