Fieldstone Bell Tower - More Casting

The piles get bigger...

and bigger...

Not much else to say at this point.

Though there is also a secret side project in the works...

Happy Halloween

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. When I was a kid it was the one time a year that you could dress up as anything you wanted. This year October has been a pretty good one. The yard came out pretty well for one thing, and everyone who came by seemed to appreciate the effort.

For whatever reason my neighborhood doesn’t really do it up for Halloween. There are only 3 houses (counting mine) that go all out, and several that put out a scarecrow or a jack-o-lantern. I had the daughter of one of the guys who also decorates thank me for not making her house the only weird one!

I also put together a fairly last minute Tim the Enchanter costume, though I’m guessing that everyone reading this knows he would be more accurately described as an Invoker!

In addition to that I also received several treats:

One of my various traditions on Halloween is to enjoy both Dracula and The War of the Worlds from Mercury Theater on the Air.

I’ve also spent time working on the bell tower. So far it’s progressing well, but there will be more on that tomorrow. Until then, have a spooky evening...

Sunday Inspirational Image - Flaming Pumpkin Bats

Happy Day Before Halloween!

Fieldstone Bell Tower - Casting

So how does this work? Put simply, you mix water and plaster until you get a fluid that is the consistency of a milkshake.

Then you pour the mix into the molds.

Wait about 5 minutes, then use a paper tower to draw off some of the pooling water. This is followed by scraping the mold. There is always some excess, and I do my best to recover as much of it as possible. Usually this means extra floor tiles.

Picture from hirstarts.com

Then you wait some more for the brick to dry. Since I’m doing my casting at night before bed, these bricks won't be ready till the next day. However I took pictures of the previous day’s bricks.

With the plaster I’m using (Excalibur dental plaster - way stronger than plaster-of-paris) you can generally de-mold the bricks after about 30 minutes.

Once the bricks are demolded, you need them to dry completely before you use them. I’ve got a dehumidifier running in the basement, and I lay them out on newspaper, so they tend to dry quickly. A day or two in dry conditions tends to be enough.

---

Don't forget to vote on my Halloween poll!

Fieldstone Bell Tower -The Plan! (part 2)

We now know what we need:
2" x11
1” x74
.75" x10
.5” x42
1"x.25" x52
.75"x.25" x16
.5"x.25" x22
Alcove top x8
Alcove body x24
2" Arch x2
1" Arch x12
.75" Arch x16

How do we get there? Well, these are the molds I have that have the parts I need:

In a single cast of each of these molds I can create:
2" x3
1” x12
.75" x2
.5” x5
1"x.25" x8
.75"x.25" x2
.5"x.25" x7
Alcove top x2
Alcove body x4
2" Arch x2
1" Arch x2
.75" Arch x2

By using the magic of math this means I need a total of 9 of casts to get every block I need. Some parts will obviously need far fewer. The most difficult piece is the .5” block. The next most difficult is the .75” arch and the .75"x.25" tile, each requiring 8 castings to get them all.

I can probably do 1 casting a day (more on weekends and Wednesdays), which means that casting all these bricks will take about a week. Luckily for all of us, I've already started!

---

I have a new poll up! What are you doing for Halloween?

Fieldstone Bell Tower - The Plan! (part 1)

Hirst Arts is awesome. “How awesome is it?” you ask.

Very!

For one thing, it’s like making your own Lego bricks. Need a brick? Make a brick. Problem solved.

Of course you can just go hog wild and make lots of parts. I’ve done that too. It’s fun, actually! There is a lot of pleasure in mixing up the plaster, pouring it into the molds, and then removing a fully cast brick. Once you have a big bunch of them, you can spend (and I have) endless hours dry-stacking them, trying out different combinations without ever actually building anything. But this time...

This time we’re going with a plan, which is where I get back to Hirst Arts being awesome.

Wanna know the plan?

Here it is: The Plan

Bruce Hirst – inventor, owner, operator, and all around good guy not only has these incredibly flexible terrain-making tools and a vibrant friendly helpful community, he also has plans for various projects, including the bell tower.

Now his bell tower plan is specifically for his bell tower gothic mold, whereas I’m making a fieldstone version, but for the most part, the basic bricks remain the same.

Lets count them up, shall we?

The corners each require 13 1” blocks, and 7 .5” blocks, 8 1"x1/4", and 2 1/2"x1/4". 4 corners equals 52 1” blocks, and 28 .5” blocks, 32 1"x1/4", and 8 1/2"x1/4"

There are 4 sides to the tower as well, but only 3 of them are the same. The side with the door will be slightly different.

The 3 sides require:
2" x3
1” x5
.75" x2
.5” x4
1"x.25" x6
.75"x.25" x4
.5"x.25" x4
Alcove top x2
Alcove body x6
1" Arch x4
.75" Arch x4

The front side requires:
2" x2
1” x7
.75" x4
.5” x2
1"x.25" x2
.75"x.25" x4
.5"x.25" x2
Alcove top x2
Alcove body x6
2" Arch x2
1" Arch x0
.75" Arch x4

This equals a total of:
2" x11
1” x74
.75" x10
.5” x42
1"x.25" x52
.75"x.25" x16
.5"x.25" x22
Alcove top x8
Alcove body x24
2" Arch x2
1" Arch x12
.75" Arch x16

That's a grand total of 289 blocks!!! How am I going to get there? That will be answered in Part 2!

Fieldstone Bell Tower Motivation

Before I get to planning, casting, building, and painting I want to talk about why the bell tower, as opposed to some other project. It’s not like I’m lacking in other projects! I have tons of minis, and lots of other terrain that I could work on, so why this?

Here’s the deal. I have a bunch of Hirst Art molds. I’ve build lots of ruins, little things, a couple of dungeon rooms, but never a whole project. It’s that old gamer ADD that we know so well. So I want to build something that isn’t a ruin with my bricks, and I want to finish it.

Why a bell tower? A couple of reasons:

• The bell tower takes up a lot of vertical space, but can fit on a CD
• It doesn’t require tons and tons of bricks
• It is complex enough to keep me interested without being intimidating
• Because I did it before, and messed it up! Time to do it right

I’d actually enjoy working on minis too, but to be blunt, I’m out of storage space for painted minis and I don’t have anywhere to display them. I’ve found this to be a real demotivator.

So, the bell tower it is!

Next up – The Plan!