Well I've been busy...
Took the advice (sort of
) and changed the design slightly. I've cut the hearth bricks to a round, and stood the soldier course round the outside. Last weekend saw the soldiers plus the first cant course, Wednesday saw me get another couple of courses up, and today saw me put 2 more in and close the dome !!!
Its a bit dark for photos now, but theres one in my gallery showing the first couple and the arch.
I had gone down the route of casting an arch with Chamotte and Fire clay, but after a day of drying, I had more cracks than arch, so I ripped it down and did it properly !! The real shame is that a cut brick arch took me about 45 minutes to complete, against a couple of hours on the cast one !
On to vermicrete skin tomorrow, and building the outer brick dome ! Its getting exciting now !
Cheers
Peter