Pimp my Vivarium - Pic Heavy

[snake rescuer]

looks amazing mate

[excession]

Originally Posted by spatte88

for my next project

Was I right in thinking that you said your next project was 2 stacked vivs and you wanted sugestions for themes?


If I am right in thinking that then i have two ideas!

1) heaven and Hell: The top viv could have golden gates and fluffy cloud platforms and the bottom viv all reds and flames and so on! (edit if you had a 3 stack the middle could be earth!)

2) The core: top viv has a prehistoric theme with trees and big rocks and so on, maybe a dino , bottom viv is the earths core i guess looking fairly simalar to the hell viv from above

[spatte88]

Originally Posted by FireDragon

Well done mate i just came across this and ur doing a superb job amazing and im glad you did a post showing people how creative you can make it. I also want to say thanks for adding 2 of my links in ur very first post on this topic lol. keep up the great work looking forward to seeing it done.

I did say anyone can do it and all u need is time and imagination and you have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt anything is possible with a bit of poly

10/10

Tony

Thanks for the comment, though dont need to blow us up too much as if we hadnt seen your links then we wouldnt have has a clue where to start!!! looking forward to seeing some more of your creations soon

[spatte88]

Originally Posted by haunted-havoc

i tip for the ice is, natural ice has denser parts and these are generally dark blue/dark grey or black in colour. if you water down some paint so it is more of a varnish it give the impression of a denser patch of ice while still making it look see through-ish

i did a bit (about 3ftx3ftx4ft) sculpture for my GCSE art exam and it has ice crystals all over. it was a crystalline city based on Atlantis lol took about 3 weeks preparation for it and then took 10 hours for all the finishing off sculpting and painting. if i can find pics of it i will post it up, i know my school kept pics of it, and actually sold it to a contractor who was working there for like £50. i was happy with the money

it might not be very easy to see on the pics but we did a base coat of blue first, with varying shades, to give the ice some depth/density. which is kinda what i think your tip is, though thanks anyway!!!! would be nice to see a pic if you have one though if it is different to what i think you mean! happy for you to PM me it or post here in the thread!

[spatte88]

Originally Posted by Mini Mosh

i love it!

just wonderng what type(make) of paint did you use? and where did you get it from?

I have made some hide for a gecko and have yet to paint them as i hasnt sure where to get the paint and non washable pva glue from

thanks

we used the paints from Games Workshop as they are water based and so less likely to be toxic to the beardies anmd also come in a very wide variety of colours that are readily available in pretty much any city! if you are doing a large area then these paints can become a little pricey however we found that after a good base coat you could water the paints down a fair bit meaning they lasted a bit longer. in the latter stages of painting (before detailing) we found they (GW) do a spray gun which isnt too pricey and makes the paint go alot further, nevermind making the whole job a lot easier/quicker - only wish i had one from the off! oh well i know now for the next one!

we dont intend to use PVA we are going to use a varnish. The 1st layer is going to be another water based varnish from GW in a spray can to make it easy to apply the 1st layer and give an even coat. we then plan to finish it with a paint on ronseal varnish, of which we will be giving multiple coats! hope this helps!!

[spatte88]

Originally Posted by excession

Was I right in thinking that you said your next project was 2 stacked vivs and you wanted sugestions for themes?


If I am right in thinking that then i have two ideas!

1) heaven and Hell: The top viv could have golden gates and fluffy cloud platforms and the bottom viv all reds and flames and so on! (edit if you had a 3 stack the middle could be earth!)

2) The core: top viv has a prehistoric theme with trees and big rocks and so on, maybe a dino , bottom viv is the earths core i guess looking fairly simalar to the hell viv from above

yes you were right about the stacker sytem with two vivs in it and WOW on the brilliant ideas. really love the heaven and hell one though not sure what beardie heaven would look like..... possibly full of locusts with silkworm gates

read on anopther thread you were thinking of a roman theme for one of yours! jealous i didnt think of it and cant wait to see what ideas/creations you come up with, would love to see some drawings/photos of whatever stage you are at with yours.

after reading haunted-havoc's post about him doing a project on the sunken city of atlantis we started thinking about Stargate Atlantis and how if we used this idea we could have the 1st/top viv with an above water view of the atlantis city and the lower viv being the underwater scene. Peoples views????

keep the ideas coming guys as the more we have to choose from the better! any pics/drawings you want to do would be fantastic!

[spatte88]

As you can tell we were just taking a quick break from the sun and thought it would be nice to read and reply to people comments/ideas!!! dont worry as soon as we are home we will be back to building and as you can most probably tell all the lazing around on the beach in the hot sunshine has got us thinking up ideas for the next project!!! Not to make you jealous or anything!

[Crestie Chris]

Originally Posted by spatte88

As you can tell we were just taking a quick break from the sun and thought it would be nice to read and reply to people comments/ideas!!! dont worry as soon as we are home we will be back to building and as you can most probably tell all the lazing around on the beach in the hot sunshine has got us thinking up ideas for the next project!!! Not to make you jealous or anything!

Hope you are having a great holiday you should get a pencil and a notebook and write down all your ideas and sketches

[excession]

Originally Posted by spatte88

yes you were right about the stacker sytem with two vivs in it and WOW on the brilliant ideas. really love the heaven and hell one though not sure what beardie heaven would look like..... possibly full of locusts with silkworm gates

read on anopther thread you were thinking of a roman theme for one of yours! jealous i didnt think of it and cant wait to see what ideas/creations you come up with, would love to see some drawings/photos of whatever stage you are at with yours.

after reading haunted-havoc's post about him doing a project on the sunken city of atlantis we started thinking about Stargate Atlantis and how if we used this idea we could have the 1st/top viv with an above water view of the atlantis city and the lower viv being the underwater scene. Peoples views????

keep the ideas coming guys as the more we have to choose from the better! any pics/drawings you want to do would be fantastic!

Cool thank you

I think the heaven / hell could be great, but I know I lack the skill to pull that off :P

With the core idea I was thinking rather than a dino you could have a big dino skellington

I am at the stage with ours where I have drawn it out about half a dozen times and I am pretty sure on how I want it.

We' are collecting the viv this Sunday so I will start next week providing I can get my hands on a ton of poly by then

My plan is to have two buildings, one on the left roughly based on something like this:




Only far simpler!

And one on the right based on something like this:



Again I will have to simplify it for many reasons, my lack of artistic skill being high amongst them, but also so that it is practical and easy to clean.

I have a few special features planned also and some cunning hides I want to build in to it too.

Looking forwards to starting now

[makeitandskateit]

This is a really awesome build!! I love the underfloor heating!!
Have a good time on holiday!!