Snow?

John

Scenic Express carries a product that is the best. They are a forum sponsor. check out their online catalog. If you have any questions either Jim or the satff will help with how much you will need or how to apply it.

Winter scenes are NICE!!

Enjoy

Steve

This stuff works great.

For Christmas season photos the past couple of years (which I used in the magazine), I used the same Woodland Scenics snow that Bob illustrated above.  

Available from Scenic Express, a wonderful one-stop source for all scenery supplies and a forum sponsor.  They have a large must-see presence at York (in the Orange Hall), and I can pretty much guarantee that you will not leave their booth empty handed.

Good morning John, my layout has always been a winter scene.

I don't know why but I like the winter time and Christmas.

Over the years I have done several things to make the winter scene look more realistic.

For areas that are away from the edge of the layout I use the artificial snow that come in a bag.

This type of snow to me looks like the styrofoam that you can but at most craft stores for flower arrangements just ground into a fine dust.

Sprinkle this around and it gives off a glisten of lite fluffy snow.

You can then spray this with Matte Medium and you can pile it up in different areas.

In the areas up close I use the Woodland Scenic snow as other people have mentioned.

This product seems to be finer and will lay on top of small areas of low laying brush that has been sprayed with Matte Medium or Hairspray.

This product is about $3.00 a large shaker bottle compared to a large bag of the ground styrofoam that is about $1.99

For making snow drifts and areas where the snow looks piled up i use white styrofoam and glue a couple pieces together if I what a large pile. Carve it out with a styrofoam cutter and then cover it with Hob-E-Tac glue which dries clear and then use a mixture of the ground up styrofoam type snow and the woodland scenic snow. 

For trees that are covered with ice i use the Woodland Scenics Water Effect Product.

For snow laying on the branches you also add Woodland Scenics Flex Paste.

If you go on Woodland Scenics web site they have a video on making winter scenes.

Right now I have the dilemma of how do I make the area close to the track including the roadbed look like it is snow covered.

I do not have my ballast at trackside glued down and I don't want to start putting either the styrofoam snow or the Woodland Scenics snow down close to the track in fear it will get up into my steam engines and cause problems.

I use the ground up rubber product for ballast. I am thinking this spring when I can work outside of laying some of this ballast out on a sheet of wax paper on top of a sheet plywood and spraying it lightly with white spray paint.

 Right now if any one asks about the area next to the tracks, I tell them all my steam engines keep the snow melted off the right-away.

Good luck with your snow, and have fun.

Bravo, Mark!   It is very rare to find a truly convincing winter layout.  Your's is one of them.

Thank you Pete, I really apperciate the complement!!!!

Looks great, Mark!  A possible candidate for our Dec. or Jan. issue if you're interested.  Let me know via e-mail and I can send you the info regarding what might be needed.

Allan- Nice editorial in this months OGR- the stop, look & listen...

Now onto the forum topic- 

Snow... Here is the nicest & cheapest you will find. Ask for extra fine. It is called Perlite. It is made just down the road from me. It is non flammable too. Here is their website. You can get a  cubic foot bag for like $7 plus shipping. Beat that!

http://www.pvpind.com/Horticultural-Perlite.aspx

I actually use this stuff inside my milk bottles on display. When you tap the bottle a little, it packs down & looks like milk from 12" away. Makes the graphics on the bottle show up quite nice.

This is an interesting topic.

I was hoping people could specify whether the products they are using to represent snow are for temporary holiday layouts, or for permanent layouts, as some products may work better for for one or the other.

For permanent layouts:

1) Have you experienced any yellowing over time.

2) Do you have to "refresh" the scenes with snow material periodically, or is the initial application permanent.

Thanks.

Some interesting products: Noch snow? Looks incredibly scale-like; never heard of it before; and Perlite sounds very good.

I found that for piled snow, snow over fields, etc., country roads and for grade crossings that Fusion Fiber (Scenic Express) is great, not messy, can be reworked anytime by adding a bit of water and redoing a scene or area. Months later on my layout and using Fusion Fiber as base and adding a little of the other stuff such as Woodland Scenics snow, it retains the white color I mixed it as (does not yellow). It comes in a whitish dry powdery base, and you add your coloring. For snow, any type of dollar-store white acrylic paint added while mixing gives you your color. Add any other color to it for your choice of hue. My layout is mainly postwar/toy trains and the Fusion Fiber helps bring some scenic touches to it (attached).

1) Have you experienced any yellowing over time.

Yes after a period of time the snow does become yellowish looking or dusty looking like all scenery will. You develop dust webs that sometimes you can only see at different angles.

2) Do you have to "refresh" the scenes with snow material periodically, or is the initial application permanent.

Yes, but it is very easy to put down a new coating of snow.

I had a very serious yellow snow problem.  It went away when I built this:

I went a different route Don't laugh. Santa snow and artic white rugs. The one thing I have observed is it dose not yellow over time. The station was done eight months ago.

Thanks for the photos.

I guess my question would be how do you secure it to the layout or a road bed?

Doug

You would secure perlite the same way any other sprinkle on product.  Perlite is actually a naturally occurring ore that is fed into a furnace & it pops like popcorn. It is also used for fire safe insulation. It is brilliant white in color. If anyone is interested, I would be happy to mail a sample from my stockpile.

Snow module –

https://steves3roscale.shutterfly.com/pictures/3524

That really captures winter. I noticed it was label Module #2. Do you have more winter modules?  Thanks for sharing that. 

Wow SIRT those pictures are great, I like what you did with the right of way.

Great job!!!!!!!!!

SIRT,

All that on a small corner module!  I like the lighted passenger cars reflection on the pond.  The burnt out camp fire is a great touch.

Thanks for the pictures!

The corners are Winter,Spring, Summer, Fall. All the answers to your questions can be found

somewhere in this link - https://steves3roscale.shutterfly.com/pictures/5

48 albums/5000 photos of ideas.

Snow how to: is in the Construction Album or OGR Run 232 article.

Layout was in Classic TT as well and track/module plan which is also in the Drop down Gate album.

Click ALL to see all photos and albums.

Thanks Guys.

Hope this helps.

S.

If anyone wants a nice sample of perlite, send me your address via email. Happy to return some of the help that I have gotten from this forum,

rogermpetersonjr

at

yahoo

dot

com

This is Woodland Scenics snow.

I like the Woodland Scenics snow too.  I would like to have some snow up at the top of my On30 logging line to try to emphasize the change in elevation from the O-Gauge mainline.  Of course I need to get our daughter to move out first so I can confiscate her room.

The woodland scenics stuff looks ok, but If you are looking for something more realistic I have source of free and plentiful product called "RealSnow" tm.  If you are near St. Paul just drop by and bring your shovel. 

Mark, these are some of the nicest winter scenes I have come across.

I came up with some snow!  

And more snow plus video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMzJsPooYN4&feature=youtu.be

Nice rotary snow removal unit.  You need that on the Glacier Line.  The snow looks good.  What kind of snow did you use, John?

The perlite I sent is "construction grade". The horticultural grade is considerably bigger chunks. I see horticultural grade on Amazon... 

Glad you were happy with it. It is good stuff.