I'm looking to buy Dwarven Forge Cavern Sets of any type, Fantasy Floor Sets, and Den of Evil Hellscape sets. You can contact me at heredragondragonATcoxDOTnet. I get live email so expect a reply within a hour or sooner!
I've already bought about 60 sets, so you can expect a fair price and a smooth transaction.
! Geez, are you a Rockefeller heir or something?
Have either of you two taken the time to look at his game room pictures? You should. I think you would be impressed.
Oh. My.
I stand by my financial analysis though.
Capecod, I get the "don't have the time or patience" but the money thing I don't get. I can make dozens of sets of Hirst blocks for the cost of a few Dwarven Forge sets...
I have four sets of the original dungeon sets still in the styrofoam, that have never been used. I'll see what I've got and post if you're still interested.
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Capecod, I get the "don't have the time or patience" but the money thing I don't get. I can make dozens of sets of Hirst blocks for the cost of a few Dwarven Forge sets...
Time = Money. Those dozens of sets would require hundreds of casts to make. If you make your own molds out of assembled Hirst pieces then the price gap closes quickly.
I use both Dwarven Forge and Hirst molds. I have never seen a modular dungeon produced using Hirst Molds that looks nearly as good as Dwarven Forge - especially the caverns. Also, the medieval building set, den of evil set, realms of the ancients, and the woodland set are not reproducible with Hirst molds.
With hirst, if you cast with a decent plaster (I use dark grey Excalibur) the cost adds up quick. Anything better than that and I would bet that Hirst wouldn't be worth it anymore. Even with a very good dental plaster, Dwarven Forge is more durable (made out of something called polystone). If you case with resin enforced plaster it becomes expensive.
I typically make specialty pieces with Hirst to go along with my dwarven forge. I only have 12 sets (that I have acquired slowly) and I only see myself buying a few more.
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yes I owned 8 sets until i learned how easy it to create my own..
which look better and cost less ....
...and take absurd amounts of time to create.
Also, regardless of how good your paint job is, you will never get the detail of Dwarven Forge with Hirst. Just look at the DF classic dungeon line which is comparable to the Hirst field stone line. If you look at each individual "stone" on a DF wall next to a Hirst Wall you will see that the texture on the DF wall has a natural rock texture. The Hirst field stone doesn't have it. Even if it did it would be hard to reproduce with dental plaster because the detail work is so small. Polystone picks this detail out but costs more and is hard to find. The creator of Dwarven Forge is a sculptor by trade - and it shows.
Don't get me wrong - I love Hirst Molds. I own 10 of them. However, I think it is rude to call someone a fool because he collects Dwarven Forge sets. Maybe he thinks we are fools for spending all of our time casting. Besides even after 60 sets he has probably spent under 10k. Plenty of lifetime hobbies far exceed that number. Dwarven forge will last a life time if they are taken care of.
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Yea I have to agree.
Dwarves Forge is a very fine product!!!
People always bring up the "I can make it for cheaper" but don't think they take into account how many man hours it takes.
I always say if it takes me four hours to make a piece similar to something that cost me $100 to buy ready made I'd probably go the pre made. That breaks down to $25 an hour if I were to make it my self.
Even then that's a little cheap. I like to think my time is worth more than $25 an hour. ;-)
Just means more time to play my games or spend with family.
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polystone = resin mixed with gypsum.... you can buy it online (not very expensive if bought in bulk) ...
After owning a classic DF dungeon & hirst arts i greatly prefer the hirst arts...(I think they have better detail and you can paint & design to your taste)
I owned 3 DF cavern sets until i purchased hirst arts mold... the only thin I miss is the cavern opening piece.. I hated the cavern wall pieces,the floors however are nearly and exact clone of the hirst arts stuff...
It is true you cant do some DF stuff (den of evil and woodland)
But then you also cant use DF to make some hirst stuff (Egyptian,roman,tower molds and roof molds)
with hirst arts you can also design more modular pieces,custom pieces...
Yea I have to agree.
Dwarves Forge is a very fine product!!!
People always bring up the "I can make it for cheaper" but don't think they take into account how many man hours it takes.
I always say if it takes me four hours to make a piece similar to something that cost me $100 to buy ready made I'd probably go the pre made. That breaks down to $25 an hour if I were to make it my self.
Even then that's a little cheap. I like to think my time is worth more than $25 an hour. ;-)
Just means more time to play my games or spend with family.
northman, I wonder how much you value your time watching TV.
See, I rarely watch TV. But I do listen to the radio, especially baseball games, which I prefer on the radio to the TV. I can cast and paint during a ball game and gain the benefits of both activities. Consider it multi-tasking.
