Hi, I’m Joe and this is my first post here, I have searched many places for this topic, YouTube, many forums etc. but really have not found anything. I do have Bjorn Jacobsen book Guide to Military Dioramas and Models but this concentrates mostly on plane crashes and air battles. I have never done a diorama so much of the info I hope to get will be new to me. I have some other models, mostly planes, that I have ideas for but at this point they may be just grandiose pipe dreams but I need to start somewhere. Hopefully this fall under the heading of “simple”.
Thanx for the welcome and even more thanx for the link. Didn’t have the time to watch the whole episode yet, that will probably be tomorrow but at least I now have a starting point.
Almost every attempt I have ever seen involves the use of cotton balls to create the body of the smoke. I’m sure your YouTube searches have any number of tanks, planes and ships exploding or burning with some of these being really spectacular. My suggestion is to modify some of these techniques to do a burnout. That being said, I think at least this is a place to start.
However, to be really convincing, there is more than just the smoke to be considered. Just looking at the picture of the green MoPar machine above, we can see that the smoke is much denser around the tire and dissipates as it spreads out. The smoke is also present under the entire rear end and into the wheel wells. Most of the rear tires are not going to be visible. Plenty of anchor points for the cotton to attach to in the wheel wells, tires, and onto the base. So concentrate the thickest smoke around the tires and into the wells. Make sure the smoke gets wispier as it moves out and away from the car. Just experiment a little bit until you’re pleased with the effect.
It doesn’t end there! That’s just the beginning! If you leave it as just cotton, the effect will look flat and pretty unconvincing. I suggest watching some drag racing videos and stop the video when you see the smoke you like. You will notice that the smoke is not just white, but is different shades of grey, lavender, white etc. Adding these colors with an airbrush to the cotton will give it depth, volume, and movement.
It’s been a long time since I’ve done this, so I don’t have any pics….sorry. Good luck and have fun!
