The “old man winter” thread has got me thinking. We had a few days of terrible snow (all of an inch) - well, this is the UK [:-,] - and then we had a massive frost. So I took some pics as i reckon that these will give me a start for setting a late fall/first snow scene. That way I should get some nice bright leaf colours and snow/frost.
So one thing i’m wondering is whether there are any good models of people dressed for cold weather?
I’m also wondering whether anyone has modelled icicles?
There was a series of articles written by Rand Hood about how to model winter (including icicles) a few years ago in MR. They’re a great place to start.
http://www.walthers.com/ is the place to look. Preiser makes “winter” figs. They vary from kids making snowmen to skiers to ice skaters to people dressed in winter coats. I believe LL and Model Power also make some. [:)]
Icicles - Many years ago for a winter photo contest in RMC, I set up a station platform to look like it was really cold and had icicles hanging all along the edge of the roof. I just cut some “magic” transparent tape in jagged/pointed shapes and stuck them along the roof edge. Worked OK for this setup. I added similar icicles to a structure in a similar way at another time.
PS - My photo(s) in RMC’s contest won the Grand Award.
Take a piece of scrap styrene and “paint” a row of icicles on it with WS water effects or Modge Podge. Leave the styrene flat and just form long thin triangles. Once the icicles set, you should be able to peel them off of the styrene and glue them to the edges of your structure. They would be wet-looking and transluscent, like icicles. They would be flat on the back, but that edge would be against the building and not visible.
Wouldn’t stretching some clear hot glue sticks into thin strands also work to make icicles? And maybe white glue sticks if you white icicles and didn’t want to paint them?
One thing I have noticed with Goop and other similar adhesives is that if I don’t replace the cap right away, it oozes out of the tube and forms a tapered shape. Maybe you could apply a series of beads of Goop to the underside of a structure roof, stand it upright and let gravity take over. You might have to experiment to determine how big a bead you need to get the size of icicles you want.
Keep in mind that large prototype icicles would only be maybe 2 feet long; this is only about a quarter of an inch in HO scale. Might be hard to control silicone or Goop in this small size.
While typically icicles are 2 feet or less, they can grow much longer depending on conditions. There really is no correct size.
As for using Goop, I have no idea how well it would work but it should be easy and cheap to experiment with it. If it doesn’t work, try something else.
My sister had a ten foot long icicle hanging from her garage one winter down here in west Louisiana (the garage is big enough to park a bus in) so the size would depend on conditions.
For icicles I would probably try clear window caulking. Like others have said Rand Hood had an article on how to make wintry scenes in the January and February 1996 issues of Model Railroader.
As for the cold weather figures Preiser and Merten have figures wearing coats and doing winter sports like ice skating and skiing.
Ages ago I used clear toothbrush bristles dipped in acrylic gloss medium for icicles. The Rand Hood articles are also reprinted in New Scenery Tips & Techniques.