Snow basing tutorial

Howdy everyone. Just wrote this snow basing tutorial for my blog but thought it might interest some on here. I like my method as it can make fluffy fresh snow, or more icy frozen snow without having to use expensive crushed glass and such like, is fairly quick and simple to create, and looks good to boot

First thing to do is base your miniature with sand ect and get that painted ready for the flock. I paint mine grey as I like the contrast between the white snow and the dark slate and rubble, but you can use any colour you choose to do this And it will still look good.


Next you will need a pot of Gale force nine snow flock (I think Woodland scenics also do a similar product), a spatula of some sort, pva glue (Elmers glue), and a mixing surface. I do not use the GW stuff to create my snow as it is more like a static grass than a flock, and I do not think it will work as well, but you could give it a try on a spare base and see if that is all you can get.


Blob a large amount of pva glue onto your palette and slowly add the flock and mix it all together until you have a sloppy mixture. How much or little you add of the flock depends on what you want your snow to look like. The sloppier the mixture the more icy your snow will look, whereas if you want your snow to be nice and fluffy you will want the mix to be alot drier (but not too dry).


Once this is mixed add pva glue to the base of your model where you want the snow to sit. This creates a better bond to the base for your mixture, but also creates a nice graduating effect on the snow when you get to the final stage.


Spatula your snow mixture onto the base where you have added the pva glue patches and spread around as needed (this is where you create the hight and depth of your snow mounds, so pile it up high if you want nice big drifts or spread it thin if you want a more flat blob of snow).


While the snow mixture is still wet we add the final dusting of snow on the top. Sprinkle a healthy amount of flock onto the top of the mounds of snow you have created, and then shake it back off. The flock will stick to the parts you have mixed and glued, creating the final snow effect (this is where adding the pva glue to the base has an effect, as it created a nice graduation to your mound of snow and makes it look more realistic).


Wet

Dry

Let it all dry and hey presto! A good looking snowy base . You can choose how much or little snow you add to your bases, and this method will still work fantastically well, even if you want the whole base to be covered by the snow.

And thats a wrap Any feedback is much appreciated.

SC

Good tutorial!

How sparkly is it? It looks a bit on the matte side, but that's hard to tell from photos.

I agree that the GW stuff is the worst. Army Painter's is... not the worst.

I originally used a recipe with white glue, baking soda, acrylic gel medium, and a dash of blue ink. It looked pretty good, but it had a tendency to yellow over time. Now I use the Woodland Scenics snow mixed with the Woodland Scenics Realistic Water. While I like the effect I get with it (and it's a lot easier than the complicated recipe I used before), I found that it had a tendency to leech some color from the paint under it, which makes me suspect that's what the baking soda was doing as well. I had to spend an afternoon experimenting on spare bases until I found a set of colors that wouldn't make my snow gross. (Which I failed to write down, so if I decide to do snow bases again, I'll have to experiment again, because I am very smart.)

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Hey Calypta. It is not too shiny when it dries, but does have a bit of a sheen underneath the sprinkled bits, depending on how sloppy the mix is when you apply it. I have not tried the water effects with it but ai might add a little in (or some gloss varnish) to see if I can get it any shinier)

I honk baking soda is slightly.caustic which is why it may be yellowing and leeching off the paint beneath. Also some glues and varnishes yellow eventually as well. I use a (relatively) expensive wood glue for my snow as the first few I made with cheaper stuff yellowed as well.

The pic you show looks really good. Nice and icy effect. I will have a little play and see if I can get something similar