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yeah,
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I saw some of the best homemade Asteroids I'd ever seen.
Actually it was here on dakka and they were made by Eggs.
One of my first comments was he should cast and sell those!




I was in luck Eggs made a Kickstarter.


Whisk forward 4 months!
Today the postman brought me some of those KS asteroids Huzzah!! (and a 6'x3' star field mat)

They came very securely packaged in Egg boxes, some very cute marketing.

I have all four sets.

1) Standard
2) Standard reverse
3) Large
4) Large reverse

They are most eggcellent in quality. (Sorry I'll stop with the puns soon...)
I've done a little bit of casting myself and I have to say that for home casting these are really good!
There is some flash that will need removing, there are some air bubble holes that I will mostly ignore, one or two bubbles I will fill.

I used a hobby drill to quickly clean up the stem holes and drill them a bit deeper.


And then I washed them to get mold release agent off.


My eggs are drying now, tomorrow I put paint on them.

Panic...

Appreciate the kind words Panic. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with them.

yeah,
OK the easteroids have been cleaned up removing mold lines, flash and resin vents..
I didn't bother green stuffing the air bubbles.

I sprayed on the base coats.
I don't want to get any paint on their nice clear bases, so I needed to make another way to hold them
I got some pine battens and nails. ( I normally use battens with some double sided tape when spraying 28mm miniatures)
I pre drilled 2mm holes in the the wood before hitting the nails all the way through.

Each asteroid was held in place with a small blob of blu tac in it's stem hole and stuck onto the nail point.
Each batten was held upside down to test the asteroids didn't fall off.


Time to get the paint on.
I did quick search on the interwebs to find various resource materials to confirm the desired colour end result I'm aiming for.
We want a dark reddish brown to a light creamy white highlight.

I don't use expensive army painter or GW sprays for terrain projects.
I used two cheaper sprays from the DIY store.


The asteroids battens are top heavy now and want to fall over.
So while they dry I've used mini clamps on the end to hold them onto a thin piece of wood

My war room is really messy so I'm going to tidy up before I do more.
So next update tomorrow

Panic...

Yeah,

I used Vallejo black dipping wash.
This was needed to darken down and Matt the bright orangey brown of the spray.
The wash was put on very heavy and wiped from the main surfaces with a bit of kitchen roll.



The colour is going in the direction I want very dark red/browns in the shadows.

Next I did 3 Dry Brushing Layers.



---
Dry brushing complete with Pretty good results.
Dry brushing loves rock like textures



Right now I'm tempted to just Matt Varnish and call it a day...

.
.
.
However..
I have wanted to try Army painter Soft tone on something for a little while now... and this seems like the perfect project.
In theory it should tie the colours together more and increase the shading.


In for a penny...
I brushed on a healthy coat of soft tone on the full set.


Will update tomorrow with how it looks once the varnish has dried and retracted the pigment..

Panic...

Looking good man! I'm toying with the idea of a set of Ice roids. Got to finish the KS first though, and by debris fields, and my Slave 1 re-paint, and my DX-9, N1, Sith Infiltrator and J327 builds...

Never ends....

yeah,
Once the Quick Shade was dry I gave them a quick light dry brush to pick up the highlights again.
and hit them with a spray of Army Painter Anti Shine Matt Varnish.

24 Asteroids done.


Some quick photos of my asteroid belt.



Panic...

Nice job on those asteroids, Panic!! I also backed the campaign to watch the progress, and these look great in action

I don't think all have been sent out yet, but you certainly made fast work of yours!

Those asteroids look awesome!

As an aside, whoever is playing with 4 phantoms is my personal fething hero.

yeah,
4 Phantoms are pretty fun to play. I fly 4 sigmas in regular games.
at 100pts it just squeezes in with NO upgrades.

But it's like having 4 amazing x-wings!
-1 hull. Traded for +1 att and what I think is better dial.
Plus cloaking on approach for added unexpected moves and positioning
And can recloak when needed if you find you've put yourself in a bad spot out of position with no shot of your own...

Plus people never see phantoms flown with no ACD, the first time you K turn to have another go with all those red dice it catches people off guard.
Regular ACD phantoms never K turn as the stress messes with the ACD recloak 'action'
And the badass has both a 3K and a 4K. I love Phantoms!


Anyways...
I have a 6x3 - 200pt friendly game today at my FLGS and I'm running rebels...
We're gonna use all 24 asteroids and I'm planning on using this list.

“Leebo” + Push the Limit + Heavy Laser Cannon + Lando Calrissian + Tactical Jammer (48)
Keyan Farlander + Fire-Control System + Heavy Laser Cannon + Opportunist (42)
Green Squadron Pilot + Proton Rockets + Push the Limit (25)
Green Squadron Pilot + Proton Rockets + Push the Limit (25)
Prototype Pilot + Chardaan Refit (15)
Prototype Pilot + Chardaan Refit (15)
Prototype Pilot + Chardaan Refit (15)
Prototype Pilot + Chardaan Refit (15)

I will endevour to get some Photos

Panic...

I love a bit of A-wing fun. It's crying out for Ehtan a'bat though - turn that A-swarm into a crit machine. Chews through Decimators in no time!

The possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1

great work.
I think that the ones mounted on the pictures are a really good idea but the clear ones look good on the star mat.

yeah,

Eggs wrote:... Ehtan a'bat though - turn that A-swarm into a crit machine. Chews through Decimators in no time!

Great idea, I love flying Etahn so I will work on that idea, I have a tournament in a few weeks
But first I think I think I gotta make me a prototype E-wing before he can join the squadron.

This could be fun! 99pts
Etahn A’baht + R2-D2 + Hull Upgrade (39)
Green Squadron Pilot + Chardaan Refit + Push the Limit (20)
Green Squadron Pilot + Chardaan Refit + Push the Limit (20)
Green Squadron Pilot + Chardaan Refit + Push the Limit (20)

or a more edgy - 100pts
Etahn A’baht + R2 Astromech + Push the Limit + Engine Upgrade (40)
Green Squadron Pilot + Chardaan Refit + Predator (20)
Green Squadron Pilot + Chardaan Refit + Predator (20)
Green Squadron Pilot + Chardaan Refit + Predator (20)

usernamesareannoying wrote:The possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1...

Ha!, Stolen as the title of the My first Asteroid field BatRep, I love that quote.

Panic...