Asteroids Terrain

 Every Ass should have a Roid.

No, not those kind of Roids.  And I don't mean hemorrhoids.

I mean Asteroids.  

(This blog is the epitome of classy humor) 

Asteroid Space Terrain

Being new to space gaming I find I am in need of some space terrain; all the  gorgeous terrain that I have is no good for space as space doesn't have woods, trees, hills, etc...  

I know space is basically empty so an empty table would be appropriate but where's the fun in that? 

There's not a lot of space terrain options really, and asteroids are the obvious choice.

I made some rocks in space.  

Asteroids.

I looked at some pictures on line of some real asteroids and thought they looked kinda boring.  Mostly they looked like coffee beans with craters.  I wanted something little more dynamic and craggy.  

The idea of this one is that a little piece is floating above the main hunk.

Asteroids could probably be any color you like, but I like gray.
Gray is my favorite color.
It matches my outlook on life.

with some ships for size comparison. 
I wanted hulking asteroids that would like they would actually damage the ship,
not little pebbles that would bounce off the shields.

Construction Process

Because don't you want to know? While looking online for guidance I didn't find many 'make your own asteroids terrain' tutorials.  maybe it's a boring topic?  Maybe it's that damn easy so no one bothers.

I didn't want to buy any, because as I said, I wanted hulking-menacing-dinosaur killing- looking asteroids and I wanted the bases to be the same as the ships.  So that everything matches and looks good. Unlike my wardrobe.  I don't think any of my socks match.  

There are however; lots of tutorials for making terrain with rocky faces and cliffs that use bark chips.  And my over caffeinated brain put these two ideas together; Asteroids are just big rocks in space.  The side yards of my house are full of bark chips free for the taking.  (because I already paid for them).

One day while playing in the backyard with the children,
before the floods of Noah hit California, I picked up these.

I picked up chips of various sizes that looked interesting.  Either due to shape or texture or perhaps it had a compelling back story of love and adventure.

Treatment: before starting the work I took the chips and washed off the dirt and stuff in the tub.  And then for an extra measure I let them soak in a bowl full of bleach for 10 mins.  Just to kill anything that might be growing on them.  Then dumped it all back in the tub and took out the chips to dry and left the rest for the wife to clean the next day. 

Selection: I laid out my space mat to check the size.  I waned big and hulking but not so hulking that an asteroid would spill out over a hex too much.

hexes are two inches so tried to find ones that fit well enough.
Klingon ship in there as well.

Build: I selected 5 to start.  First I drilled a hole in the bottom for the flight peg.

This is a boring picture.
But it proves that I have power tools.

Then using a hot glue gun I stuck some smaller pieces to the bigger pieces to try and make it look dangerous, and then stuck them on the flight bases.

I drilled some small holes and stuck some small pieces on wires, the idea that I could make some look like they were floating right above.  This proved fiddly and I only did it with two.

  

 that's basically it.  pretty simple and easy actually.  And I have lots of materials to make more if necessary.  Pretty cheap too as I just picked the things off the ground.  The hardest part about the whole thing was being outside with the kids (shudder).

5 bases to start.  Don't know how many space rocks I'll want.

Painting: I won't bore you with painting.  Primed everything black and dry brushed dark grey, medium grey, and white.

I think they came out pretty decent.  It'll be nice to have a little Line of Sight blocking terrain for space.the idea is that they can be group together in a cluster or out on their own.  In the future I might try making some bigger ones that use 2 or more flight bases and take up more hexes

Rock on, Rock Out of here

Time to move on.  You're a boulder person than me if you've even read this far.  Don't take it for granite.  And if you haven't thought hard about makin asteroid terrain, well igneous is bliss. 

Thanks for reading.

Double Thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.