Wednesday 5 August 2009

Where There's Smoke...


Tusk calls for the use of fire markers to show where the cavemen have set fire to the grasslands to herd mammoths towards the killing zone. Whilst the rules suggest a square of card with 'Fire' written on it, I was keen to have something slightly more aesthetically pleasing (providing it didn't involve an exorbitant cost or amount of time).

I had considered painting some flames on card and mounting this vertically on a textured base (indeed there is something similar to this in White Dwarf 356 on page 61) but SWMBO came up with a better solution - Kapok (the 'cottton wool' they stuff toy animals with). One teddy bear later... (only joking, SWMBO had a bag of the stuff in her craft box - a useful source of goodies that might involve some further investigation when she goes out!).


Kapok is MUCH better than cotton wool and was easily coloured with felt pens (don't try paint, it doesn't work). Indeed, as well as making nice 'Fire' markers and no doubt very fine clouds for air wargames, it occurred to me that suitably coloured Kapok could have a multitude of uses from mustard gas to sorcerous clouds in fantasy games.



As well as the 'Fire' markers I made up a corresponding number of 'Burned Out' markers to represent where the fire had been...

2 comments:

  1. Also good for use as artillery barrage markers or smoke screens in other scales too! Well done, they came out well.

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  2. That is a really clever idea and given that my 13 year old daughter is moving out of the soft toy stage (well mostly - although she refuses to part with the 50 odd koalas sitting on the wardrobe!)I may 'acquire' a couple of suitable victims.............;-)

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