[Archive] Snow effect

Archive [Archive] Modeling Ideas and Advice
1

richard barby:

A few questions on snow effect painting and by that I mean making something look like snow on bases and the tops of some dryads, its for my new wood elf are

1 whats the best product

2 whats the best way of doing a snow effect

3 is it going to last or fall off after 15 mintues

thanks richard

2

Ugly Green Trog:

My flat mate uses the GW stuff I have no idea what method he uses to apply it but his stuff looks like an icy slush. It has dried pretty solid and doesn’t shift easily however.

3

JMR:

Have a look at this article: From the Warp: 8 ways to base your models with snow

I think it was written before GW came with their product, but as always GW products are overpriced and you can probably get the exact same product or better somewhere else for a better price.

I use baking soda mixed with PVA and add some extra water if I want to make it more slushy.

4

richard barby:

thanks the site looks good a mate told me that the baking soda goes yellow over time is that the case

5

Thommy H:

You need to use bicarbonate of soda rather than baking soda. Mix it with PVA and water, get it nice and slushy and dollop it on. As it’s drying, sprinkle more of the bicarbonate over it to give it a bit of a sparkle. I did this diorama almost two years ago with this method and there’s been no discolouration:

6

Xander:

Great tips, Thommy!

This message was automatically appended because it was too short.

7

JMR:

You need to use bicarbonate of soda rather than baking soda.

Thommy H
It took me a while to figure out what baking soda exactly was when I was looking to do my snow, but I came to the conclusion that baking soda is sodium bicarbonate (it's what it says on the box), but it's an unknown product here in the Netherlands and is easily confused with baking powder or some other stuff which I can't remember now. I think part of the confusion came from US English and UK English useing the same term to describe two different products.

Apparently baking soda it's commonly used in the US for all sorts of things.

Either way, here's a picture of the stuff that I use:


It doesn't go yellow at all. I use the same method as Thommy.
8

Thommy H:

Yeah, sorry - that was a quick reply on my phone during my lunch hour! There is a lot of variation in terminology, it seems. A bit of research will help.

9

cornixt:

My wife used the GW snow stuff. It is really just transparent but appears white (like polar bear fur) and it shows up any flaws underneath where you have stuck it. I don’t recommend it at all.

10

Skink:

Thommy’s method works wonders. Lewis Clarke uses a similar technique for his awesome miniatures, he posted a tutorial here.

11

richard barby:

so thommy what kind of mix would you go for with it. also when it comes to applying it how would you do it

12

Skink:

so thommy what kind of mix would you go for with it. also when it comes to applying it how would you do it

richard barby
...Errr, have you checked the tutorial I posted previously? It answers these questions...
13

Thommy H:

Yeah, that’s exactly how I did mine.

14

richard barby:

sorry that like great thanks for your help

15

Ishkur Cinderhat:

After years I still have not found out what baking soda really is. We have a baking powder here which is definitely not suitable and then there is what’s called “Speisenatron” in German and equals Sodium Bicarbonate, which you can also get either in the supermarket’s baking ingredients’ section or the spices section. Is that the right stuff, then?

16

JMR:

You need sodium bicarbonate to make snow, yes, which is known as baking soda in the US. However, like I said above, I believe the term baking soda is also used to describe something else in other countries, but I’m not 100% sure on this. It’s been a while since I tried to figure it out.

It’s quite possible that you can find it in the supermarket amongst the baking ingredients. I believe it’s fairly common to use as a partial replacement for salt in order to make the cake “rise” more and contain more air. I believe it’s also used in those toothpastes that give an extra whitening effect to your teeth. And you can make your own deodorant with it. I think it’s one of those “grandma’s tips” products that has a hundred and one uses, from baking to cleaning… and making snow :wink:

I ended up ordering mine from some store that specialises in selling foreign products that are common goods in other countries, but not seen often here.

17

Baggronor:

Doing snow-based WoC myself at the moment. I found this guy is the boss of pretty much everything miniatures-related.

I plumped for the GW flock in the end as I don’t trust baking soda not to go yellow. I know it shouldn’t do, but it would just be utterly typical.