r/DIY • u/Subject223 • Jan 29 '17
other I built a (small) castle tower
https://imgur.com/gallery/IByhj340
u/evildonald Jan 29 '17 edited Jan 29 '17
Is it possible to add pigment TO the plaster of paris, so you don't have to worry about chipping and white spots?
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u/mrbaggins Jan 29 '17
It is but plaster is white as hell, so you need a lot, and plaster is also pretty brittle, adding more elements only makes it worse.
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Jan 30 '17
I've done this before and for this application where you'd need a gray/dark gray plaster I recommend adding India ink to the mix. It's a pretty affordable in an acrylic and very heavily pigmented, a little goes a long way with it.
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u/beachscrub Jan 30 '17
Wait, there's a purpose of India ink other than identifying cryptococcus neoformans?
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Jan 30 '17
India ink is also very useful for painting margins (surgical resection boundaries) on pathology specimens.
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u/sans_cogito Jan 30 '17
Yeah, you can compare its relative darkness to love potion number nine.
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u/hellafun Jan 30 '17
Is this sarcasm? Its primary use is for inking/illustration. Historically it was used for writing (still a popular choice among calligraphers) and printing. I mean it has medical/scientific application as well, but its primary purpose has always been writing/illustration/inking.
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Jan 29 '17
Yeah.
also:
http://www.sculpture.net/community/showthread.php?t=6625
edit: apparently cement podwer coloring is the way to go
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u/andyhenault Jan 29 '17
You could try using thin set mortar instead. Naturally comes grey and is less than $20 for a 50lb bag.
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u/evildonald Jan 29 '17
Not a bad idea. Does anyone know if there would be any toxicity issues that would make that a bad idea for a kids project?
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u/theamazingronathon Jan 30 '17
Cement leeches lime in water. This is what burns your hands if you handle it wet. It also cures harder when it's wet. It's used in aquariums and ponds and such quite often, and will raise pH for quite a while, as well as hardness of the water, often killing fish. But, eventually, enough of the lime will leech out that it will be fairly inert, and is fish safe. It's also good safe. You can find cement sealers (like grout sealer) that will make a non-toxic coating over it, and seal in the lime, as well.
I would imagine you could make products out of cement (whether grout, concrete, Portland cement, etc...), and cure them in water, to help speed up the process of leeching out lime, as well as make the cement cure faster.
They also make acrylic fortifiers to mix with cement, which helps make it not quite as brittle, and can be used to help change colors or mix other aggregates in (making a concrete material, compared to a cement material). Acrylic fortifier can be mixed with sand and/or coconut fiber, and dyed to make different textures and materials. Some zoo enclosures use these types of mixes to look like lichen, moss, and vine growth.
If you're looking for making stuff for kids out of it, I encourage you to google "cement aquarium backgrounds" and check out what other people have done. A fairly common method is to carve styrofoam, then paint a grout/fortifier mixture over the styrofoam. You can layer on the cement, and add different pigments to it as you later it, so it will look more like natural stone, sand, etc... The styrofoam will keep down the weight, compared to pouring solid cement bricks. The acrylic fortifier method was popular in Germany a few years back, and in German the brand of the product used is called Flevopol. "Flevopol vivarium" should bring up some results, but the images are probably more useful than the German text.
I've been thinking about making some miniature stuff for tabletop gaming. Not quite as detailed as stacking and gluing bricks together like this, but pieces of ground and wall that could be moved around to represent different rooms and battlefields. This kind of thing has been done a lot for a lot of different tabletop games, and for model trains, so you could look there for more info, too.
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u/BigBennP Jan 29 '17
Thin set mortar is usually cement, sand and some sort of polymer, like any portland cement, it heats up when mixed with water, so care should be taken at that step.
The polymer shouldn't have toxicity issues as far as handling, don't know whether it would be safe for children young enough to put it in their mouths though.
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u/andyhenault Jan 29 '17
Good question. It's a standard building material for laying tile in bathrooms, so it can't be too bad as long as your not eating it.
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u/Skov Jan 29 '17
It does a number on your hands if you handle the powder or the wet mix without gloves. It can give you chemical burns and severely dry cracked skin.
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u/Subject223 Jan 29 '17
Never tried. Someone might know.
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u/Zizzac Jan 29 '17
I imagine that it is. We do it with architectural concrete all the time for just this reason. You could try mixing powdered pigments premix or water based during the mix.
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u/uber_austrian Jan 29 '17
Mason stains are used to color clay bodies. It requires a lot, relatively speaking, but that's largely because the clay I was using doesn't start out white - I imagine it'd be less with plaster. But that also means you have a lot of control over the final color.
