I've been looking at a few of the tutorials on scratch built asteroids and thought I would share my method with you as I feel not only is it quicker but also yields very good results.

What you’ll need;

* Insulation form (unless you plan on building a complete asteroid belt try and get the smallest size you can or ask for off cuts)
* Stanley knife
* PVC Glue
* 1500 Surface spray Black (Primer)
* 1500 Surface spray Grey (Primer)
* Brass rod 0.8mm (not necessary)
* Modeling hand drill
* Plasticard or modeling board
* Clear Acrylic rod 4mm
* Black, white, blue spray paint (I used Tamiya)
* Black Acrylic paint
* Black Ink
* Modeling paint brushes
* Sand Paper

Step 1.

First of all cut of some blocks around the same size as the asteroid you wish to make using the craft knife or Stanley blade.




Once you have the size you want start removing corners to round off the edges and slowly form the shape of the asteroid.




Step 2.

This is where my method differs, asteroids are basically left over debris from the makings of the universe and have been floating around for a very long time, in that time they have been involved in collisions, strikes, etc and will be pocked and marked by these events. So to replicate this I used the pinching method.

It’s very simple and replicates the effect of numerous impacts by smaller object.

Taking your thumb and forefinger pinch off small pieces of the foam, you don’t want to be slicing it away with nails but physically pulling it off the rest of the foam, work your way around the foam remove flat edges and creating a landscape that you feel works for the shape you are using.



If you make a massive crater on one, make sure to add lots of smaller impact sites inside it, also remove any ‘regular’ or ‘familiar’ shapes as you are trying to replicate something natural.



Step 3.

Once you have your basic asteroid, you should now rotate it in your hands to find the best face that you would like visible while on the gaming table. When holding it, make sure you are looking down and at an angle as that’s how it will be viewed on the table. Having found it you can then put a temporary mount on it to hold it in place while you do the following steps.

Step 4. (Optional)

Now if you look at the cards that came with the core set you’ll notice that there is a lot of debris floating around the main body, if you want to have the same effect you need to make some smaller asteroids in exactly the same fashion – if you are working on very small ones then I would recommend using modeling needle nose pliers to pinch, however don’t grasp the foam too tightly others wise it will not give you the same effect.



Once you have the smaller shapes cut off sections of the brass rod and use the PVC glue to bond the rod to the smaller asteroid and then the main body, again you might want to position the smaller pieces of debris first before bonding to see what looks best.







You’ll have to leave the piece to dry now for about 24 hours before proceeding on to the next step.

Step 5.

Using the black surface (primer) spray your asteroid all over, make sure to get all the crevasses and holes. Don’t worry about paint building up as again this creates a very nice effect when you move on to the next stages of painting.



Leave the asteroid to dry in a well ventilated room as the paint has a slight chemical reaction to the foam and gives off noxious fumes. Once dried go over it again especially if you can still see the base colour of the foam, again leaving to dry.



Step 6.

This step you are going to lay a base colour using the grey primer. The whole reason of using the primer again is that you don’t want a silky smooth finish that ordinary paint gives you, but the matt grainy finishes of primers.

Now this is where you need to be careful as we are not going to coat the whole asteroid but apply only enough to coat the ridges and flattish sections, leaving the creators and areas under the smaller asteroids almost black. Also we are going to pretty much ignore the underside of the model as this will be considered the ‘Dark side’ of the celestial object.



I would suggest holding the spray can about 30cm away from the model and using a side to side motion with the spray paint, while slowly rotating the model on it axis. (I use either kebab sticks or disposable chopsticks for this.)

Once you have the desired effect leave them to dry in a warm, well ventilated room over night. In the meantime you can now start on the bases.





Note; once the paint has dried now is a good time to come back and make sure you have the desired effect of the shadowing, if there are any areas that need to be dark go over them with a wash of black ink.

Step 7.

For these I decided to use the templates of the original ‘core set’ templates as this prevents any potential issues regarding those sticklers whom follow tournament rules.

To match the bases all I did was draw around the originals and then cut them out.



As I wanted something a little heavier to prevent the models tipping over I doubled the thickness of the base by bonding the first set onto the card and then cutting around it, then sanding off the edges to give a nice finish. You could potentially use Tamiya model filler to close and gaps or give a really nice smooth finish to the edges.

Using the modeling hand drill I then drilled a 4mm hole in the base and sanded off the debris found on the edges.





Once this was done I used the black surface primer to coat the base and then once dried coated it again with a coat of matt black.



I decided that I would give the base a star field finish to match my playing surface using the blue and white sprays.

Step 8.

Using the clear vinyl rod I cut some varying length pieces and bonded in to the base of the asteroid using the PVC glue. Once dried you can easily slot them in to the bases without the need of bond and they will hold making it easier to transport them to games.



However if you are only using them at home or have suitable storage for transportation then I would recommend bonding them to the bases.

Step 9.

Now you have the model mounted it’s the perfect time to give it a brush of white to really highlight the highest ridges.

The technique is called dry brushing and requires you to put a small amount of paint on your brush (I use a 12 or 14 square tip brush for this) then removing the majority of the paint with a paper towel.



I also quickly wipe the brush back and forth across the back of my thumb to make sure there isn’t too much paint on the brush.

Then quickly flicking the brush back and forth across the surface of the model to highlight the edges really bringing them out, again I totally ignored the underside and ‘dark side’ of the model.



Last of all we want to hide those brass rods joining the smaller debris to the main body, using matt black and a fine brush just give them a good coating and leave to dry, you may have some glue build up around the base of the rods, use the ink again to hide these and transition in to the main surface of the model.



Step 10.

Break out X-wing miniatures game and enjoy!

Really nice! Where did you get the transparent acrylic rods?

Here in Japan Tamiya does a whole collection of inexpensive hobby and craft materials.