A boat. Probably a single masted longboat from popsicle sticks and hot glue. Some string or cord for rope hell even floss if you get desperate. Sail might be construct paper. Having the shields on sides is iconic. Prow figure could be a chopped up toy.
Wow, your message at the end about not losing motivation for what you haven't got really spoke to me, I constantly let it get me down how I can't afford Pretty much anything and I'm on the verge of being homeless, but doing modelling is the only thing that actually makes me happy yet I even let that get me down too because I couldn't afford models or whatever, but you've just proven that you don't need anything, just your imagination and passion. Thank you so much, you don't realise how much that statement has changed how I look at things, thank you very much, I hope you finally get all the recognition you deserve, you're fantastic
Medeocre Modeling: Hang in there. At times I feel badly because I can't afford to run and get new supplies and tools. I try to use what I have, even cardboard. I also feel badly at this point in my life because, though I am not homeless, I still have to work every day at a low paying job just to get my rent paid, and I am almost 60 years old. I am thankful I have a roof over my head, but I think I can relate to how you feel. Glad you are doing modeling and trying to stay happy. Take care of yourself.
@TheGreatDruid It doesn't have to get expensive. Watch more of this channel, and for some real budget builds, watch theDMscraft channel. Scotty does some great budget builds as well. Scotty's are usually the more budget friendly.
More Dollarama builds please!!!! I'm broke, and my local hobby store has a thin selection of minis to pick from, so getting decent looking minis on my table can be a real challenge.
Lot of channels out there for D&D crafting on the cheap here's some you might not know about. Landvaettr's Lair, Blandco, Warped Clips, Roll for Damage, 5header, Quassi's Bell Tower, Red Beard Baron, and Paeper Cuts to name a few it's fun finding them happy hunting.
Try out some flea markets (called swap meets or boot fairs in other parts of the world). Generally people sell figurines for more than one figure for a dollar.
Look on ebay for toy knight and fantasy play sets. I went through a phase where we were playing and bought a bunch of setts for around 9 dollars each. They came with orcs, elves, knights, barbarians, wizards, dragons. I also bought some pirate sets. Oh and zombie sets. Cheaper than buying one mini at a time for 3 through 5 dollars each. Look at Ross and stores like that for substitutes.
Second this, a set of tiles for a small modular dungeon built entirely of dollar store materials, perhaps in a vaguely Dwarven Forge style to make them different enough than your normal tiles.
@@Stratplayer05 seconded. Technically, there's a boardgame that has exactly this, but seeing how good the BMC is, I'm quite certain that his dungeon tiles would be to die for.
@@Stratplayer05 I was going to suggest just this but it looks like you beat me to it. The only problem I can see though is that even if you can source the materials it could still take a lot of effort to get the details in it. I'm thinking of maybe cutting up some plastic dishware and dremelling it or painting the details on it yourself. Maybe if you found some off-brand legos?
Lol, I thin your standards are too high. For someone like me, a broke ass college student moonlighting as a DM for friends, that green dragon looked badass.
@@williamfescemyer4739 TBH legos are kind of badass for DND. I have a bunch of armor/weapons from medievel-ly sets, and it was pretty sweet changing out items as I got new gear.
I run so many different skirmish sci-fi and fantasy games, that it would be very expensive to include all the 'spoilers' I need for the campaigns (e.g., monsters, NPCs, hordes, etc.). Buying pre-painted miniatures and toys, then touching up their pant jobs has been an extraordinary time and money saver for me. This was a GREAT tutorial!
1. Pour on baking soda 2. Blow off the excess 3. Pour some baking soda! Yes, makes much sense (XD sorry love you btw you have inspired me so much and helped me on many projects)
I noticed this too, and truthfully this is a symptom of why I am moving away from this channel. Editing mistakes might mean that the content isn't reviewed for detail. And I don't like the constant, 'I didn't have a lot of time for this.' That implies to me that the channel is a second thought, and I felt like the earlier videos were much more passionate and inspiring. To be fair, BMCs has inspired me to make modular terrain of many sorts, as wells as including details in my dungeon that I use to rely solely on theatre of the mind. For that reason, BMC has done a great job. The dollar store builds and quick builds are great too, but I'd love to see more passion and sharper editing. Maybe I have missed his true feelings and intentions, but it is the impression that I am getting. @BlackMagicCraft, please show us some larger projects that might go across a few episodes.
This video took about 25 hours to edit. I uploaded it 4 times and and kept finding things I wanted to cut or change so I re-edited and reuploaded after the changes. Time constraints during build are out of my control as I give all the time I can to the channel (usually about 50 hours a week) but most of it has to go to editing and the other facets of running a channel. This one in particular the build was done during a busy family filled holiday week. I don’t catch every error. I’m just one guy. It’s harder than you think to catch errors in your own speech. That’s why third parties edit authors work. I’ve dedicated my life to this channel and feel my quality is far higher than any D&D crafting channel. If that’s not good enough for you, it never will be. I’m not perfect. So long.
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial And I guess I will go. Don't try to improve though. Just keep saying that you dedicate yourself. I for my part will leave the conversation to others. I was expressing my opinion. A business knows how to take that on and ignore or move forward. Don't let haters under your skin. In cases like this, I am not going to silence my opinion because you are offended by it.
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial It made me chuckle :) Don't take that guy personally, you'll make 10 fans for everyone who is quitting 'cause of mistakes. I liked it, even though I'm more of a fan of the foamworks. I recently finished my first projects, pillars and dungeon stackers, all because of your inspirational work! Keep up the good work! (I don't know if you took it personally, but your comment seemed a bit salty to me)
Wasn’t meant to be salty. Just giving my perspective. I know that no matter what I do it won’t be good enough for some. Everyone expects something different from me and those expectations contradict each other. I can’t make content people don’t complain about, and that’s ok because that’s the way it is. I just want to offer my perspective as I think it’s very easy to judge. I feel I am always improving. Again if it’s not good enough for someone then so be it. One negative comment doesn’t negate the hundreds of loving and thankful ones.
