From the template post you should have seen how I've made a nice slot for my foamboard. I have to say my Dremmel has become an invaluable tool in this enterprise. I don't use it often but every time I have it has made the process easier, quicker and much more relaxing, despite spinning blades, sanders and drills at 100s or RPM
Skeletal structure in place, glued down with hot-melt glue, gotta be quick with it though. So two tools you should be looking to invest in [if you haven't already] when you have some spare cash a Dremmel [or generic equivalent] and a hot melt glue gun [which can be bought for about £5!]
Here's the reverse view, the 'South face' which will have the door on the left. You'll notice some missing pieces from the battlements. These were cut off to allow the roof to slide into the remaining uprights and the roof slots. Each piece was then glued back in place with a cocktail stick embedded inside for support.
Now I was mooching around in the garage and I had some chunks of white packing styrofoam from a desk I just put together. It was in convenient sized chunk so instead of opting for my denser [more sensible] peach foam I used the white, my scalpel and some sandpaper. There's not template for this you're just going to have to sculpt 8 columns that fit between each cross-member and follow the roof shape. Alternatively you could pack it with newspaper or tin foil I suppose.
And the North side, which will be mainly fire points and emplaced weapons.
Now here's where the story takes and interesting diversion you may recall I painted a 'hide' for my brother's pet lizard. The other day he rings me up and asks for 5 minutes of my time to "look at something and give him my opinion". I was due to game that night and his 5 minutes didn't take into account the 40ish minute round trip to his girlfriends house, the first time I had ever been and a place obviously local but actually quite unfamiliar to me geographically speaking. I was less than keen but decided to do the right thing and I have to admit it was the right decision. He's currently making a vivarium for his beasties and this is how they do it, look familiar?
Now I have to say I was amazed, my brother is the car guy, playing around with engines and stuff. The last time I saw him be this creative was when he made a remote control hover craft from plywood. Bizarrely at the weekend I'd been to get some peach foam from B&Q warehouse but they no longer stock it and here's my bro with a stack of it and at least two sheets unused :)
He showed me a couple of lizard forums where they talk about their vivarium 'builds' just like I do here and on 40k forums. There's a whole world of folk doing terrain equivalents but for pets and techniques they use that will help me. With a base of foam he will now use several layers of acrylic tile adhesive/grout. I'm pretty sure it'll be like a surf board construction, foam core with a hard bonded shell.
I'm going to nip out to a £1 store and pick up any old grout, I think the acrylic stuff is safer for the animals. Regardless, with a grout base I'll then be able to add air drying clay or Milliput decoration otherwise if I tried to apply it directly to the foam it'd probably not stick and flex too much to get a decent finish. Before all of that I need to work on the battlements and create the capillary tower plates...
