SNOW EFFECTS RALLY [SET]

Winter on a special stage

A rally car on a snow-covered stage looks entirely different a few minutes after the start from the way it looked in the service park. Snow packs into the wheel arches, slush flies off the wheels and dries in streaks along the flanks, and everything wet has a sheen. The three products in this set cover exactly those three phenomena, and in the order in which they go onto the model.

The first is an acrylic-based snow texture. It is applied thickly where snow settles and stays: on the roof, on the hood around the wipers, into the wheel arches and on the bumper. The second is an acrylic product for spatter, used to make the wet earth thrown off the tires. It is applied in dots and irregularly, ideally with an old brush flicked across your finger so that the irregularity does not repeat.

The last layer decides

Before you start on the car, try all three products on a piece of cardboard painted the same color as the bodywork. You will see how densely the texture covers and how far the drops fly.

The third item is an enamel liquid for a wet effect. It goes on right at the very end, in the places where water would really stand: in the hollows, along the bottom edge of the doors, around the fenders. Because it has a different type of binder from the previous two, it can be worked over dried acrylic without the risk of disturbing the layer underneath.

The set suits rally cars of every era and works just as well on an off-road vehicle or on a scene with figures at the roadside. A winter diorama stands or falls on restraint: an overdone model looks as if it had been stuck over with cotton wool, whereas a few well-placed deposits take effect at once.