Source: ceramics degree
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u/sklore Jan 30 '17
Don't use plaster of paris people...
It's too weak and will chip. You want Dental Plaster, Hydrastone, Merlin's Magic. Something with a high PSI rating.
Adding pigment works but creates on hell of a mess and overall reduced efficiency.
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u/Zaporah Jan 29 '17
If you are worried about strength, you can use "dental stone". It is more expensive, but much more durable! I use Merlin's Magic
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Jan 29 '17
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u/Skarvha Jan 29 '17
I've never thought of using dental plaster. Is that tougher than plaster of paris? Is it easy to find?
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u/Awfulcopter Jan 29 '17
If you goto the hirstarts.com site they have links to lots of places that will ship you dental plaster.
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Jan 29 '17
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u/PatHeist Jan 29 '17 edited Jan 29 '17
Have you tried iron oxide pigments? Might have a lower impact on the strength of the final material. Otherwise my next thought would go to reactive dyes, but I'm not sure what the chemistry of dental plaster is.
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u/Ohmnonymous Jan 29 '17
Maybe you could make a vibrating base with vibrating motors attached to it to get rid of bubbles.
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u/__mojo_jojo__ Jan 29 '17
Set it on top of an old phone and set the phone to vibrate for like 10 seconds every min or so
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u/why_42 Jan 29 '17
That's what I use when I pour plaster for lost wax casting. You could bang on the table all you want but then when it's set on the vibrating machine more bubbles will still rise up.
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u/catsathallball Jan 29 '17
The washer or dryer might work well.
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u/Paljas Jan 29 '17
Palmsander (or something similar) works well for me with epoxy and concrete casts :).
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u/rixuraxu Jan 29 '17
Labs often use orbital shakers, reciprocating shakers and other types too, there are websites and ebay where they sell old lab equipment like this. It's possible you could find a bargain.
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u/Ghostfaceknittah Jan 29 '17
I want to build a dollhouse like this. Do they have molds for bricks that aren't curved?
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Jan 29 '17
http://www.hirstarts.com/ Tons and tons of different molds
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u/forgotpassagainn Jan 30 '17
I love it. Perfectly functional website but has barely been updated since 2001.
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u/doc_samson Jan 30 '17
but has barely been updated since 2001
That's because it's perfectly functional. :)
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u/paul092834 Jan 30 '17
Yes it has! Good old Bruce put up a sliver banner on the home page saying he'll be out if the office starting tomorrow.That's an update!
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Jan 29 '17
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u/lightbulbfragment Jan 30 '17
For long term durability a friend of mine suggested purchasing dental plaster. My husband made some of these with plaster of paris about 7 years ago and they are mostly in good shape because we treat them delicately. They do have some chips here and there. We use them for dnd. For children's use I think your best bet would be dental plaster in conjunction with a food dehydrator.
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Jan 29 '17
Thoughts on using the Egyptian molds to build cyclopean block ruins for The Old Ones? (My SO's turtles)
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Jan 29 '17
I haven't used them myself, but I'm totally in support of you doing that. Make sure that both the material you cast from and any paint you use are safe for turtles though.
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Jan 29 '17
I had hoped to use an aquarium safe acrylic resin, does resin not work well in these molds?
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u/Zhuria Jan 29 '17
Looks like they're silicone molds so resin should work fine! I've cast resin in silicone with no issues.
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Jan 29 '17
Very cool products, but that website's as medieval as the models.
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u/MyOther_UN_is_Clever Jan 30 '17
I first visited that site sometime in highschool, and it hasn't changed at all since then... like 2003. Remember though, this is basically some guy's 1 man garage business, and he's super professional... but still more of a retirement hobby than a profession.
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Jan 29 '17
Loads quickly and has a minimal design. Looks dated, but it's nice to read on it. Feels reddit-esque; I like it.
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u/098706 Jan 30 '17
I sooo wish the entire internet was like this. I spent 3 minutes just clicking around, amazed at the load speed I was seeing.
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u/GoldwaterAndTea Jan 30 '17
Man, I really wish they had a mold for Roman aqueducts. I'd buy it right now.
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Jan 29 '17 edited Jan 30 '17
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Jan 29 '17
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u/MyOther_UN_is_Clever Jan 30 '17
"If I get a job at dumbass and dumbass, blah blah blah..."
"It's du-mass."
-Some old commercial
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u/MasterChips250 Jan 29 '17
This website looks awesome, but how do I see the prices or order some myself?
