You would think gluing your terrain to the appropriate base would be a cake walk, right? After all, this is a life skill you learned in kindergarten. Well, Padawans – think again. Glue in haste and your terrain will almost certainly warp and all that hard work thus far is for naught. Glue with pre-calculated planning and techniques and your 3D game board will flourish…let’s explore further.

First off, you can base your newly cast bricks on a variety of materials including:

• balsa wood
• cork board
• pink foam
• foam board

Certainly you want to go with what you’re most comfortable with but Ben’s biggest concern is always the bend probability. There’s great heartbreak in a finished piece having an upward slope like a troll bridge. For that reason, Ben recommends Elmer’s Foam Board (specifically the 20” x 30” x 3/16”) but get it in black if you can. You can readily purchase a sheet at Michaels, Staples or Wal-mart for about $7.

A hot knife or (really sharp) Xacto blade allows you to manually cut your bases to the proper dimensions but that does take some skill for some of us. So, Ben got the assistance of his father-in-law and one of his a big manly woodshop machines. His mighty electric saw cutting method was a huge timesaver (a mere 2 hours for a ton of perfectly cut pieces). And before you say you don’t have a saw, you can always take your stuff over to Home Depot and they’ll charge ya mere pennies to make the appropriate cuts.

Ben keeps some sandpaper handy post-cast so that his terrain glues on as level as possible (especially important when doing custom mold casts). This extra TLC makes a huge difference and is an overlooked step.

Two types of glue get the most love in a Hirst Arts terrain world: Titebond II Premium Wood Glue ($6.49) and Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue ($7.83). Ben actually prefers Wood Glue for your bricks as the plaster seems to adhere better to the foam core. Tacky Glue seems to have better sticking power for basing plastic minis (like MageKnight or Dreamblade).

When applying the glue, Ben likes the medium wood glue bottle nozzle. He also keeps a jar of sturdy toothpicks on hand to apply glue to smaller areas. He keeps a “glue rag” (fancy name for a folded up paper towel) to wipe away the excess.

To ensure your pieces are glued on straight/even, you can get your MacGyver helm on and make your own straight edge. Ben’s dad made him two versions: one for day-to-day and another for higher walls. Large Megabloks also do a fine job but sometimes a few rectangles from the Lego Duplo Brick Set are nice to have within arm’s reach too. The bummer with Legos is they can slide around on ya where as a larger straight edge with rubber stoppers on the bottom keeps everything stationary.

Once glued, some of the smaller pieces will typically turn out better if you immediately drop them into a hobby vice or clamp. That extra pressure just seems to end in a better final product (and helps those ugly seams).

When gluing floors, Ben tries to counteract the dreaded warp monster with a brick press. It sounds silly but it really has made a difference. Tiles are first glued to the foam core using all the techniques above and after about 5 minutes, Ben places them on two wood boards with a large garden brick on top. He leaves this in place for about 24 hours. Just don’t go from glue to brick too soon as the tiles might accidentally shift on you.

So you see there’s much more to this glue step than there appears. While these suggestions seem trite, they really do make a difference. Give ‘em a try and keep those chaotic warp devils away from all your hard blood, sweat and tears.

Questions to Ponder: Do you agree with Ben’s suggestions? What else have you done to ensure this glue step doesn’t ultimately ruin your terrain?

Now that we’ve got our project inspiration and custom molds in hand, let’s get physical with an actual casting or two. Roll up your sleeves with Ben as he shares several tricks of the trade so that you too, can behold the power of the brick.

Let’s start by saying Hirst Arts offers a comprehensive casting guide on their website that we would never dispute. Bruce also has a gargantuan tips and tricks index. So before you do anything, at least peruse these extremely thorough resources.

Still, we’ve learned a ton since our first humble YouTube video back in November 2009. Sure, everyone sucks in the beginning but you simply get better at casting terrain the more you do it (as in real life). Ben has a lousy memory though so he’s taken lots of notes over the years and has a tremendous resource with fellow co-Piler, Enygma. And when in doubt, the Hirst Arts Questions and Modeling Tips forum is as helpful as it gets.

