Advice required - how do you make a coral reef?

[Bullshott]

Like the title to this post says, how should I go about making sections of coral reef for 28mm aquatic games?

[War Monkey]

There are some very nice videos on YouTube by Stephanie Kilgast, how she makes really nice coral with Sculpey Clay.   

[OSHIROmodels]

Pet shop 

[gamer Mac]

Upholstery foam soaked in polyfiller
That is what we used for our aqua naughts

[Poiter50]

Pics?

Upholstery foam soaked in polyfiller
That is what we used for our aqua naughts

[gamer Mac]

Some pictures from a MacLAM  thread

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=42882.msg500931#msg500931 







There is a build thread for the game but I can't find it at the moment

[Bullshott]

There is a build thread for the game but I can't find it at the moment

Here:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=24709.0

[Bullshott]

Upholstery foam soaked in polyfiller
That is what we used for our aqua naughts

I found the pics of these being made on the Aquanauts thread. They make great rock formations and I really like the finish you achieved. However, what I'm actually looking for is how to make sections of coral reef.

[Codsticker]

I think what I would do is buy a small bag of landscaping lava, smash the lava with a hammer; glue it down with a hot glue gun to a base; give it several coats of PVA to seal it; paint it black, drybrush grey. Once painted, I would glue a combo of Woodland Scenics autumn lichen and finer leafed aquarium plants on top off and around it. Another material you could use to represent coral is some actual sponge, soaked in PVA or paint.

[Bullshott]

Another material you could use to represent coral is some actual sponge, soaked in PVA or paint.

Excellent idea. The structure of the sponge should hopefully emulate coral nicely. Sponges are cheap, so I'll have to give this a try 

[SteveBurt]

Could you not just buy bits of coral from an aquarium place and paint them to resemble a living reef?

[Codsticker]

I don't think you can actually buy bits of dead coral at pet stores but you can buy artificial coral. From the few I have seen, they are too big for 28mm miniatures.

[gamer Mac]

Excellent idea. The structure of the sponge should hopefully emulate coral nicely. Sponges are cheap, so I'll have to give this a try 

That is just the same method we used for our sea bed bases

[Bullshott]

That is just the same method we used for our sea bed bases

In that case I'll take it as read that this method will be successful