Burning vehicle markers

Rather too much fire and not enough smoke on this one. 
Easily fixed next time I have my airbrush out.

I have been meaning to make some burning vehicle markers for some time and finally got round to it over Easter. 

The first step was to look at some online photos for burning tanks. The general pattern seemed to be lots of billowing black smoke; the lower part very turbulent, almost bubbling, and red-yellow fire showing through the smoke.

Some while ago I received a parcel that was packed with a large piece of synthetic wadding. I used some of it to make smokescreen markers and put the rest aside in my hoard of potentially useful things. 

I made two types of markers - some free-standing ones with weighted bases and some others to tuck under tank turrets. For both I glued the wadding to the base and teased it up into the rough shape of smoke rising from a fire.

After a bit of trial and error the process I settled on was to start by painting the lower part of the 'fire' red (cheap acrylic hobby paint). This left bits of white wadding showing through but as it dried it gave some stiffness and texture. 

I then airbrushed more red (watered down Vallejo) to give a uniform coverage. Airbrushing alone left the wadding too fluffy and the subsequent dry-brushing stages didn't work. I then dry brushed over the red with bright orange and then yellow. This left the top part just airbrushed or completely unpainted.

The final stage was to airbrush the top 'smoke', around the base and some lines swirling up through the fires in black. The overall effect is OK, I think, especially as they were quite quick to make and cost almost nothing.