Snow Patrol …

David over at the GuruPIGS blog (Philip Island Gaming Society) contacted me with news of some snowball fight rules called Snowbrawl and some mutant snowmen and snowballer figures by Blue Moon 25mm available from Old Glory USA that he had ordered.

I had a quick look at these figures (see bottom of this blogpost) – quite tempting but they are 25mm and they don’t seem to have a UK stockist; shipping from the USA gets expensive.

Instead I headed for the Fimo Polymer clay which was left over from my early figure repairs and figure making.

Unfortunately most of the white and black Fimo was gone, but as you can paint Fimo Polymer clay I thought I would use what I had to hand.

I thought a small Snow patrol or half patrol of Mutant / Scout Snowmen would be an interesting addition to the snowball fight or Scouting Wide Games.

Stage 1 – Make Arms and Hands

Stiff uncontested garden wire was cut for each arm. The three fingered hand was made by winding a type of rough coated climbing plant wire wound around the stiff wire. It works in the garden and also makes good model barbed wire.

Stage Two – Making the Body, Head and Hat from Fimo

Three large snowballs make up the body and head. A simple disc brim and pinched top Scout hat were made. Locator holes were made using cocktail sticks to help stake and superglue these sections together.

The larger snow ball body sections were slightly hollowed out to save Fimo and speed hardening during baking.

The line underneath the bottom snow body ball suggests legs or feet or movement.

Stage Three – Baked and Ready for Assembly

Yellow snow (let’s not go there) and Yellow Snowmen?

The orange ones look like mad Pumpkin men. Useful idea for the future?

Figures were superglued together for speed, further strengthened by short lengths of cocktail stick glued to stake together each section of body, head and hat.

Figures were glued to MDF tuppeny 2p pieces from Warbases.

The holes for the wire arms were drilled with a hand drill pin vice after the Fimo was baked hard.

Stage Four – Painting

The snowmen were undercoated in white, and several more coats of Revell Aquacolor Acrylic used.

The scout style hat was painted Khaki brown. The Carrot Nose (end of cocktail stick) was painted orange and the wooden “stick” arms and hands were painted dark brown.

The scout poles or staves were painted a lighter brown.

Coal black eyes, mouth and coat buttons were picked out with a cocktail stick in black.

Light blue is often used by painters to bring out the shadow and the whiteness of snow. The base and white body were thus given a very light wash of Citadel Colour Contrast Aethermatic blue.

They are usually such cheery figures, it is quite hard to make a snowman look malevolent! I don’t think I succeeded as well in this as the Old Glory / Blue Moon Figures (seen below, bottom of post).

If they turn nasty or mutant, we have the Snow Globe, the standard containment facility:

Gaming Uses

These snowmen or snow scouts could play an interesting active role in snowball fight and winter Scouting Wide Games.

If they touch a snowballer or Scout figure with stick hand or staff, that figure becomes ‘frozen‘ for several turns (d6) or has to be freed or unfrozen by tagging by one or two other Scouts or players on their side.

Some creeping slow movement scale would need to be added to the rules.

If you fight Fire with Fire, surely you can fight Snow with Snow?

They’re Behind You!

How many snowball hits does it take to put one of these Snowmen out of action?

Snow Duelling with staffs is one possibility – using the Parry and Lunge Rules

Big old snowmen would have more (frozen) life points or ‘lives’ than a Boy Scout or Girl Scout / Guide. Maybe several scouts or guides could engage each snowman at one time, tag team style?

Flamethrowers optional.

Origins of The Snow Patrol

Not exactly sure what the origins of this snow patrol are.

Were they part of a scout troop once lost in the snow, turned to ice and frozen? They still wear their tattered scout hats and carry their scout staff.

I will probably add the tatty remnants of a Scout neckerchief or scarf when I find suitable material or use PVA glue and tissue paper.

Are they friendly or malevolent?

The Original Figures

The original figures that David (Guru PIGS) recommended are pictured here, armed with snowballs and brooms:

David also mentioned the Fistful Of Lead Rules variant / expansion Snowbrawl for snowball fights. https://wiley-games.myshopify.com/collections/download-it-now/products/snowbrawl-downloadable-pdf

You need the original Fistful of Lead core rules to make this work.

A frozen farewell for now … Cheerio!

Bad snowman joke: One snowman says to the other snowman, “Can you smell carrots?”

Blog posted by Mark Snow-Man Of TIN, 1970s British Cub Scout (Bronze Arrow, retired) on 2 July 2022.