"Quick Cheap Star Wars X-Wing Board -a Star Field" Topic

I just got the X-wing game and needed a board for home solo gaming. Not having money to spend right now on Wombat's Great Death Star pieces, I thought a nice star field was just the thing.

I taped together 2 pieces of black 20"x30" foam core I had laying around the house*, flicked on some white paint for stars & Viola, a 40"x30" star field board that folds in half for storage. Not the greatest in the world, but it looks pretty good and final cost, zero, time spent in construction and painting, less than an hour.

*My zombie town didn't need a new building this week anyway.

Cheap and effective :)

Looks good to me!

There are some decent fabric star fields out there too for sale. Some even have planets, though I prefer the ones without them. Perhaps get a yard or so of the planet fabric, and cut those out to place on the plain starfields, when desired.

Walmart sells the fabric, as do Joann's Crafts.

looks good to me!
scotty

This one was recommended on BGG:

link

…Like Mako11 said. I'm going to swing by Monday and see what it looks like in person.

I'd much rather have a cloth than new terrain boards; I don't have room to store the ones I already have.

Make sure to roll up your fabric terrain, after play, for storage, so you don't get all those nasty wrinkles in space, unless that's a special effect you are going for.

Thanks guys.
Excellent ideas.
Clif

I use black glitter felt, sold at Joann stores. Looks great, and the sparkle really captures the distant starfield effect.

But I do like your foam core board— nicely done!

Looks good to me. Cost effective.

Beast, thanks for the heads up on that item. I'll be taking a look at also.

I have a blue cloth that is somewhat of disco dress material with streaks and sparkles through out. It was a ugly dress on the hispanic girl I was seeing, but as a back drop for Star Wars I have used it with my micro machines. kind of a cross between a a 60s B grade movie,or Star Trek and Deep Space Nine or Battlestar Galactica.
VR
James Mattes

I like black 'fleece', as it tends not to show wrinkles, and can keep you warm in an emergency. ;->=

Not so sure it'd be good for putting star field on.

Foamcore looks brilliant, and you could always cut jigsaw patterns into edge, THEN spatter, to make a steady playfield.

Doug

Thanks for the inspiration! Made mine yesterday arvo. I bought a metre of black acrylic felt, cut it to 900mm square and then made a multi coloured star field by brushing paint onto a piece of small metal mesh, adding some water to it and flicking the mesh suddenly. Small round droplets of paint splatter over the felt. Depending on how much water you add determines how big the droplets are. More water means smaller droplets and a bigger splatter pattern. Alternate colours for effect. I chose less is best for my effect, but you could easily spend 10 more mins and make the edge of the galactic core. The cost was $6.00 USD and half an hour. I dried the paint quickly using a hair drier and played on it 40 mins later. Too easy

Just an added thought, if you wanted to have a shadow style nebular effect then all you need do is cut out the desired shape from paper and place it in the desired position before you start splattering any paint. When done remove the mask template and you have your area of space free of stars.

Panzergruppe that sounds great!

I look forward to seeing your corvette get attacked as it cruises across the felt.

Thanks to your reference pics I scrounged up a rebel base set from the dusty bottom shelf at my local FLGS. I was thinking of working up the Xwings that come with that set as z95 headhunters.

And this is why I have advocated for more years than I can remember that spaceship combat gaming is the cheapest, smartest way to enjoy this hobby of ours….

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net