Toxicrene with "toxic smoke" - incorporating electronics into miniatures

[UKTyrant]

Hi guys - I've just about finished creating a Toxicrene with "smoke" - I was keen to create a smoke effect with the model to represent the poison clouds. After going through researching various options I found that a humidifier was the only feasible method for building in something of small enough size to be placed on the base. I sculpted a tree around a box I made to house a powerbank 5V power supply then wired it up to the humidifier and in parallel wired in a large LED housed in the trunk of the model with fibre optics branching off it to the chest cavity, eyes and mouth.
The smoke is easier to see in the video than the images.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v0lFjLnxKo


I've seen an amazing radio controlled land raider someone created and I've seen quite a few people using fibreoptics in their models but I'd love to see what other examples are out there where people are either using robotics/motors/water pumps etc. in their modelling.
For example I'd love to make a waterfall/running river piece of scenery utilising a water pump to continually loop the water through the piece of scenery. Or a lightning ball incorporated into a Necron model or piece of scenery.

Anyhow I hope you like it and as I say I'd love to see what those far more skilled than I can/have done with their miniatures!

Many thanks,

Darren

[energongoodie]

I think this is brill! :D

More projects please

[40kGamer]

That is way cool! Splendid idea and well executed! Where's that thumb's up button. :)

[UKTyrant]

Thanks guys - means a lot coming from 2 veteran modders such as yourselves!

[Wolfshade]

Awesome :)

[Kirsten]

you need to make the smoke yellow or green, much more toxic...

looks cool though.

[UKTyrant]

Thank you Wolfshade and Kirsten - I agree with what you say - ideally the smoke itself would be coloured however that would lead to a couple of problems
1. In the method I have used for "smoke" the humidifier would likely get clogged with water impurities introduced (I use distilled water as it is!)
2. The smoke would stain the model/scenery/other models so wouldn't be very tabletop friendly.

The green lighting does give it a hue of green but that's as close as I can achieve!

[Wolfshade]

How does the water vapour affect the paint job in the long term?

[Kirsten]

pff, minor concerns :p

[UKTyrant]

How does the water vapour affect the paint job in the long term?

I guess I'll find out! :) - though once it's varnished I don't see it being a problem

[UKTyrant]

I'd like to try to make a different model that incorporates servos to give it small/random movements (a very basic version of animatronics) - I've found some appropriately sized servos but I'm struggling with finding a way to control them without requiring an arduino connected up as this is quite size restrictive meaning it would have to go a more repetitive route regarding it's motion.

Other things I'd like to do - for those of you who remember such wonders as "Battle damage he-man" it would be cool to represent the number of wounds on models in a similar way - removing the need for a dice next to each model (for the large models) - ideally with realistic looking damage revealed - Often I see this on vehicles for example when a gun is destroyed it is removed from the model.

[energongoodie]

You had me at battle damaged he man....

[Kirsten]

now I want a leman russ with a spring loaded main gun that pops off when I press down on the cupola hatch.

[UKTyrant]

lol

hmm I could magnetise the pustules on the toxicrene's head and use them as it's 5 wounds - after all it shows brain underneath so should be pretty effective.

[Deathmage]

The effort I went to find this... Not mine but someone in our store did a water feature for 'Armies on Parade', sadly no images for it in the diorama but it'll do.


http://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152312523351547&theater
And the effort to embed the link...