Revell's DIY Thread

[Skelhorn]

Going to be putting my baby Eastern Water Dragon's in there

Just about to fill the water side with water, wish me luck the silicone holds! I'll post again once its (hopefully) finished tonight

HAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA IT WORKS!

Posting pics now!

So I've spent the entire day putting the finishing touches on my water dragon enclosure, and I'm finally done, here are the pics, would love you guys to tell me what you think!

View attachment 252580 View attachment 252577 View attachment 252578 View attachment 252581 View attachment 252579

And the little rascals seam to be fitting in just fine

That looks awesome, makes me wish I had the motivation to pull something like this off haha. Amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it tho, GOOD WORK

 

[Revell13]

That's exactly what I was after, dude.. - and yes, a divider between 2 & 3 is what I'm after..

- and yeah, on the 3rd section, I just want it like carved in so it's a slope that the scorps can walk up, then perhaps on the side of the 1st section, there be a slope going down again. I dunno man.

too easy mate, ill do up a pro to type tonight to scale and send you some photo's so you know what your getting before I start grouting.

That looks awesome, makes me wish I had the motivation to pull something like this off haha. Amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it tho, GOOD WORK

Cheers Skel, hopefully I've inspired some other people to give it a crack, as Ive said before, this was my very first attempt at making anything

 

[dragonlover1]

Going to be putting my baby Eastern Water Dragon's in there

Just about to fill the water side with water, wish me luck the silicone holds! I'll post again once its (hopefully) finished tonight

HAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA IT WORKS!

Posting pics now!

So I've spent the entire day putting the finishing touches on my water dragon enclosure, and I'm finally done, here are the pics, would love you guys to tell me what you think!

View attachment 252580 View attachment 252577 View attachment 252578 View attachment 252581 View attachment 252579

And the little rascals seam to be fitting in just fine

very nice work you should be very happy with what you've done

Thanks mate, they all seam to be doing well, but none are eating very much at the moment, maybe partial brumation? finger length EWDs should be eating more than one small cricket a day yes? I'm starting to get a bit worried tbh.

did you give it time for the paint and sealer to dry and air out before you added the dragons,paint fumes can be a killer

 

[Revell13]

very nice work you should be very happy with what you've done


did you give it time for the paint and sealer to dry and air out before you added the dragons,paint fumes can be a killer

I ended up using an expensive exterior paint and no sealer, but yes, the pieces spent almost a week out in the sun drying and de-fuming so that my reptiles are all healthy, good question and nice pickup, I should have explained that more thoroughly.

Since posting all of these pictures I decided to add a strip of natural wood to the top of the perspex in the middle of the enclosure, in the process I broke the seal on the silicone and flooded my (carpet) bedroom

Now, having re-sealed EVERYTHING in the enclosure, I'm waiting the final few days for the sealant fumes to disperse so I can reestablish my critters environment.

Lesson learnt, DONT F#*! WITH PRE EXISTING SILICONE SEALS! It really made me have a bad day.

 

[tyson001]

Looks amazing would love to build one like that.

 

[Revell13]

tank+lighting+building materials+filter = i don't want to know, easily $900+
time = around 40+ hours
worth it?
Absolutely. I love it.

Tank still not up and running, still can't get the seal right, I can only now just STRESS to everyone and anyone trying this setup themselves to get a tank with an aquarium sealed bottom, my corners are still leaking and its driving me up a wall!

Finished Product.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Looks good, similar to what I did for my EWDs. Only problem is, the buggers grow FAST. Mine are 18months old, one is 60cm, the other about 50cm, I'm flat out building a huge indoor enclosure for them.


Was going to say, chuck a heap of crickets in the enclosure, they will hunt them down, but sounds like you have that covered ;-)
My little guys started out very shy and would hunt at night after their IV light was off.

They're great fun, my biggest is a male, he'll sit on my shoulders now while I walk around the house

 

[Pink]

That's come up really well! I wanted to do something like that when I had plans for an EWD too, but sadly not enough room here at the moment.

 

[Revell13]

Thanks guys, yeah they have a constant supply of live crickets in the enclosure, and in turn the crickets have food and wet cotton balls so they don't die before being eaten lol.

