Jack's OSM Ogres Part II: How to make snowy bases

Hello and welcome to our next blog post on my Ogre army, where I'll be showing you how to make snowy bases for wargaming.

Although Old School style goblin green bases are the undisputed king of mini basing, snow is fun as well. It's a great way to base up winter themed armies, or for barbarian hordes from the frozen north.

It's also incredibly forgiving if you get any on the model's foot. Snow on the feet? Now problem! That's just...umm...Snow. On their feet.

You will need:

Fine sawdust- you can get this online, or ask at mate with a power sander.

White acrylic paint- mini painting paint is fine for this, but you can get away with cheaper stuff

PVA wood glue- any old wood glue is fine

A tatty old brush- You should have dozens of these

A takeaway lid, or something similar.

Remember, wearing facemasks is big and clever when working with glues or sawdust. Always work in a well-ventilated area, and use common sense.

STEP 1
Measure out equal parts sawdust, paint and PVA.

The sawdust gives the snow it’s texture. You want sawdust, rather than sand because the particles of sawdust are more irregularly shaped and give proper snowy clumps. The paint obviously makes it white, and the glue binds everything together. To save you having to keep mixing the stuff, I’d advise you to do a whole unit at a time. The stuff stays workable for around an hour and a half, so more than enough time to base a unit.


STEP2
Using your tatty brush, mix everything together.


Make sure absolutely everything is blended and now brown specks can be seen.
If it’s too clumpy or not white coloured- add paint.
If it’s not sticking together or it’s not sticking to the base- add glue.
If it’s too runny- add sawdust.

STEP 3
After making sure there are no un-mixed sawdust particles, use your tatty brush to add the snow to the base.

This doesn’t flow like normal paint, so it will feel weird at first. A sort of scraping motion works well, patting it down a little. Make it level for freshly fallen snow, or put into peaks for trampled.

STEP 4
DONE!


You can jazz up snowy bases with ice (use water effect paint, spread finely), or bloody SPFX paint looks great on snowy bases.

We’d love to see any minis you base using this method, and keep reading the blog for more hobby tips.