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In February 2001 I stumbled uponm the HirstArts rubber molds and in the beginning, I stuck to the examples on the webpage. So over some time I got the feeling for those pieces and how they combine to a reasonable design or not. I also had lots of practice in casting the pieces and choosing colors for the paint job.
I can only advise anyone new to HirstArts to build a few of the standard buildings, they are adapted to a beginners skills.
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| | The tomb in all its beauty
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| The Tomb was my first building from HirstArts Gipsformen System. Nach anfänglicher Skepsis bin ich mittlererweile ziemlich begeistert davon. Das Grabmal ist meiner Meinung nach recht leicht zu bauen und sieht toll aus. Es ist auch ein Geländeteil das man begehen kann ohne dazu das Dach zu entfernen.
Den Sarkophag habe ich nach eigenen Entwürfen gebaut, da mir die dekorativen Simsteile ausgegangen sind. Aber mir gefällt er so sogar besser, die verzierten Glockenturm Teile passen gut zum Rest des Sarkophages.
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| | Bell tower
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| The Bell Tower is a really large building. It doesn't look much in the images, but when I put the finished tower on my gaming table I realized just how impressive it is. It doesn't use up much space since it is more high than wide. The windows have been made from printouts on white paper.
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| | Dragons Inn
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| After building the Tomb and the Bell Tower the Dragons Inn gives a clumsy and weigty feel, but then I realized that normal buildings just "are this way". The roof was made using the Clay Tile Roof Mold, it looks a bit strange since the tiles are so small and the roof is covers a very large area.
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| | Die Krypta
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| I found the plans for the Crypt on the HirstArts homepage. I like this little building, it's a fine, small, compact piece with lots of architectural detail. And of course I could try out my own relief tiles.
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| | Prison tower, front view
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| | Prison tower, back view
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| O my God! What a fumbling around! The tower itself is ok - I just have to use a form in the future - those thin windows and the decoratice brick corners a wonderful. But the stairway - horrible! Always dropping off, always a little gap there and a little aslant there. Argh! Maybe it should be called "Torture Tower" *g*. Interesting, in the end it looks terrific, it is a wonderful piece of scenery with walkway and such.
Of course I coudn't resist to put my new warrior relief tiles in too. The 3/4" high pieces need a 1/4" strip on top of them to blend into the wall but it fits amazingly well. I think this may be the optimal height for relief pieces.
After painting and finishing I found the tower to be a little warped. It seems that there have been some mistakes in assembling which have summed up to a noticable tilt. |
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| | The sarkophagus with horseman relief tile
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| A dear friend of mine wanted me make a sarcophagus for her. The was the possibility to build something with the small brick mold combined with my own horsemen relief tiles. It resulted in a very large (ok, compared to the Tombs sarcophagus, for itself its quite ok) sarkophagus made of those tiny bricks. It looks good, and the relief tile in the lid gives the whole thing a sculpted touch. Did I really promise this to someone else? Do I have to give it away?
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| | The circular tower
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| | The circular tower
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| After casting pieces for weeks, I finally felt ready to beginn the Circular Tower. The mold is rather small and since all the pieces are unique you have to cast it often to obtain the neccesary numbers of pieces to complete the tower. Of course I ran short of plain normal circular bricks halfway through the project, so completition was a little delayed.
This time I wanted to build a real straight tower so I assembled the pieces in layers without gluing the layers together. I hoped to get a perfectly straight tower this way.
The tower itself looks great, I like it very much. I must say that the real model looks far more impressive and larger the fotos I had seen. A whole castle made up of circular architecture would surely be an impressive sight. O well, one step after the other... |
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| | Die Kirche
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| | Konstruktionsskizze für die Kirche
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| The church of HirstArts, as historically accurate it might be, I just didn't like it. I just cannot accept a church without a church tower. So I wondered if it was possible to connect a Bell Tower model to the Curch model. And when an interesting arcitectural problem keeps running around in my head, the result is often a building...
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| | The bridge
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| The bridge turned out to be a fantastic terrain piece for Mortheim. We rarely use it as a bridge but as a set of ornate stairs to get to areas of higher altitute.
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| | The crypt in on of our games
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| When I sold my crypt in absence of sanity (it cannot be called else!) I had to make another for myself. This time I painted it to fit the curch, I wanted to create some buildings to fit a clerical scene with church, crypt, a small chapel and maybe even some sort of graveyard.
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| | Assembling the side parts
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| | Painted very dark
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| After a longer break I felt the urge to build something from plaster again an I looked for a relativly easy project. I like the belltower design and since there were gothic molds now I thought I'd try a conversion of the belltower in gothic pieces.
I like the results very much I think the gothic pieces blend into the belltower design nicely. Now I am ready for greater challanges! |
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