Go for it anyway Pink, thats only a 4ft tank, you must have 4ft of room somewhere

 

[crocka79]

Top effort! DIY is very addictive. if anyone needs foam in the adelaide area ive got a whole heap in the shed that isnt needed. all packing foam from whitegoods, tv's etc so no flat sheets cheers

 

[Revell13]

Just been told off on Mad's 4400 thread for hijacking so all my other DIY stuff is coming over here, ill repost a bit, then move on as each new item comes up

This is one of 2 new "gecko only" hides I will be attaching to the glass side walls near the front of my enclosure, its Gecko only because you have to be able to climb glass to get to it



This is the scorpion rock/hide I've just finished making for a mate up in QLD.



This is the start of my copper tailed skink rock/hide.
Ill keep you guys updated on this one as its the current project



Also doing a small water dish in the "ReptileOne" fashion, no pics yet.

 

[Venomous_RBB]

These all look so good, love your little EWD
They all must be so happy living at your house, lol. Would love to see some pic's of your skinks

 

[Revell13]

Thanks BH92!
Ive got a pic of my 2 copper tails around here somewhere, ill see if I can find it



Also... Tonight I came to the realisation that all serious DIY'ers have a pyramid of sorts that they have created (Mad's looks awesome! check out his thread http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/diy-zone-5392/mad-4400-hides-fake-rock-162898/ ) and so I did some research and started my first pyramid.

Its Incan inspired, and is 300mm by 300mm square, and is going to be the centrepiece to my (soon too be bought) 45x45x45 tank.

Photo time!

This is the 2nd layer of paint for my Skink rock/hide, I'm going to go back to the blue grey for the last coat because so far all my creations are this tan colour and I'm over it



This was the prototype I made last night to see whats involved in making a temple shape.



This is the Temple I started tonight




Bottle of red cracked (Mr. Noir, pinot) and a bit more work done this afternoon, got the steps in and all the in between steps (they are fiddly as hell) finished off then managed to wreak the top bit and had to remake it 3 times to get it right again lol.

Just letting the liquid nails dry a bit (like, after dinner) before I make up some grout to get started on this one

To all the budding DIYers out there, GET OUT THERE and start creating



Liquid nails dry, and its time for grouting, I wanted to try something a little different this time, so I mixed up 40:40:20 water/exterior paint/bondcrete and did my first layer with that mix, I think its worked pretty well, went on nice and smoothly and gripped to the foam very well.


Also did a bit of "dry-brush" work to a few of my older pieces, this was my first attempt and dry brushing and I'm in love! It makes such a difference to the final product, a much more natural look.

Got the final layer of paint onto the copper tail hide rock, will dry brush it tomorrow with silver and black (just to be different) and move the little guys in on Sunday so long as the paint fumes have gone (it will be sitting outside in the sun all day Saturday)

Would love to hear what you guys think, and IM RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS!!! HELP!!! =D

 

[dragonlover1]

looking good revell,keep it up

 

[Grogshla]

I love the Mayan Pyramids!!!!!

 

[McFly]

Gday everyone ive never been one to make the hides and stuff I've made an enclosure but would like to give this a go. Just a quick one where do you get all the styrofoam and wats it covered in?

 

[Revell13]

If you read the first page of this post I explain the whole process, but quickly for what your after in your post, I got the foam from Supplies Direct but most packaging/storage/freighting places should have some to sell, and its covered in Dunlop SuperFine Flexigrout x3 and then a high quality exterior paint x3 with sand mixed into the 3rd layer. Once thats all dry, do the last bits of dry brushing till you get the desired rock/tree/aged look you are going for and 2 coats of cromelins(?) clear pond sealer.

I love the Mayan Pyramids!!!!!

I'll keep you updated on the build of this one so you can keep me on the straight and narrow for how it should look Anything you think I should add so far? Im not sure how decorative I should go, I'm trying to build a "new" pyramid, not a ruin, and I'm also unsure of the final colour.... help me out bro

 

[Jaws07]

This is so cool! I'm hoping to do something like this for the 36x18x36 Exo Terra I will be getting for 1 or 2 water dragons in a couple weeks. A couple questions, where did you get the foam and which type of foam is it? Also is it water proof?

 

[Revell13]

This is so cool! I'm hoping to do something like this for the 36x18x36 Exo Terra I will be getting for 1 or 2 water dragons in a couple weeks. A couple questions, where did you get the foam and which type of foam is it? Also is it water proof?

Your going to need a much bigger enclosure than that for EWDs lol, good while they are hatchies but in 12months time they will have outgrown it.
The foam is from a packaging supply company in Wollongong and its waterproof only because it has been grouted, painted and sealed.

 

[Jaws07]

Okay thank you, I am only needing for the water dragons to be in there for 12 months because then my angle headed dragon will be taking the enclosure and I will be building a HUGE indoor enclosure