Welcome to the official webpage for the channel!
My aim with this channel is to keep the costs of crafting to a minimum. Some items will be “high dollar” but they’re one time purchases such as tools, or some supplies where one time of buying it will last you a life time. I do have affiliate links and do appreciate when people use them, but if you can find the same stuff cheaper, do it.
Products and Tools I use
International links coming soon. Amazon’s system for linking to .ca .eu whatever needs some work…
Tools
Most tabletop crafters use the same tools and I’m no exception, but I do borrow some tools from other crafting worlds. Anything I use is listed and linked here. I also explain why I use each tool so you can see if it’s right for you, or if you have another method. This is a pretty long list of stuff, but I didn’t run out and but it all in one shot, and I don’t use more than a few things per build. Just buy what you need as you need it.
Glue guns! Must have. Surebonder does make some of the best, however the AdTech are just fine. I use a mini high temp and a mini low temp. Sometimes I’ll use the full size adjustable temp if I just need a ton of glue.
Metal cork backed ruler. You can use the metal edge as a guide when cutting so you don’t cut into your project, or the ruler itself. The cork back keeps it from sliding around, but sometimes you’ll see me flip it over because it also adds a little height that I don’t always want.
Full size (24″) carpenters square. This is a must have for making long cuts like when breaking down full sheets of foam into something manageable. You’ll also NEED to square off the foam you buy. None if it is cut square for some reason.
Leather workers stylus. I sometimes call this my “pokey tool”. It’s super handy. It has a needle point on one end and a ball point on the other. Very useful for marking, carving EPS, poking holes and the like.
Dovetail saw. I know many people who use a razor saw and they’re very nice, but also too delicate for my ham fisted methods. A dovetail saw will cut off any dowels or craft sticks with a perfect edge without removing too much material in the process.
X-Acto knife. Mine has a red and black grip but this is the same one. The thicker padded grip helps a lot. The pencil thin ones cause hand cramps for me. I use #11 blades but whatever size you prefer is fine.
Box cutter / utility knife. Really any brand will do here except the super cheap ones. Handle construction matters. You don’t want it coming loose while you’re using it. This is my heavy duty knife for super rough tasks like breaking down cardboard boxes, or trimming a bunch of sticks in a row where I can’t or don’t want to use the saw.
Olfa snap off blade knock off. Olfa makes superior knives in this category, but I only ever use mine because I can’t reach with the x-acto. Or because I need to make a super long cut where the tiny fine point of the #11 would shred instead of cut. These cheap knock offs work fine, just don’t push super hard or that blade will snap off and fly across the room. (looking at you Miscast :P)
Paint brushes. The wider brushes I picked up at Wal-Mart, but these are what I use most of the time. There’s enough shape and size selection here to paint about anything terrain wise. You’ll want better brushes for doing minis though.
Brush holder. Ok so you’ve never seen this in a video, but I use it to hold all my brushes, x-acto, sharpies and stylus. It’s a pretty handy little caddy for my most used small tools.
Shop Vac! You gotta clean up guys. When carving out EPS, or working with sand, you’re gonna make a mess. A lot of bits of pieces of crafting are a task to try and sweep up, and will ruin a standard household vacuum. This little shop vac is great for this and doesn’t take up much room at all. It even has a little wall mount clip if you wanna store it that way.
Wire brushes are great for getting a wood grain texture in foam. You can also use them to shred the foam to make old rocks or ruined brick. This set has a different handle color from mine but are the same ones. Nylon (black) Steel (silver) and Brass (gold) give a good range of stiffness depending on the task.
Texture rollers. Green Stuff World makes some amazing rollers, but they’re just not wallet friendly. I got my rollers from Rumple’s Labs. He only has STL files available for sale on Etsy, but send him a msg on FaceBook or Etsy and he’ll print it for you for a good price.
You always needs pliers of some kind. I like these little round jaw jewelry pliers. The jaw tapers so you can use it to get multiple size rings, and over all they’re small enough for the scale we’re working at.
Wire cutters or snippers as I call them. Pretty handy for snipping sticks too. Does leave a pinched edge on the stick, but that’s normally not an issue.
