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I have seen people making small explosions to put on tanks to show that they had been brewed up. They always seemed to use cotton, poly-fiber, or steel wool.
These always looked nice and, in fact, I had used the technique many years ago for epic 40k blast markers. I have been thinking about making several for our
Apoc games, since I've been making loads of craters and other scenery. I wanted something that would be suitably explodalicious and still look nice under the
scrutiny of the camera lens.

I got a flash of inspiration. What if I could make nice-looking explosions for tanks that would fit seamlessly in with the terrain while not being used?
Just set them in random buildings until one is needed as if they were artillery shells exploding all over the place.

I came up with the following:









Here's how I made them, step by step, in case any of you feel so inclined:


Materials-


a 60mm thin GW base



2" styrofoam ball.
I got these at Michael's, 9 to a pack for about $5 US.



12" soft wire rods. (sorry for the HUGE pic. Forgot to re-size that one)
These came from Hobby Lobby for $5-6 US per package of 8 rods. I found them in a wood-working section (not sure why) where they sell dollhouse building materials.
These rods are VERY soft metal and bend easily. Much like solder only ever so slightly more rigid. In fact, you could probably use solder in lieu of this stuff.




Woodland Scenics Foliage Clusters.
This stuff is used for building/bulking out trees, low-lying bushes, hedges, etc. It's a large, irregular clump of foam that you tear into usable pieces.



Torn chunk o' foliage.



DAP products DryDex spackle.



This stuff is awesome because it has a pink hue to it and as it dries, the color changes to white. When it's all white, it's dry. Very helpful.






Construction:


Cut the 2" styrofoam balls in half.



Cover entirely with spackle. This is important.
Once the spackle is dry, glue them to one of your bases.



Cut the soft metal rods into varying lengths. I chose to make three heights with only one tall one (5"-6" or so)



Poke them into the spackled styrofoam and then glue them in place with Elmer's Wood Glue.
Once dry, give them a preliminary bend to indicate which way the debris columns will fly.



Break off smaller chunks of foliage to glue on.



I used CA (superglue) to glue this foam on. I always use superglue for making trees, etc. for several reasons.
The glue dries very fast, holds forever, adheres foam to foam like it was fused together, and it saturates the foam, making it extremely rigid.
Much like it does when you spill a drop on your pants or shirt.

Do not use your GOOD glue for this. Go buy some cheap-o brand.



Finish adding the foliage to the wire frame to create what looks like a jumbled mass of trees.
(forgot to re-size again. Sorry.)



Another pic of the foliage result.



Prime the whole thing black. Make sure you get EVEY nook and cranny. You don't want green showing through.
Note- Again DO NOT USE YOUR GOOD PRIMER!!! Go buy some cheap crap. This will take a LOT of primer to get a complete coat.



I didn't get pics of the painting process, but I will explain it here. VERY easy. Reference with the first two pics above.
Along with your crappy black primer, buy a can of grey and a can of red. Once the black is on and relatively dry (if you're impatient, like me),
Hit the columns of smoke/debris with very light, quick shots of grey. You want to get the entire column(s) but you do not want to cover up all the black.
Then, using the red spray paint, shoot a good coat around the bottom where the styrofoam ball is. This is your actual explosion.
After that, I used a regular yellow acrylic paint (like I would use for my models) and drybrushed (sorta) globs randomly around the red.
Then I took the red spray paint again and hit the base with light dustings to even out the yellow and get a little orange tint in there.
Touch up spray with grey.
Drybrush white over the grey.


Done.


Some notes-
You will have bushes for fingers when you're done. Superglue skin on your thumbs fingers with little bits of shrubbery firmly attached.
Looking at the finished product, I think I tapered the columns a bit too much and the middle one is a bit too smooth.
All in all, though, I think it works just fine for tank explosions as well as ambiance for the Apoc terrain/photography during battles.





Ghidorah

Oh wow man, this is awesome. I've always wondered how to make these thanks.

Hmm. I think you're going to need a tutorial on craters to go with this.

Very cool!

DAMN! Those really look like a tankbusta bomb just went off on something. Seriously thats good

Awesome job, but about how much does all the supplies run you? It seems expensive. Kinda hard to beat the polyfill method when it costs 3 bucks a bag.

Nurglitch wrote:Hmm. I think you're going to need a tutorial on craters to go with this.

It just so happens that I am in the process of building a bunch of these right now. I will try to finish one up tomorrow and get some how-to pics.



@FoxPhoenix135
Polyfiber is WAYYYYYY cheaper an alternative, but I think this method looks a lot better.

the next time I make these, I'm going to just use standard solder. The rods I used this time were close enough
to the same thing, but the price was pretty high. A ballpark price list for the mats I used, minus bases, is:


2" Styrofoam Balls:
joann.com - $4.99 for 12

Rosin Core Solder:
Radio Shack - $3.89

DAP products DryDex spackle:
thepaintstore.com - ½ pint - $3.32

Foliage Clusters:
Woodland Scenics - $6.49 - $15.99/bag


Note- I did NOT do a comparison search for lowest prices on these items. With a little poking about, you may be able to find them cheaper.
I trust that you can find spray paint easily and cheaply enough...


The mats listed here will make you more than enough blast markers for your standard 40k game.
I would also like to point out that these materials listed are useful for FAR more than just these blast markers. The spackle can be used for a myriad of scenic applications.
From texturing bases to Orky adobe-styled buildings to thatched roofing. The Foliage Clusters for obvious scenic applications. The styrofoam balls are perfect
for making Battlefleet Gothic (or other spaceship combat game) planetary terrain.

Pretty much all of this stuff can have non-wargaming uses, too. Kid's science project, anyone?




Ghidorah

Excellent tutorial! This definitely needs to be moved into the tutorial sub-forum, great stuff.

Very cool.

It's nice to have an actual tutorial for these things, they look awesome.

Always wanted to know what makes these things, cheers, i might make some tomorrow

Can we get a painting tutorial please.

Thank you gidorah, very helpful. I have been wondering how to make these myself.

Ok, that's just awesome! Now include a painting tutorial and you got yourself an amazing tutorial out there!

Could one of the mods move it to the tutorial section?

very nice! those look amazing! have you made any smaller ones?

I like, should be in the tutorial thread!

lol want to do dat to a rhino

which 60mm base is used for that? I cant tell from the gw website whichone it is.

I'm pretty sure GW no longer makes these. If they do, they don't advertise that they sell them. You could try calling Mail Order and asking them.

They were originally used in the Epic 40k Titan kits. They started packaging them with Dreads, Wraithlords, Kans, etc. They moved on to bases that were in synch with the thickness of the standard infantry base and ultimately evolved into the scenic bases we get today.



@ Malika2:
I am going to re-do the steps for painting that I laid out above with pics along the ay. At this moment, however, I'm doing step-by-step for craters.



Ghidorah

ork trukk go bomb

Pretty excessive.

I like excessive.

1) Make explosion marker.
2) insert small light bulb.
3) ????
4) PROFIT!!!