Hello again, everyone! Dave, from 13th Company Painting back again with another quick and easy terrain project.
Something a little different this time: some quick asteroids, for space combat games like X-Wing, Firestorm Armada, Battlefleet Gothic, etc. I’ll be using a lot of the same materials as I did in my last terrain article, and they work great here, too!
The first thing you’ll need for this is some lava rock. It’s a light, reddish-brown rock that is usually sold as a type of mulch in hardware or home improvement stores. In my area, we have a mulch specialty store which sells it as well. You can get a HUGE (for our purposes) bag of the stuff for around 5 dollars, and split among some friends. You may also be able to just pick up a few pieces for free if you find a nice store clerk.
The bags of these things tear all the time, and you can usually find loose pieces near where they are stocked in a store. I’ve had success simply asking to take home a few of the loose pieces, rather than buying a whole bag. PROTIP: mention that you need them for an “art project,” that is easier than trying to explain that you are making miniature asteroids!
Here’s what the pieces I chose this time look like:
One of the great things about lava rock is the huge variety of shapes, sizes, and textures you can find. I tried to pick an assortment just for the sake of variety.
I’ve decided to place these on some extra Firestorm Armada stands for playing. I prefer them on stands, for aesthetic reasons. I won’t be gluing them, as it makes them a bit harder to store. You could use a variety of stands, depending on your preference or what you have around. Or, you could simply set them on the table when playing, which would save you the first few steps and make the project even simpler.
Since I like the stands, I’ll need to drill holes in them for the pegs. I pick a drill bit that is roughly the size of the pegs, and one that is several sizes smaller. The lava rock can be a bit fragile, so I like to drill a pilot hole first with the smaller bit. This help avoid cracking the lava rock, or flaking off large chunks near the hole. Here’s one of the pilot holes:
PROTIP: drill slowly and carefully! You don’t want to go all the way through the top of the rock! It obviously won’t work on a stand that way, and you could injure yourself! Lava rock is very light, and drills easily for stone, so take it slow until you have a good feel for it.
After all the pilot holes are drilled, I switch drill bits and drill the final holes. Depending on the rocks you’ve chosen, you might be able to vary the depth of the holes so that they sit at slightly different heights on the table. Here are the final holes:
Once this is done, I test the fit on the stands I’m using. I want to make sure the holes are the the correct size and depth, and that the balance works out.
Then, I hit all the rocks with some grey Krylon ColorMaster grey primer. I use this primer a lot for terrain, since it is durable and easy to use. It took two coats to get good coverage, the lava rock has lots of nooks and crannies, and is pretty absorbent.
Once both coats have dried, I liberally brush on Army Painter Quickshade Strongtone. All the nooks and cranniesreally lend themselves to this type of wash, and they’ll all get called out pretty well.
I did this in two steps, one coat on each “side” of the asteroids. If you coat the whole thing, the Quickshade will drip off a lot, and also make them stick to wherever you place them to dry.
I let the first side dry for about 4 hours before doing the other side. It was still a bit tacky, but dry enough to work with. Then I let them dry overnight. It can be a bit tricky, since the Quickshade tends to look “wet,” even after it has dried.
Once the Quickshade is totally dry, I liberally drybrush the stones with GW’s Longbeard Grey dry paint.
Once that’s done, I hit them with a liberal coating of Testor’s DullCote aerosol lacquer. This protects the paint job, and removes the sheen that the Quickshade adds. PROTIP: Don’t spray Dullcote on them while they are on clear acrylic stands, as it will fog the clear plastic! Once that’s dry, they’re all done and ready to use!
Here they are on their stands, on the table:
Really, this project took almost no time! The Quickshade takes a while to dry, but other than that, the time spent on labor was very minimal. And, in the end you get a great result, for almost no cost!
Let me know what you think of this technique in the comments! If you want to see more of my work,, or are interested in a painting commission, check out 13th Company Painting!
As always, thanks for reading!