But casting doesn't take that much time anyway. The bulk of the time is in waiting for the plaster to cure, which takes zero effort from me so I can do whatever I want during that time. It takes me 90 seconds to mix a batch of plaster that will fill four or five molds. It takes me another 90 seconds or so to fill the molds. I'll add another minute for scraping. So four minutes to create four or five Hirst molds worth of blocks. In a typical night of casting I do that about four or five times, meaning I end up with 16 to 25 molds worth of blocks. Then I put them aside to dry for a couple days.
That's it for making the blocks. What is that, maybe thirty minutes total invested time?
Assembling the blocks isn't that hard either, nor is it that time consuming. I assembled my wizard tower in a couple of evenings and invested maybe an hour each night of actual gluing and assembly. Most of the time was waiting for glue to dry, which, again, takes zero effort from me.
Now, painting takes a while I admit. But painting terrain is not the same, for me, as painting a miniature or a painting. It's really very mindless. You spray or dip a base coat (I typically base coat a huge bunch of items at once). Most of my terrain is a base coat, a main color coat, a lighter overcoat and a white or gray drybrush. Yeah, it does take some time, but at the end I have a table absolutely full of finished blocks.
And guess what? It's a hobby. It's fun. I enjoy it.
How much money do you make fishing? Playing golf?
DF caverns are one of my favorite sets.
To me there is no comparison.
You are right about Egyptian, roman, tower molds, and roof molds. This is what I use Hirst for. Also, you can't beat Hirst for making custom pieces unless you are carving it out of clay yourself.
Comparing caverns is comparing the best of DF against the worst of Hirst. Yeah, that makes DF look pretty good. The rest of the sets are fairly comparable, and you can be far more creative with the Hirst blocks.
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Actually I don't have TV per say.. I do have Apple TV and am usually doing something the same time as I have something on in the back ground on my TV while I am on my computer or iPad.
How many "molds" of blocks does it take to make say a set of Dwarven Forge?
If you say it is a hobby then great! But if it is a hobby you shouldn't be judging others for wanting to purchase DF....he might have another hobby he wants to dedicate his time....
Actually I don't have TV per say.. I do have Apple TV and am usually doing something the same time as I have something on in the back ground on my TV while I am on my computer or iPad.
How many "molds" of blocks does it take to make say a set of Dwarven Forge?
If you say it is a hobby then great! But if it is a hobby you shouldn't be judging others for wanting to purchase DF....he might have another hobby he wants to dedicate his time....
northman, I'm not "judging others" for wanting to purchase DF.
Hell, I'd purchase dozens of DF sets if I could afford it. I simply pointed out that the purchase of 60 sets of DF is a very large sum of money. A single set is an average of probably $120 or so. So sixty sets is over $7,000 just for DF sets alone.That's an impressive amount to spend on one aspect of ANY hobby. And he's seeking more. I don't think it is in any way "judging" or being critical to simply point out that this is a lot of money to spend on terrain.
The Hirst Arts molds are very creative. I am currently working on a "standard dungeon" module. I've created the blocks, glued the blocks into modules and am now painting them. I will compare what I have to the "Room and Passage Set" from the DF site.
My total investment: Two Hirst molds ($70). A fifty pound bag of Hydrostone ($30). A can of flat black spray paint ($4.50). Brown, gray and white acrylic hobby paints (Maybe $2, I haven't even used half of one bottle total). Total cost of my modules roughly $110.
That compares to $135 for the DF set.
In general my set is basically the equivalent of several of the DF sets. For example, I have 30 corridor pieces, and they are not all identical, I have customized many of them to include alcoves, small doors, pillars, pipes, etc. In addition my set includes 10 corner pieces, 10 T-intersections, and 4 4-way intersections. These 54 individual pieces compare to 9 similar pieces in the DF set. To get as many corridors, corners and intersections, you'd have to buy at least six DF sets, at a cost of $810 plus shipping.
And I can make as many more as I like at virtually pennies per module. In fact the more I make, the cheaper they get.
Now, I did spend several hours on them. I would guess I spent about ten hours total casting, gluing and painting. Let's say I value my time at $50 an hour.
It's still cheaper than DF.
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Actually I don't have TV per say.. I do have Apple TV and am usually doing something the same time as I have something on in the back ground on my TV while I am on my computer or iPad.
How many "molds" of blocks does it take to make say a set of Dwarven Forge?
If you say it is a hobby then great! But if it is a hobby you shouldn't be judging others for wanting to purchase DF....he might have another hobby he wants to dedicate his time....
northman, I'm not "judging others" for wanting to purchase DF.
