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I got some ready made asteroids this summer for my growing Space Fleet/BFG force but would like to add some planets.

My initial plan was these guys from Amazon



https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S94NWE/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_12?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1K41AF3BILUFC

But I worry they'd look small.

Would this work better?



(the ball that is, not the coke can)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RM3DC8U/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_16?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1ERRBNLKVFVX5

Yeah, those styrofoam balls are really good for planets. You can either stick them up on a stand (if you want the full immersion) or you can cut them in half (giving you two planets and making it easier to see the "base" of the planet during games).

The other ones might look a bit small if you're putting them on bases (since planets can be up to ~50cm in diameter at the really large end of the scale).

EDIT: Also you probably already know this, but for anyone reading the thread, be careful if you spray paint/prime styrofoam, as some paint cans use solvents which will disintegrate it. On the other hand, that can be used to create some cool crater effects if you're making a moon or whatever.

There ARE some Krylon foam-safe sprays (H20) that don't eat the foam, but best to brush prime first then spray.

Styro balls, and craft paint, then drybrush the colors.

I used black paint for the base, then cratered it with a hot glue gun, x acto blade, and my thumb. BASE- used the older flying bases, and then made my own.

Another thing to use also is the volcanic yard rocks from landscaping. You can dig out a small hole and add them to bases, or a wire triangle.

Chromedog has a great way to do it, wish I would have done it at the time. I just used the base paint, drybrush technique, though and it worked well enough to get them on the table.

I haven't made any in close to two decades (last used them for Full Thrust).

They were simply expanded foam (white) balls [technically wrong to call them "Styrofoam" as that's a brand name for extruded foam made by Dow Corning, and these are neither) given a skim coat (thin plaster used on plasterboard walls) and cut back while it is still wet - because when it hardens, it REQUIRES power tools to sand back.

Then I painted them. Gas Giants got colour banding applied by airbrush - I mounted the globes on a turntable and rotated them while spraying. "Terrestrials" were given the usual "blue marble with green/brown areas" and cloud formations were put on with the airbrush afterwards.

I didn't bother carving into the surface because at the size I was doing, to scale, there wouldn't be any noticeable change. IF the earth was the size of an apple, the ENTIRE crust (which is 9+ miles down PLUS EVEREST height would only be as thick as an appleskin.

Thanks. I'm still picking through my rule book are there guidelines for how big a planet should be? The seller I found has them in several sizes.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Thanks. I'm still picking through my rule book are there guidelines for how big a planet should be? The seller I found has them in several sizes.

Small planets/moons can be anything up to 15cm, medium planets are 16-25cm, and big gas giants are 26-50cm. (Page 45 of the v1.5 BFG Rulebook). Of course, it's really up to you and what you can get. For example, I dunno where one would find a 50cm foam ball - the best I've found is a 45cm hemisphere shell that was used to pack this big hot-air balloon deck ornament we got from our neighbors. (It's not even a solid surface, so I'll have to papier-mâché it or something to make up the difference).

I bought a few of these