GHQ Models Forums

I need a little help y'all. Can someone give me a quick and dirty tutorial on the little on fire and smoke markers using the tufts of pillow stuffing?

And does anyone make their own condition markers?

Need some inspiration.

Thanks

Karma

I've actually used some of the halloween spiderweb as smoke also, both are pretty cheap.

I've done it two ways. for big billowing clouds just spray paint gray or black from a distance to add darker colors to the white and fold over itself.

For smaller stuff do the same thing except you can attach it to something like a small piece of metal to keep it in place (they blow away easily). Best thing to do is experiment with a small section to find out just the way you like it.

For 15mm smoke I spraypainted in black up close, gray from a distance, and sometimes drybrushed a lighter gray over that.

Cotton balls, soaked in a thined gray acrylic craft paint. Let them dry,then pull them into the shape you want. Highlight with yellow, orange and black craft paint. Glue them to a small washerpainted black and spray with either hairspray or dullcoat to protect it.



I use the small pieces that inevitably tear off as suppression markers.

BINGO!!!!!

Thats what I needed guys. Thanks a bunch.

Karma

For burning or damaged vehicles I rather like colored yarn rather than painted cotton puffs.

This approach is quite simple. You buy the cheapest, most artificial and gawdy yarn you can find at your local crafts or fabric shop. Get orange and black. Get some yellow, or two shades of orange if you really want the delux effect. $1-2 will get you a life-time supply.

Snip the yarn into 1/2 - 3/4in segments. Unravel them into their component strings (usually there are three or four "strings" that have been spun into each yarn). Mix one cut "string" segment of the black with one of the orange. Best if they are not perfectly matched at both ends (orange hanging over on one end, black on the other).

When a tank is KO'd, hook one of your two thread markers around the barrel, orange side closest to the tank. Pull the black up into the sky.

When a tank is immobilized, place only a black "string" under the rear of the vehicle, coming up on one side or from the back.

When a tank looses it's firepower, hook only a black "string" under the barrel, and pull up.


This StuG first took a mobility kill, and was then subsequently fully KO'd.

When I go to all the trouble of killing a Nazi AFV, I wanna see it BURN!

For artillery strikes I use tan pompoms. I find these at the local crafts store (in my area - Michael's) for about $0.69 per bag. I glue them to a base (a spray-painted Penny), and then pull them apart a bit.


The effect is pretty agreeable to my sense of astetics. Particularly when you mix in some BURNING panzers!

Mark, is that what they're called, "Pompoms"? I'm going by Michaels this afternoon.

BadKarma wrote:Mark, is that what they're called, "Pompoms"? I'm going by Michaels this afternoon.

Yep, that's what is says on the package.

I would call them puff balls. But the package says pompoms.

They come in many sizes, from 1 or 2mm up to 1 inch or more. They also come in many colors -- not just tan, but also red, black, white, green, blue, etc.

I use the smallest ones, in tan, as "suppression" markers. Sprinkle one or two on an infantry base, and it kind of look like dirt kicked-up by small arms fire. I use the 1/2 and 3/4 inch tan ones as artillery strikes, as illustrated above.

I also bought one package of 1/2 inch mixed color pompoms that I thought I might use as colored smoke, or to make flame markers, or something. But in truth they aren't much use. For smoke screens, etc, I use cotton balls (larger, more billowy) spray painted from a distance, as others here have suggested. So from the various pompoms I've bought its really only the tan ones that I use.

Hope that helps.

Big thanks Mark and everyone for the inspiration.