How to Make a terrarium waterfall part 2

This is a continuation of how to make an attractive little waterfall to put in your terrarium. If you are looking for part 1 it is located here . I this part of the tutorial we continue on with the building of the waterfall and then we move on to paint and waterproof it.

The foam structure

Now we build the structure of the waterfall. Simply cut several pieces of foam and stack them on top of each other similar to what I have shown here.

The arrows show the flow of water and the striped out sections are the pools that hold water. We carve these pools out. The bottom piece of foam is the piece with the plastic water reservoir in it.

I have two reservoirs in mine but you could put more or less in yours.

One thing to remember is that you are going to need to get access to the water reservoir from the back of the waterfall so you can add water when needed or take out the pump if you need to. Although this isn't 100% necessary because you could just add water to one of the reservoirs in the front as it is needed.

So, glue these pieces together then carve them into your waterfall shape. Remember to carve out the reservoirs and put small notches where the water will pour out of one reservoir into the next lower one.

A note about Pumps: they will only raise water to a certain height and each pump is different. You do not want to make your waterfall so tall that the water won't be lifted high enough! So, go by the manufacturers recommendation for lift in inches or test your water pump to see how high it will pump water.

Installing the pump

Now install the pump and hose inside the waterfall. Cut any raceways or holes that you need. You can see the hose going up from the pump and the top two inches is shown with a dashed line how the hose goes inside the top portion and sticks out the front.

You should go over all the seams with a glue gun or a waterproof glue to make sure it doesn't leak! And you should run it and test it to make sure it works.

Once this is all done it is time to paint and decorate it.

Painted I pretty much just did some basic diorama techniques to my waterfall. I painted it various browns, greys and whites to simulate soil and stone.

Note about Paints: You should use waterproof paint like some kind of enamel.. But if you use a water based paint you can spray seal it.

Adding the terrain features

Okay, let's finish this up by adding the wonderful terrain features. I used typical diorama making materials. The arrows show some features.

I did a little bit of highlight painting in green which looks great then I added some sprinkled on green textures to make grass, I added some rough terrain to make little bushes and finally I added a tree.

If you don't have terrain making materials like this you can improvise. Green kitchen sponges and scrubbies can be torn into pieces and made into shrubs.

You can brush glue onto the highlight areas then sprinkle real soil onto it or make your own green grass material with a little sawdust and green paint.

As far as the tree goes you can purchase kits to make these trees on Amazon.com. The company that makes these kits is called Woodland Scenics. (Sometimes arts and crafts stores like Michaels or AC Moore will carry all these terrain making materials including the trees. I have a link here where you can purchase them. And I also have a tutorial that shows you how to improvise your own miniature trees out of wire and items found around the house: How to make miniature trees

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