Smoke in Magazine photographs

[ianLMS]

I vape but it never crossed my mind that it could be used to produce a smoke effect for the layout. Definately something to ponder.

 

You need to draw the liquid through the coil for it to work though. The power button simply switches the battery on to heat up the coil. If you just press the button, very minimal smoke appears, but when you draw through the mouth peice, the cold liquid is pulled through the coil, the heated liquid vapourises, mixes with air and produces the large cloud of "smoke". I am sure someone can develop something which can produce a good effect.

 

Oil/coal/steam would smell lovely in a vape machine - just not sure it would taste nice. Think i will stick to my Vanilla Custard/Arctic Blueberry mix lol!!!!

[Andy Y]

You need to draw the liquid through the coil for it to work though. The power button simply switches the battery on to heat up the coil. If you just press the button, very minimal smoke appears, but when you draw through the mouth peice, the cold liquid is pulled through the coil, the heated liquid vapourises, mixes with air and produces the large cloud of "smoke". I am sure someone can develop something which can produce a good effect.

 

 

Use a straw to exhale and you can 'draw' where you want the fumes.

[grahame]

I hate it when the magazine pages smell of smoke, especially stale tobacco smoke. Perhaps publishers should desist in puffing on the pictures; oh wait, it's probably those people who insist on reading the magazines in shops without buying, but paw them with nicotine stained fingers and breath nasty fumes on them.

;-)

 

G

[Skinnylinny]

I've actually done a few trials with a vape/e-cigarette coil and an aquarium air pump - I am to eventually put such a system under the boards of my planned layout to give a nice "whoosh" of cylinder drain steam. I and some friends tried some photographic experiments on a club layout with some tubing to direct the steam, and I think the "steam" can be very effective. Unfortunately I'm not sure it could be made to fit nicely in a 00 steam loco just yet - the coils do get VERY hot (as in, glowing red hot) and they're not designed to be run continuously - I reckon on 10 seconds maximum at a time with a 30 second cooldown period.

 

 

 

 

There is also a brief video here: (Video hosted on Facebook, but no Facebook account required to view)

The only thing I've found is that any draughts or breezes make the steam blow away far too quickly, but an enclosed room can very quickly end up modelling fog! 



This can, however, lead to some very atmospheric photography. If only the loco had had working headlamps, I think that would have been the icing on the cake...

(All photographs and video copyright Jessi Lloyd, used with permission)

Edited April 26, 2018 by Skinnylinny

[ianLMS]

Suberb - I love the atmosphere in that last shot. My other hobby is a lighting tech for a Pink Floyd tribute band and smoke is an absolute must for a good show. I have seen some layouts try to use the large smoke machines/hazers but they are quite powerful and plume too much. A hazer is a little more controlled but the output is still substantial. A vape type device though looks much more usable.

Edited April 26, 2018 by ianLMS