Sweat poured off Laramie's face; the heat from the laval pools was nearly overwhelming.

"Please," he begged, "you're our only hope."

The impassive gas mask  stared back at him. The heavily muscled skin of the man facing him seemed to ripple in the heat.

"You want our help?"

"Yes."

"Then pay us. We don't fight for free."



The Planetary Defence Force of Arcadia fell swiftly after the collapse of the system. While the Imperial Guard troops fought valiantly, most of the PDF fled. However, the modifications made to them by the Genetors upon recruitment made it difficult for them to hide. As the atmosphere of the world was poisoned by the Rift, their skin and muscalutre thickened to adapt; and as the toxins of the Drift blocked out the sun, robbing them of melanin, their bodies produced their own substitue which turned them a ratehr alarming shade of blue. Outcast as cowards and easy to spot, the remaining Genetic Infantrymen of the Arcadian PDF decamped to the Badlands where they hire themselves out as effective fighters for the highest bidder.








The biggest experiment here was the lava base, constructed from cork tile and a bit of paint. A very slight OSL yellow on the legs of the GI helped sell it, I think.

 As a final bit of housekeeping I based up the Dragon - the building of which is detailed exhaustively here - but when it was done, I found that that with dragon being green and the base also being earth tones, it needed something to make it pop.

I've been mulling over what to do with the base for the Dragon for a little while now. I've finally got an idea in my head that will help make the green pop without going overblown; something quite wintery and cold.

This, however, means snow effects which I've never really had a go at before. As an added advantage I've been thinking about some winter Stalingrad stuff for a while so if I can figure out a way to make it look good, this could be another technique that will pay off for me.

I had a browse around and found some nice tutorials, one including a mix which sounded like it would work. But then I saw GW had released this:


Now, I'm not going to lie; I'm lazy and my time is precious to me. This is why, even though I can more or less strip and rebuild a motorcycle engine, I will still take my bike to a garage. I'd rather spend the money and save the time than vice versa. So it is with this; in my younger days I would spend days making a piece of terrain - now I'll just buy it and leave more time for my kids or work or painting and gaming. So if GW had something which seemed to look very similar to the mix I'd found - apart from glitter which I'll come to in a moment - I'm quite happy to drop a fiver to try it out.

My test piece was the free model that came with White Dwarf a while ago that I tarted up for Dragon Rampant.

The Valhallan Blizzard (hereafter referred to as snow because I refuse to indulge GW's increasing eccentric naming conventions) is best applied I would say with a claw smoother. A stiff brush would also work, I think, but nothing soft or too hard.

As you can see, it has a pleasingly crystalline texture and a bit of white paint in the mix if I'm any judge. It gives a crisp white finish which lacks only the glitter of real snow. I applied a coat of gloss brish on varnish which seems to have helped with that but I'm tempted to possibly mix a bit of cheap glittery nail varnish in to the next lot I try.

Overall, a handy little addition to the box of tricks and - while not cheap at £4.50 a pop - is certainly good enough for a few bases. I reckon you could do a decent sized force - say 100 figures or so  - from one pot if you were after a thawed look, probably 50 if you were going for deep winter.

I shall have a go at the Dragon base this week so we can see if I'm right.