I love this video, and I have a suggestion for a follow up. Similar to your recent tree series, I would love to see you do this challenge again, with the dollar store mini, but now using all the tools in your arsenal to paint and refine it. A lot of us have great base tools, but still make liberal use of dollar store goods. Seeing you use your paints, washes, milliput/greenstuff and texture paints would be an awesome comparison. And heck, you could even do the same thing a third time with a sweet real dragon mini (like a Reaper or WizKids mini). I would love to see a side-by-side comparison of what is possible given different materials!
I came here to suggest this. Even if you cannot find the exact dragon, you can get something similar. I didn't like the shape of the nose on this one anyway. :p
So I have 7 boys , growing them up was never inexpensive ! And being the thrifty crafter I am I became passionate about reusing everything and I couldntb afford a trip to the craft store.. and live in a small town w very limited resources .. so now as my boys are grown i have started crafting miniatures and the everyday things we throw away have brought joy to several people along their way ! So I agreed w you ! Dnt let lack of "things limit you! . . your never out of crafting supplies!! Lol thank u for your show i have subscribed and hope I enjoy all your shows as much !!
I absolutely love this. My wife got me a really nice red dragon mini for Christmas and I am terrified of painting it badly. You gave me a great idea of buying some cheap crap from the dollar store and practicing and refining my technique. That way when I get around to painting the really nice miniature I'll know what I'm doing and do a great job. I of course will use quality paints and only skimp on the miniature but it'll allow me to practice and play around without worrying about ruining expensive miniature.
Check out Vince Venturella channel on all kinds of painting tips and techniques think you'll enjoy his channel always seems to have a video on just what type of thing you're painting.
Check out Vince Venturella channel on all kinds of painting tips and techniques think you'll enjoy his channel always seems to have a video on just what type of thing you're painting.
That last shot is where the dragon is thinking"if you break open the hard shell,something tasty is inside." I thought your green dragon looked really good,would put it on my battle-map any day.
"Imagine Dragons" called and their going to sue jist because "Dragon" is in the name. Update......"Steele Dragon" called, "Imagine Dragons" are hanging from the rafters by their testicles from their last gig. They sent a message by the way, "Dear Dollar Store Dragon, stay metal brothers!"
You're quickly becoming my new favorite channel! As a DM my party has not used miniatures yet, mostly due to cost. Ideas like this let me think of ways to get them started with miniatures without worrying about the price as much! Thank you!!
You can get big packs of skeletons and army men at the dollar store near me. There the correct size too quality is poor but they do great especially if you paint them. I would pick up some of them to use.
My dad usually said “cheap, fast .... and nasty”! I love this idea tho... I’m on a pension but have grown sons who can be hard to buy for. They do like dungeons and dragons tho, and I like creating! So! Challenge will be trialled here downunder! Thank you for sharing. 🌹Rosie of Oz 🇦🇺
Great video as always. When the black paint-mod podge mix dried on the model it looked so cool, i would probably just dry brush grey and ivory to make it an ASH DRAGON! :D
Nice work, I once found some really good castle minis at dollar store ( I think they were for a fish tank) carefully painted and flocked with some green moss they looked great. Glad I found your channel, keep up the good work!
This was the first DND crafting video I EVER watched, and its so ironic to see the thumbnail updated expressing disappointment. Even if you weren't pleased with the final result, this video undoubtedly changed my life when it showed up in my recommendations, as I now have 4 years of crafting experience to thank for the rabbit hole your channel sent me down. Thank you for everything you do, for your constant creativity, for the knowledge you impart, and for showing the moments when you "fail", because this dragon mini "fail" was the catalyst for what is now one of my favorite hobbies.
Love the video, you did really well adjusting to the constraints. For decent and cheap mdf material, Dollar tree sells clipboards that are easy enough to cut with hand tools (and something like a bandsaw obviously). HD/Lowe's/Walmart also sell $1 flat black spray paint which kind of fits the spirit of the challenge at least.
These videos are so fun. After watching a few I went into my classroom and started chopping up foam that had been sitting around for ages. Now I have kids coming in and wanting to make walls, castles and stuff.
If you painted him to look like a brownie or chocolate chip you could have the party defeat him by eating his legs off. Just kidding that is a great idea could make him a jade or turquoise dragon. Marble or granite or a gem dragon sapphire ruby or emerald be cool too.
@@AlexBabcock-hw9iz I'd try something similar to Fwoosh, where he used Rust-Oleum accent stone spray. They even have a kind of interesting looking green that while not jade looks like mossy rock.
I've just come back to my country from Toronto, ON, and found there a Dollarama on Yonge where I bought a dragon toy I was going to give my nephew as a cool souvenir, but seeing this, I think I could do something even better for him. Thanks a lot!
I love your message at the end, its something that I say all the time. in my case, its because I'm cheap and enjoy the challenge of not buying stuff. One of my favorite thing that I did was these Dollar General miniature skeletons. They come in a pack and are rather generic and cheap looking. I used the heat gun to move them and did some dry brushing. Really turned out cool. If you would like, I could send you a link. Some You Tubers are funny about links on their comments because of people trying to self promote.
I think he's great . I live on a fixed income. But watching your videos I've started building stuff from basic trash. And dollar store stuff. Makes me happy. Thank you. Stay well.
Still looks better than anything I could make. I learned cool tricks even in this craft project, like the baking soda with super glue. I have to use cheap and fast techniques all the time, so I appreciate this type of video.
