Thursday, April 28, 2011

Rhulic Rampage 8 - Spring Thaw

So after all the other firsts on this project I decided to push my luck one step further. Having seen Jose Brito's amazing looking snow effects on his Dust models "Big Joseph" display (pictures of this will be posted as soon as I have his permission - the plan is infact to rewrite and expand the contents of this post as a full article/tutorial on snow - COMING SOON! :P )  and reading about the landscape and climate of Rhul, I knew I  had to try it. I wanted my models to have a feeling of spring thaw - as if the dwarves were coming down from the cold mountains and transitioning into the warmer lands of men. So I contacted Jose and he was kind enough to share his snow making knowlege with me as I in turn will now do for you.
It is a product made by Deluxe Materials called Scenic Snow. First you apply a heavy gloss product (I used Solid Water from the same company) and let that dry fully. This will give the impression of mud and melting slush and will also keep the snow from picking up colours/pigment etc from anything underneath it during application.  The powdered snow is
mixed 25% flakes to 25% sparkle to 50% bonding glue and then applied with a soft brush.


Yep thats it...... Sorta.

Getting thick and sticky as it dries near the end of application.
Truth is that when you first mix it is is going to seem altogether too thin - like a gritty heavy cream. Be patient. Let it thicken up a little. Dont go adding gobs of more product into the mix. Apply some of it thinly and then go back and add a bit more as needed where needed as it thickens. I learned some of these lessons the hard way and hope that you need not do the same...... The mix gets very sticky as it dries. The glue has develops a consistancy much like rubber cement. It is pretty neat stuff.

You can see the blue tones here - they are now gone
Dont be afraid if it seems to turn blue as it dries - it WILL dry clear in the end. I have left mine for about 13 hours when I am writing this and will resist the urge to muck with it until after the 24 hour mark has passed. My intent at this point is to revisit them with just a little more in a few spots and then call it a day!

Here are some quick pics of mine drying:
Did the last big gamble pay off? Truth be told I am not sure if I would have added the snow again were I able to go back - not because I dont like the snow product - it is pretty awesome - and I will be using it again! I hesitate rather, because I REALLY liked  the groundwork on these particular bases before I did the snow and because I wasnt practiced in it/hadnt tested the snow application first (why start now eh?) I wasnt able to fully realise the less is more approach that I had envisioned. The snow looks great and really helps the green to pop, draws great attention to the 'Jacks on the table and helps the subtle natural look of my weathering and pallette to show off and draw attention rather than dissappear against a green battlemat.


NEXT: Pretty final pics of the models!
WOOT!

1 comment:

Dreamspirit said...

that is pretty amazing!