# Realistic Rock Backround *GUIDE*



## Reaper941 (Mar 21, 2008)

Hi folks. Recently (yesterday) got my first viv in a long time; decided to show you nice people how to build realistic rock backgrounds; for as cheap as possible.


*You will need:*



*Polystyrene sheets*. Any size; any shape. Offcuts are perfect. I got mine for free from a local company.

If you're in England use this link and just phone around anyone local; see if they sell or give Off-cuts away.

For a 2ft viv I used 1 sheet of Polystyrene which measured 600 x 400 x 20mm




*Cutting implement*. I used a small hacksaw blade. A blade from a coping saw or similar will do fine. Even a length of wire - Just be careful 'cause it heats up fairly quickly.

That one's pretty self explanatory.. This is the blade I used.











It's just the case of heating the blade/wire etc up on the Cooker hob - Not until it's red hot; just for a matter of seconds (I'd say count to 15, if it starts to go on fire just shake it a little bit.)




*A pen.*
For marking out shapes on the Polystyrene. This isn't necessary but it helps. I used a CD pen; similarly a felt tip pen would work really well.




*Sandpaper.*
Any grade of sandpaper I've found will do; really. This part is messy so it's best done outside.




*Paint.*
This is down to personal preference. But I would recommend a base coat (Black or dark brown) and depending on how artistic you are; at least 2 different shades of whatever colour you want the rock to look.

I'm using a dark brown Matt Emulsion; Sash red, Gold leaf and Chateau (All made by Crown)




*Expanding Foam.*
This isn't strictly necessary; but due to personal experience cutting Polystyrene is never an accurate activity. Your tolerances will vary. Expanding foam is good because it fills gaps. You shouldn't need more than 1 can - But this depends on how big your vivarium is.




*Tile Grout.*
This I would say is necessary. It stops whatever animal you have from ripping up the polystyrene and wears down the claws. Pretty good for Beardies; Rankins, etc.



*Clear Varnish.*
I've been told *Yacht Varnish *is the best brand; but I've never needed it before. I'll let you all know when I get to this step within the next few days.



Onto step 1..


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## Reaper941 (Mar 21, 2008)

When working with Polystyrene and a hot cutting tool; precision really isn't important. Due to the heat you can lose 1 or 2mm either way. I didn't bother measuring.

This is the sheet of polystyrene I started with.










650 x 400 x 20mm

I held the polystyrene against the viv; marked out ROUGHLY the size I'd need for the side wall and cut out a rough square.

(You'll need to do this for both sides and the back wall of the viv.)

With the 3 shapes, I put two away and started on the left wall (This is just how it happened, it's not to be strictly adhered to.)

The easiest place I've found to start would be the edges.










Just cut straight lines into the edges like so.

There is ONE trick to this and one trick only. Angles. Generally; if you use a 45degree angle you can't really go wrong.

Vary the thickness and depth of your cut and it looks really effective. 

This is exactly how I did it.










This creates a "Stone tablet" effect like this -


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## Reaper941 (Mar 21, 2008)

Most people when they think of fake rock they go "Ahh rocks are round!"

Ending up with something drawn out like this.










If that's what you're going for; cool. Best of luck.

This isn't what I went for (Am currently going for)

If you look at rock faces, cliffs, etc - you can see Exo Terra weren't very far off with their background.










I went for the closest thing possible. Just long, straight shapes. There are no strict rules with rock faces; so just do this as you like. I'm thinking about posting up templates for people to use. If you think that's a good idea let me know.


The easiest way I've found to do this is to follow and cut the lines. This depends on how deep your polystyrene is; obviously you don't want to cut all the way through - A cm tops would do. Depends how much you want the rocks to stick out.











From this step; you just need to cut the angles again. (Yay, angles.)

Just follow down every single line you have, both ways.



















You do not need to be neat with this at all, nature isn't neat. Cut it roughly; this only took me a matter of seconds to cut. Most of the time is spent heating the blade up.

Once this is done, you should have a fairly nice shaped background - Ready for the next step (Which I haven't done yet, as I've been typing this guide.)













Cost so far: £0.00.

The Polystyrene was all completely free from the company, Hacksaw blade I had lying around.

Next section coming soon.


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## Pendragon (Dec 8, 2008)

Good work so far : victory:

Jay


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## Reaper941 (Mar 21, 2008)

Pendragon said:


> Good work so far : victory:
> 
> Jay


Thanks mate, I should be finished tonight so will have the rest posted up.

Melted my thumb this morning as you can see in one of the later pics. lol


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## Pendragon (Dec 8, 2008)

Reaper941 said:


> Thanks mate, I should be finished tonight so will have the rest posted up.
> 
> Melted my thumb this morning as you can see in one of the later pics. lol


 
Doh!!!!

Jay


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## Reaper941 (Mar 21, 2008)

*Part 2!*
 
So far I've only burnt my thumb, cut my other thumb and sliced my pinky open. That's pretty good going. Didn't even spill my beer.



Right,

So after we have cut all the polystyrene into shape - Check it fits in the viv.










(See, it fits! This was before I cut the back though.)



Next you'll want to get your basecoat colour. This will work best as a dark colour; and get stuck in.











A dabbing method works best in the cracks between the rocks, I recommend using an old brush as it will get wrecked.

