Diy fake hide/cave and pond

[Sofoula88]

Hey everyone..so I've decided to fix up my tank and add abit of furniture.. I've already made a hide which I made out of foam and am working on my 2nd project atm which is a pond/pool, that will also double with basking platforms connecting to the top (it sounds complicated but once I'm done I'll post up pics and ull see what I mean), so as I said I made my hide but wasn't 100% happy with the colour.. I used styrofoam, white non sanded grout,liquid nails and clear pond tite.. I wanted a orange desert type colour.. But because I used white I ended up getting pink once I mixed I'm red..I saw other ppl do it and somehow they made orange so I dunno why I got pink..anyway a bottle of paint later and it resembled what I wanted.. So I don't wanna make the same mistake again.. I was thinking I could buy brown grout this time and possibly mix in red or orange paint but I'm Not sure what colour I'll get so I don't wanna buy it and then end up with an ewwy colour.. Or I could use the white again but that takes forever..or I could jst paint over the white grout,but then I think it may be too bright.. I tried making a colour pallette test where I used the white grout and mixed different amounts of paint in,and then did the paint over grout thing.. Mixing in the paint with the grout gave me best results..but like I said I had to use alot of paint..so I'm wondering if anyone has done this before and what colour grout/ paint you used to get a nice orange desert colour
thanks
here are some pics of the hide..hope the links work,let me know what you all think =]

http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz121/sofoula88/4e7060fd.jpg

http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz121/sofoula88/c26106ac.jpg

http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz121/sofoula88/4a923a02.jpg

And another one with my beardie Lola sitting on it =]

http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz121/sofoula88/b20280ac.jpg

 

[marteed]

Hi, i found that to be a problem as well, using too much paint. In the end to get a strong colour i mixed my own up and diluted it with some water and sprayed it on with a spray bottle. I used a mix of red, orange and browns. Takes a couple coats but uses a lot less paint. This isnt sealed yet and i used render not grout. Hope this helps!

 

[Sofoula88]

You sprayed te paint mix after you rendered it?..yer I'm thinking I might do that, did you use acrylic paint?

Looks good btw..very bright I like it =]

bump

 

[marteed]

Yes after i rendered it, and the render was completely dry. The paint i used was just from my local $2 shop. you just have to be careful not to spray to much as it will run. I tried mine on paper first to get the right spray.
Thanks, this one i made for my gammon range carpet!