Space Table

My new Firestorm Armada/X-Wing Board

Today I built myself a new board for Firestorm armada or X-Wing. I've never actually had a game board of my own, since I've always played readily at the Hampton Games Club. However, with family commitments getting tighter, it seemed that being able top play a game in the evening would be a plus, so I had a go. It also made sense that the two games I've adopted of late both need the same board. I've made plenty of terrain in the past, so I figured my skills were up to the challenge. I took some inspiration from people on the Spartan Community Board and The Way Gate. 

The board was made in three sessions, like most of the club boards. I used 9mm MDF for a bit more stability. I wanted to make sure the board would play both X-Wing and Firestorm Armada, so I included a 3'x3' area for X-Wing, over two of the 2'x4' boards. A third 2'x4' section tacks on to make a 6'x4' board for Firestorm Armada.

I have prepared a brief tutorial below for how I made my boards. 

 

1. Mark out the outline of the smaller, 3' X-wing board. Spray white.

2. Apply masking tape over the white-sprayed area.

2b. Use a straight edge to tear the masking off to get good, clean corners.

3. I used a roller to put down black paint. Sprays would be a bit too costly here, I think. Afterwards, I used a toothbrush to splatter stars on.

4. To make some larger stars, I used a small template (~5mm)

4b. I then used another template (four slits in a cross) to apply some lens flaring.

4c. Flarey Star and splatter-stars. Sadly, not all the big stars came out this well.

4d. As I splattered the white stars down, occasionally a glob would form on the toothbrush and drop onto the table. These turned into other celestial objects fairly easily (like this elliptical galaxy-esque thing).

5. I torn up some plain paper then used a piece of masking tape to apply each to the table to make some Milky-Way-looking bands, and a bit of a nebula.

6. I used spray paints to colour the playing area, using very indirect (~2' away) spraying. I used a combination of Yellow, Blue, Green and Red, in that order.

 6. Remove the masking tape to reveal the X-Wing playing area.

The colours aren't nearly as bright in person, which makes it a bit more natural-looking. I think it came out pretty well considering my lack of airbrush. I don't own one, and I don't think I'd justify owning one. The X-Wing area was probably masked a little too thick- I was a bit too keen to start and instead should have gone to an art store to get something thinner than 18mm masking tape. I think I can improve this when I get some terrain over the lines. I'm pretty happy though, keen to get my fleet done to play some games!