Need help/advice for snowball dryad

J

Jike Ichi

New member
Hi Cmoners,

as the title of this thread says I need your wisdom.

In short:
I'm currently working on the finishing of a snowball project. My current problem is that I'm not sure if the paint will stick to the plastic miniatures once it's under water!? Has anyone made a painted snowball before?

More details:
Size of snowball: 9cm diameter and about 8cm high.
The diorama is made out of miliput and plastic pieces for the setting. I know that miliput is not making any problem underwater, as it is used in coral aquariums (I use miliput for sticking my gorgonie to the reef for years without problems). I primered the whole diorama black with Vallejo airbrush primer and afterwards painted it with the new citadel colours.
My concern is that the water could: a, take out particles out of the citadel colours and become cloudy or b, slip beneath the colour layer and then whole chips of paint could splinter away...

One way to solve this would be sealing the whole diorama. But then I'm not very sure what to use. I have the Citadel Purity Seal Spray, which is not the best in my opinion and one sealing for outdoor wood materials (I use for my wooden model ships). Any ideas?

Another idea would be to simply not put any water in it, just putting the top on it and nothing more. This would be without any problems...but hey, it wouldn't be any snowball then. Just a diorama under plexiglass.

To add to this concerns I'm not really sure if the normal white snowflakes look good in it. I thought about making little autumn leaves out of plastic card instead. That would be the best looking version. But the leaves would have to be painted too. Furthermore, how to make so many tiny little leaves out of the plastic card?
I thought about stamping them, but I have no glue how to make a cutting stamp in the shape of a tiny leave.

Maybe you have some good ideas and can help me finish the project to make a durable snowball and not just one that would look good for some days.
Thanks for your time and thank you for any help!

For better imagination of this diorama I attached two photos.
 
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freakinacage

freakinacage

Well-known member
Hmm, quite a pickle. Water should be ok as long as everything is fully sealed. That said, I was under the impression that there is glycerin in snow balls to make the water slightly thicker. Not sure how that would work..
 
J

Jike Ichi

New member
Yes you are correct. There is a mixture in them. Glycerin is in there to make the snowflakes fall down slower.
I will add glycerin too. It's a not very reactive substance, as far as I know. So I'm not worried about that.

So it comes down to correctly sealing. Problem is good seals are often very glossy. Maybe that wouldn't matter if the whole thing is in water anyway? The Citadel spray would be a problem, as I can't be sure that I reach every corner. I guess I have to look for a more suiting seal.

I still like the idea of making tiny leaves instead of white snow. But besides cutting them with scissors or a hobby knife I have no great idea of making them.
 
me_in_japan

me_in_japan

New member
I couldn't say for sure, but maybe one of those fancy hole-punches you can get for decorating the edge of letters/cards might work? If you could find one that punched out a vine pattern or similar, you could maybe use scissors to then separate the leaves from the vine. You'd find them in craft shops, or on t'internetto.
 
I

ischa

New member
you´d need to make leaves out of plastic. regular paper would dissolve. try one of the ready mades?
 
QuietiManes

QuietiManes

New member
I know they use regular old acrylic paint in some commercially available snow globes. Saw them made on a couple different shows. If you're worried about it, you can always heat set it. It doesn't take much heat, just a blow-dryer is more than enough, just takes longer.

I guess you could use a waterproof clear, marine grade, something like that. A thick and glossy finish wouldn't be noticeable under water, I don't think, if you end up using something like that.
 
J

Jike Ichi

New member
Thank you all for the feedback. The oddly shaped scissors are a great idea. While there will not be a scissor that cuts leaveshaped edges there should be one that cuts a wavy edge. And two wavy edges crossing would make for perfect leaves like this: ()()()()

No I will not use any paper leaves, which is sad, because I have some nice lasercut ones from Fredericus rex. Also the birch fruits that are used often for diorama doesn't work well in water (they float). So far I avoided any nonplastic material. It makes me a little sad not to use my beloved static grass mixes...
I will try to buy a orange, yellow plastic card for cutting the leaves. Shouldn't be difficult. I will spray a little bit of olive army colour over it to make a more realistic look.
The brass etched leaves would look best, agreed. I'm not so sure how fast they will "fall down" in the snowball!? Furthermore they are all very expensive.