Hot wire tables will eventually be a must have for you. This is the one that I use most of the time. It was my first one because it’s affordable, but it’s also not great. It will cut the foam sure, but there’s no fence or other accessories. If I could do it again I would have saved up and just gotten the Proxxon and Shifting Lands accessories to start with.
The Proxxon table is a whole lot better, but it’s not cheap. I’ll put here anyway just in case you want to go that way.
This is the 3d printer I use. I got mine used for $160 and there is nothing wrong with buying used. It’ll have a couple dings and scratches but should be in good working order. If it’s not, call Amazon and don’t let them bully you.
Supplies
Again most in the tabletop world use the same supplies. I do try to find cheaper alternatives where I can. Anything I use is listed here. If it’s not exactly cheap, it’s because it was a one time buy that will last years. If I wasn’t able to find it on Amazon, I’ll still put it up here and tell you where I got it.
Paint Pens! This are awesome for little touch ups and a slight different color than your bottled stuff. Also pretty handy when you don’t want to get out the bottled stuff.
Colored Sharpies. So some times you don’t want to, or don’t need to paint something, but it needs color. Colored Sharpies are awesome for this. I use this multi-pack of color ultra fine and fine point Sharpies a lot. The silver one is especially good for metal details that are too hard to paint for me. I’m not sure if you’d call this a tool or an expendable because they will eventually dry up or run out, but I haven’t had one go dry yet. If nothing else they’ll last you a very long time.
Glue sticks. I’ve found the Gorilla brand for the minis holds better than any other I’ve tried and it doesn’t seem to have an issue with yellowing over time.
Full size glue sticks. you could also use Gorilla here, but the AdTech seem to be fine. I don’t know if it yellows because I only ever use these on large areas where I need a ton of cheap glue and I’m probably going to paint over it anyway. The glue seems to hold just fine, just not as well as Gorilla. This glue just sort of “sticks” as you’d expect glue to do. The Gorilla seems to bond to the foam. If you need to remove a piece this type will allow it, where as the Gorilla is never letting go.
Mod Podge matte. This is NOT Elmer glue-all or other kinds white glue. Mod Podge has some sealer and stuff in it. I use a ton of this. I generally buy 8oz bottles cause it’s easier to store, but I think I’ll be moving to the gallon jugs I seriously use so much of it.
Mod Podge gloss I don’t use quite as much. It’s handy where I want a water effect, or just want something to have a little sheen to it. You can use spray gloss, which I do, but sometimes it needs to be painted on in only certain spots. That’s where this comes in
Super 77. I started using this because another crafter suggested it and oh man it’s amazing. You just spray it on, stick the pieces together and they are now bonded for life. It doesn’t cause any warping, it’ll dry even if it’s between 2 layers of many feet wide material, where white glue will not. It CAN melt foam if you get heavy handed, but at that point you’ve sprayed way too much. Spray this stuff outside though because it goes everywhere, and make sure to turn the can upside down and spray the remaining glue out of the nozzle before you put it away.
2-part Epoxy. I like DevCon because it’s a simple 1:1 ratio and easy to work with. It tends to take color pretty well and it’s not expensive. They have two kinds that I use. The 2-ton which gives about 45 mins of work time, and 5-minute which does exactly what it says. The 5min kind gets very very hot for about 2mins while it’s curing though so that’s something to keep in mind depending on your project. This is what I use for water effects when I need actual water down and not just a shiny spot.
Spray on glaze. This stuff is great for water, but it will melt foam if any is exposed. It’s more than just a little glossy sheen the cans of gloss offer, this is a true glass top glaze just like they picture on the can.
Spray on primer and filler. Don’t prime foam with it, it’ll melt. This is useful for stick made projects, 3d prints, granny grating, basically anything not foam. Careful with using it on high detail minis because it will fill in some of the detail, but on the flip side it also hides crimes on your stick builds giving a smoother finish.
Paint. I use pretty much exclusively Apple Barrel because it’s cheap. This pack will cover most colors you’ll use, and you can mix colors to get different stuff if you didn’t want to buy something else. It sticks to any terrain projects that are not plastic no problem and is water based so it washes off easy enough.
