My goal is to create 3D stand-ins for each of the obstacles in the core game and Corellian Campaign, and to do it in time for the CC to come out. I've never "modded" anything or built terrain before (Armada being my first but no longer my only tabletop minis game). So, any starters, advice, ideas, or resources would be much appreciated. Here's what I've gathered to get started. I say this a lot, but I'm terribly sad to have missed out on Space Rocks.

Bases

Months ago, I bought a 1/4" acrylic sheet, traced the core set obstacles onto it, and used a scrolling saw to carefully cut out the pieces, at great risk to my fingertips. The posts are a combination of 1/4" and 1/8" acrylic rods. The plan was to make exact traces of the cardboard pieces, so that these could be used in place of them. Then I realized that they wouldn't be reversible, so they'd technically be missing a small piece of functionality compared to the real deal (ha, as if these things would be used in a high-stakes game where people cared about that stuff). This is the same problem that the Combatzone Scenery pieces have, as lovely as they are. So, the new plan became one of two things:

• Drill a hole all the way through the base, without glueing it in place. The piece can be flipped to either side with the obstacle standing above it. And, if something overlaps, the obstacle can be removed leaving just the base on the table. More aesthetic.
• Use a circular disk as the base, and set it on top of the cardboard. Simpler, more stable, and in the case of a ship overlapping it, a lower profile to the tabletop surface.

The Asteroids

The plan is to take lava rocks, prime and paint them, drill a hole, and mount them on an acrylic rod. This ain't X-Wing, so the obstacles should be a field of little rocks, rather than singleton big boulders. So, I want to have clusters of the things branching out from the center.

The Debris Fields

After acquiring a few cheap ships from the old WotC Starship Battles game, I'm planning on destroying them and mounting their carcasses as a warning to future rebel anarchists. I have a Nebulon-B (similar scale to Armada), a Republic consular cruiser (similar-ish scale to Armada, though probably more fun to proxy for a living CR-90), and a pair of GR-75 transports (sadly, a little bigger than the Armada equivalent). Now the plan is to chop them into appropriately ruined pieces, paint them up to look like burnt-out wrecks, and mount their cold husks as part of a ship graveyard. A few broken TIEs that became casualties of careless handling would fit in nicely, too.

The Station(s)

I've got two "Federation Spacedocks" from the old Galoob Micromachines line of Star Trek ships. They look an awful lot like the station token, so after painting one in an alternate color scheme, this should actually be the easiest job of all.

The Dust Fields (from Corellian Campaign)

I've got some cotton stuffing, and I'm going to use spray paint to make it look like varyingly colored space dust. This one could end up being very easy or very hard. Actually, I'm pretty sure this is the wrong kind of cotton.

The Mines

Okay, so it may be an oft-neglected objective, but I like it as an aesthetic. I'd like to mount something dangerous-looking on a small post, and give it a base exactly the same size as the objective tokens. Those are too small to safely cut with a saw, so I'll need to buy six acrylic pieces from one of the third-party laser-cut sites and drill holes in them.

Questions:

1. What makes more sense for the bases: try to make the bases reversible, or use plastic circles?
2. What's the best way to turn ship models into wrecks? Like, what tool do I actually use to chop a Nebulon in half? Any instructionals from other games?
3. Making dust fields should be about the same as making fire/smoke terrain from other games. Right?
4. Any other ideas for ship wreck models?
5. What type of piece could be used for the mines? I know Mel sells 3D sculpts. Anything else, like a bead or some random little repurposed thing?
6. As an additional step, what could I use for the intel objectives? Know of anything that looks like teeny tiny satellites, data caches, or escape pods?

Bonus: Extra proxy ships. Some droopier than others...

Great ideas!!! I'm interested now.

1. Circular bases so you can use the cardboard, however, since you already have the others cut, drill all the way through. Or combine the two ideas and have circular bases with removable stands so they pack up.

2. I have no idea but I don't think there's a wrong way so have fun with it. I'd use an old saudering iron I don't mind getting messy and do a cut with that. Then there's Dremel tool, meat cleavers, your jig saw, and if you have a BB gun … oh the possibilities. You could take the front of one and "fuse" it into the side of another as if they both exploded ramming. Now I'm very interested haha. Don't forget the battle damage and maybe paint a few fires in there.

3. Sure, but it's space so make them sparkly and very whispy. Heck, go get some multicolored glitter and shine it up.

4. Get some of those nasty Star Trek ships and mangle them until they're barely recognizable. Also, find an old wooden ship model and throw those in there too. Heck, get the phone box from Dr. Who and maybe a tire from a Hot Wheel. Ok, now I'm being ridiculous.

5. Get a sheet metal screw with a phillips round washer head. Use your Dremel to remove the incline. Or, some modeling putty to fill in the shank between the incline as well as the phillips grooves on top. Add some small gage wire to the top for sensors. Then mount then to a thin rod at a slight angle off of vertical. Oh yeah, paint.

6. Gotta think about that one. Used up all my ideas above lol.

Awesome, I have been waiting for someone with ideas to tackle the obstacles. I have meteors on stems, but was wondering how to cut the bases to the same shape as the cards. Are you going to post updates as you go?

Yep, I'll definitely document as I go. For now, the first question is where to begin? As much as I'd love to get some debris fields on the table, I think step one will be to mess around with asteroids. I've got a whole bag of lava rocks, so there's no shortage of test subjects.

1. I'll try out the cut-out bases, since I've got them. I suppose, since I'll be needing to have the posts be removable, that I'm not committed to using the cut-outs. I could have the cut-outs, the disk bases, and the posts entirely separately. Just plug the posts into whatever base you want.

2. Sadly, I have no soldering equipment. But I did just see a video for X-Wing (why does X-Wing get all the good how-tos?) that recommends scarring and cutting models using a nail, driven through a cork to hold it, heated over a candle flame.

3. The dust fields I'll get to after. I'll try with the cotton I've got already, but it may require another trip to the crafts store.

4. Yeah, I've got more Star Trek ships, but I'm concerned some of them might be too recognizable. I've got a DS9 that might be good as space junk if its chopped into its component spars.

5. Got a picture of the type of screw you had in mind? Google Images returns an eclectic hodge podge.

Something like this: https://www.fastenal.com/products/details/0162744

Probably with a rounder top. Fill in everything (Phillips top, spiral incline on shank) with some modeling putty. Go to any hardwares store and look in the hardware section and you're bound to find something.

Awesome, I have been waiting for someone with ideas to tackle the obstacles. I have meteors on stems, but was wondering how to cut the bases to the same shape as the cards. Are you going to post updates as you go?

Simple, you make a mold of the various obstacles and then make a cast of them in an epoxy resin. If you keep the cardboard sprues, then you can cast off them as is.

Just picked up a federation docking station like yours online. A few mods and it will make a great station.

The way I got the outlines was to buy a 1/4" sheet of transparent acrylic and trace the shapes onto it. Then I used a scroll saw to cut them out. It was kind of dangerous to cut tiny jigsaw shapes of a tough material like that with my hands so close to the blade, but maybe I'm just a bad carpenter.

This sounds like an excellent excuse to get a Rotozip!

If you can find them, some of the plastic cruisers from Battlefleet Gothic would make great space debris. The pieces are modular and the hard plastic cuts easily with a saw. The scale is similar enough, and I think making them faction-neutral makes the terrain more interesting. "What ship was this? Who blew it up? What was it doing here?" That sort of thing. In that vein, Macross ships could be fun, too.

Otherwise, any small-scale (1:7000 or smaller) plastic toys or models will work, I think.