Alright gang, I'm looking to tackle my first 1/35 ice project and I'm looking for some good techniques. Anything goes, so I'm all ears fellas

Ola Jeremy

There are several methods. I have used one so far which in my opinion delivers good result and is quick to do. This only works for ice that isn't broken.
Take a sheet of transparent plastic from a blister and drip some candlewax on one side. Paint the bottom of your water bed in a really dark color like dark grey or really dark brown. Put some spacers along the banks of your waterbed and glue the transparent sheet on top of that with the candlewax on the bottomside. The white candlewax blobs will act as trapped airbubbles under the ice. Result should be something like this

From a project that never got finished long long long time ago.

More pics can be found here

The white cracks were painted on the side without candlewax

Shallow puddles with ice can be done with candlewax as well. Drip it on. And if you want it cracked you can push on it and cracks will appear.

And a long time ago I read about a method for big chunks of broken ice but I cannot remember what media was used... In my memory it was a similar stuff to candlewax

Hope this helps you a bit

Hi Jeremy,

I have just one thing to add to Robert’s advice, spray the wax coated side with a layer of Humbrol Glass Etch spray to give it that frosty look!

Regards,

Robert: Cool trick with the wax, that's a great idea for bubbles!
Would the chunks have been made from paraffin?

Vladimir: Excellent, I want the "frosty" look for sure

easiest way for me has been in the freezer... but i think you may be looking for something more permanent.

parafin wax has been used to some cool effects. i've been thinking for my current diorama that i may have frozen puddles as well as snow. here's what i thought would be a method:

make a recess in the groundwork. pour in some Realistic Water from Scenic Woodlands. after it sets do some fancy brush work with white and blue acrylic for swirls and frosted edges. then add snow flakes from scenic woodlands around the edges of the puddle surface with white glue.

i'm thinking that by putting snow over the top of a puddle it will give the impression that the puddle is a solid rather than a liquid and by "frosting" the surface of any resin water product i would get that frozen look.

ice is clear when it has few impurities. wax works for iceberg kind of projects as these are snow covered ice chunks. underwater the icebergs look quite different. ice jams in rivers are usually snow pack that is moving downstream rather than actual block of ice.

reference frozen lakes and rivers for pics. perhaps having objects sitting on the ice surface can also help make it look solid, perhaps a guy slipping lol. hope this helps buddy. cheers, bd.

LOL, I think all of that ice just ended up in my drinking glass

I'll have to think on the blue, it may not work out quite right with what I'm planning. I will essentially be representing a large creek or a bog with a partially submerged object in it.

I have some of the Woodland Scenics RW on hand, as well as some of the snow.

I am considering representing a few chunks of ice around where the object broke through that have refrozen with the rest of the ice. Air bubbles certainly wouldn't be out of place, but will have to check more references before I commit to adding them.

My current thought is that the ice will be overall clear as you suggested Bruce, with an appropriate dark base color underneath. I will be frosting the areas around the offending object as well as any reeds or other items that would penetrate the ice. I think that adding a conservative buildup of snow on and around the object and anything else sticking through the ice as well as crack textures and such would be a good idea as well.

I hope to be starting this coming week and will be posting a build log for the project.

Keep the ideas coming guys!

Cheers

Jeremy H

Wax, what a brilliant idea.

Step #1: Take 1 part water.
Step #2: Take 1 very frigid compartment.
Step #3: Combine ingredients from step one and two and...voila...ICE!

Seriously...this is a very good thread for me. It's very cool to see the different ideas submitted here. Maybe someday I'll get up enough courage to try something this ambitious.

Jeff

@ Jeremy
That stuff is indeed Parafine wax... I knew it ended with "ine" couldn't remember what was in front of it.

Hi Jeremy
I've never depicted the ice in my works but I've read an article that showed a model set on a frozen lake

The ice was replicated with a sheet of traslucent methacrylate sprinkled with a very thin coat of fake snow. It was very convincing
Diorama depicted a mecha which was sinking under the broken ice. In the article the modeller said that to replicate the broken ice he had hit the methacrylate sheet with a hammer. The cracks which he obtained this way, looked incredibly realistic

It might be a good idea to do a Diorama with the new Trumpeter Areosan kit

cheers

Jeremy, take the resin way, some resin poured in some forms. long, but rewarding

That's awesome Jean!

Jeff: Always try new stuff, it's the only way to fly!

Robert: I had a hunch that's what you were thinking of. I may use a modest amount, but not decided yet...

Mauro: I don't think that methacrylate will work in this case, but it is something that I will certainly look into for a couple of future projects. It sounds like it probably takes a delicate technique with a hammer to obtain the desired results.

Jean: That is incredible! How did you get the frosty chunks in the "ice"?
I love the whole diorama too, it reminds me of the Golden Compass. What is the scene from?

Funny thing here. I was talking to my wife last night about using a tiger tank crashing through the ice from a show we whatched awhile ago. When I saw this thread here at the begining, I thought, jba will be in on this one, and sure enough. Nice job Jean-B, always like your stuff. I was thinking of the wax method for the solid ice and using broken chunks of frosted plexiglass with some paint for the free floating chunks around the tank. Will have to experiment as there are alot of suggestions here that sound good. The wax method is the one I read about in Richard Windrow's book terrain modeling and looked rather good for solid ice.

