Another Brick In The Wall

Been a bit since I've posted bu I've been casting molds and trying to build. I will emphasize trying. Started building the octagonal tower and was not happy with it, So I'm starting over with that. I've built the Wizards Tower and its OK.

I need to get better with laying bricks and be consistant about it. So I thought what is the easiest thing to do? Build a wall section. It turned out fine. But what I'm going to do is build wall sections, corners, and corners with towers. These are things that we can readily use in our gaming.

Here's the first wall section. I wasn't sure how I was going to build the top part up. All I knew I was going to do was make it a 50ft tall wall, which meant 5 inches tall. Once I figured out how I was going to to the wall off  and added the extra crenelations I added anothe inch to inch to it. The next time I do tis I'll build the wall up to 4.5 inches and add the extra inch of crenelations then and it'll be at the height I want.

Here's the front view.

Here's a side view

Multi-Tasking Building

   As I'm building both the Wizards Tower and Octagon Tower I am finding efficient to do them at the same time. I lay one layer down on the Wizards Tower then switch to the Octagon Tower and lay down one layer of bricks on it. The time between each is good enough for the glue to dry on the previous.

   I am also gonna need to get my hands on some more sand paper. The arrow slits seem to be slightly larger (about 1/8th inch) taller than the bricks once they level out. I didn't expect the bricks to be perfect, as from what I read, to get these molds a precise as these is a lot of work.

Oh, and Thor rocked!!

Bricks, Bricks, Bricks

  I've been building bricks from molds this last week and a half. I'm finally building the foundations for the Wizards Tower and the Octagonal Tower. It's obvious, and I knew this prior to doing these molds, that I need to get multiple molds of the same cast in order to mass produce them.

   On another note, Gen Con registration was this week and I managed to get into an advanced blocks building seminar using Hirst Arts molds. I'm hoping to pick up a few tips and tricks there. Gotta wait till early August though.

The iPad Cometh

   I just got my new iPad 2 yesterday and been playing with it since; loading apps, music, and documents. I mainly got it because I'm tired of hauling a 50lb backpack full of books when I go to play D&D. So I loaded iAnnotate, a PDF reader, and loaded all my D&D books onto it. So far it's been a lot of fun to play with and the rendering of PDFs is fast. I'll find out tomorrow how well it works since I'm going to game tomorrow.

Gen Con events

   Today is a brick making day. I've been casting 3 molds today to build a couple of towers. Consider these as practise and experience in brick making when I actually start to build the HCT.

   In the meantime a list of events has come out for Gen Con and the only ones I'm interested in this year is miniature painting and terrain building including a couple of events with Hirst Arts molds. The miniature painting events include layering, painting hair and faces, mod'ing, and base building. I have the fundamentals but to take them to the next level, so its time to get some guidance.

Goodbye Sarah Jane Smith

I'll miss you...

It's Not a Home Improvement Project...

   ...I said that at least three times today.

   A Menards opened about 2 weeks ago in the area. A big thing for a town of population 12k and that's the big city in this area. So it had it's "Grand Opening" all last week. After the all the hub-bub died down I finally decided to go check it out. Very nice. Big.

   My motive for this was that as I'm formulating the plan to build the HCT, there are things I realize I'm going to need, mainly materials and tools. Now, I am not and never have been much of a "Tim the Tool Man Taylor" kind of guy and probably never will be. I barely built the dust pan and wooden clock in Jr. high industrial arts class, so when I'm walking around I fully admit I was like Bill Gates hanging out with the Chicago Bears, the two just didn't go together. For example, I would end up in the power sander area asking where sandpaper sheets were. It turns out they're in the painting section. I was also looking and pricing metal files, and trying to find hydro-stone, the material I'll build most of the HCT out of. Inevitably the friendly neighborhood Menards assistant would ask if they could help. I would say I'm looking for a particular thing and they would ask what I'm trying to do to my house, particularly when asking about the hydro-stone and blue board insulation (used for sculpting lanscape and buildings) and sounding like a broken record I would say that blessed statement that makes one feel even more out of place than I already had.

   It does sound like an opening of a joke... "A geek walks into a home improvement store..."

   On the other hand, I spent the weekend drawing and measuring the foundations for the Knight's Spur section. I do need larger graph paper than 8.5x11. I have seen 17x22 online to buy but I want even larger if it can be found. I had to tape together 9 sheets in a 3x3 grid to get the actual miniature size of the building on paper. It took time drawing it and there are just as much eraser marks as there are lines drawn. I'm gonna need more erasers!