Making XPS Foam Bricks the EASY Way! TERRAIN BUILDING! 

Do you have a better way? I have a hard time believing it get's any simpler than this technique but I'd be happy to be proven wrong! I forgot to mention the method of just crushing and moving them in your hands. That also works for small batches, but it rarely gives me as much of an effect as I'd like. PS: After some searching it was a TCG member named James Mikulski that posted this idea. Thanks James! PROXXON HOTWIRE CUTTER (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases) (USA) amzn.to/2lVNvEM (Canada) amzn.to/2pWazXF GUIDER PRO FROM www.shiftinglands.com

James Mikulski. I was the one who posted in tabletop crafters guild

I really like that it textures all sides of the bricks. I got about halfway through my tower before I realized I wasn't paying attention and had more than half of my bricks on backwards.

After filing down hundreds upon hundreds of brick edges I am over it. Definitely going to do this tomorrow!

Thanks for the easy tutorial!

No fucking way!!!! This IS a game changer! Thank you for sharing this and kudos to the person who came up with it! *still shaking head at how ridiculously simple this is*

Yeah - excellent technique

Another use for my hobby powred rock tumblers lol. I picked up a couple of the jewelry kids hobby tumblers over 2 decades ago from charity shops (goodwill/thrift for you USA folks) nice 1970s hobby versions. Guess I can use those to make nice foam bricks too as well as polish stones and pebbles :-)

I’m a complete noob to D&D crafting so forgive me for such a question, but what are you gluing the bricks to? Another piece of foam? My eyes see a 1/4” XPS board, but I don’t wanna mess this up...

A more advanced stone painting tutorial would be great! It would really help me out

Flippin' awesome. Home construction concluded if you had time to sit down and film some crafting?

I would really appreciate if someone would let me know the exact kind of foam I need for this!

whell if or when i get thay do mack mini bricks out clay but if cant get em this looks good to and fun to mack walls out mini me bricks to both will look good i think and might do both just see if match one nuther will see more

Can't I used me woodburning tool to add detail to the foarm

Managed to cut about a million bricks in one evening, such a cool technique and video!

Me: It's probably gonna need some specific equipment that I'm not gonna bu- Black Magic Craft: *R O C K S*

As a CNC Machinist, I can tell you that this is the same way that we deburr and round sharp corners off of small part like screws, bushings and other smaller sized pieces. All we do is put a bunch of the parts into a motorized tumbler with a grade of rocks (literally) and a little while later, presto.

I literally just finished making about a trillion bricks with the old technique... if only I had procrastinated...!

My parents got me a rock polisher / tumbler when I was a kid. I hope to God that they still have it.

Its a year later & I finally tried the tumbling method of making foam bricks - You have probable tried this, but, I added some acrylic paint & a little water, to the tumble can - I now have aged colored bricks - thanks for sharing this method.

I made a million bricks, and I just put them in a box with a big textured rock. Shook it for about 5 minutes, and it rounded all the edges nicely! I approve of this technique.

My daughter has a kids toy for polishing stones, basically a small toy mains power cement mixer, I'm totally stealing it for this!

I just recently started watching your channel and picked up some XPS foam today. Bricks for modular dungeon walls will be my first familiarizing project. I was a little intimidated by foam terrain. Your builds have convinced me to try it out. Thanks for all of the videos!

Your videos are helping new crafters years later. Great Channel. Thank you.

Really been enjoying your channel buddy. My brother and I just started building foam sets and your videos are Extremely helpful.

Another option is to use a heat gun or lightly spray a solvent. Edges naturally get beveled because they have more surface area exposed and the flat surface gets pitted and uneven as it melts. Not as simple up front, but gets good, fast results with some practice and you can see the effect as you go. You can also adjust your technique with finer/courser sprays, concentrated/dissolved solvent, higher/lower heat, distance, more/less time, etc for more diverse results.

Should sell little tiny skids of black magic brand bricks ^.^ little swag idea

I sat here before the video thinking: how? Brilliant technique. It made me think of a timesaver on the bricklaying end: you could try making 3-brick registers but you're only scoring/hand-drawing 2 mortar lines on each 3-brick strip. Do the bucket technique as normal with these strips, and these half-n-half registers could be for quickly building walls from the ground up... save your individual bricks for ends and accents. Either way these look perfect.

Another great video.And as i saw is James Mikulski's technique so well done to both of you ;)

Perhaps you could add a few sharper and harder objects like screws to the tumbler so that some bricks will be further damaged when taken out

I'm seriously thinking about buying a cheap rock tumbler from Harbor Freight because no matter how much I shake these bricks around, they just aren't getting enough texture.

