"Smoke and Flames markers" Topic

I've searched but can't find this topic.

Or rather I can't find what I want. I would like to make a material similar to Flames of War's Smoke and Flame.

Perhaps a polyfill cushion material?
How would you colour the material?
Dyes, or good old fashioned acrylic paint?

Hamster bedding, it's the same stuff (cheaper)

Some people will paint/spray the filling then put a battery powered tea light inside so it flickers.

Or else you could make these kind of smoke&flame markers:

link

Though they are static and perhaps not as easy to transport between games as the soft and easy to store version you are after. On the other hand, you wont have this material getting stuck on the battlefield, terrain and models as the version you are after is prone to.

There is a tutorial included in a game report for "TUSK Mammoth Hunting"

link

I do the same thing as Anatoli, except I use pipe cleaners and not tooth picks for the internal support. You can bend these into interesting shapes before gluing the clump foliage on.

I made these from steel wool glued to a washer. Spray painted black, then used cheap red and yellow craft paints:

Jake

Cotton wool balls all pulled outwards and painted with cheapo poster paints (robbed from the kids!)-glued to a penny to stop 'em tumbleweeding across the table…..used for fire markers (soaked in grey/black poster paint first)and smoke of varying colours-red/yellow/purple etc….
Will post a pic if I can get the #### camera to work!!

You can get hamster bedding these days in all manner of colours, including black (presumably for Goth hamsters).

I just finished making a whole bunch similar to the ones Anatoli shows.

The ground-foam/flock smoke & flame markers look really good when you are done, but use a tremendous amount of super glue and you are likely to get it all over your fingers. They are definitely the most durable, aside from BF's resin cast markers.

Steel wool markers are quick and easy, but they "shed" tiny pieces of the steel all the time and it ended up all over everything. I didn't like having so much metal dust and tiny splinters all over my models and in my cases.

@ Dameon, don't use superglue for these – watered down PVA glue is enough. When completely dry the next day they are card and durable.

My steel wool ones don't seem to shed (and they are a few years old and generally stored in a non-climate controlled storage building when not being used). I think it may have to do with the good coat of black spray paint and the sealer coat.

Cherno, I like the look. Looks like the fire is alive!

Thanks for the ideas

Jarrovian I'll be looking into hamster bedding

I use rough grey computer packing foam hacked into plume shapes with the base painted in dayglo orange.

Here is one perched on top of an unfortunate carrier:

Hamster bedding is very fibrious unless you can fix it with something (spray varnish? hairspray?). I still use the bilious green bedding as phosgene though.

By chance i discovered that the stuffing to one of the kid's plush toys was medium-brown polyfill (thanks to our golden retreiver). I used some extra tree bases i didn't need and created some (small painted washers should work too). the rules we use have "damaged" or "destroyed" elements. shown here is a "damaged" Pz.IV. the markers i made for "destroyed" elements have orange flame at the bottom and black at the top. acrylic paint works fine.