I'm making a 1/72 diorama and need a few hints how to modelling smoke and fire (flames). I have an idea for the smoke - painted cotten if that is possible. I have no ideas for the flames.

roesnberge, thats good ( cottona for smoke) but you can aslo have painted cotton for fire, i have seen this been done beofore

good luck

Look at this:



Hope it helps!

Here´s how the modeller, SAm Garcia did it:
fire


The fire on the engine deck of the tank was sculpted from Milliput epoxy putty. It was rolled into thin, snake like strands that come to a sharp point at one end. These strands were then carefully added together a few at a time letting each group dry to have something solid to add subsequent strands to. The strands were sculpted on the direction I wanted the fire to burn. The "fire" was painted with Humbrol paints using red, orange and yellow applied with a brush.


smoke

The smoke for the fire was made from cotton balls. The cotton was shredded some then soaked in a solution of water, white glue and some flat black acrylic paint for color. After the cotton was thoroughly soaked in the solution, I squeezed out most of the excess liquid and let the cotton dry part way so it was just about at the point of getting stiff but still flexible. Then I molded this into position between the fire on the engine deck up into the tree. The smoke is made up of 4 to 6 different sized groups of cotton which were glued together with white glue. After all the cotton dried it was airbrushed in some areas, but not all, using black, dark gray and gray.
Hope it helps!

modelling smoke and fire is always a challenge. I hope u post some when you finish your tries, or even on the way !! Good luck

this method is good, but in my opinion the whole idea is not very satisifing, i still cant get past the reality thats its not real even though this is good as it gets,

just an opinion

matt

I have to agree with the above poster. IMHO, the fire from that tank does not look as good as the tank. It is not anywhere near as realistic looking which is bad for the entire model.
I don´t think there has been a satisfactory way of making fire so far.

I suggest you study fire before you attempt modelling it. Take tons of pictures. Study colour, composition, everything you can think of. What makes fire look the way it does? How does it behave?
When you build a tank or something you study books and articles to find out what it looked like, where the machine operated, the crew etc etc. You should do the same for fire and any other feature you wish to add.

I've used the clear cellophane red-orange hard candy wrappers to make small camp fires in a diorama. It looks perfect. I suppose for bigger flames you'd have to fiddle around to get a realistic shape, but at least with this material the quality of fire is there.

Paul.

One should also keep in mind the material that is burning: magnesium burns white, copper green, etc!

I have to admit - I stay away from fire and smoke if at all possible. You are trying to make a Static representation of a thing that is in constant motion. To top it off you are trying to model vapors.
Pauls camp fire idea is a good one - for small fires. If you get very big that concept will break down and not give you good results. In 1/72 you might get away with it.
Also you need a light source, try to work in a small wheat bulb into the fire.

Sheps 2nd edition has a flint lock pistol going off in a dark room and the darkness adds to the affect. Basically it shadows the overall scene and lets your mind "fill in the blacks" of the fire.

Tough one to model. But you've seen the main ideas.

i think that fire and smoke is simply an element of the earth that we cannot simulate to trick the authors eye, it is something that should stay away from modeling. i think we can only go as far as water, water is similar to the extent of fire, it has to be in motion all the time but unlike simulating fire and smoke i dont know what it is about it, it can still satisife us all for some reason i can not come up with.

matt

hi Guys
I have seen in the model railway world, fires simulated with the use of flickering led's, also you can actually use locomotive smoke generator units to give off smoke.My lhs has one in a burnt out house on a layout in the window.
The one they are using is made by a company called "Seuthe" and is for an O gauge loco.
HTH
Pete

I've seen fine examples of smoke made from stretched cotton bud. The nicest results are flimsy plumes of smokes, rather than thick ones. Mixing grey and white paint on the smoke makes it look better.
The bottom of the very same bud can have a spark of orange, and you could place a flickering LED in it. I never tried it myself, but I've seen it in pictures and the result did not at all look as grotesque as some thick fires do in models.