Cryptstone Bridge Building Instructions

How to use Mold #24
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This video shows various pieces on mold #24, how to assemble the large arches and other various uses for this mold.

There are two large arches on mold #24, a 6" arch and a 3" arch. Each of these arches are assembled from three pieces.

The arch blocks are labeled as to which size they are.

When assembling each arch, be sure to put the smooth labeled sides against each other.

To keep the corners square when gluing, I'm using a corner made of Legos.

Do not glue the small square blocks shown in blue. This is used to help keep the corner straight when gluing the arch.

The thin rounded edged blocks are used to fill in the 3" arch.

These blocks are 1/4" thick and will allow you to make a recessed wall under the 3" arch.

The bridge floor can be used by itself to make a precarious walkway across a chasm. It's even a bit scarier if the walkway is only 1" wide.

The walkway done this way measures 8" from end to end and the arch opening measures 6" wide.

If you make only one half of a bridge, this could be used to connect two main castle towers leaving an arched opening beneath.

Just imagine a large main gate, drawbridge or portcullis placed under the arch.

Half of a walkway could be used as a ramp to lead to an upper area of a dungeon.

Cutting it in half is a little tricky though. You have to used tile nippers to trim the edge since it's uneven. You would also need to sand the upper end flat to fit against the wall.

The decorative base piece can be glued back to back along with the skull on top of it. If you do this the skull will have two faces facing in oposite directions.

After gluing the stand back to back, you may need to lightly sand it on the bottom and top so the skull can set properly on it.

Cryptstone Bridge Building Instructions
Click on the video to watch it on YouTube.

This video shows how to assemble the blocks from mold #24 to make the bridge.

Start by gluing the eight walkway pieces to make four complete walkways. To keep the bottom straight, I suggest placing them on a ruler. I've temporarily placed a 1" long block at the 4" mark on the ruler to keep the center of the arch at the correct height. Do not glue this 1" block.

Be sure these are completely dry before continuing.

Glue two walkway strips together scraped side to scraped side. This will give you an alternating pattern on the floor.

Allow these to dry completely before continuing.

When gluing the walkway sections together, spread the glue with your finger out to the edges of the block.

Many times the scraped side of the block will be slightly concave. If you do not get glue onto the raised edges then you may not be getting good glue contact between the pieces.

When placing the two assembled walkway pieces side by side, you will probably see that there is a gap in the center where these two large sections meet.

You can fix this by sending the edges where these two walkways meet before gluing them together.

Tape a piece of coarse sandpaper to the table top in order to keep it flat while sanding.

Glue together four of the 6" arches and four of the 3" arches.

You can see the blocks that make up each arch at the very top of this page.

After the arches dry, glue them in the arrangement shown adding the 1/2" square blocks and the 1.5" long blocks. Be sure to put a lot of glue where the two arches meet in the middle. This will be a weak spot for the piece. Make 2 of these.

To keep this straight, I put a ruler across the bottom and also made a short wall of legos to put across the top.

This will help keep the top and bottom straight while the piece dries.

Finally, the top rail is added with the square posts put in between. The small top caps are added onto each end and the decorative pieces are glued onto the front side. The back side should remain flat since it will end up being glued against the walkway.

You may find that the final rail block is too tight to fit into the last spot.

To fix this you will need to sand down one side of the block to get it to fit.

Test fit the three pieces to make sure they set correctly but do not glue them together yet.

We will want to paint the pieces seperately so we can make the walkway a darker color than the sides.

Painting the Bridge
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This video shows what colors of paints and the painting method used to paint the bridge.

The colors used and the exact painting method is detailed on the Painting Instructions page.

Here I am applying the Castle dark gray color of paint. This paint is fairly thin so it will get down into all the cracks. Wearing a glove on the hand holding the piece is helpful.

I also paint the piece while holding it over the paint container when possible. That way the drips go back into the container instead of all over the table.

When painting the bridge sides, leave the center section until the end. The center section is the weakest part of the bridge. When you apply wet paint onto water soluable glue, the glue will soften. If you leave the center part until last, the glue does not have time to soften in that area.

After the piece is dry, check for missed spots.

You would think that after drenching the piece in paint there would be not unpainted spots remaining. However, many times air pockets will form in the windows and crevices resulting in unpainted spots.

Be sure to check all of the pieces from every angle and use a small brush to get any spots that were missed.

Because the center section is so fragile, let this dark coat dry overnight before continuing the painting.

Next I am applying the Castle medium gray color of paint. This color is dry brushed on with a medium pressure.

The exact painting method is detailed on the Painting Instructions page.

The final coat of paint is the Castle gray light color.

I did not paint the walkway with this light color so it can remain darker.

I think the darker walkway looks better. It helps distinguish the floor from the walls. Glue the sides on when the painting is done.