The best snow effect ever.

Transcript

Today we’re going to finish up the Love Shack with some snow effects. So just real quick, I have gloves on. I have a respirator on. I’m doing this voice over after the fact because this crushed glass that we’re about to be using is no joke. You don’t want to inhale it. You don’t want it on your skin. I’m working in a metal tray. And you can see I got Realistic Water, a little bit of fishing line, and that crushed glass. And I have this paper taped down so I can see and make sure I’m in frame. Because I’m learning how to make YouTube videos finally almost 90 days in.

But this is in a metal tray that I can dump out. I’m just using this old Chessex dice case that I’m going to use as kind of a wet palette and a very old dirty busted brush. I’m just going to throw all this stuff out when I’m done with it. I’ve made the mistake of getting this in my skin before and it is absolutely miserable.

What I’m doing here is I’m gluing in the fishing line at different spots down the roof to kind of make like icicles or really what I decided to do is make like a slurry mix of the snow melting coming off the roof because in my head narratively now this was an abandoned shed and now they’ve hit the heat—they’ve turned the heat on and they’ve turned it into the Love Shack. So that ice is melting off is how I’m treating it. And what you can’t see here is I’m just gluing it into a few different spots. And you’ll see I’m picking where I think at least the snow would be running off the most. So out of these rivets and the slats in between the wood panels.

So now I think I’m liking where my icicles are going to be. And you could, if you wanted to just have like actual icicles, you can use this fishing line and then just drape that Realistic Water very carefully drip it down through the line. And some of it’s going to fall off, so you have to collect it. But you can slowly build up real icicles that way.

And I was just gluing this last one. Hopefully this is the last one on in the corner here. Maybe I need to make some edits and cut this part out.

All right. So, here—this is that crushed glass from Secret Weapon. I don’t think they’re in business anymore, but a ton of different brands make crushed glass that you can get nowadays. Mine I’ve had for many years. It lasts a long time. And same thing with that Realistic Water. It’s also Secret Weapon because it came in a pack together. But you can use gloss medium or like Woodland Scenics water. Anybody who makes water—and also don’t shake it. You don’t have to shake that stuff. It just introduces air bubbles and you definitely don’t want those.

So, you’ll be surprised at how little of this—I think it’s a form of resin—that you’ll actually need. So, a couple of drops in. The more of the water that you add in, the more of like melted slurry ice it’s going to look. And this doesn’t really change when it dries. This still looks the same after it dries. What I’m trying to say—there’s a little bit like it might get a little less glossy, but for the most part, what you see when you put this on the model is what you’re going to get when it’s dry.

All right. My wife called me in the middle of that and I did not—I took it on my AirPods and didn’t think about it. So, I just probably lost this whole video of making this really cool snow guy. So, that’s awesome. I’m sorry. But this is what it looks like. So, I’m going to let it dry and see what I can salvage and go tell my wife that I love her and I appreciate all that she does for me. Then that’s what I’m going to do.

See? And just in case I got to explain my reasoning, it’s going to melt around the metal first. And I’m imagining in the narrative that this was an abandoned shack that is recently being repurposed. So, the heat wasn’t turned on. And maybe like the heat is getting turned on now. So, this boiler is starting to heat up and it’s starting to melt. And I’m just putting this down the side like—if it follows it’s gonna go right down, you know, and this will just be shiny and white. And then maybe this side hasn’t quite started yet. So this is still a little bit like—this is starting to drip. Feel me?

So I don’t want to mess with it too much more. And I took the gas mask—or I took the respirator off which I definitely want to put back on. So here’s where we’re at. I did an extra soupy right here and tried to make like footprints going into the door. And piled it up around the edges. Maybe just a little bit more here. Oh, yeah. There we go.

All right. I’m going to leave it alone. I think it looks pretty awesome how it is. So, gonna clean all this up, move this somewhere to dry safely, and I’ll check back in. Hopefully, I got a little bit of footage of me doing it.

I put in the second layer on, and this time, I’m just making sure it’s recording, so you can actually see how this stuff works. So, I have a pretty good slurry here, and this stuff I want to look like it’s melted. So, it’s going to go on top of this other pretty opaque white snow that I made earlier. And I’m just working this down those icicles more and kind of into the cracks. And I’m just following like mentally where I think the snow would go. And I’m not a scientist. I’m not being too scientific about it. I’m kind of just doing what I think looks nice and is going to make the most dynamic model.

And I’m also building up where it overhangs. And as I’m doing this, I’m tracking a little bit down the side of the building, putting some so it catches on the ridges of the metal plates on the bottom towards the ground. And I just really kind of—I have some reference photos up in front of me so I can watch and see how melting snow actually looks in real life. And I’m just doing my best to kind of recreate that. And here you’ll see on these icicles, I’m just very carefully trying to drag it down and cover up the remaining actual fishing line. And of course, I got to add some more of actual melting snow to the top. So, there we go.

Here is the finished piece. So awesome. It turned out so good. I’m so happy with how it turned out.

I need to get—next time I paint it—by the time I finish a model, I will have a spinning rotating thing so I can actually show off what I made.

Okay, one last thing before I call it a night. And I’m trying to capture like—this stuff looks like real powdery snow on this model. Like the way the glass catches the light and glints and on this roof, it actually looks like there’s wet water dripping off the roof. It’s pretty amazing how good of a snow look you get. And I’ve tried a bunch of different snow products and like baking soda or paint effects and nothing is ever as good as crushed glass, but again, it’s just kind of a pain to work with. But once you get it down, I think there’s really nothing that compares.