Making snow?

[Jawafive]

Can anyone give me some good pointers for making a snow base for my AMT At-At and adding some snow to various sections of the model itself? I did some searching, but came up with nothing. Any advice is appreciated!-Matt

 

[tgreco]

Can anyone give me some good pointers for making a snow base for my AMT At-At and adding some snow to various sections of the model itself? I did some searching, but came up with nothing. Any advice is appreciated!-Matt

I've been working on a diorama of the tripped AT-AT, and I've been using rail road snow. It looks pretty good so far, but I'm still building it up to the desired depth. You can apply it in layers, and go as thin as a dusting, or as heavy as you want, just depends on how many layers you want to do

you should be able to find it at most hobby shops

 

[Kris]

Potatoe flakes!

 

[DL 44 Blaster]

Craft stores like ACMoore, Micheals sell liquid snow that goes on with a paintbrush. It's pretty realisitc in just about any scale. It doesn't look like "virgin" fresh drifted snow, but more of a walked in day after. Perfect for most all model applications.

 

[dakota_in_the_sky]

I think ILM used glass spheres. It's also used as a filler in resin. I'm not sure where to get it though, maybe resin supply houses.

 

[Howlrunner]

Make snow? That's easy. You just need a spray nozzle and some super powers:

:lol

 

[GrenadeKing]

I think ILM used glass spheres. It's also used as a filler in resin. I'm not sure where to get it though, maybe resin supply houses.

Microshperes or microbeads or something along the micro line is what I believe they are called. The Mythbusters used some in that concrete glider episode and I've heard quite a few folks talk about wanting to use it as snow for dioramas since it wont discolor over time.

 

[DL 44 Blaster]

I think ILM used glass spheres. It's also used as a filler in resin. I'm not sure where to get it though, maybe resin supply houses.

I thought ILM used baking soda for the ESB miniatures....?

 

[Jayn]

what about using fine or med ceiling texture mixed with the paint? They have it in spray cans now too (popcorn-ceiling repair)

j.

 

[Wistanley]

Steve the Swede had a great thread on this in 2003 regarding the AT-AT itself.

 

[HouseAtreides]

That is great info on ESB, Thanks!

The stuff I have seen on railroad dioramas looks good, they (scale railroad collectors) have worked out a lot of the diorama details, IMHO.

 

[Apophis]

An individual was im pressed at my "Hoth" diorama and asked if i could explain how i did it, so here goes.
The first step is to get a good quality board for your base, i used a 12x24x5/8 prefinished shelf from Lowes with the plastic coating or you can get the faux wood coating, i think it cost me around $6.00, the reason being that the materials used in making this dio uses water and the plastic coating repels the water so it wont soak in and warp yuor base.
next with a pencil mark where you want rocks or humps bumps and what ever you want, get some news paper or foam and secure the stuff onto the board.
Next your LHS should have some Woodland Scenics products there get a roll of plaster cloth that is used mostly for RR, cut the cloth in strips that you can easily manage and wet the cloth and apply to the surface and onto the humps and bumps and whatevers ya got and let dry.
Next get some Mod Podge craft glue puzzle sealer, Wal-Mart sells it, and get a small container of white acrylic paint and mix into the sealer real well brush onto the plaster cloth, this sealer is also a glue which will help secure the plaster cloth to the slick surface of the board, be sure to fill in the small holes from the cloth, and let dry.
Next you will need a container of micro balloons or "snow" from Woodland Scenics from your LHS, get your Mod Podge and spread a second coat onto your board and once you do that put on some latex gloves and shake the "snow" onto the WET sealer until you have a nice thick coat of snow, next "pat" it down lightly into the sealer, let dry, shake off the excess.
Next repeat the above if necessary to achieve thickness.

The ares around the at-ats feet was done with Milliput epoxy putty to build it up before i applied the Mod Podge and snow.
Here are some pics:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v602/Stipp08/100_0749.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v602/Stipp08/100_0748.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v602/Stipp08/100_0751.jpg

 

[Forestmoonstudio]

What about a taxidermy company? They sell snow for the wildlife scenes. Check out www.taxidermy.com and type in snow under search. It's the WASCO wildlife artist supply company. I was thinking of useing their snow for my at-at scene. It looks like a great price for how much that you get.

 

[Jawafive]

Park vader, thanks! I just ordered some of the self-adhesive snow from there. Should make a nice addition to my At-At. Anyone know of any AT-STs in scale with the AMT At-AT?

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

Some good info here. I am about to attempt the same thing.

 

[jedimaster]

Try this also. Tamiya snow effect.

 

[STEVE THE SWEDE]

Steve the Swede had a great thread on this in 2003 regarding the AT-AT itself.

You have a good memory! I don't think that would help here though. This thread seems more about creating realistic snow for large applications. I tried to mimic the crappy looking small drifts ILM painted on their studio walkers.

If I remember corectly I think I just mixed white acrylic paint with talcum powder. That looked rather bang on to the ILM studio models but I wouldn't go as far and say it was realisticly looking snow. Then again that was not what the cliant wanted. We we're aiming for studio accuracy.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Wesman]

Quick and dirty--cotton batting dusted with baking soda. Old school enough for you?