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Im working on some models on 40mm bases, i am looking to have a smoke/fog effect on them, nothing to large, about the size of a Guardsman.

Do you have any other ideas how to do this besides cotton? I'm wanting it to be able to withstand being bumped and hit from time to time and not get caught up on model sharp bits (If this is even possible), i know i'm asking a lot, but never know till i ask.

Cotton wool is probably the better way but you could stiffen it up by doing one of the following two things

1) Make the shape and then use a spray paint to give it depth and colour, this will also stiffen it up as well making it less prone to damage

2) Leave it as it is in white, but brush it down gently with a very watered down PVA, will do the same as above by stiffening it

These are two smoke counters I did, though they are large, you can easily scale down

Other things I’ve seen used are flock-foam chunks (forget the proper name) glued to wires, and expanding insulation foam. Both of which will be sturdier, but take a lot more work.

I've never tried this myself, but if you want it to be sturdy you could look for ways to harden the base of the cotton. I know Epoxy can be used to harden up pretty much everything, but I'm not sure if that'd give the desired effect visually when used.

Other than that maybe spray foam insulation? But that'd require some massive sculpting skills.

Clump foliage on a wire armature is probably the best solution for what you're looking for.

I mean, for a laugh, you could get some clear plastic, make a ring of it, and spray it with some matte sealer... it would make it look foggy. Just put the ring around you model / unit.

Also, clear plastic gets foggy when exposed to superglue fumes... which I can attest to because I painted the cupola of my Vendetta befor supergluing it to the hull. You can tell I painted the pilots, but that’s about it. So you could “fog” some plastic that way, as well.

I did my vendetta base with clump foliage glued onto a core of shaped foam. If you use enough glue and primer then.it gets pretty robust.