Hello All,

I perseverated for a while over how to make asteroids for my X-Wing games and you can see the results of my labor in the pics.

Materials: decorative volcanic rock (Michaels), acrylic or polycarbonate rod (TAP Plastics), 1" fender washers, ProCreate (2-part epoxy putty), Gorilla glue, and Cyanoacrylate glue, hobby knife, drill with masonry bit, cheap craft paints (Michaels).

Procedure:

1. Take a hammer to the volcanic rocks until you have the desired shapes and sizes. Caution, this is dusty, messy work.

2. Use a masonry bit to drill into the newly shaped rock.

3. Using GG, glue the plastic rod into place within the drilled hole.

4 Glue a small square of paper over the washer hole, put the rod into the hole with a small ball of ProCreate and some CA glue.

5. Once dry, smear some GG over the top surface of the washer, spread it with a toothpick periodically. Cut into the glue with a hobby knife to give it an uneven surface.

6. Paint these layers: charcoal grey - honeycomb (fortune cookie color) - tapioca. Then intersperse partial layers of the 3 colors in different places until you feel it looks done.

My next step is to embed some neodymium magnets into the asteroid templates to prevent my rocks from constantly falling over.

I saw those rocks at Michaels too. They're too too too heavy. Go with pumice.

If they were left as is, you are right.

That is why I will magnitize the asteroid templates themselves.

If they were left as is, you are right.

That is why I will magnitize the asteroid templates themselves.

Suggestion - only put a magnet in the rock base itself. Then just put a piece of metal in the asteroid token. That way you can flip the asteroid token over, and not reverse the polarity of the magnet. Therefore regardless of the orientation of the token, you can use your rocks.

Furthermore, the reason to put the magnet in the asteroid instead of the token is that some people put washers in their ship bases to weigh them down. In the event that you are one of those (or are playing against one of those) and a base goes over a rock, you obviously need to remove your 3D rocks - but you don't want the magnet remaining and interfering with the ship base (or worse - the ship moving the asteroid token).

As the asteroid bases are not magnetized, polarity won't be an issue.

I did not consider weighted ship bases though.

Do people generally put weights underneath ship bases or do they add the weight to the area where the cardboard sits. If it is the latter, I doubt it will be an issue because I am using very small magnets.

As the asteroid bases are not magnetized, polarity won't be an issue.

I did not consider weighted ship bases though.

Do people generally put weights underneath ship bases or do they add the weight to the area where the cardboard sits. If it is the latter, I doubt it will be an issue because I am using very small magnets.

The most common tactic is to add a washer underneath the base. You can get one the right size that size flush with the bottom and just perfectly with the sides. An optional second step is to silicon coat all of it so that it's grippy as well.

A large fender washer epoxied under the base covered with caulk works great. Magnets in the asteroid tokens is not a good idea.

How prevalent is this practice?

I've only played at an LGS once as career and parenthood conspire to steal my gaming time.

I think I will plow forward as I will most likely spend most of my X-Wing games using my own ships with my son and his buddies. I tried a couple other things before going to this, but found them too labor intensive for me to reasonably get done.

If I am ever in a tourney, we can just use the other player's tokens in a pinch.

I saw those rocks at Michaels too. They're too too too heavy. Go with pumice.

Yeah, I've got a couple of Ork Roks I made for Battlefleet Gothic from pumice. It's great stuff!

I am also making asteroids at the moment, although I carved them from styrofoam. Taking pictures and making a thread when I am done.

​I made some recently, shaped polystyrene sprayed with Games Workshop black undercoat then painted. lightweight and turned out really well. photos to follow (did a moon too)