It's Christmas In July (kinda) here at The Finishing Touch, and I've got a big scenery project coming up that's going to need a lot of snow and ice. So I figured now was a good time to do a big breakdown of some of the many kinds of "snow" products out there that you might want to use for your basing or terrain projects.
Why go to all this effort? Well, when you're looking at the storepage of your preferred hobby outlet and see a pile of white powder (or a tub containing a pile of white powder) labelled "snow", there's a whole range of shades and consistencies you could be getting. And that's just the base-ready mixes! As we're going to see there's also powders, pastes and even grass, with little recourse other than to go "well I guess I'll buy it and see?" So we're going to take a look at some, get them out of the tub and onto some bases, and compare and contrast.
First off, let's have a quick rundown of all the products we're going to be using today:
Army Painter Battlefield Snow
To put it bluntly, I've taken to calling Army Painter the kings of "it'll do" scenics. They're widely available in hobby stores, the price works out to slightly higher than dedicated scenics companies like Geek Gaming but they're not as expensive as premium hobby products. I like their tufts, and buy some of them on a regular basis, but there's only a few of their basing materials that I buy and several I actively don't.
As you can see from the spoonful (click on the picture for a closer look!) this is about the consistency of a medium basing sand. The particles are regular and opaque, but not very realistic compared to some of the ones we'll be looking at.
Siege Scenics Winter's Vengeance and Frostine Blizzard
Siege Scenics have two kinds of snow available on their website, but if you were to look at photos of them on their storefront you'd be forgiven for thinking it's only one. That's because they've made the mystifying decision to photograph both kinds of white, crystalline powder on a white background, making it very difficult to tell them apart. That and they've given them slightly excessive Hardcore Gamer Names so you know they're wargaming products, so you have to read the descriptions to know which of the icily named products is meant to be snow and which is ice. As a challenge, read the descriptions below then zoom in on the above image and see if you can tell which open tub is which.
Frostine Blizzard is their "snow" snow, and is closer to table salt. The particles are semi-transparent and slightly dusty with a fine powder, likely from the grains rubbing together. There's also tiny dots of a faint green in places in the mix - even in the photos on their website, so it seems to be intentional? While snow is seldom perfectly clean IRL, I have no idea what this is meant to be.
Winter's Vengeance on the other hand, is meant to be ice (for what is Ice but the revenge of Winter...?) and is a much more translucent crystalline substance. Why you'd want this consistency and not the other is something we'll get into later on in the article.
Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Snow Powder
This is the first of our two powders that we'll be looking at, and as you can see this substance is quite different from the above products. This comes in Geek Gaming Scenics' standard 250ml tubs, but is closer to icing sugar in consistency than the rest of our products. It's somewhat fluffy, but has a tendency to cake into clumps when it's dry but still come apart when sieved or sprinkled.
War World Scenics' Fine White Modelling Snow
This is the first appearance of WWS Scenics, or War World Scenics. They insist on going by the former in most places, but I've no idea why. If I worked for a company called War World, I would insist on referring to it as War World as much as possible to everyone who asks - or might be about to ask - until you demand I leave your dinner party. Must be because they mostly do railway scenics.
Krautcover Powder Snow
We're back to base-ready mixes now, and an appearance from regular The Finishing Touch review subject Krautcover. This is one of their Groundcover mixes, their cheapest range as it's a single-substance, but far from a bad one. Consistency wise this is the "fluffiest" product we're going to be looking at today, being the consistency of a fine flock, or the fake snow you can pick up in stores during the holiday season.
Geek Gaming Scenics Snow 2mm Static Grass
This is probably the strangest material we'll look at today, as it's not a powder or a granule - it's a static grass, just pure white. As you can see, it bunches up in the tub much as any other static grass, it applies the same, but does it actually work as snow? We'll see.
Citadel Colour Valhallan Blizzard Technical Paint
This is another different kind of product to what we've looked at so far, and it's one you'll have seen in every wargaming shop you've been in - texture paste, made of paint with microbeads inside to allow the paint to bunch up and dry in clumps.
In larger clumps it forms a wet blob, and spread thinly it breaks down into the smaller grains. It goes a little matte once it dries, but still looks like wet snow. It's a solid product and the pot goes a little further than you'd think but if you know you're going to be doing a bigger project then other manufacturers make their own snow texture paste in larger tubs. But for a smaller project this is as much as you'll need, and you're not saving money buying stuff in bulk if you're not going to use it all.
No Business Like Snow-Business
Now that we've looked at each product individually, let's talk about the different ways to use them to make different kinds of snow.