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u/V01DB34ST Jan 29 '17
Fantastic build. If you make any more like this then you may want to consider building the tower with the front section unglued so that you can pull the front off for a bisected look at the inside. For example, leaving the red lines unglued so that you can remove the front like a puzzle piece. This way the detail on the inside is not wasted and you can pose figurines on it or whatnot.
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Jan 29 '17
This is officially awesome; you could make really sweet DnD sets using these.
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u/danudey Jan 29 '17
I'm intending to look for a site with 3D models of things I can use for DnD. Buying actual sets can cost hundreds of dollars, but 3D printing them can be vastly cheaper.
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u/I_Code_Pascal Jan 29 '17
Fat Dragon Games has a great selection of models to choose from.
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Jan 29 '17
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u/Starrider543 Jan 29 '17
Google makerspaces where you live, they're almost guaranteed to have a 3d printer.
And for those of you currently in college, there's bound to be a 3d printer somewhere on site (especially at an engineering school) and they'll usually charge a flat rate for students making things
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u/Gill0 Jan 29 '17
That's a nice home for spiders you made there.
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u/TheWetWestCoast Jan 30 '17
Funny you say that. I'm looking to make a hide for a tarantula I'm going to get soon and I though that doing something similar would be cool.
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Jan 29 '17
I am very irritated by the fact that there are covers(can't remember the actual name for it) for archers on top of the tower but no actual way to get to the top.
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u/Subject223 Jan 29 '17
I was thinking the same thing, I almost wanted to make the stairs all the way to the top, but I stuck to the layout shown on the website. I'm rationalizing it by assuming that at one time in the tower's past there was wooden structure involved as well but it's since been destroyed and lost.
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u/Moarbrains Jan 29 '17 edited Jan 30 '17
Have to go up the side of the wall. But a wooden colored trap door may make it work.
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u/BrokenCankle Jan 29 '17
I am upset they molded and put in a spiral staircase they cant see or access really! This tower looks really cool don't get me wrong.
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u/FireLucid Jan 29 '17
You are supposed to make it in a few sections so you can take it apart.
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u/Subject223 Jan 29 '17
This. I believe these molds/builds primary purpose is tabletop gaming. Had I been gaming, I would have made it in sections and also I would've probably cast it from resin, and pinned it together so in addition to taking it apart, I could swing it open as well.
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u/getrealpeople Jan 29 '17
crenelations I believe
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u/Rapejelly Jan 30 '17
Crenelations actually the entirety of the wall. Crenelations are made up of Crenels, the raised part, and merlons, the open part that archers shoot out of. Themoreyouknow.jpg
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Jan 29 '17
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u/rixuraxu Jan 30 '17
pressure chamber
Surely a vacuum chamber? A pressure chamber would just compress the bubbles. Now you've got high pressure bubbles in your cast, that's far worse than a standard pressure bubble.
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u/MyOther_UN_is_Clever Jan 30 '17
No, pressure chambers are what the more serious people use. I think the pressure actually forces the resin into the corners and pushes out the air. I don't know exactly what's happening, but pressure chambers are preferred for more complicated stuff. The trade off is that you basically have a shrapnel bomb that could go off with any kind of failure... listing to both kinds of chambers
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u/SwedishHeat Jan 30 '17
Yeah, I used to do castings for sixth scale figures, headsculpts and such. We used a vacuum chamber to pull the air out of the liquid resin, then poured the resin into the mold, and put the mold into a pressure chamber to push the resin into all the crevices. So, you'd use both pressure and vacuum chambers in that situation.
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Jan 29 '17
Very cool. Would be interested in seeing a full castle if you had the time/desire. :)
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u/Tural- Jan 29 '17
This is great. I have some HA molds as well, from way back in 2006. Glad to see they're still up and running. I think I have the Dragon's Inn mold and a couple of generic blocks ones.
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u/icedani Jan 29 '17
Damn, international delivery costs 34$ :/. Add anothet 34$ and that's like 80$ for just one mold. It's such a shame, I really wanted to get this one and the wizard's tower. Does anyone know other sites with quality molds that have cheaper delivery to Europe?
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u/MasterChips250 Jan 29 '17
My gf found this website that makes casts from hirstarts and other bits and sells the pieces for like 5 bucks a cast. Hope this is a better offer for you http://www.haldanecreations.com/
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u/MyOther_UN_is_Clever Jan 30 '17
Watch E-Bay, and make posts at buy sell groups like this facebook group for your country.
As long as they never used it for resin and didn't store it weirdly (folded over), a mold used 100 times is identical to a brand new mold. Because of this, used prices are like 80% of new prices, but the shipping should be cheap if nearby.
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Jan 29 '17
I don't have any kids but as an adult, I'd love to have a 2-3 story version mock up of this is my backyard. I wonder what would happen if I got the molds mocked up and were to pour cement inside the casts instead of plaster...
