TOOLS OF THE TRADE Every addiction has is own specialized set of paraphernalia that goes with it... and terrain-building is no different. Over the years I've accumulated more specialized tools and materials dedicated to nerdcraft than I care to admit in public. This page is dedicated to a few of them.   HOT GLUE GUN A low temp hot glue gun (with plenty of glue sticks) is an absolute must. It's great for bonding styrofoam, plastics, and other materials that Elmer's glue can't really handle. PROS: Cheap. Versatile. Easy to use. Bonds quickly with all kinds of stuff- especially styrofoam. CONS: Needs to be plugged in. Can be a little messy. Actually, pretty easy to burn the shit out yourself if you're not careful. WHERE TO GET ONE: Wal-Mart, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, or just about anywhere.   KITTY LITTER Hot damn! This is actually one of my favorite materials to use in terrain projects. I use it ALL the time. By mixing some kitty litter with Elmer's Glue, you get a chunky, spreadable cement mixture that makes incredible-looking rubble/debris when it dries. Just be sure you buy the cheap clay litter, because the hard-clumping sand or crystals won't absorb the glue properly. PROS: Cheap. Can be used to make perfect-looking rubble, hide gaps, and stengthen bonds. Dries super-hard. Dual purpose (if you've got a cat). CONS: A little messy to apply. You might need to experiment with the ratio of glue to litter to get the perfect consistency. WHERE TO GET SOME: Supermarket. Wal Mart. Litter box.   XCELITE TOOLS XCELITE is just a brand name for all kinds of cool little handheld tools like these guys: nippy cutters, miniature pliers, etc. The nippers (also called diagonal cutters) are great for all kinds of clipping (plastics, wire, wood, etc)- but removing model bits from plastic sprues is what they do best. The needle nose pliers are great for general purpose fiddling. PROS: Great for cutting / clipping bits off sprues and models. CONS: A little expensive compared to other brands... but well worth it. WHERE TO GET ONE: Big hardware stores like Home Depot or Lowe's   THE WONDER CUTTER If you've ever read any articles on making terrain out of styrofoam sheets, you've probably seen references to hotwire foam cutters. While there are all different kinds of these cutters available, the D battery operated Wonder Cutter by Floracraft is probably the most bang you can get for your buck. To be blunt- at $8.00- it's fucking awesome. PROS: Cheap. No cords to get in the way. Bow design allows for a lot of control for freehand cuts. Package includes replacement wires! CONS: Cutting area is a little small. Replacing batteries is a pain. Making perfectly straight cuts is very difficult with this guy. WHERE TO GET ONE: Big hobby/craft retailers like Michael's or Hobby Lobby. CAUTION: Whenever using a hotwire cutter, you've got to take two things into account: First, the cutting wire is VERY HOT. It can and will burn the shit out of you. Second, cutting styrofoam with one of these guys will produce a lot of nasty fumes. Take the threat these fumes pose to your health VERY SERIOUSLY. Work in a well-ventilated area and, for Christ's sake, use a gasmask... otherwise, your children are likely to be mutants.   DREMEL TOOL Another fantastic tool and, with all the ridiculous attachments available for it on the market, one with near infinite possibilities. Truth be told, though, I don't use my dremel as much as I should. I use it almost exclusively for sanding flash off of plastic bits clipped from sprues. Its secondary use is for gouging: dinging up pieces to make them look weatherbeaten and war-torn. There are many different flavors of Dremel available. My personal recommendation is start as small as you can. A little dremel goes a long way... especially if you're using light materials. PROS: Wide variety of attachments (drills, sanders, saws, etc) that allow you to do all kinds of stuff. CONS: The bigger dremels can get pretty pricey. WHERE TO GET ONE: Just about anywhere: Wal Mart, Home Depot, Lowe's, etc...   