How do you shade snow?

[Gazzas]

Hi Everyone,
My first snow diorama... heck, first diorama... And I'm using some hobby snow I recently bought. I pressed some tank tracks in it to make an impression, but they're very hard to see.  Maybe some of you have done airfields with snow on em?

I've seen wildlife photos where shadows in animal tracks look like a pale blue. is there a consensus of what works to make detail in snow photographable?

Or is it a question of trying to use shadows and photography to tell the tale?

Thanks for your thoughts!

Gaz

[Hardcore]

You could try apply a thin pin wash to the depressions. Very thin. The choice of colour  would still be tricky. 

Blue is reflection of the sky. More noticeable in the evenings than in direct strong sun light. 

 

Alternatively pretend the tracks get through the snow to the ground and make the impressions dark brown green. 

 

 

I suspect lots of experiment is necessary. 

 

[thierry laurent]

The best snow dioramas I have seen generally combine different products to reproduce snow. This includes glass microballoons. The combination results in differences in light reflection and this looks real. DELUXE and the Spanish companies (MiG, Vallejo & AK interactive) released multiple products to depict melted snow, ice and so on. 

 

Hth

 

Thierry 

[Out2gtcha]

In the past, If its a larger pile of snow, I have used some very diluted and highly thinned paint to highlight peaks showing through, as if dirt was mixed in with the snow. It can be tricky for sure.

Thierry's suggestion of MicroBalloons is a good one. You can use some light spray adhesive and dust the MBs across the surface for a wind blown look. But yes, multiple products and sizes of particulate can create shadows as well. 

[Woody V]

Artists use blue to indicate shadows in snow. Hope that helps.

[DonH]

I usually shade snow a yellow colour, but that's not relevant for this thread. 

[TonyT]

I use this stuff and very good it is, see all the links and some excellent guides on utube

 

https://www.precisioniceandsnow.com/

 

Work in Hand T34-1 by Tony Taylor, on Flickr

 

Work in Hand T34-3 by Tony Taylor, on Flickr

 

 

Work in Hand T34-2 by Tony Taylor, on Flickr

 

 

Edited February 21, 2019 by TonyT

[TonyT]

https://www.precisioniceandsnow.com/insta-sno.html

[TonyT]

https://www.precisioniceandsnow.com/snow-powders.html

[Out2gtcha]

That stuff does look amazing! I dont/havnt done any snow dios yet, buy do have a snow speeder to do, and some other dio idea. Cheers on that. 

[TonyT]

https://www.precisioniceandsnow.com/star-wars.html

[Oldbaldguy]

What kind of snow?  There’s all kinds - new snow, old snow, icy snow, wet snow, dry snow, clean snow, dirty snow, fallen snow, wind blown snow, yellow snow, snow globe snow, snow cones, John Snow, etc.  I would think new, dry snow would be very hard to model because it’s just a layer of white stuff subject to the vagueries of the light in the room.  Wet, somewhat melted snow would be the easier to model, especially with armor involved, because you’d have the ground to help with contrast and color.  As to what product?   No idea.  I’ve seen people use everything from wet plaster to baking flour.  Were there never any tank battles in some place like the Florida Keys?

[LSP_K2]

Hudson & Allen used to make some great snow and slush products. Their quality was high, as was all H&A stuff, but quite difficult to find now.