As yet another distraction from painting my 6mm Celts I have been working on a new set of smoke columns for my North Africa project. I already have a load of these made to various designs (see
here,
here,
here and especially
here) but I reckon you can never have enough destruction markers!
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| I made forty this time, which should be more than enough...for the time being! |
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| This batch of smoke markers started life as foam ear plugs super glued to washers for weight and stability. Yes, a weird choice, but it seemed like a good idea when I came across these in a pound shop. |
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| The whole lot were then coated in a mixture of ground up clump foliage and railway turf. |
Once made I dunked the models in 50/50 water/PVA solution and allowed them to dry for several days until they went hard. I then spray painting and dry brushed the whole batch. The process is a bit messy but very effective and looks pretty good when complete.
Ear plugs! Not the nicest thing to use, but the results are still impressive. (Thank goodness they were un used earplugs!)
ReplyDeleteYeh, not an item normally found in a modelers bits box! I just thought they would make a light weight filler core for the clump foliage top stick to. The result, with the washer base, has a very low center of gravity making them very stable and less likely to fall over when the table gets joggled.
DeleteJust out of interest, does the PVA soak into the earplugs to harden them up as well?
ReplyDeleteNo they are made from closed cell foam so don't soak up liquid. Its only the outer coating of clump foliage that soaks up the PVA and because its a thin layer the models dry relatively quickly.
DeleteYou would never know they were ear plugs. Excellent work Lee.
ReplyDeleteVery clever idea look great
ReplyDeleteGood idea Mr H.
ReplyDeletecool idea!
ReplyDelete