i was just wandering if there is a way to make a mortar/cannon explosion coming up from the ground. it was a weird idea but i thought i would ask anyway.

Houdini, I've never done it but if you think about it laterally, there may be a way.... Recently there was a thread about ice and how best to represent it. Now in theory, an explosion should be easier as what would be represented would be terrain flying into the air. The reverse of the ice coming down... The way i would probably do it is the following... scoop out a concave section of the ground and build up sections flying out of it (like ice in reverse) a number of tecniques and materials could be used, for example to give support, a wire armature could be used and epoxy putty could be used to build up the effect, coloring would be darker than the base ground color and perhaps varnish could be used to "dampen" the ground, it would require a lot of practice and a lot of expirementation to get right but who knows, the effect might be worth it.... Jim

If you can get your hands on last months Fine Scale Modeler. There was an article on creating splattering mud, such as off the back end of a moving AFV. It could be used for this.

Bascially you would use colored household spackle on a shaped wire or on a piece of clear styrene. The spackle could be enhanced by adding kitty litter/dirt for ground affects..

I've got the FSM if you are interested I could scan and email. PM me with your email address.

I have always HATED doing two things in scale model settings.... FIRE and actual EXPLOSIONS.... For both, I use a technique that is "passible" but not awesome. I take cotton balls and gently pull out the tufts... when it is in the basic shape I like, I hit it with hairspray to hold the shape. For an explosion, I would then sprinke in bits of Woodland Scenics earth textures and bits of static grass BEFORE the hairspray dries. I would NEVER use this in the foreground however... it is strictly a "background" trick.

This question seems to surface quite frequently. I have never seen an explosion done in such way that it was convincing. The cotton ball technique is probably the best to date but even that has its limitations. I have seen somewhere a different approach and it had to do with inserting wires into the ground work and attaching debris to the ends and then using the cotton as the filler and to hide the wires. It sounds good and the sketch was impressive but I am not sure how realistic this would look in an actual diorama.

This might help you out.... I don't know how he did it, but he based it on a photo of a mortar round explosion. Quite nice I must say!

Use Glue gun to create static explosions. Then paint it with clear coats of red and orange

how would i do that? would i just build up the glue to the shape i wanted it and then paint it?

-houdini

Explosions in water are a lot easier to reproduce. There isn't much in terms of debris there to deal with and no smoke (unless the round actually hit something). I think this can be done with self-hardening clay and then painted accordingly.