Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Does anyone do this? After the start up costs of getting a few molds, and paying for plaster, dozens of buildings/terrain could be made for a low cost. Well not counting labor of course. Anyone have any experience with this?

The biggest problem I had with this idea was a lack of variety. If you're ok with that, then its a great idea. You can use your copies as bases for further customization, so long as you're willing to put in the man hours.

Plaster is rather heavy and brittle. That doesn't matter if you'll only be using the scenery at home, but is a real pain if you need to transport it.

Ah yes, this is true. You could upgrade to resin for a slight increase in cost.

Guess you are talking about Hirst: http://www.hirstarts.com/molds/molds.html
Only had a kit made of plaster. A bit heavy and fragile, but dental plaster is supposed to be less fragile.

My club has two models made from hirstart moulds.

A pyramid.
And the gothic church.

Both weigh a couple of kilograms each.

Resin would save maybe a third of the weight.

But require a different glue (plaster can be glued with pva).

Kroothawk wrote:Guess you are talking about Hirst: http://www.hirstarts.com/molds/molds.html

Yes I am actually. So if plaster is heavy and a bit fragile, and resin is lighter and stronger, what's the cost difference between the two materials?

And I thought I read somewhere that resin wears out the molds faster. How much faster?

I've built a lot of Hirst Arts/plaster terrain pieces for gaming terrain. If you use a quality plaster such as a Dental stone (Merlin's Magic, Excalibur) or products like Hydrostone/Ultra Cal 30, the terrain will be heavy but strong enough to play on. The danger is actually in the smaller bricks which tend to get knocked off. But a bit of care and maintenance will keep the piece looking nice.

Resin will burn out your Hirst molds. You may get 50-100 casts, but then the mold will dry out and crumble. If you stick with plaster - the molds are nearly indestructible. The second issue with resin is glue and construction. Hirst kits are very figity - the casting process creates small variations in the blocks. To make the bigger pieces, you need to sand & shape the pieces... not so easy with resin. Second, resin requires super glue or epoxy - both are much more expensive than Elmer's wood glue (my preferred plaster glue).

Creating your own molds can help in 2 ways: 1 - if you are resin casting, you can just keep making new molds as the old ones dry out. 2 - build sub assemblies of common blocks. Makes for quick construction and improved model strength. (Hirst allows you to make your own molds for personal use - no IP issues here)

I have a big collection of terrain I pull out every year for Adepticon. Some of my stuff has been to a dozen tournaments or more & is still in good shape. Here are a few examples: http://chicagoterrainfactory.wordpress.com/hirst-arts-terrain-projects/

If you go for plaster,as RanTheCid said, go for dental stone like Merlin's Magic or Excalibur. It's a fraction of the cost of resin, but its strong enough to stand up to gaming (although fairly heavy).

One of the advantages of plaster however, is that it allows for some pretty interesting battle damage...

chaos0xomega wrote:If you go for plaster,as RanTheCid said, go for dental stone like Merlin's Magic or Excalibur. It's a fraction of the cost of resin, but its strong enough to stand up to gaming (although fairly heavy).

One of the advantages of plaster however, is that it allows for some pretty interesting battle damage...

Actually, if you buy Resin by the gallon, the price is in the same range as dental plaster. Its the trial sized resin kits that have the high price. But 2 gallons of resin need an pretty big project to use up.

Plaster does scale wonderfully as concrete - go figure. I like to use a tin snips to break chunks off for damage.

I have used regular plaster on my hirst arts molds. A friend and I recreated the entirety of warhammer quest using them and all the bonus things that came in white dwarf. It's really good. You get the occasional chip but I recommend being religious when it comes to varnishing it. testors dullcote and all that.

Hmm, I know nothing about varnish, but if it makes the things more durable, good.

Lots of information in here, thanks guys. Any good guides online anywhere that I can read?

Hirstarts.com have a good one (naturally).