Best way to share knowledge is to see what it looks like when Ben sits down to cast. There is rhyme and reason to everything on his table.

Kitchen Timer
You casting window is short or the material will harden pre-maturely. Two minutes for mixture and ten minutes to pour and scrape the molds.

Casting Material
The best bang for your buck is Hydrocal 105. You can typically get 50 lbs from a local cement or building materials supplier for $55. For this lil’ ol’ Egyptian project, Ben has been using Merlin’s Magic with great pleasure. It costs a lot more ($80-plus online for 50 lbs – nearly half of that shipping) and you can choose from several color tint options which can eliminate an annoying primer step.

Mixing Bowl
You need a container to mix your water and casting material. A traditional Tupperware bowl works fine but for less mess/cleanup, Ben urges you to try a rubber mixing bowl. He bought an iSi Basics Flex-it 1-Quart Mixing Bowl ($12, free Amazon Prime shipping) and it makes a huge difference. You must get this!

Scraper
After you pour your mold, you have to scrape off the excess. Ben has a 4” wide Flex Taping Knife for a regular Hirst Arts mold ($6.39, free Amazon Prime shipping) and uses a 12” wide Wal-board Taping Knife ($8.65) for his custom molds.

Metal Sheet
Enygma gets a lot of the glory on this brilliant idea. Casting gets a little messy so why not make yourself an aluminum sheet (from Home Depot – they’ll even cut it to the 16” by 24” dimensions for you). Ben added some padded corners to avoid scratching his arm and put a felt backing on it so it rests level on his office work table. This sheet skips the annoying garbage bag taping step and cuts down on the paper towels (simply scrape off the dried excess cast material).

Air Bubble War Gear
Oh those Bahamut forsaken air bubbles – they can be the bane of your existence (if you’re a perfectionist). Ben has four weapons to keep Balor’s belches to a minimum:

- Dental Table: Ben bought his a #78RK Atlas Heavy Duty 115V for $186.27
- Almore Debubblizer Surfactant: Bruce has a vid ($12.50 for 8 oz)
- Wet Dry: Soak your molds in Finish Jet Dry for prior to casting
- Material: No real proof but Merlin’s Magic Buff Tan seems to produce fewer bubbles

Pre-measured Cups & Bucket
Ben hopped over to the Container Store for to get some items to hold his pre-measured casting material and water cups. That may seem silly but when you’re in Chinese-assembly-line-mode, it’s nice to have these done ahead of time. Ben also keeps his core ingredients in a Home Depot, sealable bucket.

Speaking of measurements, here’s what Ben swears by:

• Regular Hirst Mold: 10 oz of Merlin’s Magic | 3.5-ish oz of water
• Custom Mold (depending on type): 15-20 oz of Merlin’s Magic | 7-10 oz of water

Accodemtal Chemist Note: Your final mixture should have the consistency of a milk shake. Don’t over water it…always easier to slowly add a little more liquid in if you measured wrong.

Hope you enjoyed all our casting XP. Next week we glue down and start the basecoat painting process!

Questions to Ponder: What other tips and tricks do you recommend? Do you plan on giving terrain casting a try in the coming months? Why or why not? Do you cast outside or throw caution to the wind and do it inside?

See Roving Band of Misfits Hirst Arts Buying Guide | Visit Void Gamers

The foundation of every new terrain environment starts with the selection of your molds. The Pile begins that process with the Industry’s best – Hirst Arts and then created custom molds from those original casts to ultimately support the high-volume pieces of the set. Join Co-Piler Enygma as he shows us how he made these unique works of art.

So why go through all the trouble and expense of making one-of-a-kind molds? You’ve already got the originals from Bruce. Isn’t that enough? Well if you have the Gandhi’s patience and the Pope’s time, read no further. However, if you’re a man of the town like most of us, these larger molds are a lifesaver. Instead of doing essentially a single floor tile, you can create an entire room. Forget doing 10 floor squares in a single cast, how does 100 sound instead via a home-brewed custom mold?

Mold Selection
For starters, Ben’s Egyptian environment utilized the following Hirst Arts molds.

