Make a texture roller to add stone textures to tabletop terrain in seconds!

Make a texture roller to add stone textures to tabletop terrain in seconds!

When crafting tabletop terrain, most of us need stone texturing. It comes with the teritory when making tabletop terrain of almost any kind. That's why it should come as no surprise that it's the first texture you'll create when making the core TERRAINO pieces in the TERRAINO Dungeon Basics Manual and it's used extensively in the TERRAINO Castles & Catacombs Manual as well. That's why it's been my goal to find a faster and less hard-on-your-hands method to apply. 

Make quick work of adding texture to TERRAINO tabletop terrain grid tiles

Make quick work of adding texture to TERRAINO grid tiles.

The tried and true method to doing a stone texture is the foil ball - roll up a ball of tin foil and rub it onto the foam surface. While it's a great solution, it oftentimes can get tedious if you are doing a lot of texturing. A newer approach is to use premade, plastic texture rollers. While these look great, they are a bit on the expensive side and they don't have handles like the texture roller we'll be making. This means that all the stress of rolling the roller itself and applying pressure on the roller is more difficult which leads to slower application of the texture and more stress on your hands.

Stone textures are the basis of so many textures used in TERRAINO tabletop terrain pieces

Combine the stone texture with some added pencil-drawn details to make all these textures.

Instead, I've been using a foil roller that I've made from a rolling pin, some hot glue and tin foil. It's super fast to make stone textures and is now my go-to solution. 

Check out the video above for a quick tutorial. Just crumble up the tin foil and then spread it out so it still has bumps and ridges. Fill in one side of the foil with hot glue. This will fill in those bumps and ridges, ensuring that the stay in place. Once the hot glue on the foil has dried, add hot glue to the rolling pin. Then, roll on the tin foil with the hot glue side down. Once it's dry, trim off excess tin foil, add hot glue under any sections of the foil that are still loose and you'll have a texture roller ready to go!

A simple stone texture and some paint is all you need to make a great looking TERRAINO tabletop terrain setup.

I hope you'll make one of these for yourself. If you end up making one, it comes in super handy for making the TERRAINO pieces in the TERRAINO Dungeon Basics Bundle as well as other tabletop terrain.

Have you tried this texture roller? If so, how'd you like it? Do you have another suggestion for quick texturing? Leave a comment below!  

Happy Crafting!

Jake

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