My first (update 5/22: Second) time building with Hirst Arts

[eilif]

Ok, not technically my first time, but in the past I've just used sci-fi bits here and there to detail buildings, but this time a buddy gave me a bunch of fieldstone bricks he had cast and I built a variety of stone walls/fences for my medieval village. Pics, molds used/needed, and painting process here: http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2015/05/fieldstone-walls-with-hirst-arts-blocks.html





After building 20 of these I determined that I probably don't have the patience to cast bricks myself, but I certainly do enjoy building with them.  I worked up a couple of other items with some leftover bricks that I'll post up later.

[Dewbakuk]

Those look good. I've always disliked the Fieldstone pieces as you can see the rectangular pieces in the supposedly random stone. You've done an excellent job of hiding that though!

[zemjw]

I cast (casted?) a bunch of Hirsts Arts stuff a few years back.

The problems I hit were:

a. I just couldn't get the pieces consistent. When you're building a house with 10 or more layers, a difference of even a fraction of a mm adds up
b. When painting them I could never get the white of the plaster to disappear. I even experimented with tinting the bricks while casting, but it never really worked

How did you achieve such good cover on those pieces? You mention tan in the blog post, but are we talking Vallejo/GW paints or something else? Bruce (Hirsts Arts owner) used to recommend household emulsion, but I never got around to trying it.

I still have many blocks lying about and a few molds in a drawer. No - must avoid temptation

[gnomehome]

How did you achieve such good cover on those pieces? You mention tan in the blog post, but are we talking Vallejo/GW paints or something else? Bruce (Hirsts Arts owner) used to recommend household emulsion, but I never got around to trying it.

When I still had the illusion that I'd find enough time to cast all those molds over and over again, I made some HA stuff. I used household emulsion paint and never had problem with coverage - on coat was enough. For a couple of euro, you can buy a 'tester' so you can try out different shades.  You can always have your own colour mix made up, most DIY stores have this service nowadays.

[zemjw]

I'll have to give that a try - I may even have a small pot or two of emulsion lying about.

I don't have the time either to get back into casting, but I've plenty of bricks lying about. If I can build and few walls get them to look half as good as elif's I'll be happy.

[eilif]

Thanks for the kind words folks.

A bit of flock here and there really helps to break up the blocky look of the bricks as well as alternating the bricks used.  I don't necessarily see my self building tall structures with Hirst Arts, though I've seen it done well  and convincingly. For larger structures there are much faster methods. I could see myself doing a canal system though.

As for paint… yep, I used Household Emulsion, what we in the states just generally call "Latex" paint.  It's thicker than model paint and far better suited for terrain. In the past I've bought flat Latex paint from the DIY stores custom mixed to shade. Dark colors especially are great for a multitude of terrain base-coating uses.

In this case it was a batch of light tan that I had sitting around from painting a wall in my house.  I just added some black and brown craft paint to darken it up a bit.  It goes on fairly thick.  It was eggshell so it had a tiny bit of satin to it, but the heavy wet/drybrush with Delta Ceramcoat (craft paint) "Bamboo" covered it right up. The Hirst arts fellow gets impressive results with 3 layers, but I think my 2 color scheme looks pretty good.

A few other things.   Unless you're making HUGE projects, it's really only necessary to buy housepaint for the bottom layer which will be the thickest. The top layer(s) of paint will use much less and craft paints are cheap and easy to acquire. Also, in my experience, the cheapest brands of house paint are just fine for terrain making.

[snitcythedog]

Very nice walls. Casting is something that is a pain in the butt.  It has to be done but it is a pain.  I generally do it on days when i have housework else ware and cast in-between jobs. 

I just couldn't get the pieces consistent. When you're building a house with 10 or more layers, a difference of even a fraction of a mm adds up
/quote]
You can get consistency by doing one of two things.  First is to use the glass method that Bruce has on his tips and tricks portion of the Hirst arts site.  Or you could cheat like me.  I just turn all the bricks on their side and use the tops as the outside bricks.  It means that I have to cover the whole interior becasue that is the scraped side of all the blocks but it keeps the bricks consistent.  I have to use the glass method to make any of the round tower moulds in any case.  For the paint.  Emulsion like everyone else said.  Another option is spray paint since it gives good coverage and gets into all the cracks.  Hope that helps. 
Snitchy sends.

[zemjw]

I tried the glass technique, but never got the hang of it. Usually when I pulled the glass away a lot of plaster came with it, which messed up the sizes even more 

Using the bricks on their side was more successful, but the thing I was building really needed brick patterns on both sides, so I couldn't use it.

I don't miss thumping the table to try to remove air bubbles - although there were more interesting methods proposed to solve that problem - removing air bubbles. It includes a reply from snitchythedog - not sure if that's the same snitchy as on LAF

[eilif]

The bricks my friend made were mostly bubble free, though as I say in the post, fieldstone is supposed to be irregular.  Any bubbles can simply be jabbed a bit with a nail or hard pointed object (depending on the material) and they'll look like breaks in the rocks. 

He uses a vibrating table, which probably accounts for some of the quality of his casts. Built somewhat similarly to the directions halfway down this page,
http://www.hirstarts.com/casting/advanced.html

I don't know from personal experience, but I would imagine that anything taller than a couple inches should probably be built over a paper guide and in separate steps.

[zorg]

I spray paint the pieces first, giving them a black basecoat. This has always covered up everything, and the spray paint is dirt cheap. I also never had much of an air bubble problem (I bumped the mold a few times after pouring). For scraping, I used a largish spatula (the kind you use the scrape off wallpaper).

Of course, I only built a Space Hulk layout, and no "layered" structure like a house. My current project is a Gothic Dungeon/Arena (I'm still in the phase of making master molds).

[snitcythedog]

not sure if that's the same snitchy as on LAF

One and the same.
Snitchy sends

[eilif]

Round 2
There were a bunch of floor pieces and arch pieces leftover from the bags of bricks my buddy gave me so I whipped up some waterfront scenics.
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2015/05/waterfront-sections-with-hirst-arts.html

[marianas_gamer]

Very nice! I really like this piece    Like zorg, I spray paint my builds black with cheap Rustoleum flat black. It covers every thing well. Here is a tower that I built and there is no white peaking through

[Legion1963]

Although i have several buildings from Hirst Arts and am a big fan i do see some issues with it. When giving it a base coat you realy have to soak it with diluted paint in a dark color so that the paint goes into the deep crevices. It can be a bit time consuming but worth your while. After the basecoat i just dry-brush it with lighter colors and that works fine for me. As the final touch i apply some paint in various green or yellow shades to give the idea of lichen and such or glue moss or such to the buildings. For me they are the best buildings in the hobby even if they are less sturdy then resin, plastic or such materiels. However, a bit of diluted PVA solves that for some part.

[eilif]

Although i have several buildings from Hirst Arts and am a big fan i do see some issues with it. When giving it a base coat you realy have to soak it with diluted paint in a dark color so that the paint goes into the deep crevices. It can be a bit time consuming but worth your while. After the basecoat i just dry-brush it with lighter colors and that works fine for me. As the final touch i apply some paint in various green or yellow shades to give the idea of lichen and such or glue moss or such to the buildings. For me they are the best buildings in the hobby even if they are less sturdy then resin, plastic or such materiels. However, a bit of diluted PVA solves that for some part.

What kind of paint do you use for your basecoat? I just used plain household latex paint. I did take care to push it into the crevases, but I used it full strength, undiluted and only one coat was enough to completely cover the pieces.

I do wonder a bit about the long term durabilty, but household latex is pretty thick and I've given then all a layer of varnish as well.