Hydrocal snow

[mbinsewi]

Use the WS snow on my Christmas train set-up.  On the streets, I used white latex caulk. 

Mike.

 

[Anonymous]

Aside from mineral based materials, about all organic and anorganic materials you can think of will react with moisture or the materials you sprinkle them onto. Discoloring maybe the harmless effect, corrosion or even disintegration are not so harmless.

[selector]

I believe that you could use anything white and powdery, provided it did not chemically react with anything onto which you sprinkle it, and provided you keep it dry.  Also you'd have to clean it up about once every five-seven months, depending on conditions.  You'd either have to vacuum it up entirely and sprinkle another fresh covering, or over-layer with a thin and cleaner layer, or paint what's there in solid form.

I'm pretty sure that if you are only interested in a few weeks of the scene, you could use baking soda, baking powder, plaster of Paris, icing sugar, even bleached flour.  Again, provided it stays completely dry, and ideally you would be able to vacuum it all up again.

[Lone Wolf and Santa Fe]

mlehman

Popped over to the website and noticed this stuff that might be useful: http://decoart.com/snow-tex/

I have tried that stuff and it turned yellow when it dried and I had to paint it white. Maybe it was old. I don't know. I used it directly on top of plaster soaked paper towels which actually look ok for snow if you leave them as is.

It is what I used on the rails.

It has a very bumpy texture and seems to have styrofoam as a filler. Look at the roof.

I make all my snow drifts out of cardboard before applying plaster soaked paper towels. In the future I will try Woodlands Scenics (ground foam) Snow.

j..........

[dknelson]

iwander

I'm building a winter scene and I remember an article using hydrocal as snow. Any ideas how ones goes about it. I don't want it loose but I want the powder look.

 

 

You are probably thinking of the "How Mike models snow" sidebar in Mike Danneman's article in the December 2011 MR, Rio Grande in the Rockies.  He uses marble dust for snow between the rails.  I recall other guys complaining that Hydrocal snow went yellow on them, but it seems to work for Danneman.  

Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

Forget to sprinkle hydrocal or plaster over your scenery and mist it with water - the result looks awful and will turn into a nightmare pretty soon!

There is much more to a winter scene than just some sort of snow sprinkled on places.

Take a look at the following video, which gives you an impression what it means to build a realistic winter landscape:

[mlehman]

I made my "snowcaps" from Sculptamold, painted white, the overpainted with some sort of translucent glittery stuff I found in the craftpaints section at Michael's.

Plastic over mountain, the armature shaped from foam, covered with Sculptamold.

Underside of finished basic product.You may need a skewer here and there to make things solid. Note bandaged thumb. Careful when you're hacking at these odd angles...

I break them up to make things easier to handle. I eventually want to go on across the peaks behind those in front that you see here. Note the avalanche covering the tracks, which makes for an interesting session for someone with a train that needs to get to Animas Forks. This view is in the base coat of IIRC Krylon flat white.

Here's the tracks blocked, with the "snow" covered in the glittery stuff. It from www.decoart.com

Americana brand, Starlite Varnish. I add some drops of it to their Duraclear Satin Varnish, then use that mix to paint over the base coat. After two or more coats, I covered it with a coat of Duraclear Gloss Varnish. Note that I was going for old snow, because the track was blocked by it into Animas Forks until they could get it removed in the spring. If you want fresh, use more of the Starlite Varnish in your mix -- or even straight up, which would be some extremely glittery snow IMO. But it's an easy effect to get to your taste with this stuff. Cheap IIRC, too.

I also use the stuff for highlights in whitewater that I make with cake decorators silicone.

Popped over to the website and noticed this stuff that might be useful:

http://decoart.com/snow-tex/

This stuff should work equally well on Hydrocal so long as you prime it like I did the Sculptamold. Another term to serach for is pearlizing medium.

[rrebell]

Best way I have seen is to do foam shapes, cover with plaster cloth and then plaster to smooth out stuff. Last sprinkle with marble dust (several company's make this), way of gluing is what works for you.

[Bering]

I have done some experements on this, the best i found was to form up the land the way you want, then kinda pour plaster of paris over it. (Mike Dannaman said he would build up the snow by imitating snow fall by sprinkeling it over the ground and moisning it with a mister) i didnt do all that because im impaitent and was going for dep snow anyway.  After that you can paint it white and sprinkle baking soda over it (looks amazing but eats away at metal) or wet the surface of the hydracal with a wet brush or smmethig then sprinkle plaster over it.  make sure that it is bairly damp as you dont want the plaster to turn into wet plaster so much as just stick, Giving it texture.  No idea o how to make it sparkily, i was thinking of adding something to the final mix, maybe fine glass dust, but that seemed like it would go really badly.

[cowman]

You could try sprinkling the dry hydrocal powder onto wet white paint.  Vaccuum up what didn't stick when paint is dry.  Try it on a small area or seperate piece of something similar to what your scenic base is.

I assume you know that it gets dirty easily.

Good luck,

Richard

[iwander]

I'm building a winter scene and I remember an article using hydrocal as snow. Any ideas how ones goes about it. I don't want it loose but I want the powder look.