GRANNY GRATING These lightweight plastic grids are actually designed for use in cross-stitch projects... but are excellent for making fencing and gratings on floors. They come in large sheets that can easily be shaped with scissors, pliers, and nippers and... best of all... they're dirt cheap. PROS: Very cheap. Very easy to work with. Look great on finished models. CONS: Oily plastic means that sheets really should be sanded on both sides before being worked with. WHERE TO GET ONE: Any place you can find knitting / crafty stuff: Wal Mart, Hobby Lobby, yarn stores, etc... SEE IT IN ACTION HERE: THE SPACE HULK TABLE   GREAT STUFF Great Stuff is polyeurethane expansion foam made by the DOW chemical company. It's commonly used as insulation, to fill cracks/holes, or repair leaky pipes. It squirts out of a can like shaving cream, then expands and hardens into a light, waterproof blob. By poking, prodding, and pulling the Great Stuff as it is drying (with a nail, wooden dowel, etc.) you can make some truly amazing organic textures that are near-impossible to recreate using other techniques. PROS:Allows you to create incredibly nasty looking biological-terrain: great for Tyranids or the Forces of Chaos. Dried goop is lightweight and surprisingly tough. CONS:Tricky to work with. Doesn't take paint very well. Puts off nasty fumes. Goop is VERY sticky and will bond with your skin, causing all kinds of unpleasantness. Be careful. WHERE TO GET SOME: Big hardware stores. Wal-Mart. SEE IT IN ACTION HERE: ALIEN MEAT HIVE   MASONITE Masonite is an engineered wood product that's pressure/heat treated into large, thin sheets with high flexibility, high tensile strength, and no grain. GW uses it it to base many of its terrain projects- and understandably so: it's the ultimate basing material. The only drawback is that you need some pretty heavy-duty tools (jigsaw or table saw) to work with it effectively. I refused to work with masonite for a while, in favor of using carved foam bases for my terrain. While I personally think the carved bases look a little better- they are far too fragile to withstand the rigors of regular play. PROS: Lightweight. Tough. Resistant to warping. CONS: Need specialised tools to work with. WHERE TO GET SOME: Big hardware chains like Home Depot or Lowe's. SEE IT IN ACTION HERE: ORK FUNK SHACK   ROTARY PUNCH A fairly-specialized tool that allows you to punch holes of different sizes in all kinds of light materials (plastic card, cardboard, etc). It's great for making rivets, dials, or buttons for sci-fi pieces and coins for fantasy pieces. PROS: Quick and easy way to punch rivets CONS: Limited utility. Actually removing the rivets from the device can be a bit of a bitch. WHERE TO GET ONE: Big hardware stores like Home Depot or Lowe's   BAMBOO SKEWERS These little guys are great. Originally designed for shish kabobs, these miniature spears are perfect for terrain. On their own, they make nice punji stakes or barricades. You can clip off the tips to fashion all kinds of Orky or Chaos-type spikes to adorn your terrain with... and the rest of the stick is sturdy enough to be used as all sorts of stuff: banner poles, pipes, thin logs, rails, whatever! PROS: Cheap. Sturdy. Easy to work with. CONS: Bamboo can occassionally fray. It hurts if you poke yourself. WHERE TO GET SOME: Supermarkets SEE IT IN ACTION HERE: HELL GATE   PVC PVC is an excellent material to mess around with on sci-fi / industrial pieces. The piping itself comes in all kinds of sizes and lengths- and best of all, there are all kinds of crazy-looking joints you can connect them to! They're a great way to make instant pipelines / industrial barriers / bridges / smokestacks / etc... PROS: Very durable. Looks cool. Modular capability. CONS: Can get a little expensive, especially the larger sizes. Need specialized tools to cut effectively. WHERE TO GET SOME: Big hardware stores: Home Depot, Lowe's, etc... SEE IT IN ACTION HERE: REFINERY TABLE   PVC CUTTERS Anyone thinking about incorporating PVC into their work should do themselves a favor and pony up the extra cash for this little bastard now. It's incredible how it chews through PVC with ease: even the heavy gauges! It proved to be worth its weight in gold when working on the massive REFINERY TABLE PROJECT. PROS: Quickest, easiest way to cut lengths of PVC. CONS: Highly specialized. Has difficulty cutting very small (under 2") lengths of PVC. WHERE TO GET SOME: Big Hardware Stores. SEE IT IN ACTION HERE: REFINERY TABLE   ACRYLIC CRAFT PAINT When painting