Loved it! I would love to see Dollarama builds become a regular thing, but I don't think you need to limit yourself to a speed build. Thought it turned out great, and would love to see more like this! I totally just got a cart/ wagon from my local dollar store, would be cool to see something like that upgraded.
An alternative to your repositioning the head would be to make a base and have the dragon climbing over some rocks or something. Still might require some repositioning of stuff.
Dollarama huraa!!! I love these raw style of videos, they're the best. Don't disparage about the mini. As soon as you go online to look at the price of a dragon mini it will look a WHOLE LOT better, besides, It actually came out really nice.
I feel like this was a really nice tutorial for people who are just getting into the hobby or not ready to commit to getting lots of materials for miniatures.
From back when I was a little child, in the late 80's, I remember packs of cheap plastic dinosaurs that, for some reason, also had minitures of what I now know are 1st ed. Bulettes and Rust Monsters in them. And I still occasionally see those same toys at dollar stores and markets to this day.
No matter how it turns out at the end of the day you made something! Even when a project doesn’t turn out the way I wanted I still feel proud that I stuck with it and at the very least I learned something!
Love this video so much. From the Christmas ornament soap dispenser to the "wait why am I doing this?!" moment, and the final result. It was great fun, very informative and inspiring! Thanks for all your work!
I smoke and collect vintage pipes, mostly from estate sales, so I do a lot of my own repairs. When I need to put a fresh stem on, I boil it to make it soft enough to bend it into whatever shape I need. Instead of cutting off the head, I think you could have boiled the dragon's neck and head until it was soft enough to bend it. It'll then harden in the new position.
After watching this video I took a trip to the dollar store, got tow dinosaurs and made d&d mounts. I used all you've taught me and they turned out great. Thanks dude!!
I gotta bring back my Cheap Miniature Challenge format to my channel. I was dumb and renamed it because nobody was able to promote them on reddit because "challenge" was a keyword that certain mods used to automatically delete videos from certain subreddits. Now nobody even tries to share my videos on reddit so why not bring back that good good series.
This is really great, especially since my partner and I are working on getting his six year old nephew into d&d, so this is the type of craft that would be amazing for someone his age to start learning.
Thanks so much for this video, dude. Has been a real inspiration, indeed. I play D&D not as often as I'd like, so investing in a lot of not-so-cheap materials to create such wonderful things is always such a pain for me because I end up not buying or building anything. I want to create these things for my players to enjoy and also for my DM (When I am a PC), but have been put off from it because of how infrequent our games are. But, watching this video does show a whole lot can be done with very little. If you can take a toy like that and turn it into something awesome, and choosing to do it fast! I can only imagine what it would look like if you took your time and went the "Cheap and Good" route instead of the "Cheap and fast", one. Thank you a lot for this and great video.
Wath if you got one more of that dragon and put some time in to it. Or next time you get two of the same thing, speed build the first one and put some time in to the other one.
Walmart might be a decent place to look for things too. Oh that’s actually super helpful to know that you need to wash it. This reminds me a lot of watching people make one of a kind/repainted dolls.
Hi I'm late to the game. I'm just getting into minarure painting. I absolutely love this. I saw so many videos where people are like you can only use citadel paints. So the fact you were able to make something decent (at least in my eyes) out of inexpensive supplies was inspirational. So thank you
Great vid. The group I DM for have an ebony fly statue which turns into a mount. I found a large plastic fly at the dollar store and did something similar. Even going so far as to create a "leather" saddle out of foam with a small ring on top so their mini would fit snuggly in. When they used the statue in game I put the fly mount on the table and their reaction was priceless.
I absolutely love ... love ... LOVE the "glue soldering" technique, ever since first seeing it in your snow golem build. I've seen a lot of sculptors and toy custom modders use this method since and it's just brilliant. Thanks for shedding light on this! Also, can't voice for folks in other cities/states, but the Dollar General stores down here in Florida are actually surprisingly good. I've gotten TONS of craft supplies there. If any of y'all have one near you, worth checking out.
I love your videos, if they only consisted of these dollar store speed builds, you would still be one of my favorite UA-cam channels. This is absolutely inspiring, as someone who has some supplies but not all. It's great to see someone show that this hobby really is limited only by imagination and not buying power
I'm pretty new to miniatures and.. gotta say, I just used watered down paint as washes - but the soap makes perfect sense as an additive. That alone was made this video a hit for me! I'm also impressed at how "messy" you can be while painting and still get a nice textured look
I didn't know about this channel until I saw this video. You should definitely do a series. My 6 old is interested in tabletop RPGs and I'd like some more pointers on putting together cheap minis and terrain. I have a few things from when I used to play, but not enough.
I painted a picture for a friend with only things I got at the dollar store. Still one of my favorite paintings. You can do great things with cheap material.
I love the idea of using only cheaper materials and creating something awesome! I'd have to go for the £1 shop here and it definitely is full of a load of crap, sometimes you can find some hidden gems there though! The dragon turned out awesome, paint always helps a lot! :)
What you call a challenge is what I call regular day. Other than the miniatures themselves, I by everything from Dollorama for my builds. Like you said, it's not the highest quality, but on a budget, it really gets the job done.
The best things I have found at the dollar store for basing materials are clipboards! They can be cut up and beveled, similar to a cheaper MDF like material.
This is years old but I've recently found the channel so going through the catalog. Would be cool to see this come back, when on tour and I need something occupy the down time, matchsticks and glue is huge. So seeing other creations that use basic stuff is really neat as it's not always there's a workshop of gear nearby.
I just got into DND and as a starving student / mom of 2 I dont have a lot of extra cash for hobbies. It makes me happy to see I can get some stuff to play with my kids at the beginner level inexpensively. Also A great way to let the kids practice painting on figures that aren’t going to break the bank. I think if you took your time with the paint job you could’ve even made that Dragon look even more fierce. Regardless, I think you did a great job.
