I have recieved a flampanzer for christmas, and I was wondering if anyone has ever modelled flame, coming out of a barrel or on something. I have seen many static shots of models such as this with no action. I would love to try this as an action shot! If anyone out there can help me please, write back!

First of all, welcome aboard. This diorama was done by Sam Garcia. The article can be found here. I think this technique would work for what you want to do. Only difference is your fire would be in a straight line, then splattering against something. Good luck.


Patrick

Its the NEXT big breakthu ...still to do !!!....we have water now. lights for MG fire and weathering powders for dust...but smoke still looks like cotton wool

Whos up for some inventing !!

I've seen couple of fires in scale and I must say they don't really look convincing to me... The Photoshop is still the best way to go for creating smoke and fire; however I'm sure someone will come up with the solution to this problem... and I know I'd be expecting one eagerly as I'd like to recreate Huey landing zone in Vietnam with chopper blades stirring the violet smoke...

Mario M.

hehehehe

I'm working on an idea now.... I'll see if it works and post a few pics when I'm done. :-)

Later-
Nelson

Sorry, but the 'fire' on the Panther looks a lot like carrot slices! For campfires or fireplaces I've used bits of a brassy colored scouring pad (can't remember the name), painted the base of the bits red, and flecked more bits of red and yellow here and there along the length of the strands. Then glued them into pieces of 'firewood'. That's the best I could come up with so far.

There is another diorama by Sam Garcia. Here is the link http://miniaturesbygarcia.50megs.com/page43.html I think he did a really good job on this flame thrower.

Marty ... you got there before me with that one ....... I was just gonna point that out.

Honestly to make convincing fire and smoke; serious effort, skill and practice are needed. I have never or will never attempt them as I have yet to see a big flame or fire that made me feel I could attempt it and make it look realistic.

Thanks for the link Marty. The fire from the flamethrower looks better than the fire on the Panther. I'm sure he used the same technique.

Patrick

Hi all,
fire is indeed very hard to model realistically (is this correct?)
I too have given it a try; I used EZ-water (Woodland Scenics) these are yellow, transparant pellets you can melt and pour. I poured a shape that roughly represents the shape I need and then I used a soldering gun (is this correct English?) to form the 'flames'. I like the transparancy of the EZ-water (as opposed to many other ways of making fire).
I'm still working on the smoke though ;-)

http://www.geocities.com/vietnammodeling2nl/m67mark01.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/vietnammodeling2nl/m67mark02.jpg

hope this helps a little

kind regards
Mark

Have you thought of using fiber optics? I know Ertl made a set that was also included with their Enterprise D, Star Destroyer, DS9 and Enterprise Incident kit. Just a simple fiber or two going into the flame barrel and make the flame out of some clear resin or styrene. I think there also is some tinted clear resin and styrene that could be used as well.

Hi avenger !
Check my galler, i uploaded a pic of flampanzer model, i don't remember where i found it, but maybe it helps.

Ok. I've been thinking about this one too. I think I have a pretty reasonable solution but have not yet worked it out.

Fire is radiation which happens to be emitted at a frequency within our visual spectrum. As a result, we perceive it as emitting light. So, lightness is one of the defining characteristics of fire. All the solutions I've seen to this problem rely on attempts to emulate fire on the basis of color, not luminosity.

Here's my solution...
To create a mostly clear resin flame with either fiberoptic or christmas light-based luminosity. The clear flame would have to be tinted or drybrushed with fire appropriate colors, but the primary luminosity and color would be derived from the colored light attached either at the point of emission or at the point of contact with other objects, or both. So, at the emission end, one could mount a bright yellow light and at the point of contact, an orange and red set of lights. That way, the color variation would be gradual and look more like real light. Also, the luminous character of the "flame" would help to visually blur the hard edge of the casting. Could be a real cool effect to see the guy with a flamethrower's face lit up by actual light from his flamethrower!

I just bought the Iwo Jima US Marines kit from Dragon purely to test this out. I'll keep you posted!

This sounds like a good idea... be sure to keep us posted.

Mario M.

Ambrose82 makes a convincing technical argument with the concept seemingly valid.
If you whip it, you can sell fire by mail to other modelers!!!

It may be radiation, but at the academy they taught us it was
"the rapid oxidation of a fuel giving off heat and light," and a few other things.
I thought there was a link between rust and fire, both are oxidation???

Anyway on the conventional technique, it looks like you must be brave to attempt this.
Shouldn't the napalm stream sag a little?
They look pencil straight, and I thought this stuff was JP4 and deisel oil mixed together...
so I would think it would arc on its way to a target, although I'm sure that is more a factor fo stream pressure, it just seems the footage I saw on the History Channel looked that way...

Not for me, but good luck to those who try it, I admire your courage.