Tuesday, 15 July 2014

Explosions - Nice and Easy

For sometime now I have been keen to build some explosion markers. The following tutorial is nothing new but might help people to build their own.

The cost for 12 of these I reckon comes out less than a tenner and they look great.

These started off life as a tealight, you can pick up a dozen of these flashing battery power ones up on ebay for less than £3

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FLAMELESS-CANDLES-FLICKERING-LED-TEA-LIGHT-CANDLES-BATTERY-TEALIGHTS-/131161797803?pt=UK_Candle_Holders&var=&hash=item1e89da34ab



Next up I had some old polyester cushion filler I was using as smoke in my games. These were cut into rectangles with one side the circumference of the tea light. Mine stand about 12 cm tall.



These were glued using an all purpose glue - messy job so recommend you war latex gloves.



Leave overnight to dry. Once dry tease out the filler into a plume shape. This is very easy.




Take a good old black spray and....spray. Once dry (can take some time)...spray again.







Pull out battery tab and bobs your uncle...



Here you can see my finished effort sitting on top of a Sherman tank (solido version)



Total time to build (excluding drying time) about an hour.





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12 comments:

  1. legatus hedlius15 July 2014 at 10:33

    Utter genius! Those look brilliant! Are they one shot jobs or can you switch them off and use them again?

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    Replies
    1. Eric the Shed15 July 2014 at 11:41

      No they flicker making it all the more realistic...

      Hope to catch up soon..post Tour de France

      Delete
    2. legatus hedlius15 July 2014 at 13:37

      Great! Only about ten days left!

      Delete
  2. legatus hedlius15 July 2014 at 10:37

    I've just shown the Old Bat and she thinks that is really excellent. "Very creative" She is impressed!

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  3. tidders15 July 2014 at 12:36

    Simple, and look fab

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  4. Michael Awdry15 July 2014 at 13:50

    Absolutely superb!

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  5. Phil15 July 2014 at 16:26

    Excellent!

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  6. Terry Silverthorn15 July 2014 at 19:23

    WOW I would never have thought of that & they are just what I need as I was pondering flame/explosion markers for the Alls Quiet on the Martian Front. Thanks for the idea....this is why blogs are so great, it spreads the word

    ReplyDelete
  7. Paul O'G15 July 2014 at 21:58

    Brilliant! I've wanted to make these for ages but never got to it.
    I've stuck a referral post at my own blog here:
    http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/2014/07/safe-and-sound-plus-flickering.html

    ReplyDelete
  8. John Lambshead15 July 2014 at 22:16

    Very effective markers. Like 'em.

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  9. Scottswargaming16 July 2014 at 01:44

    Nice, I'll trying this out for sure...

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  10. Disgruntled Fusilier17 July 2014 at 12:50

    This is a great idea! I'm going to try this. Lights on the gaming board seems to be all the rage these days!

    ReplyDelete

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