Couldn't agree more.  I have always preached to stay away from food-stuff as snow.  It has ended in bad things for me in the past as well.  I prefer Woodlands Scenics Snow myself.

Eons ago I mixed some baking powder with brown acrylic paint and slopped it on a tank model. It looked really nice and gritty-muddy for a while until it began to swell and burst open due to some kind of mold growing in it. :(

Chris

That was a popular rust technique back in the 80's. I remember it well.

I like WS snow.

I learned the hard way not to use anything foodlike in models. I had a twenty car hopper train in N Scale that needed loads of sugar beets. On a whim I used anise seeds. They were cheap in bulk and took to diluted Elmers. But one night Willard and his buddies attacked the layout and busted up the train. Looked like the scene from Frank Zappa's "Cheepness".

"Snappin' off the trees

Like they was bonsai'd ornaments on a

Dry-wobble landscape".

And rat crap all over.

karl, I saw that article, and immediately I thought of you and how horrified you would me. I recalled your advice to me back in 2008. I had just got back into the hobby and completed a dio that had been started before my break. I had used baking soda for snow and you warned me of the risks of it. I still have not got round to changing it yet, the whole thing got a bit damaged and needs a major over haul, but ui must get that cleaned up soon, and this was a god reminder.

GM, snow in Israel is not that uncommon, the whole region can get heavy snow in some years. And the Golan heights is often covered in snow. This was jan last year, which was a heavy snowfall for the region.

www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Jerusalem-hit-worst-snowstorm-TWENTY-YEARS-inches-falls-Holy-City-closing-roads-schools.html

You are correct. I've only been there in late October/ early November.

That's more than me. I was surprised when I heard that it snows there at all. I think I first came across it when I saw pics of Israeli troops in snow uniforms on the Golan. But I didn't realise places like Jerusalem got so much until I just looked.

After all, it snows in Bethlehem in December, right?

this is timely as i have a 1/72 winter camouflaged JAGDTIGER and i intend to build a base for it. i picked up some WS snow last week.

i have used dried used coffee grounds and dried used tea leaves for bases, attached with white glue, as well as reptile terrarium sand and charcoal grill ash.

Bish

karl, I saw that article, and immediately I thought of you and how horrified you would be.

haha, yeah I was like "OMG!!"  

some of these stories are funny to read from the other side but when it happens to you, you learn a lesson quick! I hope more people see this post and get wise about it! 

I have been thinking of doing a base with some snow... Thanks for the heads up!

YOW! Exploding mold and mice!!?! Glad the only snow I've tried I picked up the Woodland Scenics and Faller brand stuff!

Hello guys

First of all, thanks to Doog for your kind words and for using my model as an example of such an interesting dilema. I'm a guy who enjoys a lot looking for new ways and alternatives for......ALL. So I'm glad to discuss these kind of things everytime I can.

About salt, what can I say....I have tried many things, salt is just one of them, I have used it as it comes, grinded to dust, mixed with pigments, with metal particles ( to add some shine ) etc. sometimes I got the results I expected and some others I failed completely. Up to now, one of the best and cheap ways I tried to make compact snow is mixing grinded salt with a lot of water and applying it to the terrain with a spoon as if I was pouring the soup, the water dries and the salt stays there.

Now about what occurs to the salt with time......I simply don't know. You may think that I'm out of my brains but the thing is that I only enjoy making my models and once they're finished I don't give a damm for them, I simply don't have room for the 10-20 models I make a year so I keep very few of them, most of the times I take the pictures ( for the articles ) and get rid of them. That's why I don't know what happens with salt. You Doog have spoken with authority, it's clear that you know what you're talking about so I must believe you 100%.

By the way, here is my latest work, finished a month ago, I took the picures and dismantled it, too big to keep.

Don't judge me too hard, I'm a non-model-keeper.........but I hope to be rich some time and then i promise I will keep all of them in a museum or somehting ha ha ha.

Best wished for all.

Federico

Federico,

Thanks for your truly classy response and for understanding the sincere thought behind this thread. Some others may have taken it personally, but your reply was characteristic of the class which befits a true gentleman. I appreciate the dialogue with you, and others, on this vexing subject!

I have used many mediums for snow--celluclay with talcum powder, sawdust, and of course, Woodland Scenics' snow, but also model car flocking. I agree about experimenting...within reasonable parameters, lol. As many here have related, "organic"  means seem to be the boundary lines for the effect.

I have to admit that I was amazed to hear of the ephemeral status of your model subjects! Honestly, I was rather....horrified, lol! I have only started this year to sell models which I had built in the 1980s and 1990s which were stored in bookcases at my parent's home! Completed models--if they indeed turn out as I intend--become like "children" to me,and I can barely stand to part with them. Thank god my fiancé understands theobsession  to keep them--she has her shoes,after all. lol

Well then, if your Merkava is, it seems, only in a temporary snow cover, it sounds like you can wash it off before selling it and make it less potentially troublesome in the future, should the worst happen? That's good news!

The new diorama you have posted there is nothing less than I would expect from you--superb, and masterfully executed! I will have nightmares about you letting that one go1 

I use a wash of snow white acrylic water base very dry spray and build it up over time. The ground foam will give you the texturing desired. A guy can do a lot of scenery with the technique. Finish by blowing some matt white to seal the snow.

A Zappa reference on this forum. Ha. I was lucky enough to see the man about a dozen times in concert. Still miss him.

Wow that's beautiful work Federico, love seeing your stuff!

Federico  nothing like wearing your mind on a plaque. I was thinking more like Phil Ochs as an all time song writer.Raualduke

Lentils don't make good cobble stones either. I found that out after about a year after making a diorama. Lentils are great but food.

Federico Collada

Hello guys

First of all, thanks to Doog for your kind words and for using my model as an example of such an interesting dilema. I'm a guy who enjoys a lot looking for new ways and alternatives for......ALL. So I'm glad to discuss these kind of things everytime I can.

About salt, what can I say....I have tried many things, salt is just one of them, I have used it as it comes, grinded to dust, mixed with pigments, with metal particles ( to add some shine ) etc. sometimes I got the results I expected and some others I failed completely. Up to now, one of the best and cheap ways I tried to make compact snow is mixing grinded salt with a lot of water and applying it to the terrain with a spoon as if I was pouring the soup, the water dries and the salt stays there.

Now about what occurs to the salt with time......I simply don't know. You may think that I'm out of my brains but the thing is that I only enjoy making my models and once they're finished I don't give a damm for them, I simply don't have room for the 10-20 models I make a year so I keep very few of them, most of the times I take the pictures ( for the articles ) and get rid of them. That's why I don't know what happens with salt. You Doog have spoken with authority, it's clear that you know what you're talking about so I must believe you 100%.

By the way, here is my latest work, finished a month ago, I took the picures and dismantled it, too big to keep.

Don't judge me too hard, I'm a non-model-keeper.........but I hope to be rich some time and then i promise I will keep all of them in a museum or somehting ha ha ha.

Best wished for all.

Federico

cool dio. looks like any bombed  German city in 1944, maybe Aachen given the tank traps off to the side.