TUTORIALS - 6
MAKING
REALISTIC
SNOW
by Jose Mendez
There are three different types of snow, there is the fresh powder that
has just dropped from the sky. Then there is the hard packed snow that has sat
on the ground for a while. And there is the slowly melting slushy snow, that is
almost transparent and icy.
Making these effects look realistic is quite easy. To make a winter scene,
first decide what kind of trees and plants you will use. Or, if you are doing an
urban scene, make all of the buildings and objects in the diorama first. When
you have decided, you will want to start with the hard-packed snow first. This
is the snow that has been sitting for a while, and it is the one that will be
made in the most quantity.
Take a flat plate and mix 2 parts of baking powder into 4 parts of Tamiya's 22X
clear, add 5 drops of Tamiya flat white, mix with a popsicle stick, until it
looks like cake batter. Then proceed to place the snow in the desired areas of
the diorama. You have about a minute to work with, before the snow hardens, so
plan out the layout of the snow, before you mix the large batch of the material.
If you need thick snow just mixing more, and pile it on top of the needed area
of the diorama.
To make slushy snow is, basically, the same process, but this time you won't use
the flat white paint. Simply mix the clear, and the powder together, using the
baking powder for the color of the snow, so as to make the snow look a lot less
dense, and see thru. Add pastel browns, blacks or dark colors to make dirty
snow. Apply it to sidewalks, roadways or walkways, somewhere that a lot of foot,
or vehicle traffic occurs.
For powder snow, just choose where the snow will fall, and take some hairspray,
the kind that comes in a plastic pump, and spray the diorama in the desired
place then sprinkle some baking powder, from about 9 inches above. Let the
powder settle, then blow of the excess with a blow dryer and you are done.
If you do this correctly you should have very realistic snow. For an example
look in the picture gallery of this website, where you will see my winter
diorama which employed these techniqes with great success.