Once you've painted all 3 bits and left them to dry, chuck them in the viv.











I decided now would be a good time to throw in the UV light just for a better view, but I took it back out for the next few steps.











Next you'll need some of this..










And some of these!










That's two for your hands and one for blowing up on your head.


*NOTE: *You don't need to use gloves, but expanding foam is not nice to have stuck to your hands. If it's on your hands it's everywhere. Once it dries it's like superglue so get it washed off straight away.


There should be directions on the can, but it's pretty straight forward.

Twist the nozzle onto the top of the can, hold the can upside down and press the lever. (That simple.)


I only used this to fill in the gaps that were made with the polystyrene, to seal the back corners.

This comes out fast and remember.. It expands by about 20%.











After this, just leave it to cure and it balloons.











Depends on how thick you've made the foam, it can take anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour to dry.
If you've made Meringue you'll be familiar with the inbetween stages. It's squishy.


Once it's dry, take some of this.










(No, not Tennents Super, it helped me though.) I mean the Tile Grout.

And get some gloves. (I only did this because I didn't have a grouting tool.


... Who am I kidding, it was fun.)










Just slop it all over, as rough as possible but enough to cover the polystyrene texture.

Once finished it should look like this..











I didn't cover the cracks between the rocks as I wanted different textures.


This dries fairly quickly, but just to be safe I left it overnight.



*Cost so far:* £3 for expanding foam.

Grout I had lying around, but it shouldn't be any more than £4

Paint I already had in the shed.


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## Reaper941 (Mar 21, 2008)

*Part 3*

Getting up early to get this finished..

The grout should be dry by now, so it's time to take the original basecoat colour and paint all over again!

*I lined the viv with newspaper so not to ruin it with paint. I did this before the expanding foam step, but forgot to mention.

*









Once this coat is on, get a little bit of sand and sprinkle it all over the paint. It really helps with the texture.


These coats don't need to be perfect, polystyrene, expanding foam and grout are REALLY not an easy combination to paint, so do your best. You can top up the bits you've missed.


After a few beers and a game on the Xbox you should be ready to do the next coat.

Get your next colour (Mine happens to be Sash red by Crown. I just bought a black tester tube as I wouldn't need a lot. This only cost £1.50)

*Note:* *Use Matt Emulsion. Gloss melts the polystyrene and ruins all your hard work.*












I used a technique called _*Dry-brushing.*_ This is where you get paint on the brush, wipe most of it back off onto the plate (or pot, whatever you use) and just use a small amount of paint to "highlight" the extruded (sticky-out) parts.

There's plenty of guides available online, but really it's just trial and error. If you're anything like me you'll have had plenty of polystyrene left over. Just try it out on that.










This is the finished result.










These pictures were taken with the flash; so you can't see the highlights properly - But trust me, it looks good.










With the UV on to give you a better idea..



Just now I'm waiting on that coat drying, and I'll move onto the next coat and next colour.



Cost so far:

*Expanding foam* - £3
*3 x Samples of Paint.* - £4.50

*Total*: £7.50


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## dmiles310 (May 1, 2009)

looks good up to now


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## Reaper941 (Mar 21, 2008)

Finishing touches..

If you've followed me up to the last step; you shouldn't have a problem getting the finishing touches done.

I used 4 different colours for the rocks.

After the red drybrushing, I went over it with another drybrushed coat of "Gold Leaf" by Crown.










Same story again, leave this to dry and move onto your last colour.


I wanted a sandstone colour for my background, but it just depends on personal preference. Use whatever colours you want.

If you want a grey background I'd recommend starting with a dark grey undercoat, moving up to a greyish blue, grey and then white.


Once the yellow had dried, I moved onto the last coat of "Chateau" by Crown.











Almost finished now.. : victory:


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## Beardy_C (Feb 9, 2010)

that looks awesome! I so want to do this and this is the perfect guide! 

I like the colour alot, the 4 colours you chose did you do them in a certain order? Look forward to the next part


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## Reaper941 (Mar 21, 2008)

Beardy_C said:


> that looks awesome! I so want to do this and this is the perfect guide!
> 
> I like the colour alot, the 4 colours you chose did you do them in a certain order? Look forward to the next part


Cheers.

I did them in order, yeah.

It's working up from the base coat to the colour you want.

So for a sandstone rock like mine you want..

Dark brown > Red > Yellow > Cream

For Grey

Dark grey(Or black) > Blue > Light Grey > White highlights.


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## CaptainCrunch (Apr 11, 2009)

The final product looks awesome! Have you got art experience in the past? Well done.:no1:


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## roostarr (Jan 27, 2009)

oi muppet, post the photos of the finished thing you posted on facebook on here so people can see it like that as well 

its looking great


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## Reaper941 (Mar 21, 2008)

CaptainCrunch said:


> The final product looks awesome! Have you got art experience in the past? Well done.:no1:


No qualifications except a C or B at higher. : victory:



roostarr said:


> oi muppet, post the photos of the finished thing you posted on facebook on here so people can see it like that as well
> 
> its looking great


I will when Photobucket stops raping me.

Cheers guys.


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## bumbleyjoe (Feb 5, 2010)

Great advice, could have used this before i started mine! unfortunatly i cant see the pictures!?!?!?!


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