Temporary Winterizing of Terrain

[cstoesen]

OK, I know I am cheap but hear me out.  I have a significant amount of terrain that I want to use for a winter set game.  Mostly buildings.  I realize that trees are a bust and I need to make winter trees and for that I have a plan.  But my terrain mat and miniatures and buildings are all "summer".  What can I do that is not permanent to make these look more winter? 

All of my stuff is 15mm.  My wife suggested using table salt as my snow and just piling drifts around.  When done, shake it off and go.  Would this work?  Would salt cause me problems later?  Any better ideas?

Thanks,

Chris

[TheBlackCrane]

Not that I've tried it myself, but how about teasing out cotton wool and using that?

[cstoesen]

That would end up looking like the Christmas Village displays, right?

[Daeothar]

That would end up looking like the Christmas Village displays, right?

Isn't that the idea?  

Get an old sheet, and cut it into pieces fitting onto your gaming surface. So fields should be covered completely, but roads, streets and other frequently used features should be left uncovered.

Thin sheets of styrofoam might be useful to cover larger areas as well.

You could maybe use a light dusting of spray-on snow from directly above. Depending on how well your buildings are varnished/protected, you could then wipe/rinse it off after the game.

Try getting your hands on bird sand (you know; the stuff used on the bottom of bird cages). Most of it is pretty white, or even completely white, and since it's sand, won't react with your terrain like salt might. It is also easy to shake off and maybe re-use.

And getting some cheap pine/fir trees at the railroad shop and spraying them with white from directly above would give you some wintery trees for not too much money too.

By the way; for the same reason I wouldn't use salt, I would also not use flour or baking soda; they might react with your terrain, potentially ruining it. Stick with the inert stuff.

[cstoesen]

I will experiment with the sand idea.  Thanks for warning me off of the salt.

[TheBlackCrane]

That would end up looking like the Christmas Village displays, right?

Haven't a clue, never tried it.

My thought was that cotton wool is white, fluffy-ish and can be spread out or bunched up as much as you want, and would be fairly easy to remove, as well as cheap. It works as gunsmoke, why not as snow?

[carlos marighela]

Play with someone who suffers from chronic dandruff.

[Emir of Askaristan]

I played some Korean War games set in the snow and used sheets of the "snow effect" material used in Shop windows around Xmas time to play on. The problem was everything stuck to it, dice bounced around on it and landed up on their edge.

The next time I did a winter game (Norway 1940) I used a white felt cloth and put my normal hills under it and my buildings, roads, rivers etc on top. Ok not everything was snow covered , but you got the general impression. I added a few snow covered pine trees and some figures painted up with winter bases eventually but the basic cloth did the hard work. Laid over your normal terrain it should conform to the contours.

[Silent Invader]

Ikea do an off white fleece blanket for £3 that looks like it'd make a good starting point.

[carabus03]

Sprinkle baking powder or flour over the terrain and clean it off after, dead cheap if a little messy. 

[FramFramson]

Do not use salt!

A cheap white felt or fleece sheet, cut where needed, is a great start.