Sculpting Flames?

[Flightless]

I expected this to be one of the most asked questions on this forum. But a search has revealed nothing.
Well, it has revealed the GW article, but i\'d seen that. Not that it\'s bad, it just makes it seem, well, too easy.
I guess what i\'m asking is: Is there a trick to it?
I\'ve tried adding flames one at a time, but not only is that hopelessly long-winded, it never looks right.
I\'ve tried starting with a blob and teasing bits out, but that looks pretty poor as well.
Half the problem might be that i\'m after only a small amount of flame, enough for the nozzle of a flamethrower (which i realise is unrealistic given the necessary size of the pilot light, but ssh), very much like those shown in the article but smaller.

Any help?

(Off-topic already, what\'s happened to my avatar? I return to this place to find that no matter if i set it to \'none\', i get this...)

 

[dauber22]

Is there a trick to sculpting flames? Yes
Do I know what it is? No
Why the heck am I answering then?
Because if thge avatar question Chern did some tweeks and changes to the site, as I\'m sure you noticed. One of them was to assign at random an avatar to everyone who doesn\'t ave one. Why he didn\'t eliminate \"none\" as a possibility, I don\'t know, but if you try to set it to none it will just assign you one.


Oh, and welcome back.

 

[Temporary Sanity]

Sculpting flames is actually pretty easy, cuz you don\'t need to be exact with the details.
Using putty to make flames requires about 15 minutes of your time, a little lube (water, vaseline, vegetable oil, etc), and something as simple as a toothpick.

The method on GW\'s site works, but you don\'t have to use clippers, or a hobby knife. Just lube up your tool (mind out of the gutters, guys) and drag it from the bottom of the fire, up. Swerve it at random intervals, depress it here and there, etc. Just take a couple balls of putty and play with it for a little.

 

[seanzala]

Hey,

I had a quick look for you and found something you might like.

http://us.games-workshop.com/games/warhammer/painting/fire/default.htm

Found it on the US site. Its and article all about making fire

Anyway, hope it helped

Sean

 

[Temporary Sanity]

Sean, uh, dude, Flightless already posted that link in their post

 

[Sanitarium]

I usually use this method for flames:

Make a harder mix of greenstuff (2/3 blue, 1/3 yellow), leave it 3-4 minutes under a lamp so it gets a bit more plastic, then apply on the model where you want the fame to be (if it\'s a flat surface and the greenstuff has problems to stick to it, glue the fresh greenstuff on with super attack (or any quick glue) and go on working); shape it so it\'s thinner on the top and larger on the base, leave it another 10 minutes so it gets even harder and the use a blade like tool to engrave the shape of the flames in it and you\'re done (point the pressure from the top down, so it wont loose it\'s upward looking shape). If it\'s still too soft to work on, leave it dry out and then apply a thin layer of greenstuff on it and shape the flames on this one (the previous, now hard greenstuff will work as base).

 

[green stuff]

Sanitarium has it right. The hard part about flames is you want them thin and floating in the air. If your GS is too soft then it\'ll stoop down.

Another thing that can help is to use a >>shaper<<.

The soft rubber edge will help positioning the GS without leaving awful marks on it.

If you really want flowing fire, then only in that case use softer GS and stretch out thin flat strips of GS between your fingers. You then have to do a balancing show the time the GS cures. For >>this one<< I made a temporary frame to hold up the flames of the sword.

If you want flames with smoke, then it\'s easier to use a >>wire armature<<

 

[seanzala]

Oops, sorry...

 

[purge]

use gw putty and a hobby knife and use the knife to lightly stretch parts of the putty to look like flames

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Flightless
Not that it\'s bad, it just makes it seem, well, too easy.
I guess what i\'m asking is: Is there a trick to it?

I think so - either you have a knack for it or you need to practice quite a bit.

Einion

 

[KingM]

I seem to rememeber someone (I think it was Victoria Lamb on her Fire Dragon Exarch) did fire by putting green stuff onto wire to get the main shape. It was then left to harden as was mentioned before, then it was pulled at with tweezers to get the shape of the flames

 

[Flightless]

Originally posted by EinionI think so - either you have a knack for it or you need to practice quite a bit.

Unfortunately i concur.
My original plan was to have flames on all flamers. However, i have realised that the time i need for simple practise would exceed sensible times for getting my squad finished.
Also, i think that OSL from the flames would detract from the OSL i plan to use on plasmaguns.
I think i may be adding smoke instead. Which will know a similar amount of time to perfect i guess, if not longer, but it is a much simpler thing to add to a miniature that is ostensibly finished at a later juncture.

So yeah. Not the most cheery end to this brief saga, but i thought i\'d give some closure on the deal.
Thanks for the help anyway. Sculpting is another thing i really need to practise more of, along with the other dozen things that eat my spare time. Green stuff is just so damn unruly... *degenerates into angry mumblings*