Hirst Arts

[eldargal]

A little break from alternate miniature companies today with Hirst Arts (http://www.hirstarts.com/). Many experienced WFB players have probably heard of them, they have been around for years. Hirst Arts produce moulds for individual stones, bricks et.c with which you can build terrain pieces, they range from simple moulds producing things like this:
http://www.hirstarts.com/molds/40.jpg
To more complex pieces like this:
http://www.hirstarts.com/molds/42.jpg

The easiest way to use them is with dental plaster, it is cheap, sturdy and relatively easy to mould without being excessively heavy. More experienced hobbyists make make the switch to resin (as my brothes and I did a few years ago), it is a litlte more involved but they are more durable and lighter. Don't use regular craft plaster as it is too heavy and fragile to survive rough battles.

With them you can produce terrain pieces like these:
http://www.hirstarts.com/gallery/dawson3.jpg
http://www.hirstarts.com/gallery/farsi1.jpg

[eldargal]

Some more terrain:


http://www.hirstarts.com/gallery/collins8.jpg
http://www.hirstarts.com/gallery/varner1.jpg
http://www.hirstarts.com/gallery/varner2.jpg

The advantage of Hirst Arts blocks is that pretty much anyone can make stunning terrain pieces just by assembling the right pieces, though it can be quite time consuming casting the pieces needed.

For an idea of what a skilled hobbyist can do with Hirst Arts moulds, plasticard and balsa wood check out Boreas_NL's Mordheim board (http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=209985) on Warseer:
http://i628.photobucket.com/albums/uu9/BoreasNL/DSCN1402.jpg

[AbusePuppy]

Hirst seems really cool, but the molds aren't exactly cheap (something like $30 each) and the process of casting dozens, hundreds, or thousands of tiny bricks and assembling them seems... well, this hobby has plenty enough sources of tedium already.

The stuff you can make looks really neat and you can't beat the customizability or resusability, but....

[Grailkeeper]

How are Hirst Arts at cutting up sharks?

[eldargal]

They are for the advanced hobbyist who wants tools to make what they want without being constrained by pre-fab parts, it is true. Casting up lots of bricks can be tedious, especially if you only have one or two moulds and you need a lot of bricks. But what you can do with them is really only limited by the properties of what you use to cast them and your imagination.:)


Hirst seems really cool, but the molds aren't exactly cheap (something like $30 each) and the process of casting dozens, hundreds, or thousands of tiny bricks and assembling them seems... well, this hobby has plenty enough sources of tedium already.

The stuff you can make looks really neat and you can't beat the customizability or resusability, but....