Aeronef madness - The terrain (New pics - 02.12.14 1st aeronef started)

[Steam Flunky]

A project i have been wanting to do for about 10 years. After getting Benbow ( http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=72207.0 ) interested he got started straight away and it was time i started doing something as well.
I had already built 7 flying islands 8 or 9 years ago while i was showing my kids how to make a paper mache fish (you know, covering a balloon in paper mache)
They are just polystyrene covered in paper mache, covered in wood glue and rolled in sand.
Since then they have been gathering dust in the cupboard with other half finished wargames projects, but now its time to finish them.
Most will only have vegitation on them but i wanted to have a (flying) naval base on the largest one.
aeronef (1) by torq42, on Flickr

aeronef (2) by torq42, on Flickr

The buildings are from plastic ship models and the guns from Brigade Models Aeronef range.

aeronef by torq42, on Flickr

aeronef (3) by torq42, on Flickr

[OSHIROmodels]

Excellent, this is going to be a cracking project with both of you working on it 

cheers

James

[Admiral Benbow]

Lovely air naval base, Rob. Time to think about new ship designs and a colur scheme ...

[former user]

top shelf work, Rob!

[FramFramson]

One of the loveliest floaty islands I can recall seeing. That ought to green up real nice!

[warburton]

Good work so far

[von Lucky]

I'm lovin' it.

[Andrew May]

I was thinking of making some hills from poor quality polystyrene (it's lying around already!) then covering in a paper mâché type shell, how tough does it turn out?

[Eric the Shed]

I built my railway embankments from cheap polystyrenre - the white stuff. To get a tough shell...

1. Paint in an acrylic paint
2. cover in pva and add sand
3. apply another top coat of acrylic paint
4. Add flock

They are now as tough as old boots

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/rail-embankments-trains-for-wargames.html

[Steam Flunky]

I was thinking of making some hills from poor quality polystyrene (it's lying around already!) then covering in a paper mâché type shell, how tough does it turn out?

It is  tough. Falling off a table wont hurt it. (This was also cheap leftover polystyrene).
Of course, the more layers of paper mache you do the stronger it gets, and even stronger with wood glue and sand on top.
The big advantage for flying islands it is still very light.

[Steam Flunky]

The air base island is nearly finished but i wanted to try out the vegetation on a couple of smaller islands before i ruined the big one.
On the whole i am happy with the result but the "fine" grass flock is not as fine as i hoped but it would be.

islands (1) by torq42, on Flickr

Decided to have a small farmyard on one island. Here are the first pics. The houses are just polystyrene cut to shape and covered in plaster. The two bigger houses are about 10mm long and 8mm high.
Brigade models make some lovely sets of 2mm scale houses but i forgot to buy some at "crisis 2014" in Antwerp and i could not wait until my next Brigade order at xmas, so i made my own.

islands (2) by torq42, on Flickr

islands (3) by torq42, on Flickr

[OSHIROmodels]

Lovely stuff 

A bit cliched but how about a water feature falling off the cliff edge?

cheers

James

[Steam Flunky]

A bit cliched but how about a water feature falling off the cliff edge?

Hi James, definately no waterfall. Every time i see pictures or models of beautiful flying islands with waterfalls i imagine how much rain would be needed to produce that much water. They must be the wettest places on earth to live on!!
Seriously though, in the best pics, small waterfalls just disappear into fine spray which looks great but i have no idea how to model it.

[former user]

Every time i see pictures or models of beautiful flying islands with waterfalls i imagine how much rain would be needed to produce that much water. They must be the wettest places on earth to live on!!

and also floating much lower due to the high water intake.... the dryer, the higher
I see sand dune floating islands in the upper levels and desert raiders attacking with gliders from above  

btw, the farming is a nice touch of reality, as always

[nic-e]

looking awesome