Explosions Help

[armchairgeneral]

Made these explosions some time ago. More or less happy with how they look. Just found them a pain to do. Gluing tree foliage to wire spears and then spray painting black. Used a whole spray can and there are still bits of green showing in places.

Anyway I am still finding them a bit fragile with bits of “foliage” coming off. I want to seal them in some way to lock all the foliage material in place. I was hoping you could get a spray on PVA? I have tried spray on varnish but that seems to just get soaked up with little improvement.

Any suggestions?

PS - I wish someone would make these things to buy commercially. If you can buy trees, why can’t you buy explosion markers? I would rather focus on painting figures than mess about with this sort of thing! 

[Silent Invader]

Sometime back Hammers did a very good run through on explosions and Overlord did something similar for a flamethrower - both might have been “build something” competition threads. Might be worth searching them out.

[Eric the Shed]

Soak them in diluted pva (50/50) and allow to dry for about a week. Should come out as strong as anything

[Digits]

Go to B&Q garden section...pick up a 500ml spray bottle for £1.  Mix your own pva and water.

[Mindenbrush]

John Bond has some scratch built explosions on his blog 15th May 2018.
He uses wire, clump foliage, pipe cleaners and coarse turf mounted on a steel washer.

[armchairgeneral]

John Bond has some scratch built explosions on his blog 15th May 2018.
He uses wire, clump foliage, pipe cleaners and coarse turf mounted on a steel washer.

That’s more or less how I have done them. As Eric mentioned, if I do them again I will soak each wire in PVA 50/50 solution. Not so easy now they are based up. From what I have read, spraying an 50/50 PVA solution isn’t easy either being still quite viscous. Thinking of trying a standard spray on glue.

[Overlord]

...  Overlord did something similar for a flamethrower - both might have been “build something” competition threads. Might be worth searching them out.

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=75228.30



Clump foliage threaded onto a wire, gluing as you go.  Then soaked in thinned PVA and left several days to completely dry out.  I painted it by hand, the PVA surface seals the foliage so that it doesn't absorb paint.  The PVA really provides a tough exterior; so far no damage or shedding at all.

[tin shed gamer]

Off the top of my head .
Bud's Blast Markers. It's a U.S. based company . Not had much to do with them in a while.( used them for a private commission . I don't have any myself simply because I didn't have a use for them at the time . Wish I'd bought some now. )
From what I understand they've been out of stock for a while. But are due back in stock December(ish).
 Even if it doesn't fit your time scale. They're definitely worth looking at . Just for inspiration alone.

[armchairgeneral]

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=75228.30



Clump foliage threaded onto a wire, gluing as you go.  Then soaked in thinned PVA and left several days to completely dry out.  I painted it by hand, the PVA surface seals the foliage so that it doesn't absorb paint.  The PVA really provides a tough exterior; so far no damage or shedding at all.

Clearly the soaking in PVA solution was the stage I missed. Now they are based up it is where to go from here I need help with. Perhaps I will look at unbasing and soaking them and also adding black paint to the solution would help with painting once dried?

Thanks for tip Tin Shed. Some nice looking things on the website.

[Sinewgrab]

I have also hade good luck sealing the outside of trees and bocage that I have made with the various clump foliage with the clear rubber spray sealer they sell for use on boats and gutters.

[armchairgeneral]

I have also hade good luck sealing the outside of trees and bocage that I have made with the various clump foliage with the clear rubber spray sealer they sell for use on boats and gutters.

Thanks for the tip 

[AndrewBeasley]

I used Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement - an absolute pain using an eye dropper but better late than never.


Litko have some acrylic ones and Shapeways have some for sale.

[Hammers]

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=75228.30



Clump foliage threaded onto a wire, gluing as you go.  Then soaked in thinned PVA and left several days to completely dry out.  I painted it by hand, the PVA surface seals the foliage so that it doesn't absorb paint.  The PVA really provides a tough exterior; so far no damage or shedding at all.

What he said, basically.

What I learned from making this....



...was that

1. Look at a lot of reference photos of  what you are trying to do.
2. Rather than using green foliage is better to make and colour your own sponge flock by shredding a piece of neutrally coloured mattress foam in a mixer together with paint
3. Use black paint and PVA for the foam if you want a smokey detonation, yellow (or maybe white) if you want to make a streak of napalm or dragon fire
4. I  must admit that my blast above has not held up  ideally well to the ravages of time. I think Pauls (Overlords) suggestion to apply a generous amount of watered down PVA is what I would do now.
5. if you want to do tendrils of smoke emerge from the central blast, use bamboo skewers. Don't forget to paint them black.
6. I used a hot glue gun to fasten the foilage to the skewers
7. I really recommend painting the thing with rattle can and/or airbrush. I sprayed the above blast with a few passes of black, then a light zenith layer of grey, then white. For the "hot" center I use an airbrush with successive layers of white, yellow, orange and red and a few touchups of black where needed.
8. Question the good taste in adding a dead pathan and a torn apart horse in the bomb blast.

[Hammers]

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=75228.30



Clump foliage threaded onto a wire, gluing as you go.  Then soaked in thinned PVA and left several days to completely dry out.  I painted it by hand, the PVA surface seals the foliage so that it doesn't absorb paint.  The PVA really provides a tough exterior; so far no damage or shedding at all.

Still quite a looker, that streak of dragon's breath.

[armchairgeneral]

Thanks Hammers. From your and Overlords tips I am tempted to have another go