I will think about all your advices and will keep you updated.

Thanks QuietiManes. Heating! Of course. :) I guess I will do both. Heating and then sealing it with some waterproof colour. I will ask at a local shop next week.
 
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J

Jike Ichi

New member
Thank you for the links.

Oh my!! Didn't know there so many different punchers! That really amazes me! o_O!!!
The Mc Gill one looks pretty sweet. If it's tiny enough you could easily make cheap leaves/foliage for dioramas, just by buying a green paper card and stamping the ammount you need.

Have to look if I get some of these punchers in Europe.
 
F

Flagg

New member
Ah, sorry I didn't think about international locations! FWIW, I simply google'd "hole punch leaf" and checked out a couple a links at the top. You might get different, more local results with a similar search.
 
J

Jike Ichi

New member
No problem Flagg. I didn't even knew such punchers existed. I found nice punchers on amazon. Plus I ordered a pack of four funny ones as a gift for the little nice of my girlfriend. She will love it too. :)
 
J

Jike Ichi

New member
BloodFather of Kharnath said:
So you went with glitter? I was really looking forward to seeing a bunch of brass etched leaves floating about. Looks pretty though.
Click to expand...

Yeah I went with glitter. I've done a lot of testing though. I had some metal glitter, which would have acted exactly the same as brass etched leaves would have. It sinks to the bottom of the ball like stones. Even with a ratio of 50:50 glycerine and water. So that couldn't be used....a shame...yeah...

Then I stamped out leaves from different plastic materials....some of them actually went down in water. So I thought great, this is it. I stamped A LOT of them, painted them and then throwed them in....they sink down in water, but not soooo much in a mixture with glycerine....hehehehe. I spent hours getting all of the leaves out of the tiny hole in the bottom..

After that throwback the project was put to rest for a while. ahem... :)

Lately I went to a shop to grab some new brushes when I saw some glitter in different colours. Then my woodelves project came to mind. I thought: Hell, why not simply try it with glitter!? As it turned out, not all glitter sink the same :) This time I was wise enough to test it in a bottle with same glycerine/water ratio. And I found a glitter that really sinks with a great effect, slowly, catching light and shining.

So I'm also sorry I couldn't work it out with some kind of leaves, but the effect I got with glitter is somehow even better. When it stands on the shelf it catches the light of the sun coming in and it really is an eyecatcher :)

P.S.: Looking for other empty snowballs to convert. This is the biggest one I found from "Fimo" brand (http://www.office-netshop.at/fimo-schneekugel-oval-masse-b70-x-t52-x-h55-mm.html) Are there others? I have some ideas for future snowballs. (with glitter ;) )
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
Jike Ichi said:
Looking for other empty snowballs to convert. I have some ideas for future snowballs.
Click to expand...
I'm looking forward to seeing them, this one has been a different take on the model hobby we are addicted too and rather appreciated.
I don't suppose one of those ideas has a small Dragon and golden glitter does it?
 
BloodFather of Kharnath

BloodFather of Kharnath

Active member
Yeah this is definitely a new idea. I admit to thinking about a snow globe at one point or another too, though I gave it up since it seems like some graduate level work that is
in the far future for me. That being said, we really need to explore what can be used and to what effect in the things. When I thought about it, I always imagined using snow and nothing else (limited imagination).

When you google search for these, try calling them "snow globes," as we do here in the States.
 
J

Jike Ichi

New member
Dragonsreach said:
I don't suppose one of those ideas has a small Dragon and golden glitter does it?
Click to expand...

Maybe?:) Sounds like a good idea, I laready have golden glitter here. But I would really need a small dragon figure to fit into the snow GLOBE (ty Bloodfather) as it is only 5cm tall with 7cm diameter. Anything in mind for the dragon Dragonsreach?
 
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