Tis the Season... For Burning Wrecks

Since I'm getting ready to start playing Warhammer 40k games, hopefully in the new year, I've been investigating all of the extras that are needed aside from the army. The extras are mostly dice, blast templates, and reference cards. And also counters and markers for various game states. Since I have a Land Raider I was curious about what people do when the vehicle gets destroyed. I watched some games at the local store, checked online, and looked at the rulebook. There are two scenarios: the first is where the vehicle explodes in which case you replace it with a crater or debris terrain and the second case is where it is wrecked. The rules say you can flip the model upside down (not an option for my original first edition tank and it's weak plastic bits on top) or place cotton to indicate smoke. Ah ha!

So I did another search online and came across this great idea:
http://dedard.blogspot.com/2011/10/making-destroyed-wrecked-markers-for.html?m=1
I also found this idea referenced here too:
http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=246990

Burning smoke markers are pretty easy to make and it was the perfect time of year to make them. I got some of the little LED candle lights, some Buffalo Snow, a glue gun, some black spray paint, and (ironically for those who know me personally) some hair spray. Following the directions, I found the project was really easy and made some pretty realistic fires. I experimented with 2 different types - ones where I removed the fake flame and ones where I left it in. I kind of like the ones where I left the flame in better, but I think either way you just need to make sure to have a good clump of the cotton/snow stuff over the LED to defuse it. One of the ones I made is a bit light on cotton so you can see the shape of the light thru it a bit. Still they turned out great and I'm excited to use them!