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My baking soda snow yellowed....help?

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  • Member since
    January 2006
  • From: NW Washington
Posted by dirkpitt77 on Saturday, December 1, 2012 9:36 PM

It's possible. I used a small cup to dig out a quantity from an open box my wife kept in the kitchen cupboard.  I mixed it with tap water. No sealing of any kind. Maybe a fresh box and using Lucas' method is in order for the next try.

  Thanks for all the comments, guys. Keep it coming if you have anything else. Oh, and where's Hans? I'd have expected him to chime in by now.  *shrug*

 Chris

    "Some say the alien didn't die in the crash.  It survived and drank whiskey and played poker with the locals 'til the Texas Rangers caught wind of it and shot it dead."

  • Member since
    June 2012
Posted by ghostt180 on Saturday, December 1, 2012 7:48 PM

I'm with Lucas on using baking soda then sealing the job with hairspray.

I am wondering if Chris just got a bad batch of baking soda that had impurities in it?

  • Member since
    December 2012
Posted by tigrazor2012 on Saturday, December 1, 2012 10:16 AM

@dirkpitt:

Well, I do diorama stuff quite often, and on some theres snow. The mistake should be the water I guess. My method is: Hairspray - baking soda - hairspray... Nothing more, nothing less. Works here in Germany, should work at your home too ;)

Cheers

Lucas.

  • Member since
    January 2011
Posted by fificat on Friday, November 30, 2012 8:41 PM

It might be fascinating to have a troop of soldiers standing around making the snow yellow.  Would be original.

  • Member since
    January 2006
  • From: NW Washington
Posted by dirkpitt77 on Friday, November 30, 2012 7:17 PM

See, I heard just the opposite, Bronto. I heard baking powder was actually worse than baking soda, which is why I used baking soda.  Weird.

    "Some say the alien didn't die in the crash.  It survived and drank whiskey and played poker with the locals 'til the Texas Rangers caught wind of it and shot it dead."

  • Member since
    November 2004
  • From: Cat Central, NC
Posted by Bronto on Friday, November 30, 2012 5:56 PM

Don;t use baking SODA.  I use baking POWDER.  It won't turn yellow.

  • Member since
    April 2010
  • From: Yuma, AZ
Posted by Ripcord on Friday, November 30, 2012 5:37 PM

I use real snow on my dios and it works great, until I go in the house....

Note to self, no snow dios.

Mike

  • Member since
    January 2005
  • From: Queensland/Australia
Posted by hemble on Friday, November 30, 2012 4:52 PM

Hi all,

When I made snow dio's in the past I used a 50/50 mix of baking soda mixed with plaster of paris and it never yellowed.

Ron

  • Member since
    April 2010
  • From: Yuma, AZ
Posted by Ripcord on Friday, November 30, 2012 3:36 PM

Cadet Chuck

It has always been my policy to avoid yellow snow.....

lol

Mike

  • Member since
    April 2009
  • From: Longmont, Colorado
Posted by Cadet Chuck on Friday, November 30, 2012 3:23 PM

It has always been my policy to avoid yellow snow.....

Gimme a pigfoot, and a bottle of beer...

  • Member since
    January 2006
  • From: NW Washington
Posted by dirkpitt77 on Friday, November 30, 2012 11:00 AM

Yeah, I just discovered a 5yr old post by Doogs warning of the hazards of baking soda. A few guys in that thread mention talcum powder or diatomaceous earth, so I might try one of those next. I have both here at the house and I am really trying to avoid buying a purpose made product since I'm broke. I did buy some Woodland Scenics Scene-A-Rama snow in a little packet at Hobby Lobby, but it just doesn't look right.

    "Some say the alien didn't die in the crash.  It survived and drank whiskey and played poker with the locals 'til the Texas Rangers caught wind of it and shot it dead."

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Valrico, FL
Posted by HeavyArty on Friday, November 30, 2012 10:58 AM

My baking soda snow yellowed...

It usually does.  For that reason you should never use foodstuffs (i.e: baking soda, sweetener, flour, etc.) for smow.  They will all either yellow or be eaten by bugs.  The best product I have found is by Woodland Scenics and is callr...oddly enough...Snow.  it is made of micro-balloons of styrene, so is just as inert as the rest of your model.  They will never yellow or be eaten by bugs, etc.  All you do is lay down some glue (either PVA - Elmer's School Glue, or pump hairspray work well), then sprinkle the snow over it.  Repeat until it is the desired depth.

Here is an example of it.

Gino P. Quintiliani - Field Artillery - The KING of BATTLE!!!

Check out my Gallery: https://app.photobucket.com/u/HeavyArty

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Posted by Bish on Friday, November 30, 2012 10:40 AM

Afraid i can't help with your problem. I have used bakeing soda on a dio once with no problems. But one of the guys in here did warn that over time it can do harm to plastic. My only suggestion would be to try something else.

I am a Norfolk man and i glory in being so

 

On the bench: Airfix 1/72nd Harrier GR.3/Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3

  • Member since
    January 2006
  • From: NW Washington
My baking soda snow yellowed....help?
Posted by dirkpitt77 on Friday, November 30, 2012 10:10 AM

   Luckily, I used a spare piece of wood to make a test shot of baking soda as snow, before I committed it to my diorama, so nothing was ruined, per se.

   However, on my test shot, the baking soda did yellow after it dried overnight. My baking soda was mixed with tap water and that's it. I laid it down on a small piece of bare pine board that I use as a diorama test platform. The wood isn't sealed or anything. Once it set up nicely after a few hours, but was still damp, I set it next to the heat register in my office to accelerate dry time. I will say when the pour was fresh it did look very realistic.

     So, what do you think? Should I have used distilled water? Some other contamination in it? The box of baking soda I used is a few months old and has been open to the air. Would that be a factor?

   Anybody got any guesses as to what went wrong?

   Chris

    "Some say the alien didn't die in the crash.  It survived and drank whiskey and played poker with the locals 'til the Texas Rangers caught wind of it and shot it dead."

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