Making stuff for the Dungeon

Hi, everyone. I'm starting a series of posts about making things for our Dungeons. We have a couple of nice Hirst Arts layouts, and we have some Dwarven Forge Game Tiles coming from their recent wildly successful KickStarter.

 I'll also include some things we've bought instead of scratch-built, with a source in case you decide to buy them, too. A lot of it is stuff made using Hirst Arts molds, some are totally scratch-built or made from custom molds or a combination of sources.

Here's the first little article on torches.

I have a few Dwarven Forge Torches. They are part of one of the Accessory Packs. Very nice. Pre-painted, they are ready to go right out of the package.

I also have Hirst Arts torches I made using one of his many excellent tutorials. I just made one small modification, as you can see. I added a bead to act as a frame for the torch.

This latest project was to make some nice looking torches cheaply, similar to the Hirst Arts project, but not using any HA components.

Here's what you'll need.

Some likely looking beads. I initially was going to use these beads for a variant for the torch top but decided they'd be better for part of the base of the torch stand. The beads came from Hobby Lobby.

These nice filigree beads will be used for a basket for the torch top to hold the flames. Hobby Lobby

Toothpicks or cocktail sticks

These are little 1/2" circular magnets. These will be the bottom part of the base and will help make the torches more stable and less likely to fall over if someone bumps the table. Hobby Lobby

Q-tips. The cotton heads are used to make the flames for the torches.

Here's one of the toothpicks cut down and trimmed, inserted into a base bead, and superglued in place.

The basket for the flame has been added and superglued in place.

A bunch of the torches have had a magnet attached to the bottom and all have been spray painted black.

While the black spray paint was drying, the flames were made using the Q-tips. I made mine slightly differently from the HA tutorial. I teased most of the cotton from the Q-tip, then shaped it into a point. Then I dipped them into a 50-50 mixture of PVA glue and water, allowing them to dry and harden. When dry I dipped them into yellow craft paint and allowed them to dry. Once that was dry I dipped them into some red craft paint. I then went back over them, making the red and yellow juncture a little irregular.

 The flames have been cut off of the Q-tips and glued into place in the baskets.

The finished product.

Here's a 28mm D&D Orc Archer from the Wrath of Ashardalon boardgame to show torch sizes.

Here's some of the torches in one of the dungeon rooms.

Well, there it is. A fun and quick project that can yield some nice items for your dungeons. I went with gold for the color of these torch stands, but you can of course use a black or a silver for a completely different look, or use different beads for a different style. These torch stands are a little ornate, different colors and beads will give a completely different look. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little article. If you make some of these I'd love to see them.