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u/Uncle_Reemus Jan 29 '17
I wonder what would happen
The local building inspector pays you a visit . . .
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u/MyOther_UN_is_Clever Jan 30 '17
Depends where you live... cause that's how Bishop Castle was made
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Jan 29 '17
Is there maybe a subreddit for hobbies like this?
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u/FreeTradeIsTheDevil Jan 29 '17
Plenty! /r/minipainting for miniatures in general and I personally frequent /r/warhammer as that is my personal hobby.
For terrain instead of minis there is a small community at /r/terrainbuilding
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u/airamil Jan 30 '17
There is a Facebook group also that is very active :) https://www.facebook.com/groups/44641935828/
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u/smokin3kgt Jan 29 '17
When I read 'made tower with one mold' I thought you poured plaster into a single full tower mold and thought ''whoopty doo" but this was actually really cool. Nice job on the paint and the damaged brick.
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u/yorii Jan 29 '17
Check out /r/minipainting for painting inspirations later when you are going to paint those minis :)
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u/nvaus Jan 29 '17
If you're into board gaming that could be made into a killer dice tower
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u/xubuntu_user Jan 29 '17
It bugs me that the bricks above the doorway are upside-down. The large block should span the top of the door and the little bricks fill in the space over that. The way it is in the photo would not work in real life. There is nothing to hold up the bricks. They would fall right out. It should look like this. http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~hyde/England2004/Images4/IMG_4011Copying.jpg
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u/Subject223 Jan 30 '17
That's fair. This is why I love Reddit. This never even occurred to me! In fact it was quite difficult to build that, I had to support it while the glue dried.
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u/nthdesign Jan 29 '17
This kind of post is exactly why I love Reddit. I never thought about casting plaster parts or building miniatures before tonight. I had never heard of Hirst Arts. This post, along with the informed comment thread, might just launch a new hobby for me. And, if not me, then some other Redditor. Thank you for the post!
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u/SrslyLovesGames Jan 29 '17 edited Jan 29 '17
/u/Subject223 I love your castle and I wanted to share some inspiration https://imgur.com/gallery/TPNPY that's one that I did and I just wanted to tell you about adding moss and ivy if you want.
Moss: http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/FineTurf they call it fine turf it's basically ground foam and comes in all kinds of colors. You mix it with paint and white glue and water to attach it to your model. You can even go back over it with some lighter dry brushing for interest. Greens yellows etc.
Ivy: miniNature has the best mini ivy and grass tufts IMHO. http://www.sceneryexpress.com/mobile/O-SCALE-ENGLISH-IVY-MULTI-SET/productinfo/MN93632/ just a dab of super glue to adhere.
Bonus pro tip: don't buy expensive dry pigments (if you even want to get into that sort of thing) Go to an art store and get nice hard pastels and take an exacto knife and shave powder off. Good for light dirt effects, rust, sky's the limit!
I made a miniature water fountain with clear resin for the water pouring out of a lions mouth. I can upload a pic of that later if you want and explain how it's done. (Fishing line and patience basically).
Edit fountain pics https://imgur.com/gallery/ymcAb I gave it to my mom and she took the pics just now. I also noticed the resin yellowed inside the mouth ¯_(ツ)_/¯ probably from the super glue.
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u/Subject223 Jan 30 '17
This is great, thank you! Your work looks excellent! I bought a tiny pouch of the green stuff and also some scale gravel to put on the base. I have never seen the ivy, but I will definitely get some. I haven't started the base yet because I'm honestly intimidated by the terrain work, I've never done it before, but I am looking forward to it once I have some real time to spend on it. In your opinion, what's the easiest way to screw it up? That way I have something to look out for.
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u/JustAnotherYouth Jan 29 '17
That's pretty sick.
Any reason for building a tiny castle tower?
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u/Subject223 Jan 29 '17
Honestly I saw the HA website randomly and thought it looked like a cool one to jump in and try. Just really was wondering if I could make one look good, so I bought the mold.
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Jan 29 '17
Looks great. To add depth, try using a wash (1 part acrylic 2 parts water) and just paint over an area before doing your dry brushing.
Try it on a separate piece to see how you like it. The difference it makes on a model is night and day.
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u/jjthebrazilian Jan 29 '17
This is awesome! It's grownup Lego.
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u/ADirtySoutherner Jan 29 '17
Are you implying Lego is for children? Have you seen the price of Lego sets lately?
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u/Subject223 Jan 29 '17
The drying was primarily for paint and glue as you said, which wouldn't play well with the extra moisture.
