cloud of flies

I would think a couple of roosting vultures would be a bit easier. A 1:48 fly would be barely visible, especially to some of us older fogies.

Do you mean like this?  This is a photo of my wife's back taken in the Australian outback.  The outback is swarming with flies.  You need to wear a net across your head to keep them out of your mouth, ears and nose.  House flies were introduced to Australia when Europeans brought horses and cattle to the country.  They have no natural Australian predators so they swarm over everything in the outback and are a real pest.  We didn't encounter this problem in the cities.

I suppose you could use colored cotton to represent a black swarm of flies or put little black dots all over your dead animal.

NH Joe

All ideas, no experience...

I think it would look best if the animal is in an enclosure like a cave, at an overpass , under a tree, car, or in a box seeking sheltet tc. Bug confetti and air would give fast snowglobe like action. In an open area, a clear dome. If yellowed or green tinted slightly, it would convey a subtle macabre and sickly property about the area. Red for gore.

Staticlly, maybe some cotten or similar, pulled thin and dotted with thinkened acrylic paint (water based, oil paint may contain linseed oil, that & cotton = flames)

Bunch ed up fishing line dotted, loops for swooshes, loops trimmed to whiskers, then the tips dipped in thick tube type oil paint.

Poppy seed might be a good dot for glueing like ground cover or tree branches, but on the carcass, or line, or cotton. So might "black beauty" a sandblasting medium. Old black beauty would be finer than new. In a blasting cabinet old can get very fine. You can clean a teaspoons worth as old will be too micro-dusty for glue really.

tripleo posted:

I would think a couple of roosting vultures would be a bit easier. A 1:48 fly would be barely visible, especially to some of us older fogies.

Speaking of which...anyone know where to get scale vultures?

RichO posted:

tripleo posted:

I would think a couple of roosting vultures would be a bit easier. A 1:48 fly would be barely visible, especially to some of us older fogies.

Speaking of which...anyone know where to get scale vultures?

The closest thing to O scale I've ever seen was the Dept 56 Halloween stuff. I remember one Dept 56 called the haunted hearse that had a nice vulture. There's a few other Dept 56 pieces with vultures. You'll just need to search them out to find them.

A lady I conversed with said they just magically appeared out of nowhere after her husband died with offers to purchase his stuff at .10 on the dollar so she said to use O scale men. I told her you were looking for the aviary type and she said someone makes OO scale.

The black dipped fishing line idea isnt a bad one.

I was thinking fiber optic strands, which may or may not be too complex for what you're looking for... Strands flickering on and off would give the effect of some movement though.

Otherwise, a 1/4" fly in o scale is a 256th of an inch long, which is going to be, by and large invisible. 

You may be able to use G scale birds, painted to look like vultures, and pass them for big o scale birds. 

My mind goes more toward the fun side of thinking. This is Wile E Coyote from Lionel. 

Maybe something like thin mirco fiber clear nylon fibers like you can get at Hobby Lobby that they sell for decorative lighting projects that can be bent and formed and just the tips light up like light transmitting fiber optics. 'Plant' some near the critter and have the light fiber optics drape over it and paint the tips black for the 'flies'.  

Interesting challenge. I am coming up blank.

It reminds me of one of the classic challenges of modeling: How to have birds sitting on realistic-looking power lines without ending up hanging down like bats.

Use OO buzzards on an O layout?

They would be babies, no?

Nope, cant make me do it!

http://youtu.be/8mKIuZ4tIzk 

A crystal clear plastic dome with flies painted on the inside and outside. Place the dome over the animal.

Andrew 

This shows a dome like clear plastic shape with silver specks over a plastic frog.

Something similar can be done with a more crystal clear dome of thin PETE.

Adriatic posted:

Use OO buzzards on an O layout?

They would be babies, no?

Nope, cant make me do it!

http://youtu.be/8mKIuZ4tIzk 

 

You've assumed they are in scale

You can put the clear PETE plastic dome over the animal. Then use an air pump to blow around tiny black balls that look like flies.. There can be several air holes underneath the dome to keep the tiny black balls moving back and forth.

You can even add a sound module with a speaker to create the fly wing buzzing noise.

Andrew

Even if you were able to make flying scale flies in a mass (which is of course impossible), I doubt anyone viewing it would understand what it was.

Paired with a sound effect and a carcass, I think it stands a good chance at being understood quickly, even static.

Take a look at mono filiment threads for making /tying fishing flies. Its pretty fine and stiffnesses vary.

OK, a bouquet of fiber tied at the bottom, drooping bloom like the fiberoptic displays, dotted by paint or whatever. If it droops well enough, a puff of air could induce action. A slideable band of "birdnested" fiber might serve as an adjustment to the droop.

Please post photos.

The ends of the fiber optics could be moved around by a cam shaft that give the appearance of random fly movements.

The flies can be simulated on a long sheet of clear plastic that is pulled across the scene of the dead animal at the bottom of a cliff. The cliff hides the mechanical workings of the rollers that pull the sheet of plastic. The sheet of clear plastic has scale flies printed on it.

Andrew

falconservice posted:

Please post photos.

The ends of the fiber optics could be moved around by a cam shaft that give the appearance of random fly movements.

The flies can be simulated on a long sheet of clear plastic that is pulled across the scene of the dead animal at the bottom of a cliff. The cliff hides the mechanical workings of the rollers that pull the sheet of plastic. The sheet of clear plastic has scale flies printed on it.

Andrew

You could also move the fibers with a tiny fan. But, I don't think it would look right except in the dark.

BUT, I think I have finally figured this one out. The correct answer is:

PEPPER'S GHOST

This is how many impossible-looking Disney effects (such as the haunted house) are accomplished. Done properly, it can be totally compelling. I have never seen it done on a layout, but the possibilities are endless.

My thought was of very fine fiber optic cut to various lengths and glued to the deceased creature, tips dotted black. or poppy seed with the tiniest cuts of saran wrap for wings then glued to the fiber optic cable. wouldn't be scale but then again its art. make sure to put some on the poor creature as well to simulate the feasting. Going to use your magnifing visor for this one.

Has anybody made more attempts at this scene?

Cut a hole and place a grill over the hole. Mount a small quiet fan that is disguised by painting the blades black, facing up. Attach to the perimeter of the hole sever fibre optic strands and paint the tips black (with a small drop of glue to the end of the invisible fibre optic strand). I like the idea of a speaker with the sound of flies nearby. Lighting will need to be just right to focus on the tips only. Perhaps a black light and some sort of black light reflective paint in the tips only.