Smoke and Fire?

[hooknladderno1]

Hi Gang,

Thinking of a few ideas for vignettes and full blown dioramas. As a former firefighter, many of these revolve around smoke and fire. A firefighter on a ladder rescuing a small child perched at a second floor window, a helicopter or plane dropping a load of water or retardant on a forest fire... Also a helicopter hovering over a lake while refilling it's tank. I have seen a few great examples of smoke and flames, but scoured Youtube without finding much in the way of "how to". Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

David

[disabled modeler]

David.... You can make smoke using cotton balls....with some trial and error you can mist paint or powders to make the different colors of smoke.

[GLMFAA1]

David, I would suggest searching some military and aircraft model web sites, I recall seeing a CL415 diorama dropping water,

greg

[southpier]

how real do you want? do a search for Seuthe smoke generators and let you imagination soar!

[Krazy Rick]

Evan's Train lighting, has this is the Fire kit - perfect for what you need, I have a few of them - it does look real

just type Evans train lighting , or model train software in google - my lousy computer won't let me paste the link

Edited October 22, 2014 by Krazy Rick

[hooknladderno1]

Hi Gang,

After spending a great deal of time searching Youtube to find videos indicating how to replicate smoke and flame. I found a couple that showed how to make smoke and fire markers for gaming. I adapted this technique to address diorama or vignette purposes. This may be a review for some, but hope vit is helpful/

I began with a 6 pack of battery operated tea light candles - $2.50 at Walmart. The "flame" looks like clear silicone. But, when "lit" it glows yellow. I painted it with Tamiya clear orange and red. I then took some Gator grip glue(white glue would work as well) and secured a section of polyester fiberfill(used for stuffing pillows) to the base. Work your way around, covering the base and working your smoke into a "plume" shape. This can be aided by using a {pick or other pointed instrument. I inverted the "plume" and used ultra hold hair spray to help it maintain it's shape. I have yet to break out the airbrush to apply mist coats of various colors to enhance the effect. Again, this is a first effort. As" practice makes perfect", I hope to improve my technique. One final note: A few years ago I began a thread called "Planned Project". It was one of my fire company's first fire houses. The project has been on the back burner for a while. Historically, the station only lasted a year, before it burned down. I thought this might be a neat opportunity to see my little "experiment" in action. Below are the photos and a poor quality video. I hope to learn how to edit them in the near future. Let me know what you think!

David

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w171/hooknladderno1/FireSmoke01/th_FireSmoke01.mp4

[Aaronw]

That actually looks pretty good. The fluff you are using looks synthetic and has shiny strands, I bet real cotton balls or cotton batting would look even better being more wispy and the dull color of the cotton would make the strands stand out less.

I've always been impressed by the fire near the end of Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Amazing how realistic the effects are just using colored clear cellophane, crumpled aluminum foil and colored lights.

Do those tealights flicker? Being photos there is no way to tell. Not having a solid light would really add to the flame effect.

[Krazy Rick]

That actually looks pretty good. The fluff you are using looks synthetic and has shiny strands, I bet real cotton balls or cotton batting would look even better being more wispy and the dull color of the cotton would make the strands stand out less.

I've always been impressed by the fire near the end of Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Amazing how realistic the effects are just using colored clear cellophane, crumpled aluminum foil and colored lights.

Do those tealights flicker? Being photos there is no way to tell. Not having a solid light would really add to the flame effect.

I agree with Aaron, cotton would be a better choice, the cellophane, foil & lights method that he mentions would also be a great way to go, I'd use a small fan; such as a computer fan to get movement.And yet another option for a display model, solid smoke ..... spray insulation expandable foam. As far as the lighting goes, see previous above post - Evans Lighting Fire Kit..... it's worth the couple of bucks.... you can't fully appreciate it; until you actually see it working.