Ok! I give up trying to find this stuff on my own, heh.
Anyway, I built my wife a large outdoor miniature diarama for Christmas and I’m wanting to do a winter theme for her opening (the door), and I’m rather stumped on these.
So far, the best solution I found was snow powder/flakes and spray on adhesive, but I’m definitely open to something else (that’s not overly costly, 🤷♂️. I spent a looooot on this so far).
It will have a dirt base, so the snow needs to adhere to that as best as possible.
Honestly, white fabric might be the most elegant and simple solution. Bonus if you can find one that has little glittery bits in it (but not so glittery that it gets on things). Freshly fallen snow is smooth and unblemished, and the contours of fabric simulate that well enough. Just pack it flush with little contours underneath and you’re gold.
Quilt batting (dacron batting, fibre-fill, terylene are other names) might be good. It’s white fluffy stuff you put over foam to make cushions.
I thought this was a picture of a building under construction.
lol, me as well 😂
Is it a diarama of a car park?
White glue and baking soda, you may need a decent amount to spread around. If you glue down some cotton balls below, you can simulate little mounds of snow when you spread the glue+baking soda mix on top
Although it’s a pretty sheltered location, but wouldn’t the baking soda dissipate with any moisture? Humidity, rain, and/or snow?
Edit: I just thought about it, and what I’ll do is run an experiment. I can place some near my kitchen sink’s handle. Water dripping from my hand and the humidity should give me a good idea how it’d work outside.
Curious to hear how the experiment turns out, moisture wasn’t a consideration for my application all those years ago. You could be right, but I feel like baking soda with the glue might hold the moisture in
First issue I found, I needed to add a little water to the mixture so it would keep from pulling up the dirt as I tried to spread it on. Made it so I could just pour it over. Wtich means two things, I’ll see how moisture reacts to it, and have to wait maybe two days for it to dry…which, if so, might make it really difficult in that I’ll have to fill the unit with dirt before we move it (and it is quite heavy without the added dirt).
Update:
Well, I’ll be damned. I used a heat gun and it dried up within seconds…Everything is back on schedule again, 😃
This is awesome! Thanks for following up Hopefully the moisture question has a good ending too
Welp! It browned in several spots over night. Maybe because of the dirt? Or the heat gun? Or???
Next tests, I’ll need to try a two layer method. (one with a lower layer of baking soda, and another with a toilet paper bottom. That should help to deduce if the dirt was the cause of it).
Looks like some dirt may have leaked up into the mixture? Gotta say I’m pretty invested in your project here 😅
Loving your methodical approach too!
Loving your methodical approach too!
Speaking of, I am spending way too much time on this, heh! I’ve got two hats and a pumpkin bag to knit, and a small painting to do ( Maybe more like these ). I’ll just stick to a cloth of some kind, and let her touch it up how she wants. 🤣 .
Not sure how it will attach to actual dirt, but in miniature war gaming we use an even mix of white paint, baking soda, and white glue for snow on terrain. It should be cheap enough to do a small test.
