Well to start with, I ordered the glass in the exact measures I needed from an online glass vendor. It's just plain 4mm glass.
When I received it I glued the two back walls and the bottom piece together with silicone (the kind suited for aquariums). This created the frame in which to make the background. (I didn't put on the sides and the front since that would make it very hard to do any work on the background).
Here comes the time consuming part:
Apply the PU foam in layers allowing it to dry in between, until the rought shape of your background is created. For me this looked mostly like the side of a volcano going form the bottom to the top getting more and more narrow. When this is done the surface should be cut until it is smooth using some kind of blade.. I used a loose hacksaw blade since it is very bendy.
Now you take your foam again and start making branches etc. it's a very slow process since you have to build up each one one layer at a time. This is where you just have to be creative.
At the end you have the rough layout of your background. Now take the Flexbinder stuff (alfix, flevopol or whatever it's called in your country), dillute it with water 1:1, and mix it with even parts of potting soil and coconut humus (or whatever kind of material you wish to use - experiment a bit here..) until you have something with a substance like wet mortar or concrete. in relatively thin layers apply this to your entire background letting it dry completely in between. This process takes from 2-3 weeks depending on how big your background is and whether or not you are able to place it outside in the sun (if possible do this!)
When you are satisfied with your background, glue together the remaining pieces of glass, and then you have your terrarium.
For the top i bought a piece of aluminum on which I have mounted Highpower LEDs, other sollutions could be comapact flourescent bulbs or just plain flurescent tubes.
Hope this was not to cryptic.. It's hard to explain without pictures of the process.
This is more or less how I did:
Construction of a large vivariumat www.poison-frogs.comhowever mine is made completely from glass and I didn't use any real wood in there
Christian
Built my self a new terrarium :)
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