mad4400
New member
DIY Fake Rock Landscape for my Marms
I've been wanting to create some removable landscapes for my marmorata that I house in exo terra 60x45x45 tanks.
This one I have gone with a mayan/incan inspired theme.
I have used foam resourced from packaging. Its basic shape was made using two pieces.
The base was one square piece with suitable hide areas already moulded into it.
The back is a broccoli box lid.
For this project I will also be using:
fast set liquid nails
butane torch
soldering iron
grout
bondall bondcrete
food dye
acrylic paints
pondtite
I've gone with bondcrete instead of usual PVA glue for the grout mix, only because I scored some tins of it for free.
The food dye I use to tint every second layer of grout to help me get full coats each time.
Time for some pictures they will hopefully tell the story better than my words.
basic shape and outlay is done
entrances to the two separate "chambers"
The lines in the stonework I achieved using a soldering iron and steel ruler.
I was going to have a statue on the wall next to the main temple entrance, but later changed it to a rockslide.
Almost done with the shaping, I've used the butane torch to remove square edges blend my rock layers.
I went back and used liquid nails to fill in gaps and cracks otherwise it will take forever with the grout mix.
The gecko idol head is done I have fixed with a skewer for now.
I will do most of its coats of grout off the background and fix it permanently before the last coat.
This is two coats in, you will see the main entrance is not fitted at the moment I wanted to make sure that the grout gets a good coat in that area.
I lost a bit of the line detail after a few coats of grout.
This is the underside showing the two chambers. The largest hide area will sit over the heated area in the enclosure.
Did I mention that the main temple entrance leads into the main chamber? Well it does.
Heres where I am up to now.
I've been wanting to create some removable landscapes for my marmorata that I house in exo terra 60x45x45 tanks.
This one I have gone with a mayan/incan inspired theme.
I have used foam resourced from packaging. Its basic shape was made using two pieces.
The base was one square piece with suitable hide areas already moulded into it.
The back is a broccoli box lid.
For this project I will also be using:
fast set liquid nails
butane torch
soldering iron
grout
bondall bondcrete
food dye
acrylic paints
pondtite
I've gone with bondcrete instead of usual PVA glue for the grout mix, only because I scored some tins of it for free.
The food dye I use to tint every second layer of grout to help me get full coats each time.
Time for some pictures they will hopefully tell the story better than my words.
basic shape and outlay is done
entrances to the two separate "chambers"
The lines in the stonework I achieved using a soldering iron and steel ruler.
I was going to have a statue on the wall next to the main temple entrance, but later changed it to a rockslide.
Almost done with the shaping, I've used the butane torch to remove square edges blend my rock layers.
I went back and used liquid nails to fill in gaps and cracks otherwise it will take forever with the grout mix.
The gecko idol head is done I have fixed with a skewer for now.
I will do most of its coats of grout off the background and fix it permanently before the last coat.
This is two coats in, you will see the main entrance is not fitted at the moment I wanted to make sure that the grout gets a good coat in that area.
I lost a bit of the line detail after a few coats of grout.
This is the underside showing the two chambers. The largest hide area will sit over the heated area in the enclosure.
Did I mention that the main temple entrance leads into the main chamber? Well it does.
Heres where I am up to now.
