Star Trek Attack Wing Terrain Making

While we prepare for our Fostgrave campaign we have been playing Star Trek: Attack Wing. It makes a good filler between bigger games and then pre-painted models make it even easier to get up and running.
However, I still needed some terrain for the game. Firstly I wanted a gaming mat to play on. I spent some time searching around the internet for a suitable space photo and found plenty of really high quality photos that would give good definition on large scale print. I  had the photo printed out an 3 feet square as this gives a good playing area and also just fits on our dining table. Once printed I had the whole thing laminated with a matt finish. This really makes the image stand out and, of course, protects it from damage.

I am really pleased with the results and we have used the matt quite few times now!

 I felt that the flat planet templates that are supplied with the game left a bit to be desired so I bought a large Christmas decoration ball on Ebay and have painted it up to be our planet.

I had to cut off the hanging tab which was simple enough, with a piercing saw.

 Then I painted the inside of the two halves of the sphere with swirling blue, silver and gold patterns.

Once the two halves are together I am very happy with the results and I think it achieves suitably Star Trek like planet look!

The final part of this build was to mount the planet on a clear acrylic ring, to stop it rolling around the table. Just as an after thought, it has been pointed out that I could have used the two haves of the clear ball as two separate planets. This might have been nice, as I could have painted them a different colour!

I wanted to add a few asteroids to my deep space hazards too. So I bought a bag of various sized polystyrene balls. Rather than spend any time carving them into irregular shapes I simply sprayed them with several very heavy coats of grey primer. The paint ate into the polystyrene and gave quite a nice random shape. I think if I do any more I will carve into the balls a little before spraying them, but otherwise I am happy with the results.

 I have also had half a dozen other asteroids given to me, I have a quite a good collection of terrain for my space battles now.