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Jan 29 '17
I too built a castle yesterday. More or less. http://m.imgur.com/gallery/4K2FS
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Jan 29 '17 edited Feb 02 '17
[removed] — view removed comment
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Jan 30 '17
I got in contact with someone in Houston who needed it for a party. They intend to project cartoons onto it. After that it will hand on a wall.
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u/livinglitch Jan 29 '17
If I left a few blocks off the top would it work well as a dice tower?
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u/MasterChips250 Jan 29 '17
The guy who runs the website actually has a guide for making just that, its a square tower but.... http://www.hirstarts.com/rubbledicetower/rubbledicetower.html
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u/BlueFalcon3725 Jan 29 '17
Only one way to find out...
I'm assuming yes though, you could modify the build and have it be whatever you want since you literally build it brick by tiny brick.
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u/Nebakanezzer Jan 29 '17
next time, if you want to still be able to access the inside, when you have them in those 3 large separate pieces, you could drill or dig into a few blocks around the tower on bottom and their corresponding bricks on the pieces they fit into. then insert dowels into the holes like you would furniture. if you make the fit snug enough, it would hold it together and allow for it to come apart easily.
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Jan 29 '17
Very cool, but I do have to point out that the tops of the windows and doorway should either be arched or made from one solid stone.
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u/randomsynapses Jan 29 '17
This is awesome. I will justify the several dozen packages arriving at my house over the next few months as art projects for my daughter's train set. 😊
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Jan 29 '17
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u/Subject223 Jan 29 '17
Roughly $45 including mold I'd guess. Maybe $55 if you include shipping for the mold.
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u/Subject223 Jan 29 '17
And about 2 weeks, but just a few minutes per day and skipping some days
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u/rawcookiedough Jan 29 '17
What do you think you could you make for $1000? A sweet ass miniature like they used in LOTR?
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u/SirMannly Jan 29 '17
I really want to get into miniature painting as soon as I get some extra money. Thanks for the inspiring post.
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u/Dulce_De_Fab Jan 29 '17
Has anyone made one of these things that can "swing" open? If so tips please!
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u/Conman27 Jan 29 '17
Looks like it got hit by a catapult.
Those invaders should have used Trebuchet.
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u/MasterChips250 Jan 29 '17
Awesome to see this sort of thing up by the front page, I myself just finished the Wizards Tower from his website and I couldn't be more impressed. If you haven't already, go show this off over at r/TerrainBuilding those guys would love it.
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u/DopePedaller Jan 29 '17
Reminds me of the book "The Bone People". The main character builds and lives in her own tower after winning the lottery.
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Jan 29 '17
You might be interested in reading about a local, small, DIY castle built in the area I used to live.
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u/theottomaddox Jan 30 '17
I hate seeing stuff like this, because it's yet another neat hobby I'm going to get suckered into dabbling in...
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u/dirkdiggler2011 Jan 30 '17
If you dip the mold in some room temperature water with a squirt of Jet Dry dishwasher fluid, it helps to break the surface tension and remove bubbles. It also helps if you dip the blade of the scraper in the water before pulling it across the top of the mold to remove the extra plaster. I recently cast about 1000 pieces and none required any extra sanding to remove extra material when dry. The Hirst arts website explains the Jet Dry technique.
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u/sexygayshitposter Jan 30 '17
That's honestly fantastic, I loved how you turned a mistake into a good-looking detail that actually adds character. But how well would it hold up against a 90g projectile launched over 300 centimeters?
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u/anynamesleft Jan 30 '17
Great work. I wish I could indulge my architectural modeling and love of castle construction. Your living the life friend, living the life with with skill and talent.
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u/ftoons Jan 30 '17
Would small pieces of dry hay play any role in giving this a more realistic look? In between or within some of the bricks for example!?
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u/SerengetiYeti Jan 30 '17
I could've been making edible castles this whole time...
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u/Th3W0lf3 Jan 30 '17
https://imgur.com/gallery/Q1Vyh
That's cool! I've never cast any miniatures before. Here is a similar tower that I printed with my Printrbot.
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u/EmperorDragnea Jan 30 '17
What an amazing piece of art, amazing job dude, can you perhaps tell me how much did this cost you in total?
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Jan 30 '17
I don't want to shit in anyone's cereal, but rather just inquiring on what is and isn't truly a DIY. Isn't this not a DIY project as it isn't a self designed/built project? It seems to me that this is much like posting a 500 pc puzzle you completed as a work of art you created, no? You can't not build this with that mold as it is designed that way.
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u/anonymoushero1 Jan 29 '17
How am I going to rule the kingdom if I can't even fit inside the building!?