Does anyone have any idea how to make a ship mast with multiple platforms?  I don't know how to get the platforms to stay up on their own.  

I'm modeling the cake after the USS Wasp.  Here is a model version of it, which I think is helpful to see how it looks since all the real pictures are so far away.  

From far away, it looks like just big antennas, but when I see some other pictures, I do see the platforms. I was going to make the antennas out of gumpaste, but I don['t know how to get the platforms to stay up on their own. If I made them out of gumpaste as well, I think with them all being on one side, it would tear through the cake because it's heavy on one side.

Any ideas?
Thanks!

AI would make every mast from a thick dowel with balsa wood or plywood cut out platforms drilled through and glued in place, all the railings and aerials would be wire, I would then spray-paint them the right colour and set them aside ready to insert at the end.

I would do this weeks before I started the cake as there is a humongous amount of work in all the details....

I can't wait to see your cake it's gonna be amazing!!

I was hoping to make it edible.  :)   haha

Maybe something more like this model is what I'm after.  She did say that since it's so small we don't need all the tiny detail.  So no wires or railings. 

AI'd have to go with "Sorry, I'm all booked up." Wow, what a cake! Stressful.

AI couldn't not do the details! It'd kill me handing it over knowing all the things I'd missed out!

What do you mean by small? How many servings?