What are you using for the back of these walls, is there a vid where you touch on this

I have to say this made it a lot easier. When I went outside to get rocks I realized living in a concrete jungle made it a bit more difficult to find actual rocks, however there were tons of broken concrete and pieces of mortar around. This was actually a boon. I grabbed them up and used them. They textured the bricks wonderfully, I may have had to shake the can a bit more but there was an added bonus. All of the mortar "rocks" start breaking up as did the concrete. I realized this was actually a good thing. After dumping out the can and picking the "rocks" up and putting them back in the can and putting the bricks in the container I use to hold textured bricks I was left with a mess where I dumped the can. I grabbed another container and swept it off of my work surface. The consistency of the mess was ideal for flocking ground on mini bases and around the walls. Sort of a two for one texturing method. Thanks for sharing this trick so much time saved.

Using a similar idea I also paint groups of blocks before using them, put a bit of water in a jar with some paint, throw in a handful of the foam bricks after doing the rock texture of course and shake them up with the paint, put them on a screen to dry. Do this with several hand fulls using different colors and you can use them pre-painted. Then I Mod Pog them with the clear Mod Pog, then Black Wash, and finally a spray of MinWax Poly.

"I tend to just gloss over that step and do the colors." Literally

Shit! I just made a batch of bricks and glued the first two layers. Which looks too square. Now if only I had found this video before I started...damn. P.S. I'm using my bricks for the idea of your Blood Fountain. So freaking rad, so I'm incorporating that idea into my build.

I know its an old video, but smash an old speaker magnet with a hammer and use a metal plate to retrive the texture "rocks" from the foam. Magnets are brittle but heavy. And use an all plastic coffee can, obviously.

That's literally how you polish a lot of materials (=take the edges off) like in dice production or finer materials like (for example) amber. The only difference is the size/grain of the added stuff beginning from smaller rocks and stones to sand to polishing paste with even finer grain. For example the huge cheap dice packs you can buy are the result of such a polishing process: a certain percentage is always overtumbled, which means the material got removed a bit more uneven, the edges are a bit more round than expected or the numbers aren't as visible as they should be anymore (that's just probability). This procedure however is the best possible solution to round the edges of materials in large scale (like foam bricks). You should also check the material to polish regularly to not overdo it.

Can you use lego's instead of 3/4" gravel?

Try screws. That way all you have to do after is use a magnet to separate them when you’re done. Might work.

Anyone know a good place for scale/sizes. Looking at starting terrain and minis and am not sure how big to make bricks etc. Probably mainly for 40k and frostgrave

Yes but I can’t afford a 100usd machine to cut xps… making these brinks by hand is a pain

Awesome will have to give it a go sometime. I Do it the ancient way which stands as a rite of passage for all model makers lol but whynot try something new!? Thanks man.😎

What are you attaching the bricks to as backing? Is it just another piece of foam or cardboard? Why do you attach the bricks to this backing? At first I thought it was a temporary backing but then noticed it’s still attached in the video where you paint this wall.

Get a brass tumbler for polishing brass for reloading shells/cartridges in gun reloading would work well for this . Run it while you go work on something else .

I finished my first dungeon tile a few moments ago! Thank you for every technique and tutorial you have, even though ive only made one tile, because of your videos i feel like a master at it!

Dude! I was thinking of this technique a couple of weeks ago when I was making two Dice Towers for some kids at our local game store. My thoughts were that the foam wouldn't stand up to the rocks...and therefore never tied. LESSON LEARNED! Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Thanks for this and all the other videos you do. You make this Canadian proud.

Hey just a quick idea don’t know if this would actually work take an old piece of metal Or a bit and rig it up so that it can attach to the can and then attach it to a drill you could even do this on both sides with two drills and then It’d be automated

Hello, super building idea, what dimensions did you make the stones?. LG

Get yourself a cheap rock tumbler so you don't have to stand there and shake the can for a while it'll work perfectly trust me

Is there a reasonable way to get the bricks made without a wire cutter? I do my craft work at my store and don't have room (or money) for a tool of that size.

Omg this is brilliant! I have a huge bag of bricks I've been filing down individually. Plastic container may keep down the noise. I do all my crafting after everyone is sleeping.

great idea!

I started to make dugeon tiles a few weeks ago and by now I have 2 9×9 4 4×4 9 3×3 and a couple small stokes and 3 dugeon stakers I used your video and it was easy tank you and keep doing what your doing

I was thinking about this technique I just needed proof of concept.

"Ive tried... just not bothering" - me when I didn't do the math homework

Brilliant. Would probably work to age 'stones'.

This is so awesome! We’re just now making your dice tower and this technique will come in so handy. Brilliant as usual!

you could pour that into a bucket of water and scoop out the foam and with a strainer.. should float and the rocks should sink.... drop the foam bits onto some paper and dry em off :)

Wow, that's ingenious! Thanks for sharing.

Do you have a video of the hot knife and guide thingy? That's pretty cool

Genius. love the ingenuity that your channel provides. Makes the grind of building maquettes less painful and more pleasurable. Styrofoam is so malleable.

What glue are you using for these bricks

Love this creation. Keep it up!

AWESOME.

Would pvc foam work the same way?

