What's actually on the bench

Materials

• White Portland cement

  We mix roughly 1 part white cement to 1.5 parts fine silica sand, because white takes oxide colour predictably while grey drags every tint toward mud. We buy the smallest bag we can find and keep it double-bagged, since cement that has soaked up damp air never cures hard.

  Look for white Portland cement, Type I, smallest available bag (5-10 lb)

• Fine silica sand

  Play sand grains are the size of a scale boulder, so we use 100-200 mesh silica instead: it flows into the corners of a brick mould and gives a crisp edge rather than a crumbly one. Kiln-dried bags stay consistent, which matters when batch two has to match batch one.

  Look for fine graded kiln-dried silica sand, 100-200 mesh

• Silicone miniature brick mould

  We pour fifty-plus bricks a session, and the flex of silicone is the whole point: a rigid tray snaps green bricks in half on demoulding. We keep separate moulds for 1:12 and 1:24 so scales never end up mixed in the same wall.

  Look for multi-cavity silicone miniature brick mould, 1:12 or 1:24 scale

• Silicone stone and paving moulds

  Stone moulds give us irregular pieces we could never carve by hand at the same rate, and we deliberately mix two or three different moulds into one wall so the pattern never visibly repeats. We cast a big surplus and sort it by size, because half the realism comes from choosing each stone as it goes on.

  Look for silicone casting moulds for miniature stone, flagstone and cobblestone

• XPS foam board

  XPS is the substructure under almost every build: it carves cleanly, holds a scribed stone or plank texture, and keeps a heavy cement facade light enough to lift with one hand. We avoid white EPS beadboard entirely, and we glue XPS with PVA because solvent-based adhesives and spray paints melt it on contact.

  Look for XPS extruded polystyrene foam board, 25 PSI, 1 to 2 inch thickness

• Aluminium armature wire

  Dead-soft annealed aluminium bends by hand and stays exactly where we put it, so it does triple duty as rebar inside cement pours, as downpipes and railings, and as posable figure armatures. We stock 2 mm for structure and 1.5 mm for detail, and unlike steel it never rusts and bleeds a stain through the cement.

  Look for annealed dead-soft aluminium armature wire, 1.5 mm and 2 mm (roughly 14-18 gauge)

• PVA wood glue

  PVA is the workhorse: foam-safe, sandable, and cheap enough that we also thin it with water as a sealer over raw foam before paint. Its slow grab is a feature, letting us slide a wall a millimetre into square before it locks.

  Look for white PVA wood or craft glue in a squeeze bottle

• CA (super) glue, thin and medium

  CA handles the joints PVA cannot, like wire into cured cement or fine trim that has to hold in ten seconds while the camera is rolling. We keep thin for wicking into a hairline seam and medium for gap-filling, plus accelerator for anything we would otherwise have to stand there pinching.

  Look for cyanoacrylate super glue in thin and medium viscosity, with accelerator spray

• Matte acrylic paints

  We work almost entirely in thinned washes rather than flat coats, because a grey-brown wash sinking into the mortar lines does more for realism than any single colour choice. Matte is non-negotiable for us since even a slight sheen reads as plastic under the lights.

  Look for matte water-based acrylic paints, artist or craft grade, in earth tones, greys and off-whites

• Weathering pigment powders

  Powders are the last ten percent that sells the scale: dust in the corners, grime at the base of walls, rain streaks under the windows. We seal the paint first, brush the pigment on dry, then fix it with a drop of isopropyl or a light matte spray, never gloss, which kills the dusty look instantly.

  Look for weathering pigment powder set in soot, rust, earth and concrete tones, plus matte varnish or isopropyl alcohol as fixer

Hand tools

• Hobby knife and spare #11 blades

  Foam and card blunt a blade in minutes, so we swap blades far more often than feels reasonable, because a dull edge tears XPS instead of slicing it. We always cut against a steel rule and take several light passes rather than one deep one.

  Look for No.1 hobby knife handle with #11 blades and a bulk pack of spares

• Self-healing cutting mat

  The printed grid is a measuring tool as much as a surface, and we square walls straight on the mat instead of reaching for a ruler on every cut. Self-healing matters because an old groove will steer the next blade off line, and it saves the desk that doubles as our filming table.

  Look for gridded self-healing cutting mat, A3 or larger

• Silicone mixing cups and spatulas

  Cured cement pops straight out of flexible silicone, so one cup lasts months instead of going in the bin after every pour. We mix by volume using the same cup each time, which is the simplest way to make batch two of bricks match batch one.

  Look for flexible silicone mixing cups with small spatulas or a mini trowel set

• Detail and drybrushing brushes

  We keep two or three good small rounds strictly for detail work and reserve the battered ones for drybrushing and stippling pigment, since that technique destroys a point in a session. Synthetic bristles survive cement grit and acrylics far better than sable does.

  Look for synthetic detail brush set, sizes 000 to 4, plus a stiff old brush for drybrushing

• Dust mask and nitrile gloves

  Dry cement and silica dust are the genuinely hazardous part of this hobby, so we mask up and mix outdoors or under extraction every single time, with no exceptions for a quick batch. Gloves go on too, because wet cement is caustic and will chew up your fingertips over a long pour.

  Look for N95 or P2 respirator dust mask and disposable nitrile gloves

Lighting

• High-CRI bi-colour LED light

  Cheap LEDs render our greys and rust tones slightly green on camera and no amount of grading fully rescues it, so we only buy CRI 95 and above and sanity-check against a colour chart. Bi-colour lets us match whatever daylight is coming through the window instead of fighting two colour temperatures in one frame.

  Look for bi-colour COB LED video light, CRI 95+ / TLCI 95+, with a standard or mini Bowens mount

• Softbox with fabric grid

  A bare LED throws a hard hotspot on every cast brick, but through a softbox the same light wraps around the texture and the mortar lines actually read on camera. The removable grid is what stops spill from washing out the background, and controllable light beats bright light every time on a small set.

  Look for small softbox with removable fabric grid, matched to your light's mount

Filming & editing

• Tripod with horizontal arm

  Most of our build footage is shot straight down over the bench, and a normal tripod always puts a leg in frame, whereas a centre column that flips horizontal hangs the camera directly over the work. We set it once and shoot an entire build sequence from that same repeatable position so the time-lapse doesn't jump.

  Look for video tripod with a centre column that flips horizontal, or a separate overhead boom arm

• CapCut

  CapCut is where we cut Shorts and vertical clips, because auto-captions, speed ramps and text presets take minutes rather than an hour. We deliberately keep it for short-form only and do the long-form work elsewhere.

  Look for CapCut video editing app, desktop or mobile, free tier

• DaVinci Resolve

  Long-form builds are cut in Resolve because the free version already does everything we need, from timeline retiming for time-lapse to matching our LED-lit bench shots against daylight B-roll. The colour page is what keeps freshly poured cement and cured cement looking like the same material across a twenty-minute video.

  Look for DaVinci Resolve video editing and colour grading software, free version

Building a kit instead?

Most kits in the library include the tools you need to finish them. Where they don't — and where the included glue runs short, which is common — the materials above cover it. Start with a beginner kit if you're not sure.