Why not stack blocks of ice? It would be a lot simpler than hauling our gear out to some ice-bound wasteland.
Funny you should mention that. Joe Latrell, our newest victim here on the website, may have a working proposal for a battery heated submodel, with enough juice to go through a couple of blocks of ice. A little cardboard mockup, with a few batteries to heat a wire coil wrapped around the body of the model, will probably go through ice just fine.
Once that is done, we've demonstrated the feasibility of a Proteus model (or Icepick). So, it looks like we WILL be using simple blocks of ice, initially. There's no point in putting forth a bunch of effort, and then seeing failure at the Ice Field.
-- JHB