For drilling holes in minis, sometimes using a power drill is too much. I have, on several occasions, used my fingers to hand-turn the bit to drill a hole in an area where care is needed. I have found that purchasing these drill bits - with the hex-drive bases - improves my grip on the bit and helps make turning the bit by hand a lot easier.

Got a bent D&D Miniature (DDM)? Often times it is a simple procedure to straigten out the bent pieces. This trick does involve boiling water so do be careful. Once again, I take no responsibility for injuries to anyone attempting this. Keep a slotted kitchen spoon or salad tongs handy for retrieving minis with. Pliers may also work, but can leave scars on the plastic if you are not careful.

First off, bring a small pot of water to boil and then remove it from the burner. Start your kitchen sink running with cold tap water as well. Make sure that you have easy access from the water on the stovetop to the sink. Place the mini or the part of the mini you want to fix in the water for 30 sec. - 1 min. and then carefully retrieve the mini from the boiling water. Gently holding the mini in place where you want it (or it's parts) to be(remember it may be hot!) run the mini under the cold water. This should 'fix' the plastic into place. If your water is not cold enough, fill a bucket with ice water. That should work as well.

This technique works on most minis but I have run into a few that resist being fixed and will, over time, bend back out of shape.

Need to strip paint off an old metal mini? Use Simple Green*!

I used to recommend Pine Sol for stripping paint from metal minis, but I've found a completely better replacement for it - Simple Green!

So far, I've not found a metal mini this hasn't worked on to great success. Simple Green also isn't as strong smelling as Pine Sol (YAY!). Pine Sol also caused some paints to gum up the old toothbrush I used for scrubbing with, Simple Green has yet to do that to me. Better smell, better paint-stripping power, what's not to like!

I soaked the minis in a glass jar full of non-diluted Simple Green for a week and then used an old toothbrush to scrub the minis with while rinsing the solution off in the sink. A couple of toothpicks were on hand to dig out really deep areas of the minis that the toothbrush wouldn't reach. Worked like a charm on perhaps two dozen minis I had soaking - a little bit of everything from more recent acrylic paint jobs to old vintage minis with paint so old it was hard to tell what kind of paint was used. Some were caked on and some were half painted. All of them seemed to clean up really well. Even as I type this, I've got more minis soaking and plan to continue using Simple Green for this unless something better comes along.

*Simple Green is a trademarked product. I found it in a couple of my local hardware stores. While it works well for stripping paint off metal minis keep in mind that I'm not endorsing it over other cleaners for doing what it is supposed to do - which is clean stuff of course. Also, if you can't find Simple Green, Pine Sol does work, but keep in mind that it will smell up your house a whole lot. Especially if you use it undiluted.

I have always been amazed at some of the really nice bases that people create for their minis. Up until recently though, I never really gave much thought about doing the same thing with my minis. My experience so far has been rewarding, but when I first started I cringed at the cost of buying all those little tubs of manufactured basing materials. For some things though, there are a cheaper solutions.

Now this may sound like a 'duh' kind of thing to say, but one of the the best ways to make rocky terrain on your mini is to use real rocks. Sand, gravel, beach rocks, even aquarium gravel, can all be used quite successfully to create realistic rocky terrain bases. Glue them on to the base either after primer/paint if you want them to look natural or glue them on before and primer over them so you can paint them yourself. Either way, they give your bases a nice natural look

Best of all, you can get these materials for free. Whenever I go outside now (even in my backyard) I keep an eye out for nice small rocks that I can save for basing with. Beaches, parks, gravel pits, and construction sites are also good places to visit for sand and rock. Keep in mind that some places may not take kindly to someone taking rocks from their site so be sure to get proper permissions beforehand. If you're unsure, don't take anything until you can find someone to ask.

Also, keep an eye out for unusual types of rock. Here are some ideas:

• Pyrite - use for 'gold' deposits for a mine setting.
• Small Crystals - Good for exotic caverns/lairs.
• Sandstone - for a really nice desert-type look.
• Agates - comes in many different colors & patterns

If you have a little bit of a budget you can also visit a rock collectors shop. Of course rocks from a shop can be expensive, but shop around anyways if you have the chance. There are a lot of cheaper priced stones that you can get that might give your base that extra special look!