Tikki Aquarium by thechoozen

The Top

The top of the aquarium started its life off as nothing but a chunk of styrofoam. Obviously, this wasn't going to provide the best painting surface, but clays don't stick well to the surface. Fortunately, papier-mâché works as a wonderful middle man.


With the papier-mâché already covering the styrofoam, we used just a little more to create the face. After all, what would a Tikki-anything be without a wooden face?! This was then coated with a very thin modeling epoxy, which then gets sanded almost as if we were using bondo.


The finished sculpture then needed a coat of paint to give it that "wooden" look. Fortunately, my airbrushing skills aren't too bad at all. At least, I hope you think so, as they're used a lot in this mod!


The painted top needed...something. Ah, yes...a light! After all, fish can't see in the dark, and neither can we. Fortunately, we had stumbled on this LED contraption just looking for a home. It can do seven colours, which seemed great since so many fish lights are boring, one colour affairs.