I watched this months ago. Just got around to making some bricks today. Cut like a 1000 of them. Put some in a container. Shook it around. Looked at them, took away the sharp edges but meh on the detail. Repeated, repeated repeated and was like wtf. Looked up this vid. Lol I forgot to get rocks with sharp edges.

Hey I've got a quick question for you. I'm just starting out with making things out of foam and I've really enjoyed your videos, my question is what do you do with the pieces of scrap that's left over from making bricks, do they get thrown out or uses for later projects. also what's the best /safest way to dispose of the scrap foam, I've asked other creators but no ones will answer.

I'm Brazilian and I love your videos, Brazil does not give much importance to the dnd, so searching the English content I found your channel, I watched 60% of all the videos and I'm wanting 100%, congratulations

Rock tumblers are a bit overkill, and most tumblers are too small for the volume of bricks. I ended up buying a 2 gallon plastic bucket from lowes and a $5 bag of lava rocks. Plastic for the noise factor, lava rocks as they are both lighter than traditional stones less likely to break the foam, and the texture seemed perfect. The texturing on 200 bricks was perfect in less than 5 min. Thanks for the inspiration, saved hours of sanding and foil texturing for about $10.

Just curious what kind of foam you are using ?

Bleeping Awesome! Thank you!

Absolutely, 1000%, PURE GENIUS!!!

Great simple to the point tutorial. Im a newbe to this craft. Im fascinated by it. Im in the, "watching tutorials" stage. If played around a little and im anxious to start a real project soon. I just need to gain a little more understanding of the craft. Im currently checking out this channel . loved this tutorial!. Good job!

what are you sticking the bricks to?

Are these brick dimensions appropriate for 25mm? I can't imagine it making too much of a difference, but I could be wrong.

Thanks for another great video. Not thanks for doing a video i was JUST about to make myself!! Lol. LOVE your channel

Not a better way but a time saver. Instead of picking them out by hand on your work mat or whatever surface. Put the rocks and the foam in a big pot. Fill with water, foam floats to surface, use a net or a colander to sift the foam out, and put them on a paper towel to dry. Then just drain the water from the pot using the same colander or net.

Oh this is huge for me! Possibly the best craft tip ever

Oh yeah I remember seeing this on the group page. Seems so obvious now that I see it work

Netherlands: dehoutboer.com/isolatie/styrodur.html

Stone tumbler might make it easier by automating it.

There is one even quicker method: Take a bunch of bricks in your hand and rub/roll all together between your hands like you are washing your hands.

The technique starts at 2:26

i would use a bingo-ball-like machine to turn a container around with a handle. Maybe even motorize it for convenience.

Can someone tell me where I can get the foam material online

Thanks my friend i will be using this .

Awesome technique! Can't wait to try it! And looking forward to that advanced brick painting video!!

Is there a good technique for making foam bricks if you don't own a hotwire foam cutter?

What can I use if I don’t have a hot wire

you could probably use a rock tumbler to do this as well. One of the slow rotating ones better for foam than the vibrating kind.

U should make a terrain book

Maybe a bit extreme rock tumbler?

Do you think It work on dungeon tiles and dungeon blocks?

Damn... I fell in love with your technic of making stones for walls and am building a castle because of that right now. Need a ton of stones of course and I'm halfway through... When the edges were to sharp (when I cut stones I needed for certain edges) I simply rolled them in my fingers, that softens the edges too. Now I will definetely try this out! Thanks for sharing. If you're interested I'll send you some pictures of the castle once its done :)

What type of foam did you use? I’m new to this stuff but I’m trying to get a start on it.

Hey BMC - you can make really cool rubble piles in the same manner. I've taken sawdust that I got for free from home depot and did a 1:1 mix with elmers glue in a paint bucket. This makes a quick "paper/sawdust" machete that is adhesive and dries hard. From there, you can toss a handful of these bricks into the mixture and shake it. The result looks like a pile of textured dirt and debris with bricks in it. It looks even better if you rip a few of the bricks apart. You can then take the coffee stirrers or even some thick gauged wire and poke it into the mixture at different angles. When everything dries, it looks like the perfect debris pile for a collapsed wall or roof. Is there any chance that you have a discord or place we can share videos and discuss stuff? I have a few cool techniques that' I've found on my own that I would love to share.

Awesome :)

What kind of foam you use?

Since you're going to the trouble to make individual bricks and lay walls, you might want to take a look at different patterns of bricks than the stretcher bond you're using here. See this page for instance: www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Types_of_brick_bonding Stretcher bond walls are fine for a decorative facing, but they're very structurally strong. To get a stronger wall, you need to run headers (bricks perpendicular to the stretchers) that connect the inner layer of the wall to the outer layer. (Or each layer to the layers inside and outside if you have more than 2 layers in your wall.) In addition to the improved (notional) strength, you can also get some very pretty patterns, especially if you paint some bricks as if the visible face were on the outside of the brick stack in the kiln. Those faces are typically much darker than faces on the inside of the stack, and the contrasts in colors can be quite striking. (And historical, since this technique was used extensively by real bricklayers.)