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Playing around with LED tea lights for explosions/ fire game markers with my Incursion minis.
Unfortunately, the photos don't show the "flicker".

This is brilliant!

What did you use for smoke effect?

adary wrote:This is brilliant!

What did you use for smoke effect?

Not sure what the OP used, but you can use the same stuff you stuff pillows with and paint it.

I'd love to see a vid with how well they work! The stills look amazing!!

Those look pretty damn awesome!

I think I can visualise what they must look like, but a video would be awesome. They look great.

A step by step guide would also be fab thanks! ^_^

These look great man I would enjoy seeing them on a battlefield, it would make the game feel more dynamic

I don't know how the OP got the lights so bright, but a simple version me and my buddies use is as follows.

Materials:
-Black spray paint
-Hot glue
-Fiberfill batting (the stuff you stuff pillows with. Usually ~$8 for a bag that will give you enough for a lifetime)
-Flickering LED tealight (I can usually find packs of 3 of them at our Dollar store, and I'd bet there's similar stuff in Poundland or the like across the pond)

1)Get a clump of fiberfill about 1/2 the size of a baseball. More is fine, but you'll get a dimmer glow from the tealight.

2) Roll the fiberfill into a rough spindle shape, and hot glue the wider side around the edges of the tealight. If you can, try and cover the exposed edges of the plastic light with the fiberfill.

3) Give a single light dusting coat of black spraypaint to the darkness desired. Spraying the base is optional, but not required.

End effect should look like those in my pic (Sorry for poor camera quality):


After the initial (low) cost of the batting, you can make these for <US$0.50 each, and they look really nice on the table (Plus, they work great for RPG stuff like D&D/Pathfinder).

Hope that helps!>

DarkPrince010

That's pretty much the method I used. I think mine are brighter because I used a combination of yellow and red spray paint,
with just a touch of very dark grey. I also leave some of the original white of the stuffing, hence mine come off more "shiny".
Oh, and I spray the cotton before [b]attaching to the LED's, lest the bulb gets paint on it and darkens it's light.
The bases are painted a combo of yellow and orange.

I also removed the top part of the tea light, to reduce some of the bulk. YMMV

I'm looking forward to my next 40K game to used them when my opponent starts blowing up my IG vehicles
--and hopefully I will be able to use some on his units that I blow up too! The flickering effect really adds to the battlefield ambiance.

Very cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.

There was a guy on here a few years ago that did a tutorial on youtube for this very same thing. I cant remember his name to save me....something grot? Grot something.....GAH! curse my memory.


Anywho, those look friggin badass man.

You rock mate! Yeah!

Holy crap that's cook

Can't wait to make some. Very nice!

Very interesting. A cool idea for sure.

awesome

Nicely executed. I much prefer the brighter colors to the usual "black, black, black, and a touch of red."

Lovely. Video needed.

Grainy video uploaded 5/21/12 from my cheapo camera.
I would buy a camcorder, but then I'd have less money for miniatures!

At least you can see how the LED flicker effect simulates fire & explosions.

Vehicles in vid are Soviet Gaz 67B WW2-era jeeps serving as proxies for IG Scout Sentinels.
Better photos of them can be found here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/440021.page

Very nice! Is the brown tint I'm seeing from paint or ink, or is it a trick of the light?

darkPrince010 wrote:Very nice! Is the brown tint I'm seeing from paint or ink, or is it a trick of the light?

Most likely the light. The cotton was sprayed with yellow, orange, and a very dark gray.

I'll take eight!
Those are awesome looking and would add some realism to any tabletop.

That looks fantastic! I was just thinking I needed to make some smokey damage and blast markers.

Brushfire wrote:At least you can see how the LED flicker effect simulates fire & explosions.

I'm convinced - I WILL be making some of these soon.

YOU WIN!
That is the coolest thing I have seen with blast markers !

These are some great lighting effects! Great painting, too.

-Wolf Guard 252

Would work great to mark wrecked tanks too. I may be making a dozen or so at some point.

Those look really nice, very well executed.

Brilliant!