Hi

You can't really.  Smoke and fire are the hardest things to model.  I have only seen it done effectively a couple times.  Some people try with steel wool painted red/gray/black, etc.  I would build it as a burnt out hulk that is charred and black, but after the fire is out.

Good luck.

By the way, it is better if you actually put the topic in your post, like: How to model smoke/fire.  Many people won't check the Hi posts, it also makes them easier to find in a later search if the title is related.

you could always try with cotton balls. Pull them apart and paint with an airbrush different shades of orange, yellow,red (fire), black, grey (smoke).

This is a method that gamers use. Here's how they do it:

http://us.games-workshop.com/games/warhammer/painting/fire/smoke.htm 

It's agree though. It's really hard to make smoke and fire look realistic but maybe one of the last two techniques will help.

 Good luck! 

Any one know a good site i can upload pics to.  so i can post em on here?

The two most common ones are photobucket.com and fotki.com

When using photobucket, upload your pictures and when you look at your album, there should be three lines. Copy the last line called "IMG CODE" and paste it to upload the picture. That is a dulled down explanation but there is more detailed ways explaining it if you still cant upload the picture.

Hope this helps

Hey here is a couple of pics tell me what you think. Remember this is my very first diorama! 

War in iraq 

Thanks guys! 

Not too bad.  The smoke and fire looks pretty good. 

A couple issues with the vehicles though.  The tank is an Israeli Merkava, the Israelis are not in Iraq.  Also, the HMMWV you have used (Tamiya HMMWV w/25 mm Bushmaster Cannon) was only an experimental version.  The vehicle was not put into production and is not in use by any military.  Also, I can't see if it is on the other side or front, but where is the damage to the HMMWV?  Right now it looks like it has spontaneously combusted.  It needs some blast damage added to it and to have some parts missing or scattered around it.  They don't just burst into flames, but blow apart first, especially an unarmored one like you have there.  For a what-if dio it is O.K., but the vehicles are not accurate for OIF. 

On the dio itself, you need to do something to the edges.  I would add a few pieces of moulding to dress it up and cover the exposed foam edge with some pieces of balsa wood cut to follow the contour of the groundwork.  Stain the moulding and basla so it looks nice and finished.

 Good job on your first dio.

I got another tip for the fire and smoke: Put some longer metal wires inside, sticking up about 10 - 12 cm and attach some more billowing smoke to that. I think it would give a more realistic feel.

The height of the smoke and fire right now is just a little too short.

Otherwise, I like your idea and it's a good begining to the smoke and fire.

Jason 

I remeber I ties all my planes in onm the ceilling to make a doing fight, but all the palnes were worng time plane and type, but I did use conton balls for fire, and painted the engine red for fire appeares. Your look better cause since its a explosion not a fire happenning, by painting the coton blavk you can see the dirt grab by the explosing, very good, very good indeed.

By the way that tank looks fammiler, I think I have a model of that one, but with olive dap, not dark yellow. Nice dio!