"Winter Troops" and Conversions!

It's funny how the human mind works-I'll re-phrase that-It's funny how MY mind works!!
Just after Christmas,Tesco were selling bags of artificial snow,for 25p!! so I bought a bag with no purpose for it,but I knew it would come in useful(my wife says I've got a garage full of things that might come in useful!!).Well,last week I was looking through Lancashire Games catalogue,when I spotted that they do a range of WW2 "winter troops" and this started me thinking that I could paint a few of the one and a half million plastic soldiers left over from my last "solo" games project,to be winter types.Of course winter troops need,yes you've guessed it,SNOW!!
I got 36 of the plastic figures,gave them a couple of coats of white undercoat,then a final white paint job,black for guns and boots,a quick dab of flesh,and hey presto-winter troops!!

Some of the finished troops,just needing that final touch of snow on their bases..........

Hell,that's deep snow!!

Most of them are done,and looking,well,snowy!!

All 36 finished,and I still have enough "snow" left to start my own blizzard!!

See what I mean?? a slight flaw in my plan,and I hadn't noticed this until all the bases were flocked with the snow,there are green glittery bits among the white!!-however my wife tells me that snow actually has the power to refract and reflect light,and that the green glittery bits lend a certain authenticity to the process!!
After I had finished the winter troops,I got to thinking of some other figures that Lancashire Games do-Ski Troops!!now my imagination is far greater than my modelling skills,but I thought I would have a bash at making Ski Troops.........................

I selected 6 figures from my "Plastic Everest",all the same pose-the figure on the left is before conversion,it is holding some sort of tube,which I cut off with a Stanley knife(!!) trimmed the base,and the project was ready to go.

I heated some wire for the ski poles,and shoved them into the figures' hands,I then had to think what I could use for ski's-the solution,which I think is brilliant(?) was to use my wife's Diabetic Test Sticks,cut in two down the middle-perfect!!(I might add that these test sticks were used ones,in case anyone thinks that I am wasting NHS funds!!)

All six done,and ready for under-coating.

Under-coating them was a bit tricky,because I had nothing to hold the figures by! so I held them by their heads and then under-coated the heads separately-clever!!

A quick touch of black for weapons and boots,followed by a splash of flesh on the faces,and the job's a good'un!!

Two final shots of the finished articles-although primarily for my solo games,I might just "roll" them out to the rest of the "Boys" in a TEWT(tactical exercise without troops) type game,but actually use troops!(in fact a tactical exercise with troops!!)
Any comments(good or bad!) would be welcome.