• Tower Mold #93: hieroglyph columns
• Temple Mold #94: more hieroglyph columns
• Basic Block Mold #95: your bread (walls)
• Pyramid Accessory #96: columns, door, sarcophagus, etc
• Tomb Accessory #97: door frames and statues
• Temple Accessory #98: mighty columns and lion statue
• Fountain Accessory #99: water accent pieces
• Floor Tile #290: your butter (floors)
• Weave Floor Tile #291: decorative floor accents
• Decorative Floor Tile #292: more ornamental floors

Now it’s time to identify the critical, mass production pieces of our terrain build. Again, the goal being let’s make larger mold forms here to save us a mountain of precious time. Don’t rush this step. Inevitably though, you will say to yourself, “Why did I pick that particular piece to mass replicate?” Typically, you will need 10 casts of the final pieces.

Go Shopping
So now get out your pen, it’s time to make a shopping list of all the ingredients that go into creating the actual forms and pouring the new mold. Don’t worry many of these items are re-usable.

• 1 sheet of 20”x30”x3/16” Elmer’s foam core ($3, Walmart)
• 1 roll of masking tape ($1, Walmart)
• 1 bottle of white tacky glue ($1.50, Walmart)
• 1 utility knife/paper cutter. ($5, Walmart)
• 1 can of silicone mold release ($10.80, Aeromarine)
• AM 128 Pourable Silicone Rubber, 1 gallon, 2-part kit – 8.8 lbs. ($101, Aeromarine)
• 2 wooden spoons ($1.00, Walmart)
• 2 plastic measuring cups ($1.50 per, Walmart)
• Digital scale ($25,Walmart)
• Cooking timer ($5, Walmart)

This is a two-part process. The first is building the form that will hold the silicone rubber solution. Make the mold form 12’x12’ so you can use a drywall scraper to scrape the form after casting. This configuration gives you 100 square inches of Hirst art floors and walls which is about as fast as you can safely cast.

Pre-glue the original Hirst Arts floor pieces together to dramatically cut down on assembly time. For example, pour a 4×4, 4×3, 3×3, and so on.

Create a Box
With all that said, let’s create the actual form/mold housing:

Step 1: Measure a 12”x12” foam core square and cut with a utility knife.
Step 2: Measure a 1.5”x11.5” foam core side piece and create 4 with a utility knife.
Step 3: Run a piece of masking tape across the whole length of the side piece. Make sure that half of the tape is hanging off and there is an inch hanging off each end.

Step 4: Attach the side piece to the 12”x12” piece. Do the same for all 4 sides.
Step 5: Take tape and run it inside the seam of the 12×12 piece and the side piece.
Step 6: Add tape to each corner (3 pieces, center, left and right of each corner).

Step 7: Run a bead of glue on the inside of the seam of the form and up the corners.
Step 8: Glue casted pieces into box with about a ¼” space between the pieces/sides.
Step 9: Allow it all to dry. The beads of glue will become clear.

Pour the Mold
Now let’s do a step-by-step on the actual mixing and pouring of the mold:

Step 1: Zero out and set your scale to metric as you will need to do some simple mixture math.

Step 2: Pour the first part of the mixture, the silicone (white), into the cup. It comes out thick and takes a good amount. Depending on the size of your mixing cup, you can pour about 180 grams of the white solution into the cup. Mark how much you poured so you can divide it by 10 for the Catalyst.

Step 3: Double check your measurement of the white solution

Step 4: Zero out your second mixing cup. Pour the Catalyst into it at one tenth the amount of the white solution. Example: if you poured 180 grams of the white solution, you would pour 18 of the purple. Tip: it’s best to pour about 1-2 grams extra because you will not get all the Catalyst to come out of the mixing bowl.

Step 5: Double check the measurement.
Step 6: You have 20-30 minutes to combine the two mixtures together.
Step 7: Use the wooden spoons to mix for 10 minutes (on your timer) so the chemical solution fuses together. The latex is thick and will take a lot of mixing.