Paraffin:

I'm guessing the paraffin does well at room temp and slightly above? I'm talking in the 80 degree (27C) range.
It would take much higher temps and / or direct sunlight to affect the paraffin after it has been put in place, is that right?

well, yes Jeremy it was just an idea to replicate the ice in a faster way

@Robert, Jean, Charles

Why don't you write some tutorials about your Ice dioramas?
They looks outstanding and I think it will be very useful for all of us to know how you can get those results

Cheers and congrats

Bob: I'll have to see if I can find a copy of that book sometime. I find the plexiglass that's available around here to be hard to work with, but I may be missing something technique or skill-wise.

Charles: Wow, those are nice dios with the paraffin! The Tiger dio is really close to what I'm hoping to achieve. I'll have to be careful if I use paraffin because the heat down here in TX may be a problem, especially if there are problems with the air conditioning.

Bill: Paraffin should be fine at any normal room temperature. My concern is whether or not i will hold up in extremely humid 97F and higher temperatures with the windows open and no air conditioning.

Mauro: I like it, I just don't have any way of getting the sheet around the object in it's current state. I want to experiment with it in some other projects though.

I originally had concerns about whether or not paraffin would :
a) be strong enough to withstand being taken to shows etc.
b) withstand normal California temperatures

a) most of these dios have made it to 5+ shows and traveled the length of the state boxed up in the trunk. I never had any trouble with the paraffin aspect of the dioramas
b) trunk heat never bothered them. I do attempt to keep them away from direct sunlight. With some common sense and a little forethought as to placement etc. the paraffin shouldn't be anymore concern than delicate PE pieces on a display model

The biggest problem I had at a show was when I caught a small boy digging at the "ice" with his finger nail to see 'what it was made with' but that was easily repaired by waving a lit match over the scratch until it melted in place!

None of the 'ice' on my dioramas is thicker that 1/4" and the base color is painted on the area under where the paraffin is to be poured.
The key is in the setup. You need to have a sealed area to pour the molten paraffin into that won't leak. You should probably have the dio base sitting on several layers of newspaper. The liquid paraffin is HOT so be cautious handling it. It pours like water but sets quickly....you do have time to work areas as the paraffin "climbs' against objects. you can work the soft areas with any type of tool that works for you from knives to toothpicks. The paraffin actually takes over night in some cases to completely harden and during that 'curing time' is when it really begins to look like ice. As it hardens many little fissures and ripples occur. Shallow areas like around rocks and toward shorelines tend to harden a frosty, opaque white rather than showing a hint of the base color showing through. It's an interesting process and is quite fun.
Cheers,
Charles

Links to photo galleries for my "ice" dioramas:
http://gallery.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php?cat=23431

http://gallery.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php?cat=23429

http://gallery.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php?cat=23428

Charles-

beautiful work! I am convinced and would like to try this.

Where would I buy this? and should I be looking for a certain type. grade color etc?
Thanks-

Steve

Charles, ditto what Steve asked. I'm curios to know this as well.

Thanks for the direct links to your galleries. If you don't mind, I would like to save those photos for my own personal reference.

I also wanted to ask you how you were able to get the dusting of "snow" to stick to everything in your Tiger diorama "When Hell Freezes Over"

*edit: My base is very shallow, so I may not be able to use the paraffin unless the "ice" would look better frosted than transparent.

Steve/ Jeremy,

Any craft store that sells material for candle making will sell bulk paraffin. I forget what I paid but I got a 5lb. block and based on what I've actually used this will last my lifetime and perhaps that of my offspring. I was at a Michael's Craft Store the other day and noticed that they had several 5lb. slabs I think around $10-15 Regardless of the quantity you want the translucent paraffin.....no added color.

As far as the snow/frost effect on "Hell Freezes Over" I simply dusted the areas on the diorama that I wanted the effect (tree limbs, ground cover, fence) by using a rattle can of white primer from about 10-14 inches away....the idea being to have the paint hit just before it drys so it leaves a granulated effect rather than having the time to flow into itself.
The bulk snow is micro-balloons (Woodland Scenic Snow) I made all the ground out of Cell-u-Clay and got all the grades the way I wanted them, then painted the ground with diluted PVA glue and sort of sifted the snow as if it were falling on to the groundwork.I think I did this about three or four times before there was enough coverage to look right.

Cheers,
Charles

Awesome, thanks Charles! I'm still not sure if this method is appropriate for my little project, but after seeing your work I know that I'm going to be trying my hand at paraffin.

I'm looking to get my project started this week, so keep an eye out for it here in the Dioramas forum. I'm hoping that you all will stop by to take a look and offer up any opinions. As always I'll be all ears

Thanks a milion for the ttps Charles !!

I have a store that sells material for candle making near to my place

One of these day I'll try for sure

I could write an article about the ice technique but it is not really "my technique" I got it from an ancient Modelrailroad scenery book from my dad. And i think it has been printed in several other publications as well. Thought it was pretty neat and easy to do since it is made with stuff pretty much everybody has laying round the house.
But if the interest is there I'm willing to make an article out of it.

With friendly greetz

Robert