Basing with Moss, Snow and Ice: A Practical Guide

Basing is where a miniature either comes alive or quietly disappoints. You can have the most technically accomplished paintjob in the world, and a flat, textureless base will drag the whole thing down. Moss, snow and ice are three of my favourite effects to combine because they work on almost any theme, from frozen wastelands to neglected industrial ruin, and they reward a bit of patience and layering.

Here is how I approach it, from bare plastic to finished base.

Step 1: Build the base before you prime

Get your texture down first. I use a combination of sand, small gravel and cork bark torn into irregular chunks. Superglue everything down, let it cure fully, then seal the whole base with watered-down PVA. This stops the sand pinging off when you handle the model. Prime the whole thing, model included, with a zenithal spray. Black from below, grey or white from directly above. This gives you free shading on the texture before you even pick up a brush.

Step 2: Basecoat and shade the ground

For a grimdark or industrial look I basecoat the ground texture with Rhinox Hide or Dryad Bark, then wash with Agrax Earthshade. Once dry, I drybrush up through Mournfang Brown to Karak Stone. The zenithal prime underneath means the highlights almost paint themselves. If you are going for a more rocky look, start with Mechanicus Standard Grey and drybrush up to Administratum Grey.

Step 3: Add moss

Moss is the easiest win on a base. Static grass mixed with fine green flock gives a convincing result, but I also use Citadel Mordheim Tuft style clumps and actual model railway lichen for more texture variation. Apply small dots of PVA with a cocktail stick and press the moss into it, then leave it to dry before touching anything else. For a more overgrown, neglected feel on terrain pieces like the NexusBlock Shrine, I push moss into recesses and cracks specifically, because that is where moisture and organic matter would actually collect. It reads as far more realistic than moss spread uniformly across a surface.

Step 4: Snow

There are a few products I reach for here. Vallejo Snow Texture is thick and gritty and excellent for heavy accumulation on flat surfaces. Army Painter Battlefield Snow is finer and better for dusting into recesses. My usual method is to mix Vallejo Snow Texture with a small amount of PVA and Woodland Scenics Snow, apply with an old brush in stippled dabs, and add a final light sprinkle of the dry snow product while it is still wet. Leave it completely undisturbed for a few hours. Do not prod it. The temptation is real. Resist it.

Keep snow off the tops of things like barrels or pipes unless there is a logical reason for it to have settled. Snow accumulates on horizontal surfaces and in sheltered spots, not on vertical faces. Getting this right is the difference between a convincing winter scene and something that looks like it has been dunked in icing sugar.

Step 5: Ice effects

This is where it gets fun. For pooled ice I use two-part epoxy resin tinted with a tiny amount of Talassar Blue or Nihilakh Oxide. Pour thin layers, let each one cure before adding the next. For cracked ice, once the resin is fully cured I carefully score the surface with a scalpel and dry brush the cracks with pure white. For icicles, I use stretched sprue or, more reliably, clear UV resin dragged to a point with a needle and cured with a UV torch. A gloss varnish over any ice area adds to the effect significantly.

On larger pieces and terrain, the combination of all three effects really earns its keep. The NexusBlock Large Craters are a great candidate for pooled ice in the crater floor with snow built up around the rim, and the NexusBlock Trench Set looks brutal with moss creeping up the walls and snow drifted into the corners of the trench sections.

Take your time between layers, use real-world logic to decide where each material sits, and your bases will do as much work as your paintjob. Probably more, honestly.