Get yourself some cheap 1" grid paper (or pull out some left over xmas wrappers as they often have that grid on the reverse, some markers, and some toy figures and you've got enough to have a great time. Everything else is just extra, but you really don't need it.
I know this isn’t your favorite build, but I was actually really inspired by how you pulled everything off. You should do more videos like this in the future, using only dollar store materials. I thought it turned out really well
Very creative! Dollar (or pound) shop stuff is actually great for practice and getting started, then you don't feel guilty wasting money if you mess up or lose interest in the hobby
i've bought spray paint from the pound shop before, i'll be honest it's meant more for automotive touch up but the grey primer i bought worked fine in a pinch :D This is a great video for demonstrating what can be achieved despite very common limitations of budget, it also allows people to practice without the confidence blow of ruining an expensive kit.
I like this idea, and it brings RPGs back to its roots. Gygax was using cheap toys for his monsters back in the beginning. One step to add next time is to clean up the mold lines with a hobby knife. Drybrushing makes them stand out.
I challenge you to build a decent looking piece of ruins scatter, one which includes a wall and foilage, from Dollar Store stuff! The Dollar stores are an outstanding starting point for craft materials. In fact, I was just at one of them the other day and brought home a lot of useful stuff. No dragons (but I already picked up a pack of cheesy toy dragons on Amazon for cheep), but I did score a couple bags of one of the more expensive-to-provide minis; toy horses that are close enough to scale. Also a couple packs of small wooden dowels that, with some light carving, will look great as terrain pieces for lumber or logs. And of course, plenty of hot glue sticks, Mod Podge, spray bottles, etc.
That shade of green with the yellow wash gives it a copper patina look, which probably wasn't what you were going for, but still works if you use it for a statue or sculpture on the table.
Would love another Dollar Store video! Maybe doing a hero mini with some more planning. I feel like a terrain video with Dollar Store materials might be impossible though.
Dollarama has Crafters Acrylic which is pretty decent. Dollar store near my home has spray paint but its hard to find primer. I think the dragon came out alright... nice job.
I really like this video a lot, and I think the dragon came out looking just fine, considering the source of it. I would love to see more projects along this line. Detailed projects are wonderful, but there is a lot to be said for showing how to get decent results on a limited budget and/or time schedule.
Dollar Store Challenge ideas! Give me a (reasonable) thing to build entirely from Dollar Store materials in a future video!
Cheap dinasour/dragon skeleton toys into ancient ruins kind of terrain. Or mix with other cheap human skeleton tools to form a giant bone golem.
Modifying familiars from toy bags from the dollar store.
Terrain pieces. Find a material to turn into your bricks for walls.
how about adapting a dinosaur toy to a monster build.
A boat. Probably a single masted longboat from popsicle sticks and hot glue. Some string or cord for rope hell even floss if you get desperate. Sail might be construct paper. Having the shields on sides is iconic. Prow figure could be a chopped up toy.
Wow, your message at the end about not losing motivation for what you haven't got really spoke to me, I constantly let it get me down how I can't afford Pretty much anything and I'm on the verge of being homeless, but doing modelling is the only thing that actually makes me happy yet I even let that get me down too because I couldn't afford models or whatever, but you've just proven that you don't need anything, just your imagination and passion. Thank you so much, you don't realise how much that statement has changed how I look at things, thank you very much, I hope you finally get all the recognition you deserve, you're fantastic
Medeocre Modeling: Hang in there. At times I feel badly because I can't afford to run and get new supplies and tools. I try to use what I have, even cardboard. I also feel badly at this point in my life because, though I am not homeless, I still have to work every day at a low paying job just to get my rent paid, and I am almost 60 years old. I am thankful I have a roof over my head, but I think I can relate to how you feel. Glad you are doing modeling and trying to stay happy. Take care of yourself.
I don't know why this video appeared in my feed, but now I want to learn miniature painting
@TheGreatDruid It doesn't have to get expensive. Watch more of this channel, and for some real budget builds, watch theDMscraft channel. Scotty does some great budget builds as well. Scotty's are usually the more budget friendly.
So three months down the line... have you started?
Grab some 50 cent acrylics from walmart, a cheap brush set, and a mini from a gaming store
me as well
So six months later now how much unpainted sprue have you accrued?
More Dollarama builds please!!!!
I'm broke, and my local hobby store has a thin selection of minis to pick from, so getting decent looking minis on my table can be a real challenge.
Lot of channels out there for D&D crafting on the cheap here's some you might not know about. Landvaettr's Lair, Blandco, Warped Clips, Roll for Damage, 5header, Quassi's Bell Tower, Red Beard Baron, and Paeper Cuts to name a few it's fun finding them happy hunting.
Try out some flea markets (called swap meets or boot fairs in other parts of the world). Generally people sell figurines for more than one figure for a dollar.
Look on ebay for toy knight and fantasy play sets. I went through a phase where we were playing and bought a bunch of setts for around 9 dollars each. They came with orcs, elves, knights, barbarians, wizards, dragons. I also bought some pirate sets. Oh and zombie sets. Cheaper than buying one mini at a time for 3 through 5 dollars each. Look at Ross and stores like that for substitutes.
Use medival toy soliders and paint them as you want they are cheap and comes in a big pack of 50-100 pcs for about 6 USD or less.
@@kornyish Good idea. I have done this before. They are getting harder to find since Toys r Us is out of buisness.
So you built a Dragon with the dollar store challenge, I think it's obvious that you need to build a Dungeon (and an ampersand).
Second this, a set of tiles for a small modular dungeon built entirely of dollar store materials, perhaps in a vaguely Dwarven Forge style to make them different enough than your normal tiles.
