Like to play Star Munchkin? Want to justify buying all those miniatures? Well here's a little board I whipped up to add an extra visual dimension to our gameplay. Basically, I've made the scale of Levels (1-10) to be varying planets from my favorite science fiction worlds. This will be a better way of keeping track of who is on what level, and also give you a place to organize the cards. All you'll need is:

Step 1: Materials:

At least 5 sizes of caps/lids (for planet shapes)
Acrylic paints
foam core poster board
Spray Lacquer
Paint Brushes
White Charcoal Pencil and sharpener
tape measure
carpenter's square
drop cloth
plastic bags
sweet magnifying jeweler's specs (optional)

Step 2: Base Coat

So most Foam cores start out as white. I grabbed a broad paint sponge and some black acrylic paint and covered both sides evenly. It is a great Idea to make sure you're covering it evenly and laying it on thick. Definitely keep your strokes in one direction for the sake of uniformity.

Step 3: Making It 'full of Stars'...

So take your black (foam core) monolith and fill it with stars!

get a bit of white paint, and a smaller brush. Practice this part in the sink, and be prepared to clean up, as it gets pretty spattery. saturate the bristles of the brush with white, then pull your finger through perpendicularly, creating a bristle-flick action on the brush. This will cast small droplets of paint roughly in the direction you aim the outer edge of the brush.

When you're ready to add the paint to the foam core, make sure you have a drop cloth under and around your board. then flick away! vary the amount of paint on the brush, direction you flick, and distance from which you flick to get a variety of sizes of star. Later you can go back and make some red and some blue for a touch of realism.

Step 4: Creating the Planets (Part 1)

Make sure to create a straight line through the middle of you board with your charcoal pencil and a tape measure. From that line you can then start to trace the circular lids that will be your planets. I went for a partially realistic look with mine, but I guess having them mostly circular is the most important part. You'll want ten, as there are ten levels you can attain in the game.

When they are all traced, erase the part of the center charcoal line that runs inside you planet.

Step 5: Creating the Planets (Part 2)

So now you have to come up with some considerations:

Where is your light source in the painting?
What are your planets?

So I went a little fancy and decided to add some nerd-tacular specific planets from the sci-fi worlds I know and love. They are:

Earth 2 (bad 90's show cancelled after one season)
LV-426 (from the 'Alien' Movies)
Scumdogia (home planet of GWAR)
Kashyyk (Wookie Planet)
Arrakis (Dune)
Pandora(Avatar)
Tatooine (Star Wars Episode 4)
The Death Star (quite operational)
Alderan (next to death star, just a chalk outline of a planet)
SOLARIS (solaris)

So you start at Earth2 and end at Solaris.

I used a basic set of acrylic paints, so I had to mix everything I used from red green blue yellow black and white. Some of the effects were made by applying the paint, then putting down a sheet of plastic bag, and dragging it off in one direction (SOLARIS), and I gave Pandora a coudy, floaty look by applying the plastic bag, then pulling it off directly up. All planets except SOLARIS were painted except for a thin crescent area on the side opposite solaris to give the illusion of depth and light.

When you are done, make sure to label each planet. I used the White Charcoal pencil for this, and it worked great. I was able to erase and redo, and then fix it permanently in the last step.

Step 6: Some Extras

I measured about halfway on either side, and made spots of the two card decks needed to play the game. The dimensions are:

I then added a couple of ships, the Normandy SR2 from Mass Effect, and the Enterprise from Star Trek To make it seem as though they are flying, I dabbed to globs at the back edge of their thrusters, then dragged a finger straight back to smear the paint and it worked well enough.

I also added a game title in the corner. Truth be told this part didn't come out as well as I'd hoped. You could also print out a title on paper and mod Podge it to the board.

Step 7: Finalize!

When you're sure you've spelled all the planets correctly (whoops), and you don't want to add any more cool graphics onto your scene, then grab your spray lacquer and shake it for a minute. It smells very strongly, so I recommend using a respirator, and make sure you're outside. Spray it with even strokes, back and forth. Let it stay outside for like 25minutes to that it can dry without handling it.

The last step is to find some sweet miniatures to use as game pieces when playing. When you gain a level, move you piece up a planet! When you get to SOLARIS, you're won! (prepare to be confronted with a physical manifestation of your grief and regret