The Ship Model Forum

Now that is being creative

I once considered using real smoke - or a reasonable facsimile. Model railroad manufacturers have developed some pretty effective smoke generators that fit into O and HO scale locomotives. These things occupy about a cubic inch (2.5 cm cubed) or less and some of them belch out quite a bit of smoke. You can buy engine repair parts from several sources. Some of them use tiny fans to really spew out the smoke. Newer units have a heater that vaporizes an oil-paraffin mixture to produce the smoke.

These smoke units could be installed in larger scale ships or beneath a diorama for smaller scales. They typically run on 12-18 Volts and draw a substantial amount of power (0.5 to 1 Amp) so you will need an external power source (small batteries won't last very long).

However, having said this I should point out a few problems. I visited a friend who has an O guage train layout, right after he got a new engine with an impressive smoke generator. After about ten minutes running a visible cloud of smoke built up over the entire layout, and a few minutes later the air in the room was very polluted - we had to open windows and leave for a while. The stuff really stank! The second problem is that what goes up must come down. After a few days operation of this pollution generator everything was covered with grimy white crud. So, be careful what you ask for or you might get it! On real ships the deck crews cleaned topside every morning to get rid of the soot from midnight stack blows.

Another less effective smoke source is a water vapor generator that is also marketed to model railroaders. It doesn't produce the copious amounts of "smoke" the oil/paraffin smoke units make, but there is no air pollution or residual "soot." These things do create a continuous (as long as the water reservoir is full) whisp of white water vapor that looks like smoke. A small fan can be used to blow the vapor through a smoke pipe.

Have you tried using mirrors?

Thank you.

Funny thing smoke: now you see it... now you dont.

When you start enhancing a kit, be it the seascape, making or altering from what's in the box or indeed making smoke...that is the start of scratchbuilding .
I first started scratch building stuff when I was about 10 or 11 because there was stuff I wanted that no-one made or I couldn't afford to buy it if they did.

When I first tried to scratchbuild a ship it came out, erm, as being rather crap. However, I learnt from it being crap, why it was crap and how I could have done it better. From that I gained confidence and can produce an acceptable (to me anyway) ship from scratch. Here's a couple of examples.





Good luck

Rob

There is some red/black smoke effect by Warhammer which is basically coloured cotton wool specially designed to give the effect of smoke,

I don't think it does....

To answer the original post, then avoid smoke. my experience with seeing smoke modelled is that if it looks good in a photo it looks awful in real life and vice versa. By the time you put swathes of cotton wool or whatever other material you use onto the model I think you have spoilt the effect of the rest of the modelling done.

As spray is more finite, particularly with broken water running off decks, this is much more achievable, take a look at Kostas' seascapes or Peter Fulgoney's HMS Africa.

If you really need smoke, photograph the model and photoshop smoke into it. Other than that don't bother.



Rob

One could could make the smoke oneself, it's the start of scratchbuilding....

Mike

Judging by many photographs especially of old WW1 battleships slipping over the horizon black smoke bellowing out makes a great diorama doesn't it ?
Because a diorama is very much a stationary object, a 3-D photo if you like where you'll view all sides. How much smoke do you attach to a scale model ? Taste I don't feel quite cuts the mustard here, and while you can actually buy black/red cotton smoke effect in a pack, you'll also be able to buy smoke which is basically soot and suppose to look like smoke.
Some people on the site can and some such as myself can't - superimpose a photo upon the model showing smoke on a photo of the model rather then sheer a sheep and completely hide the subject.
The problem with using cotton wool is in the fiber, you can only scale so much before it simply looks like cotton stuck on a plastic model, as I have said ''moaned'' many times before, there is a HUGE market for someone to pick up out there, today people are no longer happy just building their model, they want all the whistles and bells to go with it, and those people have now taken this hobby to the next level - diorama - which screams out for after-market products, and where are they ? Very few and far between.

I agree with Jim. I've worked on these "special effects" for a while and of course I'm not totally satisfied with the results-probably never will.
What I modestly think is important is to reduce the hairy appearance of the smoke or spray to avoid the impression that the ship is sailing through clouds or have developed a untrimmed beard.
Below are some pics of my latest submition to the gallery that show the results I've obtained in making smoke. Your comments are very welcome.

...

Good technique Jim

The trouble is; smoke and spray are the two intangibles.... where we just have to assume its there...

Long time ago I built an Airfix Iron Duke, steaming into battle etc etc....

and the thing is... whilst the 'smoke' I made--similar to yours ( using car exhaust soot, back in 4 star petrol days)
looked ok... in the end I surmised that....

We see photos of ships with billowing smoke--but the smoke is contained within the edges of the photo;

with no tangible limit... the smoke looked odd on my model.... where does it go from thick to nothing.... ( outta de frame! )

Good topic
JB

Phil,
What scale are you wanting? Smoke on 1/700 ships is always difficult to get into perspective. It either looks too 'heavy' or not 'wispy' enough.

I have a model on Finewaterline which shows my effort on a 1920's coal burning 'Maru'. My technique is shown in the text.

http://www.finewaterline.com/pages/gall ... suruga.htm

Hope this helps

Jim S

Does anybody have a good technique for simulating Funnel smoke?

Thanks in advance ,Phil