Friday, December 18, 2009

Making Snow Bases Tutorial

Alrighty, my first real tutorial.

Since I put up my Space Pup on various sites I've gotten requests for how I make the snow bases.
It's quite simple actually.

Items you will need:
-PVA Glue (Do NOT use wood glue)
-Bicarbonate (Do NOT use baking soda)
-Water
-Mixing palette/plate/whatever works for you
-Skull white (or equivalent color)
-A brush you're not too fond of.

Alright, on to the pictures.

1) Paint the parts of the base/general surface you want to be covered with snow.

2) Mix up PVA glue, quite an amount of bicarbonate and water (pretty much to a 2:4:1 ratio), basically until it gains a very thick consistency.


3) Use the brush to add the mix onto the painted areas (I usually wait for the mixture to dry up somewhat (more like coagulate) in order to keep it onto the surface easier since it's more sticky and less running.

4) Sprinkle bicarbonate on top of the mixture before it's dry.


5) You will get something looking like this after you shake off the excess bicarbonate.


6) Here I created a rock before adding any snow with milliput, then painted it, to both give the base some height as well as more character.


7) Now when it's dry mix up some watered down white paint with PVA glue (from top to bottom: PVA glue, Skull White, Water).


8) Paint it over the bicarbonate (this helps create a much more snowy white color and at the same time it binds everything down, so we won't have bicarbonate falling all over when we handle the minis). Repeat this step until you've achieved the whiteness you want on your "snow".

Now just let it all dry and voilá! You've got snow!

Next up; There will be blood!

6 comments:

  1. Thanks! I am going to give this a shot.

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  2. I use the same method for years. I do recommend sealing the fig after applying the snow though, as it will yellow with age.

    The one thing that confuses me... baking soda IS sodium bicarbonate. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate)

    Cheers!

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  3. @ Dverning:

    What I use is plain Bicarbonate, which isn't the same as baking soda and thus it won't yellow over time unless you use normal wooden glue (hence the use of PVA glue).

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  4. You're swedish, right? What's bicarbonate called in swedish/norwegian, and what kind of shops sell it?

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  5. Swedish name for Bicarbonate is Bikarbonat and you can buy it in any store where there are baking supplies.

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