Flames of War?

Whilst down at the York show last week,I spotted,in the reception area,some "Explosions" for sale @ £1 each!-these consisted of a "plume" of cotton wool over what looked like a "tea-light candle".All the way through the show these "explosions" were preying on my mind,and I determined to get some on the way out-alas,they were all sold!!
However,when I got home I asked my A.L.O.(Amazon Liaison Officer) ie.the wife,to see if Amazon sold L.E.D. tea-lights,and of course they did(about 4 thousand of them!!!),and another project began.
After ordering them they arrived in 2 days(!)...............................

The ones I saw at York were just plain white,but I wanted something a bit more spectacular,so ordered Red ones,and although they don't photograph how they actually look when "lit" I was really pleased,and for £10.99 plus P&P,they worked out at just over £1 each!

When "lit"(batteries provided!) they flicker just like a real candle,but no flame and no heat- very impressive.

I have had this enormous bag(no not the wife!) of polyester toy filling,for years,and I have used it for various attempts at gun smoke etc. so it was obvious what I was going to use for the smoke effect on my "explosions"

A couple of "dabs" of hard plastic glue around the bottom rim of the candle,and...............

"BOOM!!" an explosion-looks alright to me.but how red is the red?

That'll do just fine!!,now to make the rest up,various sizes and shapes.

I then put a bit of black felt tip pen on the tops,for effect............................

Finished articles,now for some atmospheric "in situ" shots....................

I'm sure these "explosions" will add something to our games,and I can see them utilised in most of the periods we play-in fact,look out for a burning building on the next blog(probably this afternoon!) which is a report of last night's game.
Comments welcome!