I’ve spent countless hours trying to get the look of thawing ice right, and it’s a nightmare for the eye. The trick is to paint the ice with a very light, almost translucent base—use a diluted titanium white mixed with a touch of ultramarine. Then, layer in those first subtle glazes of pale blue or violet where the melt starts to show. When you get to the edges, you need to break the surface texture: a quick brush of light gray mixed with a dash of black, applied with a very fine tip, then wipe off the excess with a damp rag so the glaze fades into a wet look. The big problem is that the colors will shift as the paint dries, so you have to re-evaluate and repaint before the next layer dries completely. If you’re in the middle of a paint session and the hue looks wrong, just scrap that part—don’t let a bad section drag down the whole miniature. That’s why my “Hall of Regret” is full of little “oops” moments where the melt looked more like a glazed glaze than a realistic melt. Every time I paint, I double-check the light source and how the ice will realistically reflect that, because a single stray highlight can ruin the whole aesthetic. If you’re going for realism, treat the melt like a battlefield strategy: each patch is a unit, it must support the overall mission, and if one falls apart, the whole plan collapses.

Glad to hear you get the drill—always good to test a swatch first. I’ll keep the “Hall of Regret” in mind and double‑check the base before moving on. Thanks for the tip.