Fantasy Terrain: Floating Castle

As I said in my previous post, Alien Dungeon's Fantacide setting has inspired me to start up a couple of fantasy terrain projects.  Of course, being me, I've started several and haven't finished any.  But I'm getting there - I'm working on one while another drys.  So here's the second big project: the floating castle.  This one was inspired by a battle report -- whose link escapes me now -- which featured a floating island (apparently theirs is made of acrylic).

My own is wood, foam, plastic egg, cardboard tube, florist wire and a fruit cup.  But I'm liking how it is coming along.  So is Apollo:

 And a side view.  Since mine isn't a nice acrylic bracket, I decided to go with a tripod design.  The two waterfalls (hardboard covered in paintable acrylic latex gap filler) support the rear and the front is a giant vine (beanstalk, if you will) made of twisted floral wire.  The whole thing is quite sturdy and I'm pleased with how it is progressing.

 

A bit of Fantasy

I recently picked up a used copy of Fanticide and while the rules don't do much for me the setting got me going. Fanticide boasts the kind of elves who steal your baby in the middle of the night and leave one of their own in its place.  And there's a grim whimsy to it that is delightful - it's like Neil Gaiman on a bad day (Neil Gaiman can write some very dark stories when he has a mind to).  The flying monkeys are evil and fun and the carnivorous unicorn is really emblematic of how they have taken fantasy and given it a sharp twist to wring out a new take on old fantasy tropes.  

So does this belong in the world of Colony 13?  Well, I won't be pitting elves with arrows against marines in power armor anytime soon because that kind of crossover just doesn't interest me.  But who is to say that if you walk far enough along the path leading out of the colony and into the terraformed forests some dread power lurks in wait for the unwary?  After all, any sufficiently advanced technology....

My first terrain piece is called the Blood Tree.   There's a bit of the Green Man  (yes, children, the Green Man existed far before Game of Thrones) and a lot of the hanging tree from Excalibur where Perceval finally fulfills the Grail Quest.   The tree itself is twisted florist wire and the base of the tree is florist wire wrapped around a cardboard roll and then covered in face tissue soaked with white glue.

(Elmer's white glue, hot glue gun, and Guinness -- and a supportive wife in the background -- are all necessary components.