Bold New Worlds

[Red-24]

Ok, "bold" may be a bit of an overstatement, but I spent most of the weekend creating planets and they turned out great! I took pictures along the way and will put together a how-to type article later. Maybe I'll submit it to S&P.

The other thing I did is put "stars" on my black felt mat. I've had this 4x6 piece of felt for years, and now have committed it to space combat. It also adds a lot to the game.

I have a single-bulb light, on an articulated arm, mounted just above my gaming table in the basement to offset the overall darkness of the room. I took these pictures at night with only that light on. Gave a great effect.

Here are some shots:

Cratered Lifeless Rock (1.5 inches)

Larger Catered Lifeless Rock (2.25 inches)

Small Lifeless Rock 1 (1.5 inches)

Small Lifeless Rock 2 (1.5 inches)

Small Lifeless Rock3 (2.25 inches)

Small Lifeless Rock 4 (1.5 inches)

Hot Earth-like World (6 inch)

Earth-like world (4 inch)

The star field in action. (Not that my ships aren't finished yet.)

Here's a link to the complete album: https://plus.google.com/photos/103588561671775506183/albums/5716438188429029281

 

[Stumonster]

All I can say is . . . . WOW!!! Nice job on those.

Sadly, I cannot hope to do this kind of work, so I have had to buy what I can for planets. . . .

Again . . (pun intended) Stellar job!

 

[Arch Lector Petrovski]

Really cool, very good job on the planets; especially the depiction of the atmospheric conditions on the 'earth-like' worlds.

 

[Nomad]

Well done, they look great!

 

[Da Boss]

Excellent work - very cool

 

[scoutdad]

I'll be making planets this weekend.
I hope they turn out half as nice.

Good job there.

 

[Red-24]

Really cool, very good job on the planets; especially the depiction of the atmospheric conditions on the 'earth-like' worlds.

I made sure to gloss coat the initial paint job first. Then I used watered down white paint to dab or swirl patterns on. Immediately after applying some paint, I dabbed it with a tissue; swiping or twisting a little as I went.

I would then apply a bit more in the same area, dab again, etc.

I'll post some fully lighted photos later.

 

[Arch Lector Petrovski]

Thanks for the guidance, might have to give some serious thought to retiring the computer printouts and making some planets at the very least.

 

[Zamboni]

I like the first couple cratered moons. How are you making the craters?

 

[Rabidchild]

I like the first couple cratered moons. How are you making the craters?

I second this question, they look amazing!

 

[Red-24]

Ok. I'll give you the step by step.

You need a few things:

• Styrofoam balls - I got 6 for $1.25 Canadian at the Dollar Giant. (Still not sure why a Dollar store sells everything for $1.25?)

• Various nails with different sized heads

• A pair of pliers

• A lighted candle

Use the pliers to hold the nail, with the largest head, by the pointy end. Hold the head in the candle flame for about 30 seconds to start.
With the heated end, press gently against the styrofoam ball to melt a "crater.

It takes a few tries to get a feel for how long to heat, and how hard to press. After the first heating, the next heating only takes 5 to 10 seconds (depending on how quickly you work).

After you have put craters around the ball it will look something like this:

Now take the next biggest nail head and do the same, but with more craters. This time, try not to press quite as deeply, since smaller collisions make less deep craters. Put the occasional crater in, or overlapping, on of the larger craters.

Then do the same with the next smaller nail, but even more craters. You'll find with smaller nails, you can rapidly do 4 to 8 small craters with one heating. As the nail cools craters will just be less deep.

I used four different nails, pictured above. This is how it turned out:

Pick away all the "threads" of melted stryrofoam that you can. Then wash under water while rubbing with your fingers to get rid of more of the melted threads. You can leave a bit of "stuff" behind to give some ruggedness.

Next paint the whole thing with black acrylic paint. I'm sure if you wanted a weirder look you could do a really light spray of black enamel that would "melt" the surface futher.

After the black dries, drybrush the whole thing with a dark grey.

When that is dry, drybrush with a lighter grey, then a near white grey. You can also use other colours like redish brown, oranges and yellows, etc. Just work from darker to lighter.

That's about it. Here are some more shots:

 

[Renny]

Excellent work and write-up

 

[Sgt_G]

Perhaps you could take some of those melted threads and lay them down on the surface to create radial lines from the craters. See the real moon for what I'm talking about.

Great job, by the way!

 

[Rabidchild]

Brilliant & simple, that's a winning combination.

 

[Red-24]

Brilliant & simple, that's a winning combination.

Not to mention Cheap. I'm all about Cheap. ;-)

 

[Red-24]

Another shot of all the planets in full lighting.

 

[Red-24]

And just to go overboard a bit, a video play list of each of the planets so you can see them from all sides. ;-)

A Call to Arms: Star Fleet terrain

 

[Zamboni]

Thanks for the tip. I'd been making my craters out of dents; I hadn't thought of melting them in.

 

[Renny]

Just wanted to show my daughter's efforts making a moon with your technique

 

[Red-24]

Awesome. Look forward to seeing photos of your planets.