Create your own Mars Surface for your space toys!

Updated: Jan 17, 2021

Our big project for the summer holiday was creating our own Mars surface!

The kids really wanted a mars surface for their space themed playmobil sets, so we decided to create our own Mars surface to play with.

We opened our Planets book and read about Mars, and chose a picture of mars surface for inspiration.

We chose some of our oldest colored used chipboard (not before we took a picture of each) and cut some irregular forms, to create topography:

start from a large shape, and than create 5-6 more shapes, each smaller than the other. Glue the shapes together, so you will get a small hill.

Make a few hills that way

Take a large cardboard, and place the hills as you like. You need to glue them on the cardboard, and let it dry.

To create mars crater we used iron wire rings covered with modeling clay (Das) and with paper strips. First make the rings, make sure its attached (you can use plain office tape). Cover it with papers dipped with glue and water. (explanation ahead). Place the crater as you like.

After the hills are attached, and the crater is ready, make some sticky paper strips to cover the terrain:

Use a ball that you won’t be needing again (or you can turn it to your art projects ball), mix paper strips (re use newspapers or brochures) with white glue and water. we start covering the surface and add more glue when it was needed. After a day or two you can add another layer.

Meanwhile you can create mars rocks. we took white modeling clay (Das) and clay leftovers, we knead it to rocks shapes. Any shape will be great here, just squeeze with wet hands and it will be fine.

Its time to paint the surface! We love to use gouache.