Mega enclosure (long term project)...

[Rushthezeppelin]

So I've been thinking in my head for a while how I want to build my eventual large enclosure for females. This thing is probably going to be 4'-5' wide and two foot tall and deep and will come with a waterfall and large pool with shallow end for hunting fish.

Went ahead and pulled the trigger though on some styrofoam and got busy shaping for at least one part of the project, the hot side structure. Basically this is going to be an elevated shelf with a small cave underneath for shelter. So far I've already figured out a few nifty tricks in working with this stuff. Got a hotknife for the general shaping but then I've found a combo of scooping with a spoon and finishing off those sections with a lighter can do some really cool stuff with sculpting the foam.

Here's what I have so far after only about an hour and a half of work:






My idea from here is to put a bit of a winding ramp up the left side for them to get up on. Also contemplating putting a tunnel from the top down into the cave but I'm not sure about doing that as sealing it would be a royal pain. Back is also going to have a hide built into it, this whole thing is basically modeled on my local limestone and there are lots of pockets on some of the cliffs out here with small openings but big interiors. So basically that's what I'm going to try and recreate in the backdrop on this. I will leave the hole big enough to be able to stick my hand down in case I need to get a snake out of there but it will open up inside.

BTW this whole piece will be about 1'6"x1'6".

Whatchall think so far?

[Albert Clark]

Sounds great! Fantastic craftsmanship.

[Rushthezeppelin]

Sounds great! Fantastic craftsmanship.

I'm normally not that artistic but for some reason using a lighter, spoon and hotknife as my brushes and styrofoam as my canvas I seem to actually have a bit of talent. I honestly didn't think it was going to be this easy but that lighter trick saved me a ton of time fine tuning. I can do alot with just the lighter alone. It's really good too for blending the seams of the sheets together too.

[d_virginiana]

Looks neat. What are you using to color/seal it? Just curious, I've never made any custom pieces like that before.

[Rushthezeppelin]

Going to grout over the foam, then I think I've seen recommendations of using acrylic paint topped with a few coats of acrylic sealant. There's a guy online who makes some amazing waterfalls that I've been more or less following his guidelines.

[Tommytradix]

rickymar81 makes great stuff maybe he can give you a few pointers

[Rushthezeppelin]

More progress:

[Albert Clark]

Very nice work.

[Rushthezeppelin]

[Rushthezeppelin]

Still not sure the exact logistics on the back. It's going to be composed of two 2" thick sections and I'm going to hollow out the interior to pretty comfy proportions even for a full grown female (maybe two I got alot of room to work with). As of right now I'm thinking of making the back removable so that I can clean inside the hide. Right now I'm thinking of having wooden dowels being at each corner used to align and more or less hold that back section in place. Just not sure how much thickness the grout is going to add so I don't know how much tolerance I need to give for the parts to fit together properly in the end.