2
Materials Bench
What to buy once, and what to stop buying
Home-improvement XPS (pink or blue insulation) is the Dwarven Forge analogue. Foamcore and cardboard are the prototype analogue. Acrylic craft paint is enough. You do not need an airbrush. You do need a metal ruler.
| Item | Why | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| XPS foam ½ in and 1 in | Floors and walls. Scores like stone. | Expanded polystyrene beads (white picnic foam) — shreds, hates paint. |
| Foamcore | Quick floors, house mats backing. | Dollar-store easy-peel boards if the paper lifts. |
| Corrugated cardboard | First tiles this weekend. | Single-wall pizza box for load-bearing walls. |
| PVA / Mod Podge | Seal foam before any spray. Glue flock. | Hot glue as the only structural joint on walls you will handle for a year. |
| Craft knife + 100 blades | Clean cuts. Change blades early. | Scissors on foam. They chew. |
| Hot wire (optional) | Smooth long cuts, ventilation required. | Indoor, no window, no mask. |
| Black acrylic + PVA mix | Primer that does not melt foam. | Rattle-can primer on raw XPS. |
| Burnt umber, 2 grays, ivory | The whole dungeon. | Twenty fantasy pots you will not finish. |
| Flock / static grass | Cracks and yards. | Model railroad ballast on every tile — it sheds into dice. |
| 5 mm LEDs, coin cells | Lanterns and the Beacon. | Addressable strips as a rules dependency. |
| Rare-earth magnets, captive | Walls and the wand token. | Loose N52 pucks on a table with phones and fingers. |