Blowing Up Miniatures
Blowing up miniatures. Where do I start? Of course, you could always just take your miniature, soak in in gasoline, fill it with gunpowder, light a fuse and run, but that would be stupid, dangerous, idiotic, reckless, and did I mention stupid?
Seriously, though folks. Explosions are not to be dealt with lightly. If you want to do this using pyro, it'll probably be illegal. Even so, the safest way to do this (but it's still no very safe) would be it put whatever you're putting in it to explode, then sticking a rocket engine in it. From there you can a safe distance away and ignite the rocket engine with the electrical ignitors. This is not really safe, but safer than the above. This is still pretty stupid. Here something you can do that's smart:
Take your air cannon you made for the bullet hits, and fill up your tube(s) with concrete, gravel, and other kinds of dirt. Then, (made sure you model is real weak) attach a string to the back of a structural part of the model. (Make sure the camera can't see it.) Then fire your air cannon so that dirt and stuff comes flying out, while at the same time yanking the string so that our miniature crumbles and topples over, falling apart. After that load the footage into your computer and add pyro (fire, sound) in post. Now isn't that better than blowin' off your hand?
First of all, make sure you make your model out of balsa or something else weak like that.
Use your trusty x-acto knife to score the model in the desired locations and then carefully lay the pieces together to form the model. Run the hose or an extension into the interior. You may want to attach a piece of pvc pipe with holes drilled into it and capped off. This way when the air comes in, it disperses throughout the entire model and the whole thing separates in unison.
Also, it may work to have the airline running into a small balloon filled with some dust (or BBQ ashes) then put that in the prescored model . The dust will fly and the balloon is airtight, so its the best of both worlds. A balloon that is small and only stretches a little bit may be the best bet, but you'd need to play around to get the results you like
You could also try a quick release nozzle that allows the pressure to be built up and extremely rapidly be exhausted. The quick release of a large volume of air could do a lot to "blow up" a scored balsa wood building. You can get these from a hardware store or any place that sells compressors and related fittings and such.
Instead of balloons, you could make plastic bags from supermarket produce bags, and I heat-seal them. The secret, though, is in the taping. Using duct tape, you lay out a flat package, and tape it tight, except for a "window" where the original plastic is left, weak and ready to blow.
The plastic doesn't stretch the way a balloon does, and, with a little imagination, which is what his site is all about, you could lay several of these little buggers, hooked together with aquarium air line tubing and valves, and blow up something substantial, without squibs and all those nasty things.
