So I went about snowifying a viking house (link to the store, as I backed his Kickstarter to get this house and scatter) to put beside the tower.

I then looked at my tower and ruined walls… and realized I needed to pile it on harder.

So I did! The new snow effect is a 3:3:1 mixture of baking soda, white glue, and white paint with AK Snow Effect crystals sprinkled on top before it dries. The baking soda allows it to retain some volume and creates an erratic surface that looks more like snow. The Snow Effect gives it some sparkle that you can’t really see in the photos but it helps a lot in real life to sell the effect.

On the sides of the building, I took the above mixture and just stippled it everywhere. Snow doesn’t pile on the side of a building but it does stick and frost.

I think this looks far better. It took a while but was well worth the effort. Once I throw trees in I end up with quite a few layouts I could put on this board without ever repeating myself. I also have enough scatter and trees that this could just be a lone house in the snowy woods or it could just be the towers alone. There’s some flex here.

The only thing I think I’m missing is snowy roads. I may come back and do those if I find the time and will. As it stands, the board looks pretty good. The main detraction is probably the mat–it’s just too snowy. I have a 6×4 cloth mat that looks far better which might see use, folded up into a 4×4, in Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms just because it looks so much better.

In the end I’m pretty happy with this project. It was a small one to tackle but to big result. Exactly what you want. Now, to get away from fantasy for a moment, the next item on the docket is a WW2 Russian village–no snow, for now. I don’t think I have the time to do it and it needs to see play time at a demo I’m doing at work next week. Neither army has snow on its bases, so I don’t want to explain why the terrain does and the minis don’t to a bunch of people who might not play miniatures games.

I’m happy to report, though, that when it comes time for that snow effect on the Russian village, I think I’ve reasonably solved an easy and good looking method here. That’s a big win in my book, as it’s held me back from snowifying terrain for a while. Santa will be proud.