Step 8: Did you stop?! Keep mixing. You MUST mix for the full 10 minutes.
Step 9: Double check your form and make sure everything is glued properly placed.

Step 10: Pour the Latex in slowly at each of the 4 corners and in the middle. Make sure you pour at least 1/4 an inch above the highest piece your casting. So if you’re casting floor tiles make sure its 1/4 above the floor tile.

Step 11: Once the mold is filled, let it sit for 24-36 hours then strip away the foam core form. This is where you can use some of that silicone spray release product to get the first couple of castings out of the mold cleanly.

Quick-hit Tips and Tricks
Here are some helpful tips that make the whole process go a little smoother:

- Match Pieces: Make sure that you pour all the like pieces together. That means pour floors with floors, walls with walls, and similar pillars together. Make sure all the pieces are the same height (saves on latex).

- Heavy Duty: Don’t be stingy on your form bead of glue around those seams of your box and you double up the tape on both sides of the forms. Can you imagine what would happen if you do this step poorly?

- Level Playing Field: Pour on a level surface. This is a must or all your work is for not. Bust out a level to be sure.

- Pouring Angle: Pour at 70 to 80 degree angle for better settling and an easier bottle pour.

- Detailed Piece Brush: For detailed pieces, it doesn’t hurt to use a paint brush and go over them with latex before you pour the main mold.

- Slow and Steady: Pour gradually as this reduces air bubbles (latex is thick).

Once you make a custom mold you will never want to use anything else. It takes about the same time to cast the custom mold as a Hirst Arts mold (once you get the measurements down). So your doing a 10-1 ratio on your casting time!

Finished Product
After repeating the above process, you walk away with a bevy of Egyptian mass molds.

• Floors: Utilizing #290 to make 4×4, 3×3 and 3×4 in pre-formed bulk pieces
• Walls: From #95, you can mass produce the other core component
• Ornate Set 1: Hallway, doors and columns pieces
• Ornate Set 2: More decorate column, pedestal and statue elements

So with a little extra thought, preparation and elbow grease, you can turn your most important pieces into a well-oiled casting assembly line – drastically cutting down your mold time and ultimately…giving you more time to play.

Questions to Ponder: Have you ever made a custom mold before? Why or why not? What worked well and where were there improvements to be made? What other Egyption pieces would you use a lot of? What set would you mass produce (cavern, field stone dungeon, etc)?

Follow Ben on Twitter | Visit our Facebook Page

What a glorious digital age us gamers live in these days! We can play actual D&D games in real-time with friends all over the country, build our D&D characters online (be gone errata supplements) in minutes, and download RPG eBooks in a seconds. But most of all – we have YouTube. An ever-growing video library filled with terrain inspiration and game enhancing ideas.

So what makes a good RPG video these days? Well, certainly to each his own but here’s a taste of the recipe Ben tries to follow:

• Video Editor: Pick out a good software program (iMovie works great)
• Steady: Run stabilization thru your video editor and use a mini tripod
• Close-ups: Zoom in tight on the objects and avoid lengthy wide shots
• Lights: Shoot in a bright room and avoid shadows/glare
• Sound: Smatter in audio effects and music for fun
• Angles: Place the camera above focal point or to the left of the item
• Outline: Jot down chronological talking points before recording
• Length: Use 10 minutes as standard length (20-plus try as a podcast on iTunes)
• Chapters: Create title cards to break the content down into digestible sub groups
• Focus: Stay on topic and leave out rambling commentary
• Respond: Reply (in a professional manner) to viewer video comments
• Closing: Create an end card noting where else you can be found

And every video should get better, right? Ben’s earlier flicks are pretty rough but were necessary in the channel’s evolution. Believe it or not, it’s enjoyable to learn new video skills. Also, make topics unique whenever you can. Regurgitating existing community content often gets lower interest. Mostly, Ben likes to shoot how-to topics (to give back to the community) and built-out game boards (to be different).

So let’s talk video content. What can you create or subscribe to?

