Good day to all.
I have been given a Christmas set of buildings that i want to use in my layout. The problem is I don 't know how to make snow and make it look like the snow just got thru coming down. All 8 of the houses have snow on the roofs and have lighting for the insides. The size of these fall between HO and N scale and are about 40yrs old…
Any help would be great as I am not to good building things.
Thanks
Conrad
PS Every one have a safe and happy 4th
If you can afford it, Woodland Scenics sells a snow product in a shaker bottle. It doesn’t cost the world, but if you need quite a bit of it…
You could try icing sugar, provided you can/are willing to vacuum it up before long in case it begins to attract criters…which is almost certainly will. Another alternative is plain old baking powder or baking soda, neither bank account drainers. Provided you keep them essentially dry, say with ambient humidity at or below 55%, they should not have a deleterious effect. You would want to keep the material away from switch points and hinges, and of course out of the drive mechanisms of your locomotives, so go easy near the tracks.
Note that since they are not inert, none of the three ‘alternatives’ merits leaving in place for more than hours or days. The Woodland Scenics shake bottle stuff can be left in place indefinitely.
Finally, if you could control it on a non-porous and relatively flat surface, you could even use hydrocal. It is white, can be poured into place, and when dry it will look like crisp powdery snow…more or less. The tricky part will be making it look like anything more than a large flat puck of white stuff spread over the now-flat layout, so I would hesitate to recommend you try it. It would be hard, hard to break up, and impossible to take up. It would be permanent, and I am almost positive you would soon tire of it and find a way to cover it, even with green ground foam.
Crandell
I would spend the whatever and buy the WS snow in the shaker bottle.
Terrain your scenery for mounds of the stuff, then sprinkle on top like you would turf.
Be aware that even the WS stuff will “dirty” as it ages unless kept meticulously clean!
Snow scenes and winter scenes are very creative if you let your mind wander the possibilities.
There ARE Several “snow characters {peoples}” in the Preiser {and even Model power} people formats. Search hard for things like ‘ice skaters’ "snow ball fights’ "snow shoveler"etc. on their sites. be creative to search them out. They are there!
GOod luck!
[8-|]
Thanks for the help so far.
Has anybody tried the foamy shaving cream of the stuff that is used for tires that seals from the inside. I belive this as a foam??
just me racking my mind
conrad
If you are doing this just to take a picture aerosol shaving cream might work. But after a pretty short time it will start to lose its air bubbles leaving you with just a soapy mess.
I have never worked with the spare tire in a can stuff but I believe it is very gooey. Probably not something you want on your layout.
First, make sure the weather outside is frightful…No, seriously, check out carendt.us. It’s a website devoted to small and micro layouts and there are layouts for the Christmas season featured in the index. They generally appear in the few months surrounding the holidays. Though the layouts and articles are small, they often include some details of construction, especially if clever or innovative.
Lou
Keeping a winter scene white isn’t easy. Most winter scenes that I have seen are usually white poly fiber, either pillow batting or aquarium filter floss. it is put in place for the season, then is removed until next year.
Maybe someone that has a winter scene can tell you how they have managed to be successful.
Good luck,
Richard
Conrad,
Do yourself a favor and ‘‘Google,Woodland Scenic’s Realistic Snow’’. You will find many resources and help in the matter… This topic has been discussed,some time ago,on the properties,of the snow in question…I believe,a Forum member,‘‘Motley’’ has a very realistic scene with snow on his layout,in the SIERRA NEVADA mountains…Maybe he’ll chime in and provide a pic,or PM him and ask…
Cheers,
Frank
In my attempt to sum all this up, doing a good snow scene is difficult at best. Other than on mountain tops, I personally would avoid it. But that’s just me.
Go to the readings suggested above, and when you figure out what you want to do, do a test area first.
Good Luck!
Some years ago there was op named IRVW or something like that. He was a teenager older beyond his years and was a regular on the forum until he went to college.
He was doing his second layout posting pictures as he built his layout and this one caught my eye.
Looks kind of like snow to me. It must be either hydrocal or plaster
Bob
Fresh, clean snowfalls have a nice sparkle to them. You can mix some Heki Glitter Snow into the Woodland Scenics Flake to get that effect. You could even sprinkle some over dry plaster too.
Thanks for all the help… I now feel like my mind is in one of those chicago type of heavy snowfalls.
Thanks again to all
Conrad
Conrad,
After living in Chicago,70 yrs.of my life,contrary to the belief that snow is pure white,maybe in the mountains.in the city,it is not by no means,white very long…
Cheers,
Frank
Amen Zstripe!
I was born and lived in Chicago (Lane Tech - 62) for my first 23 years. The dreary winters chased me away…
Mobilman44,
As the old saying goes,If you don’t like the weather in Chgo,stick around a half hour,It’ll change…LOL…
Cheers,
Frank
Zstripe
I to was born and raised in the big city but on the south side ( CVS 60 )… I also made it out but only a few miles west of St. Charles il. and about 5 miles north of the geneva sub of the UP.
Conrad
Conrad.
I like the way you put that,‘‘I ALSO MADE IT OUT’’,LOL…South sider,die hard Sox fan,1 mile from the Chgo. stockyards…
Cheers,
Frank
Frank
The good old days going to the stock yards… I spent time on my grandparents farm but did go to the stockyards in 4TH grande on a field trip but I don’t think that would go over now and yes they tock us thru the slaughter houses. Not a good trip for many of the kids.
Conrad
I can’t think of his name right now, but the guy who built the “Coal Belt” HO layout, set in Pennsylvania c. 1910, used talcum powder for sort of a ‘heavy dusting’ of snow that I thought looked very realistic. Unfortunately I don’t know if or how he sealed the powder in place??
May want to try using Noch brand snow. Not as granular as WS and it hasn’t yellowed in number of yrs.
Simply think it looks better then WS product. There is also a company called delux materials that sells a bunch of stuff for snow.