Space Terrain- Space Hulk

This piece was built for a custom scenario I had written in which two opposing fleets must dock with a space hulk and retrieve ancient technology while duking it out. Unfortunatly the hulk is on a collision course with a planet so both side must act fast! A copy of the scenario can be downloaded here.

The model is a Gundam ship I picked up dirt cheap at Target. The model was distressed using mostly a soldering iron to melt holes all over. A hacksaw was used for more damage and also to seperate the small piece from the main ship. The detached portion, as well as the ship, were packed full of electrical wires and metal rods to simulate shredded corridors, power lines, etc.

The floating debris was mounted on small flight stands and the hulk itself is mounted on two large flight stands. The model was spray primed black. The enire thing was drybrushed white and details were picked out in yellow, red, blue and green. The large, melted piles were painted green as well as to give an impession of an alien or space bug infestation.

White batting (used for filling pillows and such) was used to simulate escaping gas from large holes.

Space Terrain- More Planets

Outer space doesn't have a lot of terrain features, but it does have planets. These planets were made using the same technique as the others on this site.

The only difference is the foam balls were cut in half. This allows twice as many planets per floral ball and also allows the planet to be removed from the board when ships move across them and replaced by a flat template.

The flat templates are pictures of planets from the internet sized appropriatly and printed out on heavy paper.

The tabletop that these pictures were taken on is simply a 4' x 6' sheet of black felt with paint spatter on it. A paintbrush was loaded with paint and I ran my fingers through the bristles to cause paint to spatter onto the felt. When the brush is not as wet you can also "fling" it at the felt to get more spatter.

Red and blue were also spattered but it does not show up very well. The light reflecting off of the felt gives the impression that there are way too much paint. In actuality it is much more sparse.

All in all it makes a very effective starfield for gameplay.

Space Terrain- Asteroids

This terrain was built for a local convention in January (2008). We hosted a couple space ship battle games. The first scenario required one fleet to escape from one board edge to the other while the opposing fleet had to stop them. The catch: a massive asteroid field ran down the middle of the board.

The asteroids were created by cutting out blocks of blue insulation foam and using my thumbnails to pry out chunks of the foam. If you plan on making as many as I did (50+) I would recommend using pink foam as it is less dense and maybe use a tool for the gouging to prevent a numb thumb.

The bases are actually Mage Knight figure bases. There are two styles of Mage Knight bases: the model is mounted on a small disk and the bottom "cup" snaps into that. The other base is the opposite. The base w/ the figure on it has a large window cut out of it so you can read the stat lines. The bases used here are the bottom "cups". The bases can be easily disassembled with a screwdriver.

A hole was drilled into each base to fit a length of floral wire through. The Mage Knight bases are nice because the clip on the bottom provides an easy way to make sure your holes are centered on the base. Lengths of floral wire were cut and one end was bent to an "L" shape. This allowed greater stability and glueing surface when the floral wire was pushed through the base.

The bases were spray primed black. The asteroids were given three coats of home-made textured paint. The asteroids were drybrushed from a dark grey to a white. The bases were left black because it's outer space. The asteroids were then jammed onto their base to create a hole. Then they were removed, a drop of white glue was put into the hole and they were mounted back on their base. the white glue actually adheres quite well. Do not use superglue; it melts foam!

Space Terrain- Planets and Moons

This planet was created by coating a styrofoam ball used in floral arrangements in a PVA/water mix about 3 times. This part takes a long time because you have to wait for the glue to dry. I then attempted to spray the ball a deep orange color, but the ball was still too porous and the paint couldn't hit most of the openings. I ended up brushing it orange instead. In my opinion, it is NEVER worth the time and effort to seal in PVA in order to prime somthing. Just brush prime anything that can be damaged by aerosol and then spray prime. You'll save time and headaches.

I then drybrushed red and light orange bands on the planet. I also drybrushed some clouds onto it. The drybrushing has to be done carefully to get a good blended look and to make sure the coverage is complete as well. I then assembled a large flight stand, painted it black and jammed it into the bottom of the planet. I then pulled the base out, filled the hole with PVA and put the base back in. Finally I sprayed the piece with a sealant.

The moons were made by drilling a hole in a ping pong ball large enough to put a flight stand in. Then just superglue the ball to the stand and prime the whole thing black. Touch the flight stand up if you want to.

The difficult part was trying to get the moons to look like moons without having to paint individual craters on them and such. I blotched various shades of greys and white on the ping pong balls.

I was commissioned by a person years ago on Bartertown to create four more planets a game called "StarBlazers."

Earth and Saturn

These two planets were probably the most challenging due to the fact that the real bodies have a very distinct look to them. These two planets are based on styrofoam floral balls. Earth was basecoated blue, and the continents were painted in with brown. Green was dabbed onto the land masses as well. Ice caps and Antarctica were painted in white, and white was drybrushed over the entire ball to simulate cloud cover.

Saturn was done in a similar fashion, being basecoated yellow and bands of various shades of brown and yellow being drybrushed onto the planet.

Saturn's Rings

This was by far the most challenging part of the project. I wanted to make the rings out of something thin, yet sturdy. I also wanted to minimize cutting on the rings as to keep them as round as possible. I started off with clear plastic, but it did not hold up well and coloring it was quite difficult. A friend of mine suggested using an old record and drybrushing the ridges.

I purchased a couple from Goodwill and tried to drybrush one, but the ridges were too fine. They were also hard to cut and I ended up shattering the first record.

Finally I used a dremel to cut the center out of the record and used the bands on the record to hand paint the rings on. It was very plain, so I mixed a new batch of paint with very fine sand and painted the rings again. I then drybrushed the rings a tan color. It's still not quite what I was looking for, but I think they look good.

Mercury and the Lava Planet

These two planets were based on balls as well, but they were coated in wall filler. Mercury was based on an old cat toy I had lying around. I taped all of the holes in it shut and gave the ball three coates of wall filler, applying each new coat after the last had dried. The ball was sanded fairly smooth once dry and a dremel was used to carve the craters into the surface.

The lava planet is based on a foam floral ball. Wall filler was applied with a brush and some sticks to give the planet a rough, young and seizmically active appearance. Deep cuts were also made into the filler for deep lava flows.

Both planets were base coated black. The lava planet's cuts were then painted red and drybrushed orange, then yellow. Both planets were drybrushed from a dark grey to light grey to white.