As always guys I love to hear your thoughts and ideas on the video! What did you like about it? What would you change? Is there anything there that you didn't realise or might steal?


RESIN USE TIPS:

Tools and maths:
• if possible mix your resin in a plastic cup or bowl with a plastic spoon - using non-porous materials helps avoid contaminating the resin or adding additional bubbles. Mixing it in a wide container helps any bubbles have a shorter trip to the surface. I didn't manage this, as I couldn't find disposable versions of these things anymore (possibly due to environmental concerns) so I used plastic pint glasses and wooden tongue depressors (often used for waxing!)
• You want to mix in a warm environment - check your resin's description when you buy it, it should have a ideal use temperature listed. Mine was 20 degrees C, so actually slightly cooler than room temp. This is important because if you overheat a cooler curing resin, it can get a skin which then mixes into the resin and makes it very messy…as I discovered! It can also develop this skin if you leave it to stand for too long once mixed, so keep stirring whenever you can 🙂
• On a related note, make sure the resin and the tile are a similar temperature. Store your tiles in the same warm room for a few hours beforehand, and keep them in there, rather than transferring from a colder room, particularly a garage!
• You can follow my trick in the video to pour the resin into one cup, and the hardener into the other, and then add the hardener to the resin (it flows easier). I add a fraction more to the hardener as a tiny amount is always a tiny bit left in the cup.
• To find the right ratio for the amount you want, take the amount (like 250ml), and divide by the total added ratio of the epoxy and hardener. My resin said to mix 100ml of resin with 45ml hardener, so my total was 145ml.
That's 250 divided by 145 if you're with me so far (use a calculator, I did!)
Then multiply the result by 100 to get the epoxy needed (172ml), and by 45 (77ml) to get the hardener needed. Obviously 1:1 mixes are easier, but more imbalanced mixtures like this are often cheaper.

Mixing:
• When pouring the resin out, either measuring or mixing together I pour both like you would pour a beer or fizzy drink, along the side of the cup at an angle. This avoids making a ton of unneeded bubbles by pouring directly into the liquid.
• I also make sure I always pour it along the same side of the cup I used to pour it in at an angle originally. This makes sure only one side of the cup is 'messy' with wet resin, and makes adding colour easier later as you can access it without getting resin everywhere.
• Stir gently in a figure 8 for 3 minutes, mainly sticking to the edges and avoiding whipping them quickly like you were mixing something for food. For a similar reason, don’t remove the tongue depressor while stirring until done if possible, though it can help to move it up and down a bit to get the hardener to the bottom.
• I found stirring with the cup at a 45 degree angle maximised the surface area of the resin, made it mix more easily and with less bubbles, as they could more easily float up and pop.

Ink tinting:
• As I mentioned earlier, don’t leave the resin to stand after stirring, it will develop a skin! Make sure you're ready to add your ink as soon as the stirring is done, and give it a quick stir if adding the ink takes a while. Its not a rush, but it is important to keep stirring 🙂
• Mix your ink in, using roughly the same ratio and amount for each batch, and measuring the colour against a small test pour you can mix up first to make sure you're happy with the colour.

Pouring:
• When pouring resin, err on the side of pouring too little rather than too much. Too little you can easily correct by taping up the edges with masking tape and pouring on another thin layer, pushing it around with a cocktail stick or tongue depressor. Of you add too much, your only option is sanding it down very smooth, then re-applying - which I have not tried personally…
• Pour the main layers in two stages helps get even less bubbles, but isn't crucial. My tests I did as one solid layer, but they got more bubbles. I poured about half the height, then the rest 6 hours later.
• Wait for most bubbles to rise to the surface, and apply gentle heat with the torch. The aim is to gently approach the resin and pull away as soon as bubbles pop. It's also a good idea to give it 30 seconds or so between every few torch blasts to let the resin cool and not get too hot. [alternative methods include breathing on it or using a spray of iso, but neither are anywhere NEAR as effective.]

WATER RIPPLE TIPS:
• When applying the edges will likely end up thinner than the middle, and will gel up faster whether thick or thin. Think of it like drying sauce on a plate, the edges will dry first.
• Add some extra along the edges once you've waited for it to partially cure to give you more to play with.
• Or you can add more to the edges once the rest is cured, it doesn’t really matter.
• 10 minutes to gel up at thin edges, 20-30 minutes to cure for thicker middle, more the bigger the tile.
• Edges will cure faster even if thicker, so apply for 20 mins, then dab the edges repeatedly
• Basically this means apply to one 6" tile, two 6x3 tiles, four 3x3 tiles, etc before going back to the first to start dabbing.
• Banks are about half water on the tile, so a 6x3 bank is equivalent to a 3x3 tile. Corners are more of a case of 'best guess' 😄

WAYS TO USE LESS RESIN:
• You can use the second shallow sloped edge template with a more gentle decline at the bottom, and rely on the undershading with ink to add depth. Does mean you can't add fish, and the shallow depth is more obvious when you look up close.
• If using this shallow template, you want the waterline to be 7/8" from the bottom of the tile, rather than 1 and 1/4".
• You also want the deep tiles to be 3/4" thick, with the 1/8" thin layers of resin bringing that up to 7/8" to match.

