Planets and Moons

by Gary James

Asteroids and planets are the basic terrain for spaceship games such as Battlefleet Gothic and Full Thrust. Fortunately they are easy to make if you can find the right materials.

Materials

Polystyrene (styrofoam) or Oasis balls
Textured paint

Method

Making planets is easy...provided you have planet-shaped materials to start with! What you need are balls...modelling shops often sell polystyrene (styrofoam) balls. Hardware stores sometimes sell plumbing ball-cock valves with plastic balls. But best of all are Oasis balls. Oasis is the crumbly, green foam stuff that flower-arrangers use to make displays. So, other projects have had you going into sewing shops or cake-decorating shops, and now florists make the hat-trick.

The problem with Oasis is, being porous (that's the whole point - to hold water to keep the flowers alive) they are a devil to paint. What you need is some really thick paint such as textured paint or wall covering to get your base coat on the Oasis. Then you can re-paint the planet in your desired colour scheme. I found that dabbing the colours on with a sponge gave a good effect. I also enjoyed flicking paint onto some of the planets and spinning it around. Be warned though - it's very messy!

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