Snowy Grass
This one might seem the most straightforward. Most companies sell some kind of "Winter Tufts", and we've just looked at a product that's snow made of grass, right? Well here's where I have to point out something that makes both of these kinds of products much less useful than you think.
Grass doesn't turn white when there's snow on it. It doesn't even turn white when it's frosty.
Images courtesy of Triplec85 (above) and W. Carter (below), both under Creative Commons License 4.0 International
You'll see that the living green grass in the top image and the dead grass in the below both get a coating of snow or ice respectively, but are clearly visible underneath. While a lot of "winter" tufts are indeed grey or tawny to simulate dead grass underneath, some are just white fibres and look kind of cheap as a result. This doesn't bode well for the Geek Gaming Scenics grass.
And indeed when we look at this "Snow" on its own on a base, it's not good. It looks cheap and chintzy, not natural enough to look like snowy grass and too visibly grasslike to pass as particles. This is more akin to the stuff you'd use to flock Christmas decorations than on a base. If we were just doing a review of this product, it'd be getting this site's first 1/5.
At first I was ready to just leave it at "don't use this", until I was researching whether there's some intended use I was missing, and happened to spot a line in the description of another white static grass by our friends at War World Scenics (OK I promise I'll stop).
The White can be used on its own as snow or mixed with our other shades for a mixed effect.
While that's bad English, it did make me wonder if this stuff can still find a use as other kinds of snow (more on that later), but for now how can we get the right effect?
This is a standard dark grass, in this case Army Painter's Battlefield Steppe grass (see? I told you I liked some of their products!) applied on grey and white paint, then once dried dusted with the Base Ready Snow Powder for one and KC's Powder Snow on the other. I used a sieve to dust this on like I was sugaring a cake, but sprinkling it on with your fingers like you're seasoning food works too.
You can also do this to your tufts to help them blend in - the tufts on this figure are those AP ones I mentioned, dabbed with a little pva and sprinkled with the Army Painter snow. As you can see, while the AP snow at his feet is a bit underwhelming (because back when I did this mini I used it because "it's the one they've got at the hobby shop, and it'll do". See what I meant earlier?) the tufts look much better.
Incidentally, this is how you can make your own flower tufts, too - railway scenics companies also sell flower flock in many more colours than you usually get on flower tufts, too!
Trodden snow
Here's where the white static grass manages to make some use of itself.
I've mixed the white grass with the same Steppe grass at about a 50/50 to 60/40 mix of white to dark, heavily applied it and used some hobby sealant to make sure it all attaches. The result looks like snow that's been stamped upon and is starting to go mushy as a result - you could mix this effect with the above one for pathways through a snowy wood, or do the well-trodden, heavily fought over woodlands of the Battle of the Bulge.
This is the Frostine Blizzard, which seems to go transparent in places and keeps it more reflective sheen in others once it's glued down. This ends up giving it the look of snow you'll see on pavements, where it's trodden and melts slightly, then freezes again overnight until it's hard and slippery. Great for slipping over on and hurting yourself on your way to work.
Pack or Drift Snow
This is real "trudging" snow, such as you might have to wade through on a winter's holiday, or ski on top of if you're rich.
Please excuse the unpainted rim on this Gnoll - I did a pack of 24 of them in one day during a charity painting marathon I organized at work, and forgot that I ran out of time to do the rimming until it came time to do this photo. In any case, the Valhallan Blizzard was dolloped on with a brush and has dried in the clumps it was left in - more careful applications would allow you to do "wakes" in the snow left by the figure wading through it, and tiny dabs or smears on the lower leg and feet can simulate wet snow sticking to garments.
Here I've done the same thing with Krautcover's Powder Snow, with some fixer to keep it in place. The snow looks dryer and fluffier, but it still has distinctive clumps to indicate being pushed around underfoot. I find myself really liking this one, and will probably be making a lot of use of it going forward.
...Tree Snow?
I don't think this has a proper word for it, other than "the way heavy snow gathers in tree branches", but just as an addendum to the last entry I found that using the Valhallan Blizzard in the crevices of branches like this also works quite well. The paint in the mix helps it stick to the branches, the microbeads give the snow some weight while looking like bits might have fallen away as the show gets too heavy and falls off, and wiping the excess off your palette knife or other applicator onto surrounding branches leaves natural looking blobs where snow might also have gathered. Just remember to bunch it in the lowermost areas where snow would have congregated as it falls.
For snow in trees with foliage in them, using the methods for dusting snow discussed in the grass section directly onto the tree's flock will work best, or if making the trees yourself using white clumps or flock for the upper parts of the tree and normal clumps for the lower parts will make them look more heavily snow-laden.
