Modelling smoke

Several of my projects include smoke, rocket blast, flamer fire etc and today I’m going to show how to achieve that effect easily.

Tools needed are:

• A drill & a piece of wire (old paperclips works well)
• Super glue
• PVA glue
• Foam – I use GF9 Scenic foam, but I suspect that an old foam madras will work fine as well…

Making the Smoke / blast effect:

Drill a hole where you want your smoke to originate from and glue the wire in place. Once dry, cut the wire to fit the length of the blast/smoke. The wire is intended to support the foam, so it should have same length as your smoke column.

Pick out some foam for building the smoke and thread that onto the wire.

Make a dry fit after setting foam on the wire to check that you like the result

Mix PVA glue and water evenly 50:50. You want to thin the glue so that can be absorbed by the foam. Apply that to the foam. It is important that the foam is soaked, as it is the PVA that hardens it after it has dried up.

Find a suitable place for your creation to dry – No good leaving it on the table, as that will result in the foam being glued to the table. I just hang my stuff from the lamp.

Wait for it to dry and paint you new model up – Enjoy!

/Nicolai aka Atoom