• Terrainaholic: A terrain legend and class-act in the community
• Wizards of the Coast: The Penny Arcade D&D games are classics
• TerranScapes: Great how-to terrain guy
• Woodland Scenics: Some fun tutorials on rocks and water effects
• Obsidian Painting: Cool paint tips
• BlueWarGaming: Love their mini basing tricks

Of course, Ben is just scratching your screen’s surface. There’s an immense amount of helpful game content at your fingertips. Try common industry search terms (Dungeons and Dragons, tabletop terrain, miniatures, or mini painting) and see what comes up. Oh and maybe while you’re at, you might consider giving little ol’ Ben’s RPG Pile channel a try.

Editor’s Note: Three cheers to Enygma for this week’s letter suggestion.

Questions to Ponder: Did you ever make a RPG YouTube video? How about your own D&D channel? What inspired you to do so? Want to share some of your favorite gamer clips? How do you use YouTube to help your weekly game?

Ben Top Tube Picks: Make a Miniature P1 and P2 | Character Deaths

Truth be told certain monstrosities in one’s D&D game often come down to a single descriptive term…vile. And it’s fair to say many a gamer could point to some clear commonalities. Read along as Ben pulls a few examples off the Pile to illustrate the point.

Body Stacks: Heaps of decomposing bodies are always a clear giveaway. But piling them on a moving war wagon is the cherry on top. The boney flatbed is an added creepy bonus.

Possible Quest: You must intercept this killing caravan and bring evidence back to the local magistrate so justice can be served.

Multiple Craniums: Lots of heads on a single monster torso means numerous attacks against your clearly innocent party. Take this toothy sea monster for instance. Image this sucker emerging to the river and not asking for permission to come aboard?

Possible Quest: Remove the mystic sea creature from a vital town river in exchange for a gold reward.

Slimy Tentacles: Sticky limbs trying to rein you in are the epitome of vile. Even better, have those tentacles always spring from your terrain so that the group never sees the real face of its enemy.

Possible Quest: Mineral-rich caves are suddenly off limits as several mining crews have disappeared from their posts. Find the source of the threat and eliminate the danger.

Hold on now. How did these miniatures come to be, you ask?

Ben often trolls the weekly blog circuit for new DIY projects. He found a comprehensive article from TheSheDM that outlined all the steps to making your very own tentacle miniature.

When attempting to re-create someone else’s amazing work, Ben tries to put his own artistic spin on the piece. In this case, Ben used Gale Force Nine wood bases and utilized a fiery brimstone flock mixture to match the tentacles’ boiling lava pit home. For monster stats, he gave these suckers a reach of 2 and a potential grab attack.

Disease-carrying Vermin: A couple Giant Rat packs from Reaper’s Legendary Encounters series is a lock for this letter. The tiny claws, jagged teeth and deplorable pink tails – ugh x 3. Certainly any things that crawls and bites qualifies but there’s just something about those rats coming from the tiniest of places.

Possible Quest: Something has polluted the town’s water supply. Your party must hope into the sewers and flush out the problem.

So yes this term maybe too subjective to the average gamer but these particular traits seem true. The only question remaining is what ya gonna do when the next vile thing comes to a deep dark place near you?

Questions to Ponder: What’s the most vile thing you’ve encountered? What in particular made it so nasty? What type of terrain suits this fugly stuff best?

Make your own tentacle minis

This week’s alphabet entry just so happens to fit perfectly with the rest of his ongoing RPG series. But which definition of puzzle is Ben picking?

No, it’s not puzzle in the traditional sense of perplexing challenges that rake one’s D&D brain. Rather, Ben has gone literal this week with actual, physical puzzles. Here’s how.

Ben’s game group is currently adventuring through part two of three of the Keep on Shadowfell module series (which is amazing). After a bit of a thud going from H1 to H2, Ben wanted something much more memorable as the group transitions out of Thunderspire Labyrinth and into Pyramid of Shadows (H3). A great module transition is a true mark of a good DM.

Thus, he created the Barz Brothers Hoard Quest. A dying Norhand Woodsheart tells the tale of a secret treasure stash of three Half-orc brothers. They hid their stolen riches and hired a mage to create a magical map depicting the resting location. The map was torn into pieces and magical constructs were made from them. Paldemar learned of this legend and was magically summoning all the consturcts to Thunderspire. A killed construtct turns back into a map piece. Recover all the map pieces scattered across Nentir Vale to reveal the location of the Pyramid & its treasure.

