3. Let It Snow
One of the reasons I set the layout in winter was because it offered a way to bury the bulky, ugly Unitrack. This set me to task: I had a lot of experimentation and tests ahead of me. For some reason, the first thing I did was spray all of the Unitrack flat white. Although it may sound counterintuitive, I had the gut feeling it would blend the bulky rail into the surrounding snow. After painting it, I buried the track using some white "Fun Foam" to see if the white paint idea would work...
Thoroughly satisfied with the results, I set about building the scenery for what I realized would be the trickiest part of the layout to finish: all of those parallel curves.
Next came the stone retaining walls...
Then I piled on the snow, which comprised multiple layers: first, Sculptamold to establish the shapes of plowed snow, followed by a generous application of white acrylic paint.
This is topped with several layers of thick clear matte gel medium. The final touch is dirt along the track (dry-brushed brown and black thinned washes) where trains would churn through the globs of snow.
To the rough natural rock walls I applied some details, including large icicles and melting snow. These were made by cutting bits of waxed paper to shape, gluing them to the rock, and then applying white acrylic paint and several layers of thick clear matte gel medium.
This solved the problem of modeling snow in scenery areas. But what about city streets? I needed to devise a way of simulating the melted, slushy, dirty snow of an urban landscape. Modeling fresh, pristine snow just wouldn't do! So, I did a test.