What is a texture roller for miniatures?

A texture roller is a small rolling pin with a pattern, such as cobblestones, flagstones, bricks or planks, on its surface. Rolled once across soft clay, putty or foam, a texture roller leaves a strip of that pattern, which is cut up for bases, terrain and diorama floors.

What clay or putty works with a texture roller?

Air-dry modelling clay is the cheapest and easiest choice for a texture roller, and it dries overnight. Two-part epoxy putties such as Milliput or green stuff are tougher and finer. Polymer clay works too, baked hard after rolling, and XPS foam takes patterns for large terrain boards.

How do you stop clay sticking to a texture roller?

Clay stops sticking to a texture roller when the clay is dusted with talc or cornflour, or the roller is dipped in water before rolling. Epoxy putty is stickier than clay, so wet the roller every time. If a patch still sticks, let the clay firm up for ten minutes and roll again.

How thick should clay be for a texture roller?

Clay for a texture roller should be rolled 2 to 3 mm thick between two guides, such as strips of plasticard, so the thickness stays even. That's deeper than the pattern, which is 0.6 to 1.4 mm on our rollers, so the roller presses a clean pattern without reaching the board underneath.

Can you bake a texture roller?

A resin texture roller should never go in the oven. To use polymer clay, roll the pattern, take the roller away, and bake the clay on its own as the packet says. Wash the roller afterwards in warm water with a soft brush to clear clay out of the pattern.

Basing Terrain

How to use a texture roller for miniature bases and terrain

A texture roller presses a pattern into clay, putty or foam in one pass. Roll the clay 2–3 mm thick between guides, stop it sticking with talc or water, roll once, cut out your bases or terrain, let it dry and drybrush it. Here's each step, with a paint recipe for every pattern.

By Scale Command

22 October 2026Updated 11 November 20267 min readAll scales

Roll a battlefield: our rendered cobblestone texture example with a28mm scale figure

A texture roller for miniature bases presses a pattern into soft clay, putty or foam, so one steady roll gives you a strip of cobblestones, flagstones, brick or planks that would take hours to sculpt by hand. Cut the strip up and you have bases for a whole unit, a street for a town square, or the floor of a ruin. Here's how to use one, which clay to pick, how to stop it sticking, and how to paint the result.

Time: 20 minutes, then a day to dry
Level: Beginner
Makes: Strips 100 mm wide, any length
Scales: 28mm, and 10mm or 15mm

What is a texture roller for miniature bases?

It's a short rolling pin with a pattern on its surface. Ours are 100 mm long and 30 mm across, printed in resin so the pattern is crisp all the way round, and it carries on without a seam every turn, so the strip can be as long as you like. A pair of handles wedges into the ends, so you roll with a hand on each side and press evenly across the whole width. (Why resin and not filament: resin vs filament.)

Texture Roller Handles wedged into both ends of a Cobblestones roller on a sheet of clay — A Cobblestones roller with its handles fitted, on a sheet of clay (our render).

What you'll need

From our shop

A texture roller, or a Texture Roller Set
Texture Roller Handles
Resin bases or Movement Plates to put it on, from our basing range

Clay or putty (pick one)

Air-dry modelling clay: cheap, easy, dries overnight
Two-part epoxy putty, like Milliput or green stuff: tough and fine-grained
Polymer clay, like Sculpey: bake it hard, with the roller off
XPS foam board, for terrain boards and big tiles

Tools

Two strips of plasticard or card, 2 to 3 mm thick, as rolling guides
Talc or cornflour, or a little water
A hobby knife and a steel rule
PVA glue or superglue
A smooth board or tile to work on

Paints

Mechanicus Standard Grey, Nuln Oil, Dawnstone, Administratum Grey stone
Rhinox Hide, Agrax Earthshade, Baneblade Brown wood
Zandri Dust, Ushabti Bone dry earth
Leadbelcher, Necron Compound metal

Warhammer Colour (Citadel) names; any similar colours work.

Which pattern for which job?