terrain, cheapass acrylic craft paint is most definitely where it's at. While you'll still rely on your expensive paints and inks for detailed work every now and then- these paints should do most of your grunt work. Of all the brands that I've experimented with, I've found that Folk Art's line is the best for the money. They come in a stupefying range of colors, have good consistency, and are fairly cheap. PROS: Tons of colors. Easy to find. Great for basic painting tasks. CONS: Metallic colors are pretty bad. Expensive mini paints are still the best for fine detailed work. Folk Art brand a little more expensive compared to alternatives. WHERE TO GET SOME: Michael's & Hobby Lobby have extensive ranges. Wal Mart usually has a few.   BIG BRUSHES Painting terrain often requires using a lot of techniques that are hard on brushes. That's why I buy cheap craft brushes like these in bulk- usually for about .50 a piece... so I don't feel too bad when they get ruined. These brushes are best suited for big, dumb jobs like basecoating, drybrushing, stippling, varnishing, or coating a piece with sand/glue mixture to give it texture. PROS: Dirt cheap. Come in a variety of sizes/shapes. CONS: Brushes usually die hard (and quick) in this line of work. Occassionally, cheap brushes like these will lose a bristle when painting- leaving it stuck to your terrain. WHERE TO GET SOME: Big Craft Stores like Michael's, Hobby Lobby.   SMALL BRUSHES These are the little guys you'll be relying on for your detailed work. While your standard mini brushes will work for the finest details... you really need something to bridge the gap between them and the big brushes. I suggest you go to a craft store and pick up one of those artists' starter packs: you'll get about 20 small/medium brushes of different kinds for $5.00-$8.00. They'll last you. PROS: Nice 'n' cheap. Ultimately disposable. CONS: Not a replacement for your high-quality mini brushes. WHERE TO GET SOME: Big Craft Stores, Wal Mart.   ELMER'S GLUE A cheap general purpose glue like Elmer's is a staple of terrain-makers everywhere. It's got a thousand uses in the workshop, including: mixing with kitty litter to make rubble, mixing with sand and water to make texturing wash, applying flock/static grass, coating paper towels/newspaper for fabric effects, joining wood, etc. Because of this, be prepared to go through a lot of it. Think about getting an industrial sized jug from a big home improvement store- it's a lot more economical than buying a series of little bottles. PROS: Lots of uses. Easy to work with. CONS: Has trouble bonding certain materials (rock, metal, plastics) WHERE TO GET SOME: Anywhere.   NUNCHAKU Not all that great for terrain building- but perfect for warding off ninja attacks. Pirate attacks... not so much. PROS: Hitting people in the face. CONS: Hitting yourself in the crotch. WHERE TO GET SOME: Shaolin. SEE THEM IN ACTION HERE:CLICK HERE FOR GOD'S SAKE   SPACKLE Another staple of terrain-making with multiple uses. Spackle is a great way to mask gaps of cracks in terrain, anchor natural rocks, or stippled to look like concrete/stone. Some of the cooler kinds (like DAP's DryDex) change color as they dry- so you know it's ready to work with. PROS: Pretty handy. A variety of uses. CONS: Messy. When used as texture- needs to be sanded. WHERE TO GET SOME: Anywhere.   SUPER GLUE Anyone who's spent any amount of time with minis should be all to familiar with super glue and its uses. But what you might not know is that superglue and common baking soda react with one another to form a superhard, quick drying resin. Give it a shot when you need to patch a gap in some old plastics. Personally, I go with the liquid Loctite or Zap-a-Gap. Stay away from that gel stuff. PROS: A little goes a long way. Fun to sniff. CONS: Pretty sure that sniffing it is illegal. Don't get it on skin or clothing. WHERE TO GET SOME: Anywhere.   Solder You can buy spools of solder in most home improvement stores in big spools of different gagues. The metal is very soft and pliable, and can be snipped and shaped into just about any shape. Solder makes great pipes, tubes, and hoses for industrial or sci-fi terrain. PROS: Cheap. Easy to work with. CONS: Doesn't always take paint very well. WHERE TO GET SOME: Big home improvement stores.