SkimbleCat's Ramblings: Hirst Arts Warlock's House

I chose the Hirst Arts Warlock's House as my first HA build, as I already owned the molds needed to make it. I had already cast enough blocks to get a good start on this build, and just cast more as needed. I learned so much while building this!! This piece recently went to some friends as a very belated Christmas present.

Here's a few of the lessons I learned:
1) Consistent blocks are very important! When I first started casting blocks I didn't realize how important this was, so I didn't always scrape the molds carefully. You can sand the blocks once they are dry but it is messy and inconvienent so it's better just to cast them properly.

2) Use the same casting material for all the blocks. The blocks in this build are 3 different types of plaster (as I got better at casting, and bought better quality materials). The different materials may react to the paint differently, or (as I experienced) may not hold with the same glue. There were a few sections of this build that were glued a few times.

3) Do some research online for hints and tips. The HA forums are an awesome resourse that I carefully read and then apparently ignored. Silly silly me! Learn from others!

4) Make sure your walls are straight and your corners are square. This is one tip I did follow - I used lego to brace the corners as the glue dried. However I didn't realize that as I built each layer of the house the walls were not straight (they looked straight when I was assembling it!) Once it was all assembled and glued together I noticed that the top was narrower than the bottom.

The build was pretty straightforward - I followed the plans and instructions, building row by row. One of the things I liked about this one was that it is built to come apart in sections, so you can use it with miniatures. I glued the base to a white foamcore board. Once all the pieces were glued, I painted them in sections, but following the same pattern - dark grey/blue basecoat, then 3-4 layers of progressively lighter coloured drybrushing (added more white paint each time), and a final coat of almost pure white drybrush.

The roof was cut from cereal box cardboard. Knowing I didn't want to spend hours cutting out individual roof tiles, I went to my local craft store and bought a paper punch that more or less made the scalloping pattern I was looking for. I then punched out about a million rows (more or less) from regular paper, and glued them to the cardboard frame. After that was all done, I glued the roof to the supports, and then painted it. The roof was painted blue, then washed in black (a wash is very watered down paint, so it pools in crevesses). Then a few progressively lighter drybrush coats of blue, and moss added.

I painted the white foamcore board green, then painted a good coat of pva glue and water. I sprinkled flocking all around, let it dry, then knocked off the excess. Any bare patches I applied more glue/water and flock. Around the edge of the building I did a thin row of tiny brown rocks I picked up at a dollar store.

The moss on the building and roof is a mixture of flock and tea (much tea was consumed during the construction of this building). I also scattered some tea on the ground cover, to break it up a bit. Using just the flocking made the ground look unnaturally uniform.

Once the whole thing was painted, I sprayed each piece with a quick coat of Testor's Dull Coat (matt, not glossy - didn't want the piece to look shiney). This should help protect it from light bumps and scratches.

I did make a few changes from the original pattern. Because my build narrowed as it went up, I couldn't put in the second floor I built. So I cut it down to half a floor (I guess like a loft?) I had to glue some additional bracing blocks to support the second floor as it no longer reached wall to wall, but these were a few of the blocks that just wouldn't bind with the glue. So after much wailing and knashing of teeth I gave up, now this Warlock's house has seriously vaulted ceilings :-) Another change I made was instead of sanding down the roof peak sections, I added small triangle shaped blocks to each "step" to smooth it out. However, I didn't realize this would make the roof peak sections larger than the plan, so I had to make a larger roof. The last significant change was I didn't build the outside fence - due to (again) my poor planning, there wasn't enough room on the foamcore for this. I even had to cut small strip of foamcore from a scrap piece and glue it on one side as I didn't center the build on the foamcore. I promise to plan the next piece better! :-)

Here are a few photos of the piece. The only thing I did after taking these photos was to paint the white edge of the foamcore a brown/green mixture. You can see all the photos here.