hi everyone, any suggestion on how to apply snow on ground vehicles specially tanks. i'm doing a M4A3 on bastogne..boxart shows the tank making its way on the snow. it would be nice if i can weathered it with thin snow all over and on the track too. thanks for the tip.

Here is my suggestion(s):

Don't do what everyone else does and model "fluffy, clumps, of white stuff" on the ground work and your tank. There is so much you can model, that uniform snow drifts just leaves one "cold", so to speak.

I use Snow & Ice Coat. It was from The SmallShop EU, now Cammett, Ltd., in the in-progress model photos below. I wanted to model a whole range of weather effects you'd see on a tank in maneuvers during the winter.

With one product, I was able to model fresh snow, dirty snow, slush, melted and refrozen snow/ice, sleet and frozen rain, icicles, snow accumulation on horizontal surfaces and compacted snow. It is really a wonderful product - and this is the very first time I used it.





Along with the Snow & Ice Coat product, I used Railroad Scenics' Snow on the base for thicker, clumpier accumulation. You don't really want to use up all your Snow Coat for this technique. I mixed in a little Snow Coat with it, however, because of its wonderful shine effect - must be ground up glass in it. Also, Tamiya's Snow Weathering Stick was used here and works very well in restrained applications. You can really have a good time in modeling winter effects with these products.





Hope this helps you out!
Gunnie

Wow Jim!
That looks tremendous, and if it was winter here,. I would probably feel it more... (10pm now, and all the windows and doors are open to cool the house down a little!)
Has a perfect frozen, icy look about it...

Ed, may I suggest a practice run on something first? I have tried a dumping of snow on an AFV, and got caught up in putting more and more on... Uggh!
I think less is more in this situation, and even if you have a heavy snowfall on the base, ther are options all the way up to having no snow at all on the Sherman... When it is running the heat generated in parts will melt any snowfalls, as well as scuffed by foot traffic and the moving of equipment etc.
Harder still would be convincingly showing snow on a whitewashed Sherman!
Best of luck though
Cheers
Brad

hi jim and brad, thanks for the tip..rendering ice and snow is quite new to me. as what you've said..there's no such thing as 6"thick(white,fluffy and clump) snow on top of the tank..that is while moving or in active duty. i've been checking pictures of snowfall in the east coast and wondered how was it with tanks deployed during winter in europe. and heat generated by the sherman will surely melt the ice/snow.
here's my sherman and like the rest has the same weathering pattern. i would surely try your suggestion on the winter weathering.









another thing..i'm planning to cover the stuff and things with tarpauline sheet. will it not over heat the engine? and here's another sherman in progress...



thanks everyone. from the sunny side of the globe...

hi everyone..it's all in there..all the trick in the book to make snow and weathering the winter effect.







the white stuff was made up of patching compound,water and elmer's glue gel. when it dries..i sprayed it on with clear coat. the clear coat also replicates the drips of water running on sides of the hull. comments and suggestion are welcome. thanks all.

hi everyone..i'm almost done..just one more question..do the 50 cal. MG have any cover or tarp sleeve against extreme weather conditions?



i'm planning to make a cover for the MG..a reference picture would be very useful...thank you all.

Gday Ed
I think you have created a realistic look for the snow! It is understated, but there is enough on board to place the tank in a snowy environment convincingly
As for the .50 cal, it did have a canvas cover which was baggy-looking and also covered the ammo box...
If you have US tank battles in Germany, P17 has a couple of shots of the cover in place...
Cheers
Brad

a couple of more shots...before putting the canvass cover of the MG.









the decals seems to show their outlines. will it help if i dust it with a few more? thanks everyone.

I like this stuff alot; if you spray a VERY SMALL ammount of 3m spray adhesive to trees and bushes, and then take a pinch of this stuff between your fingers and sprinkle it down onto the tops of said bushes and trees, you can get an accumulation effect.

Thanks for the tip on the other stuff Gunnie, is there a website for that product? I was looking for a sluch/ice type product!

hi everyone, i've removed the silvering decals. i've found and replaced them with italeri's decals. no easy task in cutting the edges of the old decals..but it went well.









i used a sharp filmcutter to remove the clear membrane around the decals. due to its age the decals were kind a brittle and can easily brake apart. attaching them was tricky. as for the lightning and thunder..i used white paint to retouch it. them 're' weathered the areas around it. old italeri's decal are still rialable and nice too. cheers.

Great kit,

An inspiration, can't wait to try some of the techniques.