Build a dollar store with things from the dollar store
@@FrigginBoomToys dollarstoreception
@@Stratplayer05 seconded. Technically, there's a boardgame that has exactly this, but seeing how good the BMC is, I'm quite certain that his dungeon tiles would be to die for.
@@Stratplayer05 I was going to suggest just this but it looks like you beat me to it. The only problem I can see though is that even if you can source the materials it could still take a lot of effort to get the details in it. I'm thinking of maybe cutting up some plastic dishware and dremelling it or painting the details on it yourself. Maybe if you found some off-brand legos?
Lol, I thin your standards are too high. For someone like me, a broke ass college student moonlighting as a DM for friends, that green dragon looked badass.
Right? it looked old school as fuck!
Also lego Minifigures and stuff work really well if you like miniatures. One of my campaigns I played early on only used legos.
@@williamfescemyer4739 TBH legos are kind of badass for DND. I have a bunch of armor/weapons from medievel-ly sets, and it was pretty sweet changing out items as I got new gear.
Alright gotta be honest, this is one of my favorite video's you've done. Wouldn't mind seeing other stuff like this in the future
Thanks, that means a lot!
More!!!
I run so many different skirmish sci-fi and fantasy games, that it would be very expensive to include all the 'spoilers' I need for the campaigns (e.g., monsters, NPCs, hordes, etc.).
Buying pre-painted miniatures and toys, then touching up their pant jobs has been an extraordinary time and money saver for me.
This was a GREAT tutorial!
1. Pour on baking soda
2. Blow off the excess
3. Pour some baking soda!
Yes, makes much sense
(XD sorry love you btw you have inspired me so much and helped me on many projects)
I noticed this too, and truthfully this is a symptom of why I am moving away from this channel. Editing mistakes might mean that the content isn't reviewed for detail. And I don't like the constant, 'I didn't have a lot of time for this.' That implies to me that the channel is a second thought, and I felt like the earlier videos were much more passionate and inspiring.
To be fair, BMCs has inspired me to make modular terrain of many sorts, as wells as including details in my dungeon that I use to rely solely on theatre of the mind. For that reason, BMC has done a great job. The dollar store builds and quick builds are great too, but I'd love to see more passion and sharper editing.
Maybe I have missed his true feelings and intentions, but it is the impression that I am getting. @BlackMagicCraft, please show us some larger projects that might go across a few episodes.
This video took about 25 hours to edit. I uploaded it 4 times and and kept finding things I wanted to cut or change so I re-edited and reuploaded after the changes.
Time constraints during build are out of my control as I give all the time I can to the channel (usually about 50 hours a week) but most of it has to go to editing and the other facets of running a channel. This one in particular the build was done during a busy family filled holiday week.
I don’t catch every error. I’m just one guy. It’s harder than you think to catch errors in your own speech. That’s why third parties edit authors work.
I’ve dedicated my life to this channel and feel my quality is far higher than any D&D crafting channel.
If that’s not good enough for you, it never will be. I’m not perfect.
So long.
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial And I guess I will go. Don't try to improve though. Just keep saying that you dedicate yourself. I for my part will leave the conversation to others. I was expressing my opinion. A business knows how to take that on and ignore or move forward. Don't let haters under your skin. In cases like this, I am not going to silence my opinion because you are offended by it.
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial It made me chuckle :) Don't take that guy personally, you'll make 10 fans for everyone who is quitting 'cause of mistakes. I liked it, even though I'm more of a fan of the foamworks. I recently finished my first projects, pillars and dungeon stackers, all because of your inspirational work! Keep up the good work!
(I don't know if you took it personally, but your comment seemed a bit salty to me)
Wasn’t meant to be salty. Just giving my perspective. I know that no matter what I do it won’t be good enough for some. Everyone expects something different from me and those expectations contradict each other. I can’t make content people don’t complain about, and that’s ok because that’s the way it is. I just want to offer my perspective as I think it’s very easy to judge. I feel I am always improving. Again if it’s not good enough for someone then so be it. One negative comment doesn’t negate the hundreds of loving and thankful ones.
I love this video, and I have a suggestion for a follow up. Similar to your recent tree series, I would love to see you do this challenge again, with the dollar store mini, but now using all the tools in your arsenal to paint and refine it. A lot of us have great base tools, but still make liberal use of dollar store goods. Seeing you use your paints, washes, milliput/greenstuff and texture paints would be an awesome comparison. And heck, you could even do the same thing a third time with a sweet real dragon mini (like a Reaper or WizKids mini). I would love to see a side-by-side comparison of what is possible given different materials!
That’s a pretty good idea. Same dragon to start but no constraints 🤔....I hope they still sell this same dragon.
I came here to suggest this. Even if you cannot find the exact dragon, you can get something similar. I didn't like the shape of the nose on this one anyway. :p
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial I subscribed just to see this done!
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial BUMP - so keen for this idea.
I agree, do this challenge.
So I have 7 boys , growing them up was never inexpensive ! And being the thrifty crafter I am I became passionate about reusing everything and I couldntb afford a trip to the craft store.. and live in a small town w very limited resources .. so now as my boys are grown i have started crafting miniatures and the everyday things we throw away have brought joy to several people along their way ! So I agreed w you ! Dnt let lack of "things limit you! . . your never out of crafting supplies!! Lol thank u for your show i have subscribed and hope I enjoy all your shows as much !!
Thinking quickly, Dave crafted a dragon miniature using only an exacto knife, paint, baking soda, super glue, and a dragon miniature.
