Tables and terrain

[Sneaky Chris]

Hi

Does anyone know wear I can get a good star mat from. I keep seeing them in your pictures but cant find them online.

Also are there any articles on how to make your own planets and asteroids. Once again its because ive seen some great one in the pictures here.

 

[AdrianH]

Asteroids are easy. Go outside and get some pebbles.

Planets and gas clouds are available from Court Jester:
http://www.thecourtjestersstudio.com/space.html

Alternatively hunt round the net for planet texture maps, e.g.
http://maps.jpl.nasa.gov/
A bit of work with Photoshop or something similar should scale a map to the right size. Either cut out a circle and print it, or print the whole map and cut out a circle, then laminate it. Unless you have an A3 printer, you'll need to print gas giants out as two halves; if you print them as top and bottom halves, the bands will camouflage the joint.

Other gas clouds can be found on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, among other things.

 

[Iain McGhee]

http://www.hotzmats.com/index.html do really nice game mats, Ground Zero Games also do some (but nowhere near as good IMO).

I'd stick with 2D planets if I was you, it's a bit tricky balancing ships on the 3D ones :wink:

 

[treknogeek]

mondayknight productions has a space mat that I have seen floating around ebay. I am not sure of the quality but am considering getting one myself and I have seen that particular pattern going for 30 + shipping (though not from mkp).

 

[basaint]

I have both the Mondayknight and Hotz maps and are both really nice. The only issue with felt maps thought is if you're using counters, they stick to the map a little (paper corners).

For 20 bucks, i bought a 4x6 piece of felt and white fabric paint and made my own. Just hung it on the wall and flicked the paint at it-worked fine and except for the one crazy line it made, is perfect and cheap.

I'm working on using inexpensive vinyl (think its vinyl) now since the minis and paper move a lot easier on it. Any smoother fabric will do.

 

[Burger]

Lumps of Oasis (from a flower shop) are great for asteroids. Easy to cut, shape, base and paint, and weighs about 1% of a real rock.

 

[Sneaky Chris]

Thanks guys.

 

[Chernobyl]

I have planet, asteroid, and gas cloud printable templates on my website
www.epicarmycard.com

I'd second the Monday Knight battlemats if you can find them, I have 3 or 4 I think (for when I was running tournaments).

Alternatively, you can go to a fabric store and get something called glitter cloth. Black felt, with impregnated glitter. Cheap, and you can easily get a 4'x6' cloth field. makes a very dense star field background, though, and photographing it with a flash is difficult.

Chernobyl