Hell, I'd purchase dozens of DF sets if I could afford it. I simply pointed out that the purchase of 60 sets of DF is a very large sum of money. A single set is an average of probably $120 or so. So sixty sets is over $7,000 just for DF sets alone.That's an impressive amount to spend on one aspect of ANY hobby. And he's seeking more. I don't think it is in any way "judging" or being critical to simply point out that this is a lot of money to spend on terrain.
The Hirst Arts molds are very creative. I am currently working on a "standard dungeon" module. I've created the blocks, glued the blocks into modules and am now painting them. I will compare what I have to the "Room and Passage Set" from the DF site.
My total investment: Two Hirst molds ($70). A fifty pound bag of Hydrostone ($30). A can of flat black spray paint ($4.50). Brown, gray and white acrylic hobby paints (Maybe $2, I haven't even used half of one bottle total). Total cost of my modules roughly $110.
That compares to $135 for the DF set.
In general my set is basically the equivalent of several of the DF sets. For example, I have 30 corridor pieces, and they are not all identical, I have customized many of them to include alcoves, small doors, pillars, pipes, etc. In addition my set includes 10 corner pieces, 10 T-intersections, and 4 4-way intersections. These 54 individual pieces compare to 9 similar pieces in the DF set. To get as many corridors, corners and intersections, you'd have to buy...
You are much faster than I at producing and painting then. The thing that drives me nuts is that to produce blocks at a reasonable rate I essentially have to pop blocks and re-pour every 45 minutes. I work from 8am to 7pm Monday through Friday. After dinner and some time with the wife it is time for bed. I can only mass produce blocks on the weekend but I would prefer not to.
You are much faster than I at producing and painting then. The thing that drives me nuts is that to produce blocks at a reasonable rate I essentially have to pop blocks and re-pour every 45 minutes. I work from 8am to 7pm Monday through Friday. After dinner and some time with the wife it is time for bed. I can only mass produce blocks on the weekend but I would prefer not to.
Asphere, I'm pretty good at being very efficient.
When I get into the mood to cast Hirst blocks I cast four or five sets of four or five molds per night. That usually takes me a couple of hours, but of that couple of hours, the large majority is spent with me waiting for plaster to cure and during that period I can do anything I want that doesn't take more than half an hour.
I have a place set up and a well-practiced routine. I have bottles of water on my table and a bucket of hydrostone on the floor. All I have to do is lay out the molds, mix up the hydrostone and pour. That takes just a couple of minutes. Then I demold into a plastic container that I set aside until the next sunny day (where I live almost all days are sunny).
If I do that for a week I can cast 150 molds worth of blocks. Each mold has about 20 blocks in it, so that's about 3,000 individual blocks.
I am currently overflowing with blocks in fact. I have to make more stuff to clear out room for new blocks, so I'm not casting right now, I'm gluing and painting.
I find gluing to be pretty fast and easy. Painting is really the only part of the process that takes a lot of time for me. I have to paint each individual block, so my current fieldstone dungeon module set has taken me at least four evenings of painting so far, and I've still got the final white drybrush to complete on about 1/4 of it.
Once I'm done I'll matte seal it and take a photo and put it on my blog.
In the interest of complete fairness, the DF resin/stone mix is more durable than the Hydrostone. That's definitely a fair point.
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Actually I don't have TV per say.. I do have Apple TV and am usually doing something the same time as I have something on in the back ground on my TV while I am on my computer or iPad.
How many "molds" of blocks does it take to make say a set of Dwarven Forge?
If you say it is a hobby then great! But if it is a hobby you shouldn't be judging others for wanting to purchase DF....he might have another hobby he wants to dedicate his time....
northman, I'm not "judging others" for wanting to purchase DF.
Hell, I'd purchase dozens of DF sets if I could afford it. I simply pointed out that the purchase of 60 sets of DF is a very large sum of money. A single set is an average of probably $120 or so. So sixty sets is over $7,000 just for DF sets alone.That's an impressive amount to spend on one aspect of ANY hobby. And he's seeking more. I don't think it is in any way "judging" or being critical to simply point out that this is a lot of money to spend on terrain.
The Hirst Arts molds are very creative. I am currently working on a "standard dungeon" module. I've created the blocks, glued the blocks into modules and am now painting them. I will compare what I have to the "Room and Passage Set" from the DF site.
My total investment: Two Hirst molds ($70). A fifty pound bag of Hydrostone ($30). A can of flat black spray paint ($4.50). Brown, gray and white acrylic hobby paints (Maybe $2, I haven't even used half of one bottle total). Total cost of my modules roughly $110.
That compares to $135 for the DF set.
