Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Let's start smoking!

.




Warning: the Surgeon General has determined that smoking can be hazardous to your health unless you are...


Isabella Rosselini or...



a 54mm twelve-pounder light gun-howitzer

A couple of years ago I had some success at using cotton balls to replicate gunsmoke in a 54mm toy soldier narrative of the Sunken Road fight at Antietam (which you can view here).  I thought I'd try it again for the artillery on my table-top setup.


The materials list is very basic: gun, cotton ball, paper clips, glue.




Using my drill press (safety glasses, please) I bored out the barrel on this beautiful 54mm Britains Napoleon,  Man, these are nice guns; you can find them on ebay for about 35 bucks, the detail is absolutely outstanding.




I straightened out two paper clips, I used red and yellow in case they were visible through the cotton I wanted them to approximate flame.




I doubled over the red clip and twisted them together with a needlenose pliers.




I applied some Elmers and ...




worked the paperclip through the cotton ball, shaping it to the desired effect.  Note the thickness of the paper clip "stem";  this will make for a nice snug fit in the barrel.




Plugged into the barrel a convincing battlefield effect is achieved.  Because of the paper clip armature the smoke wont "droop", which could look a little dopey.

If you do a lot of photography of your scenarios (Scott you undoubtedly are hip to this) flame can be added by applying a red Sharpie to a Post-it note (3M and AP I'm open to a product-placement deal), cut out the shape and lay it into the cotton ball.


Using the "retouch" paintbrush in i-photo I smeared around the colors...


and came up with this  pleasing effect. 
BOOM!



Of course like  Marvin and Tammi  say...


"Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby"


Soldier on!

Mannie


.