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Hi

Has anyone ever tried, or heard of someone trying using papier mache to create fake rocks etc?

I had the thought walking to work this morning. There are plenty of articles about people doing it with styrofoam, but I can't remember ever seeing anything about using papier mache.

I was thinking of moulding the "rocks" using old newspaper, painting up and then sealing with something like PondSeal as some people have done with styrofoam.

Cheap as chips. A lot more flexible (as in mouldability) and very lightweight.

It's just a thought at the moment.

Last edited by batman at 16-May-2005 15:50

i have seen them made from fiberglass as the coating, It was a wooden tank the only glass was the front the rest was made of 3/4 inch plywood and coated with fiberglass then he had built little ledges and landscaping with styrofoam.

very cool tank but it was a lot of hours to build it and to make sure every thing was sealed



The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is like an bacon and egg breakfast: the chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'."

Do you mean the decos were made of papier mache and the sealing was done by fibreglass?

Would Lacquer be a better choice of sealant than pond seal. I wouldn't know where to start with fibreglass.

hmm seems like it might work, but only if its was heavily coated with epoxy or something. otherwise the water would soak the paper and ud have watever is in the glue diffusing into the water column, and eventually the structure would be weakened and destroyed. just as long as its 100% covered with sealer or something then i don't see a problem and a good alternative for styrofoam

This doesn't sound like such a good idea... Even if you could coat the paper sculpture in epoxy or fiberglass enough to permanently seal it completely, you'd also have to weight down the sculpture because it would be very boyant and float. Styrofoam is made from latex or other kinds of plastic, so they are more or less inert and will not effect the water even if not sealed 100%. Styrofoam will also float, though, which is why I've only seen it used to construct 3D backgrounds which are then siliconed to the wall of the aquarium.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...