I absolutely love this. My wife got me a really nice red dragon mini for Christmas and I am terrified of painting it badly. You gave me a great idea of buying some cheap crap from the dollar store and practicing and refining my technique. That way when I get around to painting the really nice miniature I'll know what I'm doing and do a great job. I of course will use quality paints and only skimp on the miniature but it'll allow me to practice and play around without worrying about ruining expensive miniature.
Check out Vince Venturella channel on all kinds of painting tips and techniques think you'll enjoy his channel always seems to have a video on just what type of thing you're painting.
Check out Vince Venturella channel on all kinds of painting tips and techniques think you'll enjoy his channel always seems to have a video on just what type of thing you're painting.
If you use Acrylics to paint you should be able to just paint over it in case it goes badly.
We have a saying in the military "You use what you got" And you did and to me it still looks really good.
John Grasso shut up, boot
That last shot is where the dragon is thinking"if you break open the hard shell,something tasty is inside." I thought your green dragon looked really good,would put it on my battle-map any day.
I CLAIM "DOLLAR STORE DRAGON" AS A BAND NAME!! You all witnessed it! It's official.
Would it be like super amateur power metal?
Hell yeah, I'll give it a listen
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial
The only way that could go wrong is if he went into it actually knowing how to play an instrument.
With instruments bought at the dollar store...
"Imagine Dragons" called and their going to sue jist because "Dragon" is in the name.
Update......"Steele Dragon" called, "Imagine Dragons" are hanging from the rafters by their testicles from their last gig.
They sent a message by the way, "Dear Dollar Store Dragon, stay metal brothers!"
You're quickly becoming my new favorite channel! As a DM my party has not used miniatures yet, mostly due to cost. Ideas like this let me think of ways to get them started with miniatures without worrying about the price as much! Thank you!!
You can get big packs of skeletons and army men at the dollar store near me. There the correct size too quality is poor but they do great especially if you paint them. I would pick up some of them to use.
My dad usually said “cheap, fast .... and nasty”! I love this idea tho... I’m on a pension but have grown sons who can be hard to buy for. They do like dungeons and dragons tho, and I like creating! So! Challenge will be trialled here downunder! Thank you for sharing. 🌹Rosie of Oz 🇦🇺
I want to get into this hobby. The Dollar Store Challenge seems like a perfect starter project!
Great video as always. When the black paint-mod podge mix dried on the model it looked so cool, i would probably just dry brush grey and ivory to make it an ASH DRAGON! :D
That's what i was thinking! The dragon looked super cool after that step. I was like, huh, he could've just stopped there.
Nice work, I once found some really good castle minis at dollar store ( I think they were for a fish tank) carefully painted and flocked with some green moss they looked great. Glad I found your channel, keep up the good work!
This was the first DND crafting video I EVER watched, and its so ironic to see the thumbnail updated expressing disappointment. Even if you weren't pleased with the final result, this video undoubtedly changed my life when it showed up in my recommendations, as I now have 4 years of crafting experience to thank for the rabbit hole your channel sent me down.
Thank you for everything you do, for your constant creativity, for the knowledge you impart, and for showing the moments when you "fail", because this dragon mini "fail" was the catalyst for what is now one of my favorite hobbies.
Love the video, you did really well adjusting to the constraints.
For decent and cheap mdf material, Dollar tree sells clipboards that are easy enough to cut with hand tools (and something like a bandsaw obviously).
HD/Lowe's/Walmart also sell $1 flat black spray paint which kind of fits the spirit of the challenge at least.
These videos are so fun. After watching a few I went into my classroom and started chopping up foam that had been sitting around for ages. Now I have kids coming in and wanting to make walls, castles and stuff.
If you painted it to look like stone, something like this would look really good as an animated statue or something.
If you painted him to look like a brownie or chocolate chip you could have the party defeat him by eating his legs off. Just kidding that is a great idea could make him a jade or turquoise dragon. Marble or granite or a gem dragon sapphire ruby or emerald be cool too.
@@AlexBabcock-hw9iz I'd try something similar to Fwoosh, where he used Rust-Oleum accent stone spray. They even have a kind of interesting looking green that while not jade looks like mossy rock.
I'd LOVE to see more of these type videos - taking a 'toy' and making a wonderment!
I've just come back to my country from Toronto, ON, and found there a Dollarama on Yonge where I bought a dragon toy I was going to give my nephew as a cool souvenir, but seeing this, I think I could do something even better for him. Thanks a lot!
The baking soda and super glue technique is ingenious and just what I was looking for! Cheap and readily available/easy to get at the grocery store.
5:15 - 'You just pour on baking soda, blow off the excess and drip baking soda on it'?
LOL, that method didn't work for me...
I love your message at the end, its something that I say all the time. in my case, its because I'm cheap and enjoy the challenge of not buying stuff. One of my favorite thing that I did was these Dollar General miniature skeletons. They come in a pack and are rather generic and cheap looking. I used the heat gun to move them and did some dry brushing. Really turned out cool. If you would like, I could send you a link. Some You Tubers are funny about links on their comments because of people trying to self promote.
Now I wish you do the same build but this time with quality materials and compare the two builds.
I think he's great . I live on a fixed income. But watching your videos I've started building stuff from basic trash. And dollar store stuff. Makes me happy. Thank you. Stay well.
"Good thing that was a Reaper Bones" I snorted, I laughed so hard
Still looks better than anything I could make. I learned cool tricks even in this craft project, like the baking soda with super glue. I have to use cheap and fast techniques all the time, so I appreciate this type of video.
Loved it! I would love to see Dollarama builds become a regular thing, but I don't think you need to limit yourself to a speed build. Thought it turned out great, and would love to see more like this!
I totally just got a cart/ wagon from my local dollar store, would be cool to see something like that upgraded.
