"GW Moonscape - How big are the craters" Topic

Any one know how big the craters from GW are:

(A pic with 15mm and/or 25mm would be great)

Thanks in advance
Andrew
Mini site: 2mmwars.kings-sleep.me.uk

Some old photos Andrew, but they show the scale using GZG 15mm Sci Fi.

They provide good 'instant' terrain.

Cheers
Mark

Great could not ask for more.

Thanks Mark

I'd strongly suggest you get Pegasus Hobbies craters instead. The GW ones tend to have muddy detail and a high price point.

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Yep, thanks for that, Mark. Answers my questions about their size, too.

@Psyckosama

I saw those while hunting craters but they seem rather too regular for me.

The 'muddy' details do not worry me as I want to use grit and texture spray on them (once I can paint again) so only need a basic form.

The cost is always an issue but I have tried making some and spent more that this with zero result

The unpainted Pegasus version is cheaper yet – $14.99 for the set. Ideal if you want to use them on an existing desert or red planet terrain board.

-Chris K.

"I'd strongly suggest you get Pegasus Hobbies craters instead. The GW ones tend to have muddy detail and a high price point."

High price point? The GW ones are $17 USD(Le gasp! A whole $2 more! and there's tons of places you can get them cheaper. Like Ebay for one.) and the two sets go very well together if they're painted the same way.

I have the even older GW craters that came as an A4 sheet. There's not a lot of detail in those!!

If I may offer a thought…craters are about the easiest terrain feature that a person can make.

For less than $10 you could make more than you could use or you could create a completely cratered board would would be nice.

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(before you laugh this one away, I did three different projects with various science fairs using this one and sealed the crater…we used different layers of colored sand, pebbles, rocks, mica, etc…with a urethane spray…spray from above and let settle, reapply with thicker coats, and in the end it creates a hardened crater)
I would think for a game table you could apply this to a plaster mix with dry talc and sand over it, drop rock/marble/ball/etc., and then seal…the plaster will harden and there you go

YouTube link

(this one has heavy rock theme music cranked up :)
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A few other tutorials

(clipped from Terragenesis)

Craters from foamcore offcuts by Mat Chainey

(Polyfilla is a brand name for wall filler – the stuff you mix with water and fill cracks in walls with. I believe the Americans call it spackle – Gary)

Especially for all you foamcore (AKA foamcard) users out there…

After completing your buildings, you are usually left with some strips of foamcard which, until now had no use. Now, you can use them to make some quick and cheap craters.

Cut the strips into triangles and glue them into a circle on some (fairly strong) card. Glue the triangles down by the LONGEST edge as this will result in a slope both inside and outside the crater. It's a good idea to try out the circle before you glue it down as this lets you get a natural look.

Leave to dry completely.

SLIGHTLY thin some Polyfilla and add a fairly large helping of brown ink to make a "mud" colour. Paint the mixture over the whole circle, including the centre using a thick old paintbrush. If your mixture is the right thickness, it will fill the gaps and stay in position, but will still be easy to apply. Trim the outside of the card so that it's about 1cm from the edge of the crater.

Have a beer and admire your handiwork.(I like this bit…Gary)

I really mean it about the beer…(so do I…)

Cutting the triangles roughly mean that the edge of the crater is rough. Exactly what you want…

The bigger the triangles, the bigger the circle you should make, so you can make different sized craters.

These are easiest to do in groups of 5 to 10.

The brown ink means that the craters are ready to use as soon as they dry, and makes it easy to see where you have and haven't filled. You can paint them up carefully later if you like…

I generally leave the circles to dry for 24 hours before adding the polyfilla.

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Good example of technique, though I find the creative aspect a bit pedestrian…but each person's taste and such

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Another with a nice final look

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And another couple

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Most of the above are blast craters but the techniques are the same for moonscape or blast crater :)

Anyone got pics of the GW and Pegasus ones, side by side?

Dan

If you are looking for cheap craters without the fuss of making them I recommend Amera Plastic Mouldings. amera.co.uk

They have several sets like this one at £3.50

They are very good as dust surface/moonscape craters. You can hide a medium sized Grav tank inside the largest one. here's a based example.

