Gunsmoke

[2mojo2]

We are using a long rifle in BATB for Gaston shooting the bird out of the sky. The sound will be produced by one of the methods in the Gun Shot thread. It would be good if I could get a puff of smoke from the barrel. I expect that Gaston will be offstage, but the barrel could poke out into view.
The gun is a good-looking toy; I think it was made for caps.
Maybe some fine powder in the barrel and a tube for the actor to blow into?

What has worked for you?

 

[derekleffew]

Be careful what kind of powder you use. See this post: http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/special-f-x/8718-explosions-without-fire.html#post102367.

 

[kiwitechgirl]

Can you be clever with a smoke machine and some tubing, piped into the barrel somehow or other? I've done that more than once - you have to work out the timing, as it isn't quite instant, and probably also have to experiment with gaps between the smoke machine nozzle and the tubing, but it works pretty well and has the advantage of being safe and controllable!

 

[seanandkate]

If the gun is that far off stage anyway, you could take a normal fog machine and just give a small blast down the barrel out of sight of the audience. Then Gaston walks on stage and the barrel should still look like its smoking.

 

[2mojo2]

Maybe I should station a stagehand next to Gaston with a pneumatic tube loaded to produce boom and smoke.
I can see the sense of avoiding flammable powder. I also want to steer clear of anything toxic. What does that leave? Graphite powder would produce a brief puff of smoke, but it would be an irritant if inhaled. My readings on Aerotech don't seem to suggest any powders.

 

[spoonifur]

Huh, the first thing I thought of for just general use was these guys:
Products: Zero Toys Online Store They have "mini fog machines" of sorts. It's basically just glycerin heated up. I have a mini fog ring one, it's cheap, and shouldn't be too difficult to mod. It does take a bit of time to heat up though.

Good for stuff that's actually on stage.