With an engaging plot in hand, Ben wanted something more tangible and visual on the game table to supplement his new storyline transition. With a cute little daughter addicted to puzzles, the RPG accessory idea was right there for the taking! Ben would create a puzzle map which would only magically reveal the Pyramid of Shadows’ location after all the collected pieces were fully assembled.

The Nentir Vale campaign map from the DMG (pg. 206) made the most sense. Ben is quite fond of the setting and it’s a major area player in this particular module series. Plus, a high res version of the map was readily available on Google Images.

Next Ben popped that map image into Photoshop and made it his own . He added his local Game Store, Gamers’ Inn, as a waypoint on the map for weary travelers to grab a quick pint. A little flair also seemed in order and the Pile logo in the bottom right corner did the trick. Finally, he needed to pick a final puzzle piece that essentially “marked the spot.”

With the final piece of the puzzle in place, Ben called upon Jigsaw2order produce his masterpiece. Options, cost, quality, simplicity to order and customer service were all extremely pleasant. Ben created a 30-piece puzzle with perfect dimensions (8.25in x 11.75in) for a mere $15.95. How can you go wrong?

Ben plans on passing out replica puzzles to each of his gamemates as Xmas gifts at the conclusion of their Thunderspire Labyrinth module in December.

And if all that fun and creativity isn’t enough…Ben and his daughter had a nice little bonding moment when they put this new D&D puzzle together. That’s when you know the idea was pure gold.

Questions to Ponder: What else would make a great D&D puzzle? Would you make one for your game group? What other quest ideas could be used to incorporate puzzle pieces into your campaign?

Ben’s back from vacation so let’s get to it: Land ho! That’s right, RPGers – there’s an earthy foam mass dead ahead in this week’s D&D A to Z installment. What can one do with this relatively inexpensive resource to make one’s game table come alive?

Sadly, Ben and foam don’t get along in the grand scheme of all things terrain. He’s lousy with a hot knife (which usually requires a steady hand). More importantly, he hasn’t learned the proper way to paint the final pieces. Why? No idea but that’s a huge mental roadblock.

Thusly, Ben snags most of his foam from the fine crew over at Arena Gear. For a very reasonable price (typically $5 to $40), their creations are top notch. These guys are a must-see at any convention. Best of all, their products are easily transportable back home.

Plus, you can’t beat Arena Gear’s variety either (which jumped a creative notch this year):

• High level rock formations
• Base level land masses
• Earthy landmarks
• Unique pieces like mountain-side doors
• Magnetized pieces for a variety of uses

Certainly, you can build your own foam library. Material is easy to get either from your local craft store or if you’re a in the right climate, any pink foam insulation will do. Combo that up with DVD and kit from Hot Wire Foam Factory and you’re off to the hobbyist races. Terrainscapes did a great review of all their products here.

In terms of specific applications, Ben’s utilized foam for the Thunderspire’s Slave Pits and the classic Tiefling Ambush Interlude. And as you well know, Ben likes to photograph minis on this stuff for his little ol’ weekly blog.

The ease at which a DM can create depth on his game board is especially appealing. And remember a cardinal terrain rule – everything (and we mean everything) is always better with levels. So grab a chunk of foam and raise your game to new heights.

Questions to Ponder: Was the closing article line too corny? What have you made with foam? Do you use it to base your Hirst Arts floor tiles? Got any favorite foam paint scheme? What brand of paint works best with foam?

Get the Dungeon Alphabet Book

Hallways – the two-by-four portion of your dungeon floor. After all, a map isn’t much of a map without a myriad of pathways to choose from. Join Ben as he explores his endless attempts at creating the spookiest D&D passage.

Architecting one’s dungeon requires some plotting and planning. You can snag a map from a module or even randomly roll your own. The goal is of course is to make every step count.

