Making asteroids for X-Wing

Hello, all!

Well, after my first game of X-Wing, which featured a single proof-of-concept sort of asteroid (that was actually made by mistake) I thought I should get going on some real asteroids!

First up?  Some lava rocks!  I had considered a few other materials, such as styrofoam, but after some recommendations over at TMP I went with lava rocks.  They look EXACTLY like I would expect asteroids to look!

It doesn't hurt that they are cheap; it was maybe four bucks at Home Depot for these fellows!

While there I also picked up a quarter inch dowel, and also some one inch wooden buttons.  I drilled out the buttons, and then cut up some dowel pieces.  I slipped the dowels into the buttons, glued them in, and let them dry.

You can see them here drying next to a TIE Fighter (who is clearly just waiting to get smashed to bits!)

After that I gave hem a quick spray paint of black.  Then I drilled out the lava stone a bit (MAN that killed my drill bit... crappy drill bit got all worn out from that!) and then dabbed a bit of construction adhesive to the ends of the dowels.  I stuck the lava rock on and voila!  Attached to their flight stands!  I did find that the asteroids stood up pretty well, actually, but since I plan on moving them around I did end up going back and gluing on a poker chip to the bottom of each, just for a bit more stability, although honestly it didn't even need it.

 At that point I could have been done, but I felt it needed a bit more.  So I grabbed some white, black, and tan paints and did a quick drybrush of each, to bring out that fantastic crater-ish detail that the lava rock has.  Some I did grey, some brown-grey, and some a mix... after all, every asteroid shouldn't be the same color!

Finally I put some numbers around the base, as I intend to have the asteroids move as I play... each one moves in a direction at speed one.  I plan on making a few other man-made objects (satellites and the rest) that will behave the same way... they'll just move at speed two or three instead.

So... that's it!  Asteroids done!  I might make two more, but for now I am in good shape.

Next up?  Well, I think I'll do a couple of planets, made out of large foam spheres.  Sure, they won't be to scale, but that isn't the point... they are meant to be visual and to get in the way.  I will also do a few man-made obstacles, like floating space garbage and satellites and the like... I'll put them on stands like the asteroids, but rather than them moving distance 1 they'll move distance 2.

Thanks for coming by!