Every pattern comes as a 28mm roller, and seven of them also come as a 10mm and 15mm roller, where the pattern is smaller and shallower to match the figures.

Roller	Makes	28mm	10mm and 15mm
Cobblestones	Streets, yards, market squares	Stones about 3 mm	About 2 mm
Flagstones	Halls, temples, crypts, town squares	Slabs 8–13 × 9–17 mm	4.5–7 × 5–9.5 mm
Ashlar	Castle walls, keeps, fine paving	Blocks 4.6–6.2 mm high	2.6–3.5 mm high
Fieldstone	Field walls, cottages, ruins, old roads	Stones 3–9 mm	2–5 mm
Planks	Floors, decks, bridges, barns	Boards 4 mm wide	2 mm wide
Cracked Earth	Deserts, dry riverbeds, summer fields	Plates 3–7 mm	2–4 mm
Deck Plate	Sci-fi floors, bunkers, starship decks	Panels 19 × 12 mm	10 × 7 mm
Brick	Walls, chimneys, yards	Bricks 4.2 × 1.4 mm	28mm only
Herringbone	Old floors, hearths, courtyards	Bricks 3.9 × 1.7 mm	28mm only
Tread Plate	Gantries, vehicle decks, factories	Lugs 3 mm long	28mm only

Flagstones rolled in clay and painted as a 60 mm tile, with a 28mm figure standing on it — Flagstones, Planks and Cracked Earth, rolled and painted as 60 mm tiles with a 28mm figure for scale (our renders).

Planks rolled in clay and painted as a 60 mm tile, with a 28mm figure standing on it — Flagstones, Planks and Cracked Earth, rolled and painted as 60 mm tiles with a 28mm figure for scale (our renders).

Which putty or clay works best with a texture roller?

Air-dry clay is the easiest to roll and the cheapest for a whole army's bases; Milliput gives the hardest, crispest result. Green stuff holds the finest detail but sticks to everything, so it suits a few hero bases rather than a full unit.

Material	Working time	How it sets	Takes the pattern	Good for
Air-dry clay	About 30 minutes before it skins	Dries in a day; can shrink and crack if rolled thin	Well, if dusted with talc	Whole units, cheap and easy
Milliput (epoxy putty)	1–2 hours	Cures rock-hard in 3–4 hours; sands and carves	Crisp edges once it firms up a little	Hard-wearing bases, flagstones and brick
Green stuff (epoxy putty)	About 1 hour	Cures slightly flexible overnight	The finest detail, but very sticky: keep the roller wet	A few character bases
Polymer clay	Stays soft until baked	Baked in a home oven; follow the pack	Well, and you can re-roll mistakes	Bases you want to fix and redo; never bake on plastic or resin bases

Whichever you use, roll it out to 2 to 3 mm first, as in the steps below. For a full walk-through of cobblestone and flagstone bases, see our guide to cobblestone and flagstone bases with a texture roller.

How to use a texture roller, step by step

Fit the handles

Push a handle into each end of the roller with a slight twist. The pins and the sockets are both gently tapered, so they wedge together and the roller and handles turn as one. Twist and pull to swap rollers.
Roll the clay out flat, between guides

Lay two rolling guides on your board a little less than 100 mm apart and roll the clay flat between them with a smooth bottle or rolling pin. The guides keep it an even thickness. Go for 2 to 3 mm: deeper than the pattern, which is 0.6 to 1.4 mm deep, so the roller never touches the board.
Stop it sticking

Dust the clay with a little talc or cornflour, or wet the roller. Epoxy putty is stickier than clay, so wet it every time. If you do get a stuck patch, let the clay firm up for ten minutes and roll a fresh strip.
Roll once, firmly, in one steady pass

Set the roller on the guides at one end and roll it across in a single pass, pressing down evenly through both handles. Don't roll back over the strip: the second pass rarely lines up with the first and doubles the pattern.