Ben’s hall of choice is Hirst Art’s cracked floor tile (mold #203). The combinations and patterns seem endless. Flagstone (#260) and Caverns (mold #281) are just as good.

Our paint combo of choice: easy smeazy…prime black, and dry brush on some GW Graveyard Earth. Ben’s toyed with other color schemes but always regresses back to the dirt floor.

One’s hallways can take on many forms.

• Straight
• Crumbled
• Narrow
• Ornate

Ah yes…the traditional 3 x 3 straight path is a modular maker’s go-to tiles. Plan ahead and make them at various lengths so your lay-down options remain bountiful.

Remember to try and think outside the box with some crumbled passageways. This jagged path quickly raises the blood pressure of your table in a hurry with sporadic squares. For added fun, drop a cave-in at the end.

For elegance, Dwarven Forge is the hands-down winner – particularly with its Realm of the Ancients set. But don’t stop there. Step carefully down a Den of Evil hallway. Or, mind your toes down a perilous cavern.

Now if you want to spark a hobbyist debate, just ask a craftsman how high his hallway walls should be. The first will say 3 high and the next will say two. Ben typically goes with a 2 rows of blocks so everyone around the table can see the action from their keister. The best answer is probably – use a combination of heights for maximum effect.

Lastly, who are your permanent hallway residents? Certainly, a mixture of sand and stone flock is a good start. Assorted boulders and vines also have their place. Stalagmites and unusual rock formations also pay rent. Torches, statues, webs and archways have their place too.

Let’s conclude with a knowledge snippet. An immaculate, shiny hallway will always be trouble as its tenant is sure to slowly follow. Got it? Goooooood.

Questions to Ponder: What’s your favorite type of hallway? How do you determine marching order for the party? Do you like a lot of hallways in your dungeon or more of a dedicated path?

Make your own hallway | Watch our hallway vid on YouTube

Let’s start by a welcoming veteran tinkerer and innovater from Band of Misfits as this week’s guest author! If this RPG site isn’t part of your weekly read routine, you’re making a grave mistake. Take it away, Benoit.

Fire comes up a lot when you’re playing D&D. Whether it’s a fire elemental, magical fire damage, a terrain effect, or just a simple campfire, every good DM (and player!) needs ways to represent fire on the game mat.

If it’s elemental miniatures you’re looking for, almost any manufacturer of fantasy miniatures will carry fire elementals of all sizes. Aside from the D&D fire elementals, you might want to look at the Enraged Fire Spirit from WoW miniatures, as well as the Firelord from the Heroclix line and the Flame Harrower from Dreamblade miniatures. Of course, you can get unpainted minis from the likes of Reaper. Never painted a miniature before? Elementals are some of the easiest miniatures to paint, and a great way to get your feet wet. Keep reading; I’m going to give you an easy three step process for painting fire.

And what wizard is complete without some fire effects? There are many ways to demarcate a fire zone or wall on the battlemat, so there’s no need to resort to just drawing it on. If a wall of fire is your wizard’s thing, it would be hard to go wrong with Southpaw Design’s wall of fire template . Of course, for Swordmages, Gale Force Nine has the perfect wall for your flamewall strike. If you need to set up a zone, there are several options to choose from. You could go with Litko’s fire tokens, or Southpaw Design’s take on the same. We like these at the corners of a zone so miniatures can rest on top of them as necessary.

Is the tavern on fire in the middle of a brawl? No problem! Add a few of these to the map every round and lend a sense of urgency to the fight: Gale Force Nine makes explosion markers. You can also get raging fire markers
and the similar wall of fire markers from Litko.

What’s that you say? You want the DIY option? No problem. There are several mediums we like for this type of project. The first is simple crafting foam. The second is something called “Water Effects.” It’s a super thick glue (the consistency of whipped cream) that dries clear and takes paint very well.

First up, crafting foam. This stuff works great for fire walls and zone corners that you can lay flat. You can find it in the kid’s crafts section of your local craft store. It comes in many different colors, and runs less than 50 cents a sheet. You’ll want a sheet of red, and if you’re feeling adventurous, pick up a sheet of yellow too. The steps are simple.

