What is this Hirst Arts?

So one of the constant thing's I see on social media circles is people posting photos of Hirst Art terrain that they have made. The response is always fantastic and there's always a handful of people who reply stating they wish they could afford or were artistic enough to create such terrain.

First off, if you are one of those people get on over and join DM Scotty's Craft N' Games. It's a Facebook group dedicated to creating terrain and RPG material. It's focus is on making things from cheap household items and the stuff you see posted daily is incredible.

However, just from reading my blog you should know that I work mainly with Hirst Arts. Bruce Hirst is the artist responsible for Hirst Arts. He creates silicon molds that you pour plaster or resin into. The output is effectively LEGO blocks designed specifically for creating terrain. And the results speak for themselves.

Photo from HirstArts.com showing the potential with the cavern system molds.

Photo from HirstArts.com show the potential with the Gothic setting molds.

Photo from HirstArts.com showing the potential with the Inn Builder molds.

Now most people look at these photos and immediately fall in love but at the same time start cringing at the thought of the cost involved. And I'm not going to lie, to create everything you see above would cost quite a bit due to the number of molds you would need to buy.

BUT... What is you could start creating terrain for approximately $100? 

Because that's all it really takes to get started. For about $100 you could create terrain similar to what you see below. The best part is, you can make as much terrain as you like, because once you have the molds, you only need to buy more plaster to go into the molds and then you can just keep creating.

Photo from HirstArts.com showing a basic dungeon setup.

To create the pieces above all you need is two molds. You can get them for $63 (postage not inc) from the Hirst Arts Store. The molds required to build a dungeon that looks like this are:

Gothic Dungeon Builder #45
Floor Tiles Various Sizes Mold #201

You will also need something to pour into the molds. Don't bother with Plaster of Paris. It will chip. You want to look for something like Hydrastone or Merlin's Magic. I personally use Hydrostone which I can pick up 22.6KG for $49.50. This make's a metric shit tonne of dungeon!

You're going to need a few other things. But you probably have some of the stuff lying around at home. For details on how to cast check out these instructions.

With your molds and plaster in hand it's as difficult as following the instructions provided, the result will be an amazing Gothic themed dungeon!

There's really not a whole lot to it. You can create professional looking dungeons that are comparable to the mighty Dwarven Forge but for the price of one of their sets you can instead own the molds and create a much larger quantity of dungeon pieces.

Obviously only having two molds is going to limit you to creating specific looks. But this is just a starting point. You can simply buy new molds to create new looks and completely different terrain!

I've had so much fun working with Hirst molds. I seriously recommend checking it out for anyone wanting to bring some 3d terrain to their table!

Hirst Art molds with plaster poured.

Some pieces straight out of the molds.

My first floor and mold pieces, Playing around with different configurations.

Some painted pieces.

My first dungeon pieces made mainly with the molds listed above.

My first dungeon pieces painted. 

How large you build is up to you.

Modular Castle

So work has begun on my modular castle.

Progress has been slow, but that really should be expected with a 12 week old pooping around the house.

A modular castle is something that I knew I would simply have to build ever since finding out we were having a little boy. I can;t imagine bringing up a boy in a house-hold where castles, dragons and fantasy in general are not a part of every day imagination.

Thus started this build.

I already had some completed towers.


Note: Turns out you can stack towers :)



Before starting a build I always do research on what is available. Having spent countless hours pumping out bricks for the Tomb of Horrors I was keen to find something more efficient. As such I quickly purchased the Fieldstone Slab Mold #261 from Hirst Arts. This was appealing as it lets me create a huge chunk of wall in a single pour.



The mold arrived and I was not disappointed. Even without glue I could make a satisfying wall.



With the ability to make the walls under control I started planning the build; and this is where things just did not work. I had decided on the following rules for the build:

It must be modular.
All pieces must be usable on their own (eg: towers should be usable as wizard towers)

My entire system is based on a 5"x5" grid. All of the pieces I have made to date are glued to a base and are all interchangeable. The tower molds only come in 3", 4", 6" and 8" however, which means there is no way I could glue them to a base and still have them align in a satisfying manner.

I have played this idea around in my head a million times. Nothing I thought of would work with my standard setup. As such I have started building with the idea of not gluing the walls or towers down to the base. They will be movable and I will need to have adequate bases to go underneath.

My next step was to design the walls. For this i used a program called SketchUp. I had never used this application previously but I was delighted to learn that there is a wealth of pre-fab Hirst Arts models available to play around with. It was really like digital lego!

SketchUp / Hirst Art Pre-Fabs

Using this tool I was able to test out some various builds. I was quite unsure which variation I wanted to use. I still feel like the gap between the top of the tower and the top of the battlement on the 2 level wall is too small. But i feel like the 1 level wall is too low. A player could jump over it with a Ring of Jumping which is something I simply had to avoid.







I finally decided on building the walls as 2 levels and proceed to start casting the necessary blocks.

Tonight I finished building the first wall section.





Overall I'm happy with the results. I plan on making at least 6 of these pieces which will enable me to make a fairly significant castle. Also need to make a huge gatehouse with a draw bridge.