Snowman

Evil snowmen have been a staple of pop culture horror for a long time. Most people are probably familiar with them through the direct-to-video movie Jack Frost, or from Dr. Who, or even from Scooby Doo cartoons.

The Snowmen (2012 Christmas Special)

Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays, 2012

A Scooby-Doo! Christmas, 2002

Jack Frost, 1997

One of the earliest depictions of the evil snowman however, is in the cartoon The Snowman from Ted Eshbaugh Studios.

Atlas Obscura hosts an interesting article on the history of snowmen (which may provide some insight to the source of the resentment motivating these snowmen).

I don't think there was ever an official snowman monster in D&D, but a snow golem first appeared in Ship of Horrors for 2nd ed. AD&D.

The 2nd ed. version of the snow golem is described as an 11' tall armored figure sculpted from snow, which seems like something requiring the skills of a trained sculptor to create.

Giorgio Vasari writes in Lives of the Artists
(Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori,
ed architettori) that after an unusual
snowstorm descended upon Florence in
January 1494, Michelangelo was tasked
by Piero de' Medici (his patron) to create
a statue made of snow in the courtyard
of his palace.

By 5th ed. however, artistry seems to have gone by the wayside, and snow golems became crude anthropoid figures.

It is this version of the snow golem, that appears from D&D Icons of the Realms (Snowbound #28), and Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures (WZK90417).

I don't really care for the use of blue and silver to represent snow on prepainted miniatures, so I will repaint the Icons Snow Golem at a later date.

Some other figures that fit the snowy theme include a couple of chwinga miniatures from D&D Icons of the Realms (Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden #3, #16).

One chwinga is throwing a snowball, while the other holds an icicle (or rather, an "icicle staff"). I included a space chwinga from a previous post for comparison purposes.

Last up are a couple of frost salamanders from an older post with a pair of extra arms added on.

For the snow on the bases, I originally wanted to try some of the various commercial products described at Meandering Shade, but for expediency, I went with white glue and baking soda.

Generic brand sodium bicarbonate

Baking soda has small reflective crystals in it, unlike Woodland Scenics Scene-A-Rama Snow which is perfectly matte white, and requires the addition of some embossing powder, or extra fine glitter to give it that sparkly snow look.