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By ABAROTH - Dec. 31, 1969 Background:In one of the ancient sagas it is written that there was a time of great malice between the goodmen of Midgard and the evil frost giants of Jotunheim. It befell King Osvald to protect his people from the onslaught of the giants, but, in those far northern reaches, the good stone lay encased within a deep layer of ice. Fearing dragons and dwarves may lurk far beneath, Osvald commanded the creation of a line of towers, constructed from the ice itself. An engraving in a long-forgotten manuscript depicts the towers like this… OK! – enough flannel! – it’s a dice tower (which also makes a suitable piece of Icy Wasteland terrain) Measurements: Height 5¼ inches Length 7¾ inches Width 4½ inches Total 17½ inches Moulds used: # 61 Turret # 65 Ruined Tower Materials used: o Gedeo Resin Crystal for ice blocks o Araldite Rapid Clear (two part epoxy adhesive) for water effects o ¼” Plywood for base o PVA (white glue) o G.W. Scatter Snow o Prestia Basic Alpha plaster o 2mm transparent plastic sheet for base o Thin transparent plastic sheet for icicles (blister pack packaging) o Jewel-shaped micro-beads o Acrylic gloss varnish Tools & Equipment: o Sandpaper o Kebab skewers to mix the epoxy adhesive and the resin o Washing powder scoop to mix resin in o Electronic scales to weigh resin (thanks mum) o #4 paint brush to apply varnish and PVA o Coping saw o Craft knife o Plastic bottle with outside diameter of 3” o Elastic bands o Clamps o Tiranti RTV T20 silicone and catalyst Tricky Sections: Rather than describe the infinite tedium of gluing every block together, I’ll just talk you through some of the more awkward areas of the model, and the solutions I found to the problems. Obstacle: I read Bruce’s advice on casting with resin, and didn’t want to ruin my original moulds. Solution: A custom mould, made from Tiranti RTV T20 silicone, with all necessary parts. I worked out a parts list for what I wanted, and made a mould which would require no single part to be cast more than eleven times – well before major deterioration problems should occur. I decided to cast six of the 4” diameter pieces together as a single ¾ circle to save time later with gluing. I then bought some Gedeo Resin Crystal to cast the blocks. The resin takes 24 hours to set, so it was one casting per day. I found that if you fill the blocks level with the top of the mould, the resin shrinks to leave a concave upper surface. So I slightly overfilled them, leaving a small dome on top. These then dried pretty well level with the mould. Resin is expensive, so before mixing any and then wasting what’s left over, fill your mould with water and carefully empty this into a measuring container. Mix about 10% more than you require as it’s impossible to get all of it to pour out of the mixing vessel and you need to overfill the blocks. Have another mould handy just in case there’s a little bit left. The instructions for the resin say, “cast into the mould previously coated with oil of Vaseline”. I duly smeared Vaseline round the mould, wiping up any excess and cast. Result – absolutely useless blocks! I don’t know why, but the surface of this cast was still tacky after a week. OK, so no Vaseline and ruin the mould in the process – what the hell it’s a Christmas present. I am very pleased to report that, after 11 castings of some parts of the tower, and over 20 castings of some of the other pieces on the mould, there is NO visible damage to the silicone. The Tiranti silicone is softer (Shore A Hardness 20) than Bruce’s moulds (25, I believe) so it should do no harm to them either. I also found that if you demould after 12 hours as per the instructions, the pieces are no longer tacky but still have some flexibility (sort of like wine gums) for some time. This serendipity came in very handy, allowing me to build the top layers with a 4½” diameter by inserting one extra block into the circle. Gluing the blocks together while they were still flexible around a plastic bottle and securing them with an elastic band kept them in shape while the next set were curing. Obstacle: The blocks were absolutely transparent on their bottom surfaces, but where the resin was in contact with the silicone they resembled frosted glass – not really icy at all. Solution: A couple of liberal coats of clear varnish. Transparency is as much to do with surface properties as it is with the material itself as anyone with scratched spectacle lenses knows well. The moulds for transparent plastic pieces have to be mirror smooth, and polishing silicone is a little tricky! The varnish fills the tiny surface imperfections and gives a much more transparent appearance. Be sure to varnish both sides of the blocks before final assembly – but don’t varnish where you’re going to glue as you’ll end up with a weak joint, and the epoxy clears the frosting effect in the joints anyway. Obstacle: I cut short lengths of clear blister pack with one jagged edge to make the icicles but these still just looked like bits of plastic. Solution: After securing the lengths to the model, I mixed up some more epoxy and coated the icicles – the results are far more satisfactory. Obstacle: I tried a dry run with my snow scatter, but it didn’t look right. Solution: I mixed up some plaster and carefully drizzled this into any areas where the snow would build up using a teaspoon. This gives some depth to the snowdrifts and looks far more realistic. The scatter was then applied on top of this, and in other areas where a light dusting was required. Obstacle: The dice snag up in the window arches. Solution: Blister pack windows glued into the arches, then smeared with epoxy to resemble ice. Obstacle: There are some jewel-shaped beads embedded in the ice in the dice tray/courtyard but I can’t get my camera to really pick them out. Solution: None that I’ve found – sorry.
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