In general my set is basically the equivalent of several of the DF sets. For example, I have 30 corridor pieces, and they are not all identical, I have customized many of them to include alcoves, small doors, pillars, pipes, etc. In addition my set includes 10 corner pieces, 10 T-intersections, and 4 4-way intersections. These 54 individual pieces compare to 9 similar pieces in the DF set. To get as many corridors, corners and intersections, you'd have to buy...
It is very expensive, terrain in general. A fully kitted out, bespoke, wargame/fantasy terrain board can go for 5-7k, sometimes more. That is just for one board. But this is of course at an aesthetic level that is clearly at the highest of the top end. I make my own terrain and paint my own miniatures, and I do have to say it is expensive, lol.
Either way, 60+ sets of DF or having a bespoke wargame terrain board made for you is going to cost loads of dough. But, depending on how much time you plan to devote to gaming on terrain or just for the simple, obsessive joy of it, it might be worth it.
I cast my own bricks in custom made molds, and fire them in a mini kiln to harden them, individual bricks. I hand scribe rocks on buildings as well. All this takes a lot of time, and well, it's gonna cost. Scratch built buildings (wooden usually, no paper here nor foam), real copper gutters or copper/tin roofs, hand cast and carved rock formations, etc., is all factored into the cost. Trees really starts adding up the cost as well, a terrain board could easily have a few hundred trees on it. Believe it or not, the cheaper option is to purchase all those trees rather than having the commissioned artist/craftsman (it's an art to me ^^) scratch build each tree, but it looks even better that way, and it shows both, aesthetically, and cost-wise. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that purchasing all those trees is going to cost a boat load!
I love terrain so much. Going to be getting more stuff from Scenic Express, the MiniNatur Silflourettes! Love that stuff!
I would really like to try some hirst arts molds. I have a few DF sets and I love them but sometimes it's hard to find a chance to use them.
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Wow! I just posted I want to buy DF sets and we get into a debate over making molds and how much money I spent.
You all assumed I bought the DF sets new. I've bought the majority of my sets used at LESS THAN HALF the new price!
This is why I have posts to purchase DF sets in many gaming forums like this one. I can buy DF at half the cost and the person selling the DF is happy as well. I like making deals when both people involved are happy. If I think the person doesn't like my offer (there have been times when my money has been really limited) then I will back out of the deal.
As for the total cost of my hobby I have way more invested in my room than $7,000 (the furniture is obviously custom built and designed). However, the way I look at it I can get every penny back out of my hobby unlike other hobbies. Every purchase I've made has been at a cost below the average price. I have 2,000+ miniatures that were purchased in separate large lots at a fraction of the new price.
I really hope I never have to sell my gaming supplies but if I do I can get my money back out of the supplies if I want to. It's more likely I will give them away to the local gaming association I founded though.
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Wow! I just posted I want to buy DF sets and we get into a debate over making molds and how much money I spent.
You all assumed I bought the DF sets new. I've bought the majority of my sets used at LESS THAN HALF the new price!
This is why I have posts to purchase DF sets in many gaming forums like this one. I can buy DF at half the cost and the person selling the DF is happy as well. I like making deals when both people involved are happy. If I think the person doesn't like my offer (there have been times when my money has been really limited) then I will back out of the deal.
As for the total cost of my hobby I have way more invested in my room than $7,000 (the furniture is obviously custom built and designed). However, the way I look at it I can get every penny back out of my hobby unlike other hobbies. Every purchase I've made has been at a cost below the average price. I have 2,000+ miniatures that were purchased in separate large lots at a fraction of the new price.
I really hope I never have to sell my gaming supplies but if I do I can get my money back out of the supplies if I want to. It's more likely I will give them away to the local gaming association I founded though.
Not only that but over your lifetime it still amounts to a reasonably affordable hobby even after your room and your Dwarven Forge. Look how much fishing, golf, car, comic book, and toy enthusiasts spend on their hobbies.
When I am more settled I will purchase more dwarven forge and I will begin work on my game room (though mine will have a mini tavern with a hidden keg for home brew).
If you really want to save time and effort with Hirst Arts then buy a dehydrater. It makes it much, much easier and faster both in the overall dry time, and if you use it during the "set" time prior to popping the blocks. You can make hundreds of blocks in a good weekend day by doing that.
You can buy one online or at a discount store for less than $40.
Wow! This sounds like a great idea to save time and making molds much faster and easier!
I'm a still looking for dwarven Forge sets, especially Cavern sets, Fantasy Floor Sets, Den of Evil, etc., you get the idea! You can email me directly at HeredragondragonATcoxDOTnet.