Frozen Pond for Frostgrave

Frozen pond for Frostgrave

This is one of the more interesting test pieces I’ve made. I wanted to experiment with a water effect. A little artistic licence needed to be taken with the water – probably it would be covered in snow like everything else,  but I wanted to get that look that ponds sometimes have when they are just frozen over, and the water looks very dark against the white snow and ice dusted on top.

I started with a piece of hardboard and I roughed out the shape of the pond by sticking down corrugated cardboard. I then used my old friend, plasterboard adhesive, to cover it over to make smooth contours. The cardboard not only makes the piece a bit lighter but it gives the plaster something to key into – otherwise if you dropped it, it can smoothly break away from the hardboard in a single piece.

Frozen pond

Once that was dry, I painted it all white with Acrylic Primer (the sort of thing house decorators use on woodwork). I gave it a very thin turquoise wash to make sure it looks a cool white rather than slightly grey/brown. Then I painted the water (which is the smooth surface of the hardboard), with a really dark brown. Next came a coat of PVA and Woodland Scenics snow flock.

When that was dry I applied Woodland Scenics Realistic water in two thin pours. After they had both fully cured, I painted on patches of Realistic Water with a brush and sprinkled with snow flock. It looked a bit blotchy, with hard edges to the blotches, so I had another go and carefully stippled it with the brush to break it up more.

This time I got the effect I was looking for, so following this successful test piece, I’m planning some slightly larger water features – possibly even some marsh with snow covered clumps of long grass sticking up.