Granny grating or plastic canvas makes some great window bars, steel grates, etc. It doesn’t seem to hold the Apple Barrel paint very well, but the spray on primer fixes that issue and looks pretty good all by it self. This one pack will last you a life time.
DAS air drying clay is some useful stuff. You can use it to sculpt whatever you need, use it as a filler, whatever. It takes paint and glue very well too. The down side is it can be a little on the heavy side.
This pack of 100 skeleton warriors is a great buy. They’re about twice the size of a 28mm mini so use them as giants. You can also cut them up and use individual parts for builds. Holding a glue gun tip to the joint will soften it enough to bend them into other poses too. Wash these in warm soapy water and spray prime before painting.
Assorted gems. These are for sicking gems to your face I think. They have a flat back with a mirror finish to make them more reflective, but it’s also handy for sticking them to a flat surface. This pack has a bunch of shapes and colors as well as a pack that’s little gold bars and stuff. It also comes with some super handy tweezers. Treasure pile, horde, box must have.
Wire for trees. You can use whatever size you want, I do like this really thin kind though because it’s easier to work with. If you’re going to be making very large trees I’d suggest something like 20g wire.
Bead caps are useful for making fancy torches and brazers. This link has a ton of other options aside from what I generally use. Careful to check the price, quantity, and size though. Some of them are huge and expensive.
Green scrub pads are an effect low cost material to use for flocking. It takes a little work to get them down to a power or fiber, but it does work.
LED lighting parts. When you click the link for the bulbs you’ll see 2 sizes 3mm and 5mm. For comparison the bulb in a tea light is 5mm. They also come in many colors, but check before you buy because not all of them flicker. Sometimes you may not want them to flicker though so that’s not a bad thing, just check what you’re getting. The whole pack of all the parts is only about $25 which is a lot cheaper than than it would be for 100 tea lights ($50) and you can do different colors and rig them up however you like.
Lights Wire 
Battery cap 
Switches
XPS Foam. This is how I buy mine, but I’ve been told it’s cheaper in the stores locally. My local stores only sell the 2″ thick blue foam. I do use that for some stuff, but 2″ can be a bit much for a lot of things and it’s easier to just have it 1″ to start with.
EPS foam is the same stuff they use for packing and those foam coolers. It’s not sturdy like XPS, but it is very cheap and really easy to carve into whatever shapes you want. I buy mine locally from Home Depot. It’s 6 2’x6′ sheets 3/4″ thick and is less than $10. Only supplying Amazon link in case you can’t find it locally.
Super glue! Or CA glue. I don’t really use much of it so I’ve never seen the need to buy those big bottles with the spray on activator and all that. These little bottles do just fine. I like the Gel Control one for where I don’t want it going other than where I put it.
The liquid kind dries a lot faster and can get into places the gel can’t. You can even put down some baking soda, put the glue on that and it’s solid in less than a minute.
DAP drywall compound is great. It’s super cheap and depending on what you mix it with you can get some interesting results. Mix with Mod Podge and paint to get a nice base layer that dries rock solid, use it as it and you’ll have a white soft sand-able surface. I use quite a bit of this when doing terrain with rocks and stuff.
Readi-board foam core. I use the black kind that has the peelable paper. This is a dollar store product. Amazon has it, but for like $3 a sheet. Don’t do that. Just grab it from the dollar stores.
So I also use a bunch of stuff not listed individually here because the list would get insane. Mosses and stuff. I will mention in the video where I got the item used though. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment, or find me on the Discord.
Tutorial Images
Some tutorials need supplemental images to explain things a little better. Those images should be in the video, but maybe you don’t want to go looking for the video and then the exact spot in said video. That’s what this gallery is for. I’ll put up any of those supplementals I used (or forgot to put in the video…) here. Just push ctrl+f, or however you search on your device, and type the video title.
Bonus video wiring “diagram” for the LED kits
The Farrier sign. Print it around 3x4cm or so. Right click – save image as. I don’t know how to add a download button lol
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Get in Touch
If you have any questions or just want to chat, I’m always active on the Tabletop Crafters United Discord server. Or of course you can always drop a comment on a video.
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