Comp_Nov09: VW Decay

Name: Amy James (amy4342)

Tank Dimensions (Height/Width/Depth): 12 x 20 x 12

Aquascape Name: VW Decay

Hardscape/Materials used: Naturesoil, Pea gravel, VW Camper van model, model bricks

Plants: Hemianthus Callitrichoides Cuba, Eleocharis parvula, Rotala Rountifolia

Fertilisation: Easy Carbo and EI dosing

About the aquascape: I made the tank by cutting an old glass condensation lid using silicone I already had. The pea gravel and Naturesoil were leftover from previous scapes, and the plants are cuttings from my other tanks. The model bricks costed £8 from eBay and the model camper van costed £4 from eBay. Unfortunately, the seller sent the wrong model - the one pictured is a VW camper pickup, wheres I have the bus. He is sending me the correct model, so I'll swap them over when it arrives.

Inspiration: Well, as many of you know, my two favourite hobbys are aquascaping and VW classic camper vans. So, taking a leaf out of James Maslin's Foundation, I decided to re-create the scene where I first found my Volkswagen van. It was in a terrible state of disrepair, sat on the drive in front of somebody's house, which I recreated with model bricks. The grass had taken over, represented by the Eleocharis parvula, there were brambles obscuring the front of van, represented by the Hemianthus cuba, and the Rotala is supposed to represent the only nice thing growing in the garden - a gorgeous red tree of some kind.

Apologies for the dodgy pictures - never, ever buy an iPhone for it's camera. I'll upload better ones when I borrow my fiance's camera

I used carboard to seperate the substrates and the van is placed on the 'drive'.



This is the finished version with plants. Again, really sorry for the terrible picture!

Oh wow, thanks for the positive comments! I'm glad you like it James - I absolutely love your Foundation scape!

Love the bricks! When the van arrives are you keeping it clean, or are you going to sand it back a bit to rough it up some?

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Thanks! Well, I'd really really like to sand it back, because I think if I let it rest in some salt water it would rust and be really true to the original, but whilst the top is made of metal, the bottom part is unfortunately made of plastic. Hmmmm, will have to see what i can do.

Thanks!

Yeah, the sanding back will really help.. is the plastic blue right through, or white painted blue? If you could take it back some, then use a brown permanent marker or something.. even tipex with pen over the top. A little algae growth on the bus wouldn't look out of place either, so get the bus submerged and in a window for a few days at a time to encourage it

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Unfortunately, it's blue all the way through 🙁. I was thinking about getting some modelers paint in a rusty colour? If I flick small blobs on, it might look ok. When I filled the tank, some dust from the Naturesoil also settled on the van which gave it a really really dirty look which was quite authentic. I was maybe thinking about supergluing a small amount of moss on there to replicate the amount of green mold that was on the roof, gutters, seals, everywhere basically, but I like the algae idea! Thanks! 😀

I gotta think of ways of getting 2 foot Millennium Falcon in a pico tank now fibre optic stars and stuff

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, awesome idea! Dont forget R2D2!!! 🙂. Fibre optic stars could be, um, interesting! Although, talking of electrics, I have a grand finale up my sleeve! 😉

hi,
amy is in hospital at the moment so i promised to upload some extra pics she took. as soon as she is feeling well enough she will be back and will let you know what sort of plants etc that she used.
hopefully i dont mess this up lol 8)