Over the last few days, I have set about making some asteroids specifically for my use in Star Wars X-Wing miniatures games.
I started with a kitchen sponge, some clear plastic cocktail forks, some thick card stock, and the usual assortments of craft paints and PVA glue.
I first traced the asteroid templates from the base set onto card stock, then cut two layers out for each shape. I used the backing office notepads, although cereal boxes, or other sources could work.
I then cut the rough shape of the asteroids (copied from my card stock cut-outs) out of the kitchen sponge. I cut and tore out additional pieces of the sponges, to make the shape more rough and natural. I used a cheap artificial green cleaning sponge from the grocery store, but if I were to do this again, I would likely buy one from the local bargain dollar store, and perhaps look harder for a lighter coloured, or even natural sponge.
I then mixed up a wash of about 1 part black paint, to 2 parts water (maybe 3 parts water, I eyeballed it), and added a healthy squeeze of white glue (Elmers Craft PVA). The glue might have been a half part (?). I stirred thoroughly (making sure not to splash), and then soaked each sponge asteroid briefly, and squeezed out the excess. Then I let them dry overnight. The next day, I still saw more green showing through than I cared for, so I did half of them a second time.
After all the black wash mix had dried. I cut both ends of my clear plastic cocktail forks. Made a slit into the bottom of my sponge asteroids (which had become somewhat stuff, but still pliable), and using white glue, glued the base of the forks to the card stock bases, and then the other end of the fork into the slit cut into the "bottom" of the asteroid. Please note, I found two layers of the card stock were not enough to solidly mount the base of the plastic fork into, so I added a small square as a third layer. On another attempt, I might just cut three layers of the shape of the asteroid instead of two with the little square reinforcement. I let these dry overnight.
I then did a heavy dry brushing a darker brown (FolkArt brand "Coffee Bran brown"), and then a lighter dry brush of a honey/tan colour (Americana brand "Cocoa"). I am going to try and clean some of the slopped paint of the clear forks.
On the whole, I think these turned out pretty good. I can still see some of the green from the sponge in the divets I did not dry brush into. But I find it almost gives more of an oxidized copper look to these craters than the look of the original sponge.
Let me know what you think, any constructive criticism or suggestion are always welcome…. But keep in mind, I made these as cheap and fast and usable… not as high art pieces. I really like the sponge method over the "lava rock" method, as they are light and easily transportable. Also less likely to break up any delicate plastic models/parts.
Cheers,
Michael
