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I have posted in the past my favorite YouTube miniature painters, and my favorite YouTube terrain builders, but today it’s the best YouTube Wargame Makers. And by “wargame makers” I mean that these are makers, crafters, builders, and hobbyists that don’t necessarily dabble in wargames, but are wargame-adjacent. These are the channels that I watch when I want to get inspired about how to build something for a wargame, and even though some of these people NEVER build wargame anything, the skills I learn are always relevant.

So, basically, by wargame makers, I mean these are makers that wargamers should be watching to learn new skills. Sometimes it’s painting, sometimes it’s building, sometimes it’s even philosophy. But I love all these guys.

I dabbled pretty hard in wargame making for a while, building some diorama display boards for Bolt Action (Normandy and North Africa) that I’m pretty proud of, but they don’t compare to these guys.

So let’s get started.

Best 6 YouTube Wargame Makers

1. Bill Making Stuff

One of the things that attracts me to this “wargame makers” idea is how quirky and eccentric all of these people are. These may not be miniature painters, but they’re artists. And while Bill on Bill Making Stuff is an artist who uses beads and junk, he is an artist nonetheless.

Bill makes all sorts of things, but his wheelhouse seems to be in making weird robots out of junk and beads (lots of beads) and covering them with rust. The fact that he does all of this while being extremely funny along the way is just gravy.

I have learned a lot from Bill Making Stuff. He has a great tutorial in all the different ways to create rust. He taught me how to lino print. He taught how to better use a notebook, something that I have really taken to heart and which I try to apply to my personal notebook.

His persona (I don’t know how much is personality and how much is acting) is hilarious, and even if I’m not entirely into the thing Bill is Making, I’m still glued to every one of his videos.

2. Miscast

Of all the people on here who I would consider the most as An Artist (in capital letters) it would be Trent on Miscast. His channel is just so completely… unique. But mesmerizingly so. It’s very hard to try to explain Miscast without just showing you Miscast. He sometimes does wargame maker stuff, like when he made a (almost entirely handsculpted) Nurgle army. But he’s also working on a role-playing game called Arcane Ugly which is bizarre and whimsical and he’s 100% into every bit of it.

He will give himself challenges in his videos, like for everything art book he sells he will handcraft a strange plant (and he sold like a thousand art books, and he’s not phoning it in with the handcrafted plants. They’re all weird and bizarre and totally Trent.)

What I love most about Miscast is the philosophical way with which he engages in the art world. He’s not afraid to make something that isn’t perfect, and he’s not afraid to be silly, and he’s not afraid to do 100% whatever he loves. He is a YouTuber who seems completely uninterested in chasing the algorithm (though he has 147k followers).

I love everything about Trent and about Miscast.

3. Dark Matter Workshop

Perhaps the most wargamey of these wargame makers, Gert (not sure about the spelling) on Dark Matter Workshop makes terrain, mostly. And his terrain is very often in a kinda Necromunda sort of vibe–though not as much as it used to be; he’s changing his channel to branch out a little, and I’m loving it.

Gert is another guy who has a personality that I watch the channel for (the same can probably be said about everyone on this list). He is funny and irreverent. He frequently does collaborations and challenges with other makers. (I first learned about him because of a challenge he did with Eric’s Hobby Workshop.)

He is excellent at taking junk and making something wonderful–and game-ready–with it.

4. Boylei Hobby Time

I have to admit that I was inspired to make this post about wargame makers by Boylei Hobby Time, a channel which I somehow didn’t know existed until late last week, and which I have been bingeing in every spare moment I have.

The project of Boylei’s that I’m most interested in is his Weird Wild West, where he builds wild west buildings, dioramas, and scenes, that are “what if it was the Wild West, but there were monsters and mechs?” Some of the dioramas he’s made with mechs are incredible, but it’s the little town that I’m most in love with.

And I think the reason why I’m in love with this little town (he builds a single building for the town per video, and he’s up to seven) is because he does stuff that I KNOW HOW TO DO. But he does it BETTER. I watch him scratch-building the balsa wood and foam core structures, and I think “I’ve DONE that, but it wasn’t anywhere near as good as what he does.” And I think that’s what draws me to his channel: because it’s advanced, but accessible. I don’t think that, even after watching all his videos, I could do what does. But I do think that, after watching all his videos, I’d be a lot CLOSER to doing what he does. And I like that. Can’t recommend him enough.

5. Studson Studios

Studson Studios doesn’t need me to advertise for him–his channel is huge and his biggest project (a miniature of Howl’s Moving Castle) has 11 million views. He’s a big channel, but there’s a reason for it, and the reason is that he is so incredible.

He takes junk, literal junk–empty bottles, jars, cans, boxes–and turns them into creations that look far better than something most people could make with the best materials. The attention to detail is the biggest thing for me: he really takes his time on everything, doing meticulous work on every project, and the results are nothing short of phenomenal.

And, again, this is a channel that I watch and I think “he’s doing THAT, why can’t I do that?” And it makes me want to try to be a better wargame maker myself. I’ll never build Howl’s Moving Castle or a miniature Casita from Encanto, but by watching Studson Studios do it, it teaches me how to better build wargame terrain.

6. Tested with Adam Savage

This is the strange one on this list, but I promise that it fits here.

Adam Savage (yes, the guy from Mythbusters) has a channel (Tested) where he and other makers (but mostly him) build stuff. And it was Adam Savage, 100%, that got me through the doldrums of the pandemic lockdown. I watched his channel religiously for a solid year (I still watch, though not as religiously) and I learned SO MUCH.

Adam Savage builds, primarily, movie and pop culture ephemera. The first build of his I ever saw was him making a box that would hold his Bladerunner pistol replica. From that video alone I learned about weathering and carpentry and attention to detail.

But it’s not WHAT Adam is building that makes me watch his channel–it’s what he talks about while he’s building. He talks about how to organize a workshop, and how to prioritize the placement of your tools, and how to solve problems and resolve mistakes (because he sometimes makes mistakes and he doesn’t edit them out). It was watching his channel that got me to buy his book, Every Tool’s A Hammer, a book that I recommend to every wargame maker.

Yes, there are some episode that are more miniature-focused, where he’ll put together a model kit (he just put together a garage kit AT-AT) but honestly, I put his video on while I’m painting and just listen to him talk, looking up at the screen occassionally.

I highly recommend Tested.