Burning Dioramas!

I think lichens when set up & painted properly could simulate a raging fire or explosion. Check this out http://www.fordream.org/2004/showcase/showcase_detail.php?sb_seq=121&p_seq=924. Hope it helps.

We have the same problem !!!!!!![:0]

We have the same problem !!!!

Sorry about that, Grand kid hit the key!!! To model fire, the closest Ive come is to take a candle, and then a cotton ball. You take the cotton ball and then white glue it to a piece of dowel wood. But just on the "bottom" of the cotton ball.When the glue is dry, pull the cotton ontil its spreads to your liking. Then lay the "flame" on a piece of wax paper, and then white glue the center of the cotton spread cotton. when it dries, lite the candle, lite it and paint the "flame" like the candle flame. Yellow, white, red, etc. Leave the outside edge of the new flame, at the end drybrush the edges of the cotton with flat black, and wow!!! FIRE!!!!

one of my thoughts:
the clear paper, you can get it in yellow, red and orange, and put some lights in it

I have an untested idea which I'll throw out to you guys.

First, make your flame shape out of sculpey or other modeling clay.
Second, cast a mold of the flame in plater or whatever.
third, pour clear or lightly tinted resin into mold to make a transparent copy of the original flame shape.
fourth, use christmas lights or fiber optics in red and orange color lights placed beneath or inside the clear resing to create the illumination of flame along with the apparent physicalness of flame.

Basically, fire is just radiation which falls within our visual spectrum. This means it appears to have volume and is self-luminous. It generates it's own light rather than reflecting other light. This method, as yet untested by myslef is the best method I can come up with to create flames transparent volume and luminosity.

I've seen other attempts at making flame which rely on clay painted to look like fire, but in my opinion, it has yet to be carried out well.

a flame thrower, would b ez, just use cotton and spray paint it orange, lol never tried it but that is the aproach i would take to first try flames from a flame thrower. maybe it would work for fires that rnt shot from a gun but i doubt it

i've heared of double posts but usally they change somthing. lol

anyway, for my diorama i am going to use flat black to panit the ground and a building to simulate the flamethower, maybe paint the ends of the bushes red to simulate still hot ambers.

u can try to carve out some fire,and dip it in this one thing,,cant remembe rwhat it is called,i think im right,or it was in my dream,,,,,good luck

u can try to carve out some fire,and dip it in this one thing,,cant remembe rwhat it is called,i think im right,or it was in my dream,,,,,good luck

Thanks everyone for the input! I think I should master dioramas before trying fire in dioramas, but It's giving me some new thoughts. Those are some really intresting ideas everyone!

What about using thin Plastic film like acertate, rolling it around a pencil or something like that, sticking it together to make a cylinder then cut to look like flames then paint and then light underneath.

just a thought.

well, I'm doing a disabled vehicle, and I am going to try lights and a smoke generator.

think flams are hard? try a flamthrower
it's got me stumpt

I cant offer any help either but it seams like an interesting problem. How about making it our of sculpy or something like that and then paint it. Maybe try shards of glass of differnt colors. When you move the light around maybe the reflected light might look like fire. Good luck.

Good luck on that can't help you there.

just a thought id been wanting to try, get a little xmas light that does like orange an red colors in one (ya know the kind tha like fade from red to green to blue to green to red to green..... so on and so forth) then get some clear plastic thing that is shaped like fire and paint i a clear red orange color then u put the xmas light in side it and turn it on, it will do a weird orange to red to orange to red to orange to red to orange... o *clears throat* sorry, i got carried away make the glow of fire, then u take some smoke black painted cotton and attatch it to the top of the fire to simulate the smoke. it might work, i never seen it done (came up with it me self about 4 months ago) gl and hf. =D

Thanks everyone, the old forum's giving me some Ideas!

"Creative fire" by the late Lee Vande Visse in the Sept. 2003 FSM (p. 51).

For making some fairly realistic small fires have a look at the Doll & Hobby shops, there are small pre-made fires for fire-places available all you need to do is to hook them up to a power supply and away you go.

Heres the thread that wsa in the armor forum not to long ago where there were some pretty good ideas even a pic of some very convincing flames.

http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13473

Thanks all. I think its probably just a lost cause. I never thought it was possible, but I wanted to try it here because I've learned things here that I thought before weren't possible. But thanks, I guess that we are just stuck with dioramas of the aftermath. Thanks everyone!

you could try streching outsome cotton balls and paint them gray with a little bit of yellow and orange on the bottom to give it a smoky-fire look. Never tried it but you never know. j

renarts said all i know.
if you have that article in FSM or could find it, it would help you

Good luck. I think we hit on it before and there were some interesting methods employed to try and do something along those lines. Fire is an animate thing and is difficult to replicate convincingly. Too often it comes off poorly done and really detracts from the over all piece.

There was an article in FSM where the author used red leds connected to an fm radio and used frequency modulation to make the leds flicker and give the impression of coals or the light from embers of a fire. While interesting and clever, it still is not fire. Smoke is the same way. Although a little more convincing and easier replicated it still is an animate thing that is rendered static. That kind of leves me wanting to put more emphasis on other aspects of the vignette that enhance more than detract from the overall and are a little more effective at conveying my idea.

If you find the magic bullet. Please share. I have an idea book full of subjects that could benefit from it. I'm convinced that there may be something out therer that is perfect, just no one has hit upon it yet.

Mike