How Do I Model A Forrest Fire?

[DD40X]

I have a large HO scale non prototypical layout that fills my 6m x 6m garage. On this layout I have a US Military Base complete with lighted heliports with black hawks and end of a run way.

I am wanting to simulate a wild fire in a forrest with the fire racing up the hill.

I have a couple of small smoke gererators but how do i construct realistic flames that illuminate the hill side.

Hope someone can help me with this.

Regards,

DD40X

[dknelson]

I imagine right about now this is the last thing some of our Australian colleagues want to read about .....

Obviously smoke units are freely available.  When I was a boy at Christmas time you could buy small little brown cones that when lit would smolder and put out a sort of "burning pine" odor.  if carefully used and controlled something like that, just lit for visitors, could be a good touch.  I have no idea if they are still made.  Maybe church incense?

So that is the easy part.  The other two ingredients are the sights and the sounds.  The sound of the few distant forest fires I have seen is sort of like bacon cooking in a fry pan -- popping.  The huge Australian fires are reported to sound like a freight train -- a roar.   From time to time a small sprig of fresh pine needles put in our home fireplace produces a very distinctive roar. 

Modeling actual flame is tricky.  The old theatrical tricks discussed on this website, reproduced in miniature, might make sense.    http://www.theatrefx.com/funfacts42.html 

To quote the site:

"LeMaitre's Le Flame is really a variation on a device that theatre electricians and prop-builders have been making for years. The principle is simple a piece of fabric (two pieces of white silk, in the case of Le Flame) is mounted above a small fan. Colored lights illuminate the fabric as it flutters in the draft of the fan. The combination of the moving fabric and the colored lights creates a realistic looking flame effect. Variations on this simple device have been used to create artificial campfires, torches and braziers."

As for the illumination, several outfits make sets that simulate a welding shop -- intermittant bright blusih lights.  If placed under a red or orange gels, perhaps two or more of those together would get the effect, if combined with the small strips of fabric with a small fan blowing them upwards.  I think you'd want this behind a stand of non-burning trees.  The less you can see the cheating illusion the more probable it will all seem.

As for sources for the sounds, there was a movie some years ago about smoke jumpers and perhaps the best portions of it could be recorded and used.  Even "Bambi" had pretty good noises as I recall, although I don't know if I really want to watch the forest fire scene again after all these years. 

Dave Nelson

 

 

[ndbprr]

 

Best flames I ever saw were in a Matropolitan Opera company version of Wagner where they set a ship on fire.  Flames were celophane cut to points and blown with a high velocity fan.  Orange light played on them from below and they had me ready to head for the exit.  That being said I don't think it is a good idea for a model railroad.  A forest fire would burn once and then leave a charred landscape and I think it would get old and detract from the main purpose.  To each their own however.

[cowman]

Never fought a fire like the ones in Australia or those that they have in California.  If thst type is what you want, someone else will have to come up with some ideas.

The ones I have fought have had a leading edge burning leaves, grass and small brush.  Sorry I don't know the name of the type of light I would use, it's those that are in a long, flexible tube, be sure they don't generate much heat.  If you could get one in orange, lay it along the "fire line" and the different intensitity of the light would be similar to different fuels burning.  If they are cool enough you could use a little yellow and red paint to simulate the varriations in the flame.  Bushes and old logs in the burned area would be "hot spots" which you could use single orange "flame" bulbs, and old stump would be a good place for a smoke generator.  The groud in the burned area would be black and gray.  Ahead of the fire line would be a brown to simulate the dried fuel before it burned.  I'd think lichen, painted black, might make  good burned bushes.  With your fire line down in the trees it might look fairly good.

Hope this helps,

Good luck,

[SouthCoastRail]

Thanks to dknelson and cowman for your thoughts on the devastating fires we are experiencing here in Australia at the moment. The last I heard was 181 persons have perished in the fires and no doubt many more injured. Our previous worst fire Ash Wednesday had 47 casualties so this has well and truly surpassed that figure.

But to answer the question it would be an intersting thing to model and the preceeding responders have made some good suggestions.

regards

Bob

[WaxonWaxov]

There a re anumber of electronic devices out there for making minature neon signs which could be modified for youe use. Another thought is those circuits that simulate the flashing of a welder's torch. With the right color led and placed behind trees, etc, that could be a good effect. You could also use spray painted stuffed animal stuffing for the smoke then use incense to create the smell.

 

[twhite]

I think if instead of trying to re-create a forest fire that is burning, it would be more dramatic to represent a forest fire that has already burned and is in the 'mopping-up' stage.  That way you could utilize fire-fighting equipment, bulldozers (for cutting fireline) and crews,  Burned trees could be represented by using WS tree armatures spray-painted with gray and grimy black. 

And remember that forest fires often race uphill, sometimes skipping over and leaving unburned fuel inside the fireline.  At least they do out here in the Sierra Nevada.  And there are two types of forest fires out here, the low-burning kind that creep along the ground burning underbrush and young trees, and the kind that 'crown-out' in taller timber, leaping from tree-top to tree-top.  The type of fire you would have would largely depend on the terrain and type of timber involved.  Deciduous trees tend to burn slower than evergreens (which can often explode). 

I'm planning a small forest fire on my Yuba River Sub, but it's going to be a fire that is in the 'mop-up' stage rather than at full-blaze.  Of course, one problem is finding actual U.S. Forest Service equipment to use--their tankers are fairly unique--at least for the period I'm modeling--and will need a lot of kit-bashing. 

But it sounds like a neat project.

Tom