The speed factor was more a constraint of doing this during the holidays as I could only find a few hours to get away from family stuff to do it 😂
An alternative to your repositioning the head would be to make a base and have the dragon climbing over some rocks or something. Still might require some repositioning of stuff.
Dollarama huraa!!! I love these raw style of videos, they're the best. Don't disparage about the mini. As soon as you go online to look at the price of a dragon mini it will look a WHOLE LOT better, besides, It actually came out really nice.
I feel like this was a really nice tutorial for people who are just getting into the hobby or not ready to commit to getting lots of materials for miniatures.
There are things that aren't available at the dollar store? I'm sure I bought my car there! :)
I got married there
@@FrigginBoomToys win!
From back when I was a little child, in the late 80's, I remember packs of cheap plastic dinosaurs that, for some reason, also had minitures of what I now know are 1st ed. Bulettes and Rust Monsters in them. And I still occasionally see those same toys at dollar stores and markets to this day.
@@RokuroCarisu apparently the rust monster was based on the toy and not vice versa!
It's the dollar store. How good can it be?
No matter how it turns out at the end of the day you made something! Even when a project doesn’t turn out the way I wanted I still feel proud that I stuck with it and at the very least I learned something!
2:36
He: Wash it because injected molded plastic often has mold release.
Me: But... Its already painted.
If you think long and hard you might realize why you still need to wash stuff like this before painting.
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficialbecause you want fo drip baking soda on baking soda?
5:20
This is a very good way to practice priming and dry brushing things if you’re new to the hobby.
Love this video so much. From the Christmas ornament soap dispenser to the "wait why am I doing this?!" moment, and the final result. It was great fun, very informative and inspiring! Thanks for all your work!
Great end result and a worthwhile tip to look out for cheap stuff. Fish tank terrain can also turn up some gems.
I smoke and collect vintage pipes, mostly from estate sales, so I do a lot of my own repairs. When I need to put a fresh stem on, I boil it to make it soft enough to bend it into whatever shape I need. Instead of cutting off the head, I think you could have boiled the dragon's neck and head until it was soft enough to bend it. It'll then harden in the new position.
After watching this video I took a trip to the dollar store, got tow dinosaurs and made d&d mounts. I used all you've taught me and they turned out great. Thanks dude!!
When the figure was painted all black I was like:
Red-Eyes Black Dragon! This pal of mine is a super rare monster!
I like it conceptually. I would like to see you plus up some aquarium/fish tank pieces of terrain to see what you come up with
I gotta bring back my Cheap Miniature Challenge format to my channel. I was dumb and renamed it because nobody was able to promote them on reddit because "challenge" was a keyword that certain mods used to automatically delete videos from certain subreddits. Now nobody even tries to share my videos on reddit so why not bring back that good good series.
This is really great, especially since my partner and I are working on getting his six year old nephew into d&d, so this is the type of craft that would be amazing for someone his age to start learning.
Thanks so much for this video, dude. Has been a real inspiration, indeed. I play D&D not as often as I'd like, so investing in a lot of not-so-cheap materials to create such wonderful things is always such a pain for me because I end up not buying or building anything. I want to create these things for my players to enjoy and also for my DM (When I am a PC), but have been put off from it because of how infrequent our games are. But, watching this video does show a whole lot can be done with very little. If you can take a toy like that and turn it into something awesome, and choosing to do it fast! I can only imagine what it would look like if you took your time and went the "Cheap and Good" route instead of the "Cheap and fast", one. Thank you a lot for this and great video.
I agree! Cheap and Good would be more interesting than cheap and fast.
My kids are about 3 sessions from running into a baby green dragon in their first DnD campain. Looks like Ive got the model sorted !!! Tnx boss!
Wath if you got one more of that dragon and put some time in to it.
Or next time you get two of the same thing, speed build the first one and put some time in to the other one.
This was good , taking my kids to the dollar store to try this , but with our crafting table , good way to occupy them productively, thank you.
"I could've washed the dishes but THIS MY HOUSE."
I did the same thing with a pack of 6 dragons that I found in a cheap store here in Brazil. It was really fun to give the toys a new look.
Dollar General sells spray paint. And its decent stuff.
I don't know if we have Dollar Generals in Canada. The two main chains are Dollarama and Dollar Tree and then random little independent guys
Ha! This is awesome! This challenge of yours is the entire premise of my channel (I'm still filming/editing the first episode), so I love this build!
Sorry. Refuse to use Patreon until they stop banning for political reasons.
I don’t even play D&D or warhammer but am amazed at the creativity and realism of these builds.
Walmart might be a decent place to look for things too. Oh that’s actually super helpful to know that you need to wash it. This reminds me a lot of watching people make one of a kind/repainted dolls.
Hi I'm late to the game. I'm just getting into minarure painting. I absolutely love this. I saw so many videos where people are like you can only use citadel paints. So the fact you were able to make something decent (at least in my eyes) out of inexpensive supplies was inspirational. So thank you
I really like these kinds of builds too. This is about the level of quality at my D&D table so I love the ideas for how to make more!
Great vid. The group I DM for have an ebony fly statue which turns into a mount. I found a large plastic fly at the dollar store and did something similar. Even going so far as to create a "leather" saddle out of foam with a small ring on top so their mini would fit snuggly in. When they used the statue in game I put the fly mount on the table and their reaction was priceless.
This is a really fun and interesting video. You strike a good balance between showing your personality, and showing the craft. Nice work!
I absolutely love ... love ... LOVE the "glue soldering" technique, ever since first seeing it in your snow golem build. I've seen a lot of sculptors and toy custom modders use this method since and it's just brilliant. Thanks for shedding light on this!
Also, can't voice for folks in other cities/states, but the Dollar General stores down here in Florida are actually surprisingly good. I've gotten TONS of craft supplies there. If any of y'all have one near you, worth checking out.