One pass of the Flagstones roller: the strip is 100 mm wide and as long as your clay (our render).
Cut out your bases and pieces

For a base, press the base onto the strip to mark its outline, then cut round it with a hobby knife. For terrain, cut straight edges against a steel rule. Rolling a sheet and cutting it is neater than rolling straight onto a base, and one strip covers a whole unit.
Fix it to the base

Press each disc onto a base with a thin layer of PVA while it's still soft, and trim the edge flush with the base's top. Or let the pieces harden first and glue them on with superglue.
Let it dry or cure

Air-dry clay usually needs overnight; epoxy putty and polymer clay go by the packet. Bake polymer clay on its own: the roller must never go in the oven.
Prime and paint

Prime, then basecoat, wash and drybrush, using the recipe cards below. A texture like this is made for drybrushing: the raised stones catch the light colour and the joints stay dark.
Clean the roller

Wash the roller in warm water with a soft brush to get clay out of the pattern, and let it dry before you put it away.

How to paint rolled cobblestones, planks and earth

Recipe cards

In order, left to right

Grey stone: cobbles, flagstones, ashlar: Base Mechanicus Standard Grey

Wash Nuln Oil

Drybrush Dawnstone

Drybrush Administratum Grey
Wood: planks: Base Rhinox Hide

Wash Agrax Earthshade

Drybrush Baneblade Brown
Dry earth: cracked earth: Base Zandri Dust

Wash Agrax Earthshade

Drybrush Ushabti Bone
Metal: deck and tread plate: Base Leadbelcher

Wash Nuln Oil

Drybrush Necron Compound

For variety on cobbles and flagstones, pick out a few stones in a warmer brown or a lighter grey before you wash, and the street stops looking like one flat colour. Then finish the base like any other: rim, varnish and tufts.

Can you roll a texture into foam for terrain?

Yes. XPS foam board takes a pattern well if you press firmly; roll it once, and go over any shallow patches by hand with a pencil. Seal the foam with PVA or a brush-on primer before you paint it, because most spray primers melt XPS. For a large board, roll strips side by side and hide the joins with a little weathering.

Tips for a clean finish

Uneven depth: the clay isn't flat. Use the rolling guides, and press through both handles at once.
Edges lift on the base: press them down with a damp brush while the clay is still soft.
Cracks in air-dry clay: it dried too fast. Keep pieces away from heat, and thicker pieces dry slower.
10mm and 15mm stands: use the 15mm rollers. The full-size patterns look like boulders under small figures.

New
Choose options · from $37.00

Scale Command Texture Roller Set From $37.00
New

Scale Command Cobblestones Texture Roller $15.0028mm & 10mm / 15mm
New

Scale Command Texture Roller Handles $15.00

Questions and answers

What is a texture roller for miniatures?: A texture roller is a small rolling pin with a pattern, such as cobblestones, flagstones, bricks or planks, on its surface. Rolled once across soft clay, putty or foam, a texture roller leaves a strip of that pattern, which is cut up for bases, terrain and diorama floors.
What clay or putty works with a texture roller?: Air-dry modelling clay is the cheapest and easiest choice for a texture roller, and it dries overnight. Two-part epoxy putties such as Milliput or green stuff are tougher and finer. Polymer clay works too, baked hard after rolling, and XPS foam takes patterns for large terrain boards.
How do you stop clay sticking to a texture roller?: Clay stops sticking to a texture roller when the clay is dusted with talc or cornflour, or the roller is dipped in water before rolling. Epoxy putty is stickier than clay, so wet the roller every time. If a patch still sticks, let the clay firm up for ten minutes and roll again.
How thick should clay be for a texture roller?: Clay for a texture roller should be rolled 2 to 3 mm thick between two guides, such as strips of plasticard, so the thickness stays even. That's deeper than the pattern, which is 0.6 to 1.4 mm on our rollers, so the roller presses a clean pattern without reaching the board underneath.
Can you bake a texture roller?: A resin texture roller should never go in the oven. To use polymer clay, roll the pattern, take the roller away, and bake the clay on its own as the packet says. Wash the roller afterwards in warm water with a soft brush to clear clay out of the pattern.