Frost
First off, let's look at the kind of Hoarfrost that forms on snow during particularly chilly nights.
This is Winter's Vengeance, applied straight onto the base. It twinkles very nicely, suggesting a thin layer of very frosty ground, but it doesn't have as much body as I'd like. But...
Here on the back, I've applied that same thin layer of Winter's Vengeance onto a layer of AP snow, and this gives you the attractive sparkling effect but on more voluminous snow, without it becoming too translucent the way a heavy layer of Winter's Vengeance might.
For frost forming on surfaces, I spritzed this branch with some sealant spray - since that's mostly watered PVA, which would probably also work - and then gave it a very light dusting of the WWS powder, making sure to sprinkle from the bottom up and to rotate the branch for full coverage. I went bottom up (eyyy!) because unlike snow which falls from above, frost forms on surfaces, and as the sunlight melts the topmost parts the parts beneath can stay frosty much longer. To the naked eye, the twinkling particles in the WWS powder catch the eye nicely, making this better suited for the job than the matte GGS powder.
Freshly Fallen Snow
Fresh snow tends to be lighter and fluffier, as it's not had time to be packed down by the weight of subsequent snowfall or foot traffic. While the Krautcover Powder Snow would also work quite well for this, let's look at how well the two powders do it.
This is the WWS powder, thickly applied. The chunky granular consistency doesn't really work as well as it could have for this purpose, and looks more like snow that's been trodden underfoot. You might also be able to see in the picture that it's gone a little translucent in places.
This is the GGS snow powder, which has worked much better for this purpose. The caking effect has meant that there are "crumbs" of snow at varying sizes, as you would expect from snow irregularly piling up. One thing I will say, however, is to make sure to agitate the surface of the snow, as the powder can be pressed flat while applying if you're not careful & look like it's been smoothed with a plastering tool. You'd also be well served to use some kind of sealant like GGS' own Scenic Sealant or Krautcover's Kraut-Fixer, as this is the most delicate mix while it's still drying of everything we've looked at.
Crevice Snow
When blown around, snow gets caught in the cracks and crevices of buildings, and can stay there even after the snow hit by direct sunlight starts to melt. Here's where the powders really have a chance to shine.
This side of the wall I've used GGS powder, by dabbing in scenic sealant (watery PVA would also work) into the cracks between the stones with a brush and working it along the lines. If you've ever panel-lined a miniature, it's much the same principle. I then wiped off as much excess as I could with a thumb, and then brushed on the powder with a makeup brush. This lets the powder gather in places it wants to gather, which is more natural than forcing it into place. There are some patches where it's gotten onto the stones, but you can wipe them off with a wet cotton-bud or fingertip, or leave them there to show the snow gathering in micro-cracks in the stones, which would be there on natural stone but might not be part of the sculpt. 
Here I've used WWS powder instead, and the larger granules do a decent job of filling in the cracks more heavily, as you might experience after a more severe blizzard. I would advise though that if you're going to wipe off the excess to make sure you do it before the glue dries, as these granules stick a little more firmly to the model once dried than the GGS powder does.
Melting Snow
Here's where the Valhallan Blizzard does its best work. While GW's tutorials always show them applying delicate little artisanal blobs onto finished bases, this stuff looks best when it's glopped on.
For this hero rock I pruned off a Tyranid's base with something unpleasant growing off it, I plopped the paste around the base and sides of the rock, and then wiped the excess downwards with a wet cotton bud. This leaves traces of the microbeads clinging to the topmost parts, dregs in the crevices (especially the vent!) and the higher parts of the pillar and wall exposed. This simulates the snow getting wetter as it melts and sliding off, but still being cold enough in the recesses to remain frozen.
Meanwhile, clumping it onto the topmost parts - like I've done with this section of wall - is good for snow that's wet and thick but hasn't started to slough off yet. As you can see, I've dabbed some sliding down the edge of one brick and forming a little pile where it's landed on the wall below, and a little stroking with a brush has let me merge bits of the Valhallan Blizzard into the cracks to merge with the crevice snow we applied earlier. You could in theory use the VB entirely as crevice snow, but this might not look as good as using powder - your mileage may vary.
Light Snowfall
I've not been very charitable to the Army Painter show so far, so here's two things it'll do at least alright.
Mixed up with some pure white paint, the AP snow works as a basic texture paste snow. I found it best to do this on the base, by blobbing the paint on, then the snow, then smushing it around, to help it stick to the base. As ground on which a light amount of snow has fallen, it'll do.
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