I love your videos, if they only consisted of these dollar store speed builds, you would still be one of my favorite UA-cam channels. This is absolutely inspiring, as someone who has some supplies but not all. It's great to see someone show that this hobby really is limited only by imagination and not buying power
Massive props on sticking to the dollar store thing so many UA-camr cop out on this stuff with high end stuff they already had or got for "free
Very nice leather apron. Good build, cool to see you using things on hand and creating something awesome!
I'm pretty new to miniatures and.. gotta say, I just used watered down paint as washes - but the soap makes perfect sense as an additive. That alone was made this video a hit for me!
I'm also impressed at how "messy" you can be while painting and still get a nice textured look
I didn't know about this channel until I saw this video. You should definitely do a series. My 6 old is interested in tabletop RPGs and I'd like some more pointers on putting together cheap minis and terrain. I have a few things from when I used to play, but not enough.
I painted a picture for a friend with only things I got at the dollar store. Still one of my favorite paintings. You can do great things with cheap material.
Love the look of your work area. Very organized.
that 'fast and dirty' dry brushing completely changed the mini and made it look f*cking phenomenal, really gotta try that technique when painting
I love the idea of using only cheaper materials and creating something awesome! I'd have to go for the £1 shop here and it definitely is full of a load of crap, sometimes you can find some hidden gems there though! The dragon turned out awesome, paint always helps a lot! :)
What you call a challenge is what I call regular day. Other than the miniatures themselves, I by everything from Dollorama for my builds. Like you said, it's not the highest quality, but on a budget, it really gets the job done.
Can make some minis cheap too BMC has done a couple check Miniature Mash Up Blandco Roll for Damage 5header for some home made or mashed minis
The best things I have found at the dollar store for basing materials are clipboards! They can be cut up and beveled, similar to a cheaper MDF like material.
This is years old but I've recently found the channel so going through the catalog.
Would be cool to see this come back, when on tour and I need something occupy the down time, matchsticks and glue is huge. So seeing other creations that use basic stuff is really neat as it's not always there's a workshop of gear nearby.
I just got into DND and as a starving student / mom of 2 I dont have a lot of extra cash for hobbies. It makes me happy to see I can get some stuff to play with my kids at the beginner level inexpensively. Also A great way to let the kids practice painting on figures that aren’t going to break the bank. I think if you took your time with the paint job you could’ve even made that Dragon look even more fierce. Regardless, I think you did a great job.
Get yourself some cheap 1" grid paper (or pull out some left over xmas wrappers as they often have that grid on the reverse, some markers, and some toy figures and you've got enough to have a great time. Everything else is just extra, but you really don't need it.
I know this isn’t your favorite build, but I was actually really inspired by how you pulled everything off. You should do more videos like this in the future, using only dollar store materials. I thought it turned out really well
Very creative! Dollar (or pound) shop stuff is actually great for practice and getting started, then you don't feel guilty wasting money if you mess up or lose interest in the hobby
Thanks for sharing your process and your struggles. It's encouraging when things don't work out in my own projects.
Well done! This was my first mini painting video ever. Cheers
I went to a dollar store.... it was a beautiful pasture full of surprises and cheap ginger ale CANADA WAS AWESOME
i've bought spray paint from the pound shop before, i'll be honest it's meant more for automotive touch up but the grey primer i bought worked fine in a pinch :D This is a great video for demonstrating what can be achieved despite very common limitations of budget, it also allows people to practice without the confidence blow of ruining an expensive kit.
I like this idea, and it brings RPGs back to its roots. Gygax was using cheap toys for his monsters back in the beginning. One step to add next time is to clean up the mold lines with a hobby knife. Drybrushing makes them stand out.
Yea. Looked at those mold lines and thought “I’ll fix those same time I do the dishes” 🥴
Wow!!!! It looks a thousand times better than it did out of the box :) Nice one!!
It looks great! The only thing I would change (with hindsight) is to do the yellow wash before the black wash.
Enjoyed the video. For those who want more Dollar store type builds, i would recommend Miniature Mashups channel
dude I love revamping toy projects. This came out nice!
You can see the yellow shade of tint from the wash in the wings. Very good work.
First time I have heard of using baking soda and superglue as filler. Very clever, thank you for sharing.
I challenge you to build a decent looking piece of ruins scatter, one which includes a wall and foilage, from Dollar Store stuff!
The Dollar stores are an outstanding starting point for craft materials. In fact, I was just at one of them the other day and brought home a lot of useful stuff. No dragons (but I already picked up a pack of cheesy toy dragons on Amazon for cheep), but I did score a couple bags of one of the more expensive-to-provide minis; toy horses that are close enough to scale. Also a couple packs of small wooden dowels that, with some light carving, will look great as terrain pieces for lumber or logs. And of course, plenty of hot glue sticks, Mod Podge, spray bottles, etc.
Not too shabby at all! Wow, what a great idea!
That shade of green with the yellow wash gives it a copper patina look, which probably wasn't what you were going for, but still works if you use it for a statue or sculpture on the table.
Would love another Dollar Store video! Maybe doing a hero mini with some more planning. I feel like a terrain video with Dollar Store materials might be impossible though.
Dollarama has Crafters Acrylic which is pretty decent. Dollar store near my home has spray paint but its hard to find primer. I think the dragon came out alright... nice job.
I really like this video a lot, and I think the dragon came out looking just fine, considering the source of it. I would love to see more projects along this line. Detailed projects are wonderful, but there is a lot to be said for showing how to get decent results on a limited budget and/or time schedule.
First, love your work. On the painting front in the UK car primer and usually silver black and white and clear varnish are all available in £ $ stores
For this being the first video of yours that I have ever watched. That dragon looks badass. I cant wait to see what else ya got