Hello all, Looking for some snow suggestions for a temporary holiday train project. This is a 4'x2' layout with some houses and two loops. It gets tore down and stored every year, so this needs to be removable. Last year (1st try), I used something called Buffalo Snow that I got from local craft store. It looked like shredded plastic bags, was pretty coursely shredded, very light, and had a tendency to drift onto the track, get run over, and jam loco gears; so its out this year. So, I need something heavier that will stay off the track, something less likely to jam a loco, and something I can still vacuum up at seasons end and put away for use next year. Anyone have any thoughts? I've thought about the Woodland Scenics stuff, but its a little pricey for the volume I need, and I'm not sure how it will play with gears if I dont glue it down, which I am trying to avoid. Anything else? Thanks!
Actually I'm glad this was posted, I want to add to this as I had planned on modeling Marias Pass in Winter. So I also am wondering about snow suggestions as well as how to model it and how to properly maintain it on a permenant aspect.
I've not found any problems with using Woodland Scenic's Snow. There are other brands, mostly from Europe, but I like the 'color' and workability of the WS product. Jim
Do you have problems with the drive gears on the wheels sucking it up? I read in an issue of Model Railroader a few years back about snow causing problems doing that and causing motor failure.
If the layout only comes out for Christmas, then why not use some permanently affixed snow? Why make it with stuff that can come up?
Just for ease of storage. Since all the trees and structures arent permenantly affixed, and go in to a box most the year, I have to lay the snow out around everything once the scene is laid out. The only thing permanently attached is the roadbed/track/ballast. If anything else were stuck to the board, I feel that it would be too fragile to store without things getting broken; espeically since the structures are ceramic.
Well, not to beat the point into the ground, but I'm not sure I see how that stops you form using permanent snow...unless you rearrange the buildings regularly. The trees could have snow permamently attached. Certainly the snow around the tracks could be permanent.
Not so much rearrange, but I foresee that buildings/scenery can be added or subtracted from year to year.
In that case, what I would do is use permanent snow around the tracks and on the trees and other areas that you know you can get away with it. This will protect the track area and the locos. Then use a removable product for the other areas. In both case I recommend some form of plaster. Just get a tub of plaster of paris for cheap and dump it on there and then vacuum it off. The downside is you need to be careful not to get too much water on it.
interesting thought. my question would now be how to make it look uniform while using two different kinds of snow?
Well, with the plaster, glue the final layer on with a tack glue so it stays a powder. You could also simply use the commercial snow products and glue down where you can and leave loose where you need to. You could even vacuum it up with a handvac that is clean and reuse it.
