Most profesional exhibit builders do not use the "great stuff" type of expanding foam as it is quite difficult to carve and shape. It tends to chunk off in large pieces, making detail work much harder.

I use foam pack spray foam made for insulating pipes, this foam is also sold in large blocks in verying weights for carving.

Spray foam with tile grout will break down quickly due to the expansion and contraction of the foam.

Generally speaking it is preferable to cover foam with a fiberglass layer, then add a texture layer over that.

I use and recomend Polygems lightwieght sculpting epoxy, it is fire retardand, easily manipulated and made specifically for use in animal enclosures.

A few lousy pics.

spray



carve



fiberglass



epoxy



finish



Good luck, have fun, show off your finished product.

Cheers,

Ben

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• starting rock wall - fantasyxbabygurl, Sun Nov 11 20:11:16 2007
• RE: starting rock wall - redmoon, Sun Nov 11 20:27:21 2007
• RE: starting rock wall - Bighurt, Sun Nov 11 21:39:28 2007
• RE: starting rock wall - FANTASYXBABYGURL, Mon Nov 12 08:37:21 2007
• RE: starting rock wall - Bighurt, Mon Nov 12 08:49:20 2007
• post from Happy Hillbilly - Chris_Harper2, Mon Nov 12 08:49:47 2007
• RE: post from Happy Hillbilly - tectovaranus, Mon Nov 12 10:51:20 2007
• RE: post from Happy Hillbilly - Bighurt, Mon Nov 12 11:21:35 2007
• RE: post from Happy Hillbilly - Chris_Harper2, Mon Nov 12 15:15:37 2007
• Clarification... - Chris_Harper2, Mon Nov 12 15:23:24 2007