• Or you can use the third version with no resin at all, the flat bottomed sloped edge template (which is pretty much just the bank) and don't use depth materials (resin) at all, simply paint or use the toilet paper technique for your water.
• If you do this you want your deep tiles to be 7/8" high from the start, to match the flat template.

• If you want to save resin elsewhere, you can make the deep tiles 1 and 7/16" high (or 7/8" high if using with the shallow template banks) from foam, and paint with a thick layer of gloss mod podge and black paint mixed. Using the water ripples over this should disguise the fake depth well enough at a distance.  

• Islands can be far shallower, and just use brown paint under the water to fake the depth. If using the standard deep banks, you could make them on 1" foam instead, or if using the shallow banks, just lower the waterline and island 1/2" to match. If using the no resin version, you can build them straight 'on' the water!

WAYS TO USE OTHER MATERIALS:
• If you want to use NO resin, but still want some transparency, you could use multiple smooth layers of gloss mod podge, BUT beware. This will hide bubbles in it, and take even longer to cure than the resin (like, a WEEK). It’s also impossible to know if you got your colour tints the way you want them until days later when it cures. The mod podge itself can also discolour and tint the layers beneath an orange colour if used too thick at once, I found. This method will also not give a smooth edge to the tiles like resin, and will show layer lines from the sides, as well as shrinking, so the tiles wont quite line up. This effect is worse the thicker you go.
• For cheaper ripples, I tried a few options. One is to use liquitex gloss medium instead, which is 1/4 the price but it ended up drying white when used thickly as ripples. I also tried mixing it with mod podge, but this ended up full of bubbles AND drying white…
• You could use clearfix as detailed by Luke over at geekgaming here (https://youtu.be/uWRRs8-ytrU), though this method is far slower, more bubbly, and hard to do outside the UK/Europe as brands other than clearfix tend to dry foggy, which I can attest to from my own experiments.
• Your other option is pure gloss mod podge, though it's not a gel, which means although you can make it ripple a TINY bit, it will self level more, and once 'curing' it will skin over unlike the gel, which means you cant just dab it until it's the way you like. It's also harder to spot bubbles, because it's white until cured.  If using mod podge I'd recommend using an airbrush or straw to blow it around in random directions, something a ton of creators have shown before - though without the taller ripples the tiles wont blend together as smoothly, and will look weirdly calm on a coast. So that's just a choice of cost vs quality - crafter's preference 🙂
• IF you don’t care about transparency, you could use other traditional water methods like toilet paper to show the water areas over pure foam, as shown by Marklinofsweden some years ago (https://youtu.be/2TwpB7sVMn8). I've included a free side template for that too :) The tile system will still work as intended, and it'll be VERY cheap! You could even make it cheaper by using card tab connections instead of magnets like I show in my early videos - check out my recent getting started video for more on things like this (https://youtu.be/iwT5fy3nBPQ)

If you DO end up using the more gentle bank edge, shallower/no islands and full foam deep tiles, or use toilet paper or not transparent methods, you can make all water tiles 1/2" less thick (already mentioned above). The thickness was to allow for depth, without it you can just save on foam and make them thinner!

More in the replies below!

I am not ashamed at all to admit I would be PROUD to get walked in on by anyone playing around with that stuff by myself, no dice, no rules, making little fwisshhhh and trhip noises as enemies engaged...absolutely amazing stuff here :)

Never underestimate the importance of details that aren't immediately visible.
When people work out that you put them in, they actually go looking for them in your terrain pieces.
Sunken crowns FTW!!!

"Everyone should be able to make things, regardless of your budget."
That's the most Bob Ross line I've ever heard from a Youtuber :-)

I'm impressed, not just by the craftsmanship, but by the effort gone into the cinematography/presentation of the guide. Well done!

I would seriously love to see a demo video of these tiles being used in one of your D&D campaign. I'm imagining how as players walk through different spaces, the DM is just reshuffling & adding new tiles

I bought a proxxon because of your videos and am having just the time of my life crafting alongside them. Just amazing work. You’re a total madman but please keep ‘em coming.

I have to say RP Archive, your system really seems like the one that just works.
Its not perfect, some pieces really have that "LEGO" blocky texture (but that could be a pro or a con to some) but gosh that showcase from 0:25 to  1:02 just sold me on this. Nothing else I've seen just looks so naturally like a river and not just a "map" of a river on top, or a tile just with water texture on it. These really smoothly blend together and offer a lot flexibility.

If I ever get to play in person again I'm definitely making this system

you literally have some of the best videos on YouTube

00:54 Transformers mentioned, absolute peak

You’re definitely the best terrain builder on YouTube

you're a wizard, Harry.

I love all the small details in the water. Fish, skeletons, the crown!
You should make one river block with two halflings fishing from a wash basin and place a small gold ring on the river bed. ; )

If Harry Potter was a muggle dad…Daniel dadcliffe if you will!

These look great! Lol

I've been GMing for a decade and a half, most of it online. This makes me really want to start working on tiles for in person... what a fantastic video immediately subbed.

Every video of yours inspires me to do things I don't have the time or tools to do.

Perfect for D&D

Absolutely amazing
For me you are by far number one in making gaming tiles.
Thank you for your work, you are a big inspiration.

"May the force be w/ you Harry." - Gandalf

God damn it, your voice is so relaxing