Scratchbuilt Moon

I scratch-built a moon today and thought I'd share how.  First, I started with a smooth, thin hemisphere made from Durham's water-putty constructed using the technique found in this previous post.  After building the hemisphere, I added mountain ranges as detailed in yesterday's post.  With the mountains done, now it's time to turn it into a lunar surface by adding craters.  I use two-part epoxy putty designed for modeling to make craters.  I use all different types in my model/miniature bulding: Milliput, Kneadatite, Pro-Create, etc.  The craters on the moon pictured here were made with Pro-Create, but only because that what was sitting on my workbench; any modeling epoxy will do.   Mix up small balls of putty, about the size of BBs and stick these to your hemisphere.  Wet the tip of your finger and smooth the putty to get rid of fingerprint patterns.  Stretch the edges of the putty to it blends smoothly into the surface of the planet.  The majority of the putty will be located in the center of the feature, as pictured here.

Finished craters and one in-progress

Obtain some sort of spherical object with a size commensurate with the size of the putty;  I used plastic beads for the two largest craters and ball burnishers for all the others.   Wet the object and press it into the center of the mass of putty and pull it out quickly.  The tackiness of the putty should pull it into a nice looking crater.  Easy.  Repeat as much as you can stand it.  For very large craters you'll need to dig a reservoir out of the surface so the putty has something to push into.  If not, the craters just don't look right.  You can see a reservoir dug out on the left side of the picture above.

After the craters are done and the epoxy has set, spray the whole thing with gray paint (Walmart, US$0.98).  Dry brush with colors of your choice; I used five parts white to one part brown.  Incidentally, I normally would have saved painting until the very end, despite these pictures showing the moon with a gray coat during construction.

Next up: a ringed planet!