RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I think if Kevin told you this, he is pulling your leg...

If you watch the 2 videos they are exactly the same. One with flame and smoke one without and you can see the same barrel flash bulb in both. And THEY ARE THE SAME clip. If you watch the small square top right corner you can see a dark shadow movement in it. It is identical in both clips.

Here is our club full scale battle for entertainment of all...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoD5AOJnrQI

WOW REAL EXPLOSIONS! AWESOME club meet!

















Yes I'm kidding.

I went to film school and worked in the effects industry for years, which included working on set with pyrotechnic experts.

Tom is exactly right, it is digitally added. It's obvious even if you didn't see the unaltered footage. You can see the LED illumination in the barrel that lingers after the 'flash'. If it was a pyrotechnically applied effects via alcohol, flash paper or powder, you wouldn't have a LED in there. And besides, no two organically produced flashes are the same, those in the video are identical. And there's no residual smoke, or any other light changes visible anywhere.

Furthermore, anyone short of a pro cinemetographer would have an overexposure when that flashed. If it's a normal video camera or device, the white balance would struggle to even out. Look how hard it is to film a Tamiya Xenon flash unit.

He doesn't say anything that leads you to believe it's real, so he's no lying. His comment is regarding blanks and printing a recoil or gun mount. Nowhere does he say he made a pyrotechnic flash unit.

It's a neat effect, but that's all it is.

Can I end this argument? Can you say Photoshop? Kevin told me it's a digitally added effect.

Max-U52 wrote:Can I end this argument? Can you say Photoshop? Kevin told me it's a digitally added effect.

So then, you were right, guys...

Well, I hope it will be some inspiration for skilled people and we will see it working someday.

A 3D printed gun would be of no relevance to what we are seeing. Sure he can print a barrel, recoil mechanism etc, but that would have no effect on the sound or the smoke.
I've seen the smoke part done before, I seem to recall a smoke unit and a valve that opened when the gun fired. Heck, even a fan, a valve and talcum powder would do it.
It wouldn't be too difficult to do all of this....now I am thinking....

I can remember back in my early teens (late 1950's early 1960's) I think, a friend of mine had a large model Sherman tank which would fire "smoke" and I think it used talcum powder. I think it was made by Triang but could well be mistaken.

This might work. I hope it makes sense.

One outer barrel attached to recoil servo.
One inner barrel locked to inner turret elevation mech inside of it.
Inner barrel linked to smoke unit.
Fire the gun and the outer slides back over the inner.

The inner barrel is full of smoke.

How to release the smoke?
In the tip of the inner barrel is a diaphragm valve.
In the tip of the outer barrel is a Z shaped pin.
When the outer barrel moves back, the Z shaped pin pushes on the diaphragm valve and releases the smoke which is under pressure as it has been pumped in there from the smoke unit.

A flash led can still be fitted by running the wires up the inner barrel, through the diaphragm.

Clear as mud? Now who is going to build it?

Hi Try this one a new member made this from Poland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFw9Sx3kYz8
you can have smoke and flash he still has to add sound but that bit is easy.

regards pete

this is the build link http://rctank.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... &start=770

great build by the way

The guy from Canada who does all the smoke unit alterations had a smoke system for his barrel. He set up a bellows and a simple valve that would redirect smoke from the smoker to the bellows, which was compressed by the recoil action, causing smoke to pulse out of the barrel. It was very nice, but I'm not sure if he ever perfected it.

Either way, smoke and flash will not get the same look as flame like the digital addition to the video. Even using flash paper, etc. to get a nice flame from the barrel does not look that good to the naked eye since it's so quick. On film they 'overcrank', which means they run the camera at a much higher frames per second. That creates a sort of slow motion, extending effect. It also gives weight to the subject.

But all of that goes out the window with CG effects these days.

Air cannons would probably be the way I'd go for a barrels effect. Large ones are used to simulate explosions when an actor runs past, a small one in the barrel with dark pigment would give a nice puff, but it wouldn't be something you'd do just driving around, just like flash paper, it's a one shot deal.

I want to add the dust effect that comes off the hull. We've got that dopey hull recoil bit, but if you ever saw the film of a Tiger I firing, there's some hull recoil, but dust and dirt pickup off the tank and surrounding area...