I spotted this in another thread, I want to know how the icy crystal effect was done on the grass.

Yes Please have been seeing this type of effect at some of the shows lately & still dont know how its done.
Very nice model by the way.

I sent a message to the builder, I'm eagerly waiting his reply! I'm planning on doing this for a 120mm German figure I'm working on.

Ola Jason

I got your PM this afternoon but did not have much time to answer. And since Shaun was also interested in this technique I thought it better to answer it here so everybody could learn from it.

The effect is created with some sort of glassbeads. I believe it is the stuff used in Sandblasting. It is white really sparkly and acts like sand in the way it forms clumps when it gets wet. What I did was first spraying everything i needed to cover with glue from an Aerosol can and simply sprinkled the glassbeads on it. Letting it grip and then held it upside down over a piece of paper to get rid of the excess beads that did not bond with the glue. The bigger snow buildup is done with another product from Busch which is a sort of plaster.

Here in Holland there are several companies selling the stuff. It even comes in various grades from fine to coarse. It is really nice stuff and it shines like a diamond. When you hold it in an angle with the sun the whole thing looks like a reflector. But it does some good work representing snow.

I hope it is of some use to you.

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Great, I'll look around. I used to use a glass-beading machine so I know exactly what you are talking about. Did you paint the base any specific colour before applying the beads, or did they just give the snowy-icy colour on their own?

I read about a product called microballoons to make snow. It is used normally as a filler for resins and epoxies used for model airplanes so they are lighter. But it is tiny glass beads so it would shine like crystallized snow.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?I=LXHZ15&P=8

Is not Woodland Scenics snow comprised of microballoons?
Seems to get the same effect.
Brad

I think microballons would be a bit too big - glass bead is like fine sand. Plus glass bead is cheap, if it's "modeling specific" you will pay a lot more for a lot less.

As far as I know the stuff *is* microballons.
differece between 2 brands:
Signifier -> *a lot* of them,
Andrea -> very few of them but *shinier*
mix both?
some acrylic binder to fix them is a must

:-H