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Whilst I like the Amera, they have less definition that the GW ones and dont have that blasted rock look of the GW.

Cheers
Mark

I made a ton of craters using spackle, foam board and grit(sand, rocks etc) Not as nice as the vacu plastic but I had the materials at hand.

Those Amera Plastic ones look good…and look surprisingly familiar…like plastic bowls turned upside down and treated to some directed heat.

Hmmm that sounds like an option?

Awesome! Going to make a moon table now.

Take a look at these!

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Psyckosama great find. That Amazon ad says you get 2 sheets for the price of one…that code is for one, the dual code is the stock price they show, so if it is 2 for price of one than a great deal!

It may be a case of Plastruct changing their codes?

Either way it is a fun set.

I have been giving this some thought.

I have worked with lots of different materials over the years and I think I may have an interesting and fun process to make craters for a gaming table.

Several of the above, especially the soldering iron and burning spray paint is at the best toxic but fast.

So a safer and more moon impact style…

kitchen paper towel rolls cut into uneven and shallow rings

some sort of base…CDs, masonite, foamcore, etc.

plaster of paris or drywall spackle

small collection of substrate…sand, rocks, pebbles, etc.

baby powder or talc

hair spray

spray primer

*****

Place a skim layer of plaster/spackle on your base

Cut you paper towel rings to make C's, place on your wet base creating off centered dual rings or dual impact spots

(repeat on 3-5+ bases, to allow some dry time and effort management)

Take semi-dry/dry base(s) and lay down another layer of wet plaster/spackle

(repeat on on your bases…collect them up base to base)

Sprinkle with your substrate

Spray with hair spray from above and let settle, repeat, and then once confident the spray has coated the surface, then spray a heavy coat…let air dry

Build up any edge that is too uniform with plaster/spackle

Spray base(s) with hair spray with a wet coat and pour a small amount of powder in the crater, then blow on it to direct the impact and dust direction

(if all your bases are next to each other you will get random cross over dust)

Sprinkle a bit more substrate to compliment the dust pattern and seal with primer

*****

It all sounds like alot, but to detail each step takes up text space…seems like a quick way to make a bunch of moon crater terrain as well as a few rises, trenches, etc.

So, why the hair spray exactly?

Dan

Holds the little bits in place. A touch of sticky that dries quickly.

Spray sealers are great but they take too long to dry…

Eh. We can't all be the Martha Stewart of wargaming. That's why GW and Pegasus make craters. Lol.

That is true…I only mentioned it because this sort of project is about as easy a project as possible…no right angles, no distinct form, etc.

But you are right, some folks really do not want to make their terrain.

:)

I like to make my terrain…. I just never have time to. Easier to keep painting figures and just buy the terrain instead of more figures, then paint it somewhere in between figures.

Has anyone done anything else with their GW craters?

Thanks,

Dan

Guys,

You won't believe this . . .

Check out what GruntZ has done with the GW craters, to create the appearance of a huge impact crater:

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I am DEFINITELY going to try to copy his technique and cut up a couple of the larger ones (I have 3 full sets, unpainted).

Isn't that fantastic?

Dan

Thanks Dan for the comments. It is still work in progress at the moment. It was very easy to cut the larger crater apart and what you see on the table in the photo above is actually less than one set of the plastic craters, so you get plenty in one set to complete a 15mm SCI-FI table.

GruntZ: "what you see on the table in the photo above is actually less than one set of the plastic craters"

Wow! Which one of these was the one you cut up and spread out to make the larger curve?

Dan

It was the two furthest on the right of the photo. The small double and super larger crater. I still have four or five chunks left after using them on the board.

Thanks so much!!!

Dan

GruntZ,

By the way, when I first saw your pic it reminded me of part of the outer edge of this formation in the Libyan desert (Jebel Arkenu, Kebira Crater):

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Dan
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Cool….

I really like what Gruntz did. I keep going back to it over and over again:

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Dan