Wednesday, March 1, 2023

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.

47 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I should f thought of that one…Nice. 😀

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  2. Well conceived and executed. Make it so!

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  3. Ooh rock jokes... I work with a lot of Geologists, so you can not hurt me more than they do already.

    The asteroids are great! Maybe you should have a couple more that are a different shade to use as objectives. Find the unobtanium deposits before the Klingons sort of thing.

    What else are you thinking about with regard to terrain? Gas nebula? Planets and moons?

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    1. Thanks David. I do think that in the future there could be space rocks made of Plotism and Scriptonium and other stuff like that. 😀
      Moons and such would be good too though I’d want them HUGE. I thought hard about a nebula but couldn’t figure out how to do it and keep the hexes so that ship could fly through it. Any ideas?

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    2. Colored sand is the classic way, but floating cotton puffs or similar could work too

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  4. Stew, rocking it with those asteroids......
    Some people might say your choice of materials is barking.....not me......I'll stop there and get my coat....☺
    More seriously, what is it with wargamers? I swear if we go for a walk in the countryside we spend more time looking at things like twigs and rocks thinking "what can I use this for..."
    It's like a weird form of Pica; I found myself the other day getting really excited at discovering the grit my wife had put on her plant pots (which appear to have invaded every flat surface in the house and are harbouring fungus gnats.....hence the grit). I looked at it and my first thought was "that will make really good rocks for desert basing, it's even the right colour and......"
    Discovering the large bag of it made my day......
    Neil

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    1. Neil, we are an odd but most harmless group.

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    2. Lol. Thanks Neil. It’s true. My wife will sometimes come to me before throwing something away and ask if I could use it..😀

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  5. Soaking in bleach was a good idea. Another one I've seen when people use things like sticks and branches is to microwave them to kill off anything. I think putting them on flight stands really elevates the effect (sorry, couldn't help m'self--but it's also true: a nice touch).

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    1. Lol. Thanks Ed. I read that too but also read that stuff could catch on fire so went with the safer option. 😀
      I want everything on the space table to be elevated just for that spacey look. 😀

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  6. Look really good, especially for how easy it was. Does the game system have rules for dealing with the roids?

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    1. Thanks Space. Of course there are rules for asteroids, what kind of spaceship combat game wouldn’t have rules for asteroids?!!😀

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  7. No puns here but I will applaud your efforts and offer an alternative to space rocks as “terrain” - destroyed or damaged ships or space stations. Wait, do you even have a space station in your collection yet?

    Also, for scenarios maybe add some civilian starships? Escort duty etc?

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    1. Thanks Dai. Destroyed ships I have thought of but didn’t want to destroy any of mine yet. 😀
      No, I don’t have a space station yet, thanks for bringing it up. As for space stations and civilians; all in due time. 😀

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  8. Bark is a favourite source of rocks for me too, which is probably why the barked gardens are looking rather bare. They look really great.

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    1. Thanks Mark. I’m sure over time my yards will start to look bare too and the wife will wonder out loud where all the bark chips went and I’ll just shrug my shoulders and quickly leave the room mumbling about the kids needing something. 😀

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  9. They look great and very unbark-like once painted. I bought I box of battlefield in a box asteroids, mainly because I couldn't be ass-teroid-ed making my own, but these look far better. When I think on it now, buying a box of fake rocks which are done up to look like rocks, rather than just using rocks or something like this, is probably not the smartest purchase I have made.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence, and good pun. 😀
      I eyeballed that same set for awhile but in the end went my cheaper version. As long as you like them and use them from time to time no purchase is to silly.

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  10. Much better than the ones I actually bought because I’m lazy (hangs head in shame). Only you could start a post with a haemorrhoid joke and get away with it. Top stuff as usual.

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    1. Thanks Jolly. I’m known thorough out the house for my ass humor. No one else finds it funny either. 😀

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  11. Great work on the asteroids and puns Stew! Didn't NASA say there is a asteroid made of gold? You could paint one easy! Or raid the wife's jewellery, she won't mind!
    Anyway seriously (well as serious as you can be talking about toys) great work and they will lots of fun on the battlefield as they smash into spaceships.

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    1. Thanks Ben. But apparently I’ve not made famous cheapness known if you think my wife has gold jewelry. 😀

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  12. I must just chip in with my comments on this excellent pebblecation, reading it really magma day! Make sure you look after these lava-ly creations Stew, one day, they will have great sedimental value to you and your kids!

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    1. Lol. Some of those puns are brilliant and I wish I thought of them and some of those are barely passable. Still, you are the best. 😀

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  13. Excellent recycling Stewart, I always used pumice stone, or Iron slag but these look great and a darn sight cheaper than my usual sources and lighter to.

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    1. Thanks Dave. Those probably look for realistic but one cannot argue about the price. 😀

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  14. Thanks for the tutorial these look awesome!

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    1. Hello Simon. Your welcome. Thanks for writing a comment. 😀

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  15. Very, very effective Stew and with the multiple ones on one stand being a nice touch too. I spend far too much time wondering if those wind blown twigs, bits of bark etc might make for useful wargames scenic items or not when out walking etc. Playground bark is always a distraction!

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    1. Thanks Steve. Yeah the outside is FULL of materials. 😀

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  16. This is a clever use of bark, Stew! It obviously looks great as rocks in terrain and dioramas but I wouldn't have considered asteroids until I saw what you did here. These should liven up any battlefield and add a little bit of danger too, I would guess. Asteroids certainly do in Star Wars anyway :)

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    1. Thanks Jeff. I don’t think there are many scenes in ST where ships are ducking through asteroids fields. Maybe bc the ships are so much bigger that it seems silly. The Millennium Falcon is only 35m big (I looked it up) and my smallest ship is 100m. ❤️

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    2. Supposed to be 😀 not ❤️. Thumb slip. But I do love you. ❤️😊

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  17. I totally like the use of bark for rock. Have seen a lot of it, and itching to try it myself. But having just bought a hand drill, I'd probably add some craters - because speaking as a space enthusiast, that's what makes them look more "spacey" to my eyes. Just some round holes here and there.

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    1. Thanks Jennifer. I admit that nothing says space more like craters. Maybe I'll give it try the next time I make some (I have plenty of bark lying around). 😀

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  18. Great idea Stew! I have used bark for terrain many times. Like you I sterilize prior to basecoating. But for asteroids, I think I would leave them as is and hope some kind of alien space fungus would start growing.

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    1. Thanks Vol. The idea crossed my mind but in general I try to avoid fungus. 😀

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    2. Haha, not me. I always stop for mushrooms at the grocery store

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  19. Excellent looking asteroids and nice tutorial!
    Best Iain

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  20. Very cool, all that crunching to get the universe you want seems like a fun pastime.

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