hello,

i want to make 2 or 3 frozen puddles on a once muddy road. i first thought of doing them with window color mixed with acrylics, but tests didn't turn out that well.
any suggestions here?

A couple of ideas - White glue sometimes dry foggy, you could try that.
Faust created some Great ice melting parfin (wax). That would work well too.

what about frosted plexi?

I think that paraffin wax is the go also- has that opaque look you need
Brad

any example pics around?

Slodder mentioned Faust's parafin example, and I have to say that might be the best way to go, I believe he did an article on it, but definetly a post. Shoot him a PM or wait and see if he posts here

Depends on the look you want...for a muddy area the water would be dirty so I used to use a/b epoxy for the tanish color effect. A fiberglass repair kit has the greenish color epoxy resin for a grassy area or my oldtime personnal fave, clear two part casting resin{for coins and the like} for a deepish stream that one can see the bottom of{add that personnal touch by tossing a dead body{face down} in before it dries/hardens. Large frozen lakes, with a tank or something frozen in it could be done with a sheet of plexi that's been scuffed up alittle...hard part is fitting/cutting the plexi around the given piece for a tight fit{the casting epoxy is far easier there but with substancial weight}. Just calling back to my model train days for what I did for scenery...hope these help.

Im not expert in this area but i would try using the clear sealants (ones used to fill up gaps in the kitchen, bathroom etc. ) I use it quite a lot to fill up gaps around the house and find that in small lumps of it when dry, it can look like a frosted mould hill on a dio.

ive tried melted parafin wax on a vignette. looks real.

Frank

go to my site (banner) and to the TIPS section, under diorama's there is a parafin article with pictures

Can we use some white stryrene sheets and gloss with a tint of any shades?

thx for all the good tips. the result is very convincing.
is there anything to consider when buying that wax. brand, color or something like that.

I would try to get uncolored parafin. What I would look for is the base material for making candles at home. It is uncolored and unscented. It usually comes in blocks. I don't know of any brands off the top of my head. I'd stay away from color and smell.

I use a simple technique... first I dig my "hole" and then fill with clear resin tinted the color of the desired water (typically a dark muddy brown). then i take a small piece of glass and apply a thin layer of parafin wax on the bottom, which is then affixed to the surface of the puddle. I then apply "FLAT COAT" to the top of the glass and allow it to dry. Sprinke on a bit of talcom powder if you want snow as well... looks GREAT!

Here is an idea; you know what happens when you accidentally get a drop og glue on a clear canopy for an aircraft or something. It turns white.

So why not use that to your advantage. Take a piece of plastic sheet and rub a little hobby glue on it. Press it into the ground material and cover the edges with whatever you are using as ground cover.

I'll expand on jonas' suggestion, and say go with a piece of clear styrene, and put it in a sealed container w/ some superglue (cyanoacrylate)... The vapors will fog up the styrene in a bit more random pattern, but make sure you haven't touched the styrene with your fingers because you'll have a frozen puddle that looks like a fingerprint. Also, if the puddle is just a shallow little thing and it's been cold for a while, there won't be any liquid under the ice - it all freezes up making the top ice a crust over a hollow space.

My suggestions,
Mika

Ola Patrick

Others have already mentioned my method of ice and I have not made an article with it yet. But... I do have a Step by step of what I did while I was making the piece. Now we are talking about it it is about time I am going to finish this dio.
Here is the Step by step.
Snowball!!! start of a new dio
I think this is one of the easiest methods of creating a quite realistic ice. And most of this stuff you probably have in house already.

I hope it comes in handy