Star Wars X-Wing 3D Asteroid Scenery - How To

Last week I set up an X-Wing epic style game for our gaming group. I wanted to make this a really awesome experience for some first timers and vets alike so I had a go at making some 3D asteroids. These really add to the wow factor of a board and if you are like us, non-competitive, non-meta toting fan boys then these are great. There are many posts about them "getting in the way" we didn't find this at all, and with 50 ships on the table I think that proves a point.


Anyway I first started by ordering these replica lava rocks from Amazon at £5 they aren't bank breaking and you have enough in here to make perhaps 30 to 40 asteroids! I first started with an undercoat of black (sorry no work in progress shots) once dried I highlighted the asteroids from one side with a spray of white paint. No airbrush in sight, just plain old rattle can. This gives you a nice highlighting effect and to be honest at this point you can call it quits and be done with it. I went a little further however and took out my shades and inks.


For this I used Green Shade, Blue Shade, Druuchi Violet, Red Shade, Sepia Shade and Yellow Ink. Just go crazy, use a single brush and lay on a mixture of shades leaving the yellow ink to last. You will get some magical bleeding between the inks that really make the asteroids take on a life of their own. I can't really guide you with this, just experiment. Do however make sure you have enough of a white highlight to apply this to, the shades and inks won't do anything over a black undercoat so you are relying on that white to apply the shades to.


Finally after drying I took a hand drill and made some holes to fit a pack of 25 flight stands for 40k I found on ebay for £2.50. All in all I came out with 12 asteroids that really set the table on fire and made for a great evening. Hope that helps you.

Craig McNicholas

Some say he’s half man half fish, others say he’s more of a seventy/thirty split. Either way he’s a fishy bastard.

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