• First, cut out two 1” squares, and make a slot halfway up the middle. It should be about 1/8” wide. These are the “feet.”
• Next, cut a rectangle for your wall. This piece’s size will depend upon your needs. I made one 4 inches long, and 3 inches high.
• Cut two notches at the bottom of the rectangle, ½” from the edge and ½” deep.
• Now, get creative! Cut flames into the top part of the foam.
• Finally, if you picked up the yellow foam too, cut a smaller piece of that to fit between the notches. Cut flames in that, and glue it to the red piece.

It stores flat, and to use it, all you have to do is slide the “feet” into the wall, and stand it up. I will also note that crafting foam isn’t your only choice of material. You could use cardboard, corrugated cardboard, card stock, or even two pieces of construction paper glued together (for extra weight and durability).

Ready for the next project? Get out your water effects. If you don’t have any water effects, you should get some! We’re always finding (and blogging about) new uses for the stuff.

• First, make a little pile of water effects a little less than an inch at the base. It should look something like the ice cream on a soft serve cone.
• Now, take a toothpick or bent paperclip, and “spike” the water effects out to make licks of flame.
• Let that dry for a couple of days. It doesn’t have to dry all the way through before you paint it, it just needs to be dry enough.
• It’s ready to paint!

Want to know how to paint fire? Fire is actually really easy to paint. You need a simple three layers of color, and a paintbrush. Notice that “a steady hand” is NOT one of the prerequisites.

• First, paint the entire model yellow. All of it. Yellow.
• Next, paint it red. Not all of it, just about half coverage this time. The higher areas should be all red, and the deeper areas should still be yellow. The middle areas should be some red and some yellow. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect. Mine certainly isn’t.
• Finally, the orange. This is a highlight color, so you’re only aiming for the highest ridges on the model this time. If you know how to drybrush, you can use that technique, or you could carefully paint the orange on along the ridges. Either way works fine.

These little guys are quite versatile. They could stand in as a fire elemental, act as terrain hazard, or even mark zones and walls. Heck, use one for your shaman elemental spirit companion!

Before I go, I need to mention one last piece. The campfire. Yes, it’s not strictly necessary. But it is fun. Chop up a small dowel, drop some glue on it to stick the pieces together. Squirt some water effects on top and spike it out using the techniques above. Paint it, add some folded index cards and voila! A campsite! Your players will begin to get nervous about a midnight combat. Heck, they may even set up actual watches!

So we’re curious. How do you show fire in your game?

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Can Ben pull something from his RPG Pile that represents every letter of the alphabet? Well, of course he can…otherwise, it’s not that much of a conglomeration of D&D goodness now is it?

Let’s start with the inspiration for this new dog days of summer posting series. Ben initially caught a Twitter post article by Dungeon Briefs. It turns out the author was participating in an A to Z blogging challenge. On top of that, Ben stumbled upon a great book: The Dungeon Alphabet by Michael Curtis. Destiny had clearly forced his hand.

To honor that delightful book (which is filled with all sorts of fun, randomized charts), Ben will kick this series off with the Letter A for “Altars”. They’re common dungeon dÈcor and always seem to spice up a D&D encounter quite nicely.

The altar stymied Ben’s creativity at first but he got progressively better at it thanks to some different Hirst Arts block combinations:

• Altar 1: A single block with a bloodstain cross.
• Altar 2: Two blocks for a wider top.
• Altar 3: Let’s try some rounded corners.

Of course, Mage Knight has a great altar (complete with chains) from its Artifacts 2 set. Ben used this piece in the recent Arc of Souls Phoenix Comicon 2011 adventure.

And if you want to go King-Kong-style, you can always reach for an upright altar, Miniature Building Authority made a really great piece that works in the jungle or within the depths of a dungeon.

So the first entry in this 26-part-RPG-accessory-salute starts with A which for Ben stands for Altar. And coincidentally also stands for Amen as in praise the gods for D&D!

Questions to Ponder: Can Ben get an Amen from the RPG congregation? What would A stand for in your D&D collection? Got any fun altar snippets to share

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