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[Battlefleet Gothic] Gaming 'Board' - Space sheet & Terrain

Started by Restayvien, January 08, 2013, 01:29:30 PM

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Restayvien

I'm beginning to put together a BFG board, in the form of a painted sheet and some terrain. I'll make a seperate post and upload photos for each piece off terrain as I make them!

Below is a list of things I intend to acquire/make or *could potentially make, and how I could do it (those with * are those I probably need more help with when it comes to figuring out how to create them!). If you have any suggestions fire away. :)

"Board"

Planning to use a sheet rather than a board...though I'm not sure what type of material to use. It needs to be hardwearing, paintable, and not too 'springy' (so models can sit on it easily).

Terrain:

- Sun*
This needs to be large but light, and I'm not sure exactly how to pull it off. It could just be a dome, or an upside down dome on a flying base? Or beach ball that I can deflate for storage? Easiest option may be to paint a circle of fabric to represent the edge of a sun but I'm not a fantastic painter so it will look flat and lame...

- Planets and Moons
I have started on some of these already! I have one small planet (roughly 7" across) and three planetoids/moons (roughly 2" across). I have a handful of small wooden balls about 1.5cm across and I'm not sure what to do with them, they look too perfectly spherical to be asteroids but are a bit solid to reshape. They may do as small moons.

- Ringed Planets*
Planets are fairly easy...rings on the other hand, not so much. An old record would be ideal but a) I don't have any and b) I'm not sure how I would cut out the centre smoothly. May have to use card but again cutting a clean circle may be tricky and it would have to be fairly rigid.

- Asteroids
I don't really have anything I can use but I could find some stones or something.

- Comet*
Any ideas on this one? How to make a convincing 'trail' (suppose I could use sand)...

- Dust Clouds
Sand and/or gravel, easy that one.

- Gas Clouds
Will probably use cotton wool sprayed green/yellow.

- Nebulae
Will probably use cotton wool sprayed blue/purple.

- Solar Flare*
Yellow/red sand and cotton wool combo?

Restayvien

Small Planet I

Overview:
This first planet is going to be fairly traditional, with predominently green continents and blue oceans. I'm thinking of having a light and a dark side, but I'm not sure how to achieve this exactly. It would be cool to have illuminated continents at night on one side and daylight on the other.

Additional details:
Considering modelling a satellite/low orbit space station as part of the planet itself, by putting a small hole in it and suspending the thing with wire or a clear rod. Not sure how I would actually model the thing though, it would need to be tiny.


Day 1:

One small planet and three large moons/small planetoids. Coated in watered-down PVA glue, sand added for land masses (intentionally unevenly).

Jonagon

Saw this a little while ago and thought it was a really great idea.

http://www.thepainteddragon.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1813

The guy took a picture from the hubble telescope and got it printed large to use as the basis of the board..

knightperson

I made a couple of playmats for Firestorm Armada, which is the same theory. I started with some backed black vinyl from the fabric store and spattered it with paint. The paint was mostly an off-white, but I used some red and blue also; since my dad is an astronomy nut, I know that stars actually come in many colors, we just can't see them with the naked eye. I haven't added an airbrushed or spray-painted nebula like I've seen on some images, but that's something I might still do.

Terrain is mostly styrofoam balls and lava rocks. I have a half-sphere about 8-10 inches or more in diameter that I painted up as a colorful gas giant and another, much smaller ball that is a basic black and grey moon. For a quick & dirty method of light-side, dark-side coloring, just spray one side with the black primer. If you add shadow to one side, it looks very similar to light on the other side, but it's much easier!
Cured of what I'm suffering from, but suffering from the cure.

Restayvien

Quote from: Jonagon on January 08, 2013, 11:27:07 PM
Saw this a little while ago and thought it was a really great idea.

http://www.thepainteddragon.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1813

The guy took a picture from the hubble telescope and got it printed large to use as the basis of the board..
Great idea, unfortuantely I don't have a hubble telescope lol.
I have seen great sheets that you can buy pre-painted but they're seriously pricey.

Quote from: knightperson on January 09, 2013, 05:27:02 PM
I made a couple of playmats for Firestorm Armada, which is the same theory. I started with some backed black vinyl from the fabric store and spattered it with paint. The paint was mostly an off-white, but I used some red and blue also; since my dad is an astronomy nut, I know that stars actually come in many colors, we just can't see them with the naked eye. I haven't added an airbrushed or spray-painted nebula like I've seen on some images, but that's something I might still do.

Terrain is mostly styrofoam balls and lava rocks. I have a half-sphere about 8-10 inches or more in diameter that I painted up as a colorful gas giant and another, much smaller ball that is a basic black and grey moon. For a quick & dirty method of light-side, dark-side coloring, just spray one side with the black primer. If you add shadow to one side, it looks very similar to light on the other side, but it's much easier!
Sounds great! Any chance of pictures? I would just be nervous of trashing any paint scheme I'd done by spraying too much over it by mistake!

Thantos

Quote from: Restayvien on January 08, 2013, 01:53:25 PM
Coated in watered-down PVA glue, sand added

Nothing worse than sandy balls  :-\  ::)

Interested to see how they turn out. Always wanted a BFG board myself. How will you mount the planets so they dont roll around? Flying stand jabbed in the bottom?


Carrelio

For the board have you considered foam core? It's basically a sheet of drywall but with foam instead of cement in between the two layers of paper. It comes in any colour (including back) and you can get it in sheet up to 10x10 feet (probably larger if the need arose for some reason)! I used 4 2x2 foot squares, of black foam core, painted with little white dots, for my board.

Restayvien

Quote
Nothing worse than sandy balls   

Interested to see how they turn out. Always wanted a BFG board myself. How will you mount the planets so they dont roll around? Flying stand jabbed in the bottom?
LOL. Strangely that joke hadn't occured to me. The plan is skimmer bases for planets and moons etc, flying stand for the star/sun if I make one.

Quote from: Carrelio on January 13, 2013, 06:32:00 PM
For the board have you considered foam core? It's basically a sheet of drywall but with foam instead of cement in between the two layers of paper. It comes in any colour (including back) and you can get it in sheet up to 10x10 feet (probably larger if the need arose for some reason)! I used 4 2x2 foot squares, of black foam core, painted with little white dots, for my board.
Hmm I had thought about it but the only stuff near me (that I've found) isnt that hard wearing (it's about 4mm thick). Also it's only available in white. If I can find it cheap online I wouldn't rule it out.