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After many attempts and failures I have decided to swallow my pride as ask for help on a terrain piece.


I have a GW realm of battle table, some craters, and 4 Baleful Realmgates. I want two floating Islands that look suitable for a daemon world. They must be flat on top, about 10" above the table, around 14" across on top and be able to hold the weight of at least 4 Tactical Squads easily. The plan is to put a Realmgate on each island and whenever you hop into a gate, you could be transported to one of the other 3.. perhaps ending up on a floating island or, of course, back on ground level because there will be two there as well.

If anyone has any tips for creating these terrain pieces and having them suspended above the table on a sturdy device, I would appreciate it.

If you are doing a demon world, you could try hiding supports in waterfalls of fire a/o blood.

If the Island needs a "Freshly pulled from the ground" look, you can build supports and then build up "waterfalls" of sand, dirt, and rock to make it look like it just got yanked up. You can also build it so that it has a corresponding crater below the piece to match the island above.

Perhaps you could make it like a sort of physics-defying cairn, like this

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/theedgechronicles/images/9/92/Stonegardens-midnightoversanctaphrax.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090606135933

Terrain For Hippos did a few tutorials which might help:

Levitating Altar
http://terrainforhippos.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/ishoo-firty-six-levitating-altar.html

Floating Rock Forests
http://terrainforhippos.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/ishoo-ninty-wun-floating-rock-forests.html

Unless you want to get nuts and actually use magnets to make it legitimately floating.

you will probably need to have it held up by at least 1 strong point.
Id say 1 thick wooden dowel and wrap wire or GS to make a magical looking vortex that coincides with the realm gates location on the island with rocks twisting around it.

Or a LOT of thinner Steel wire cascading down to look like lightning.

Or roots with a world tree on top.

Or Hang it from the ceiling with deep sea fishing line.

I seem to recall a thread a while back with some amazing 'Avatar themed' floating islands, having their supports disguised by waterfalls (easily made of blood, if you so desire). Another one had... Tzeench? themed floating islands supported by 'tethering' chains, which had been locked in place, link by link, with epoxy or superglue. Both looked awesome and are well worth digging up for inspiration.

I'm in the process of doing the same thing for a tzeench-themed table. Like you, I want the islands to be roughly 7-10" across.

I made some mockups using normal box card supported by the cardboard tube from the inside of kitchen towel.

I did this because we wanted to play a game with them to test whether they would "work" under tabletop conditions - we came up with some basic rules for them so that they could move each turn and you could teleport between them (as you are intending to do)

What came out of it was this:

- however you decide to suspend them, make sure they are extremely stable. I am going to end up making an MDF version of the GW flight stand that is a bit bigger and which will go right through the island. It will also be anchored firmly on a base of MDF that will be weighted down with real rocks. This is important as it is EXTREMELY easy for someone who is leaning over the table to brush the islands with their arm and spill it over. So here, practicality should overrule looks and coolness.

- consider how you are going to store them. The "flight stand that goes right through the island" idea should mean that I don't have to attach the island to the stand, meaning it will break apart for storage. If the islands are made in one piece they will take a LOT of storage space.

- consider adding a rim that is about half the height of your models around the edge. When (or if) the islands move, it is easy for models to fall over. Also, since the islands are above the surface of the table, if someone bumps the table with their hip this is amplified on the islands and models can easily fall over

I look forward to seeing how you progress.




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PM me if you are interested in taking a look at the rules we have been using to test them