Making miniature candles for GrimDark models and dioramas

My current project has a LOOOOOT of candles. And while Valentine's Day is already quite a while ago, I still got heaps of questions on how I made those candles. Luckily for all of us, it's actually quite simple! Get out your plastic rod, sharp knives and some PVA glue, and let's go!
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I'm open for commissions, just shoot me a message!
Instagram: / hephaistosstudios
Twitter: / dehoofdwerker

[@DogsatrVIII]

Great technique, thanks for sharing!

[@dehoofdwerker]

Good to hear you liked it! 👍👍

[@Grandaceofspade]

This was exactly what I was looking for! My sisters and sons of the phoenix are gonna look so much cooler! Thank you!

[@dehoofdwerker]

No problem, and good luck with making some candles! 😁👍👍

[@shogunmage9036]

Pure genius.

[@dehoofdwerker]

Thank you!

[@TheMichaellathrop]

for post painting touch ups what if you added a tiny drop of yellow brown ink to the pva both to thin it and to make it dry in a waxy tallow sort of a color.

[@dehoofdwerker]

Yeah that could work! The PVA dries very clear though, so if it's just some small fixes the color of the layer below will probably shine through enough. Might even give some interesting effects and make it look like liquid/molten wax?

[@graefx]

PVA is a clever trick. I've been meaning to do this using pipes rather than rods and seeing if I can run a fiberoptic strand up for just a little bit of twinkle.

[@dehoofdwerker]

That would be a cool idea. If the rods are thick enough it should be possible. I would only wonder about the wick, maybe you can paint the side of the fibreoptic strand black and leave the top clear fort he light to shine through?

[@graefx]

Yeah ive gone back and forth on that. Either doing it that way or painting with some translucent paints or really emphasizing it with some additional OSL. With fiber optics, light only emits from the tip. Anything you do to the outside of thr strand, save breaking it, doesn't effect the light.
Right now my full plan is this:
- electric tea lights with the flicker effect
- hot glue a bunch of fiberoptic strands to the light
- feed a strand up through a hollow plastic or brass rod.
I also will need to get the fibers just to see what sort of thickness I'm dealing with. It's a fairly down the road plan when I've got the kits, and space, to go with it. Idea is something very similiae to this but more of a librarium. Lots of books and scrolls piled up. Mine are Iron Hands successors so plenty of servo skulls and cabling hanging about too of course

[@dehoofdwerker]

@@graefx Oh! Another idea: end the fibre inside the candle, and glue a small wire as wick on top. The polystyrene is thin enough to be translucent, so if the fibre ends inside the top of the candle it might light up the top of the candle as it diffuses and shines through the candle itself.

[@graefx]

@@dehoofdwerker oh. Oh I like that. Will have to toy with the paint to make sure it doesn't go opaque

[@dehoofdwerker]

@@graefx As long as the paint isn't too thick it should still be able to shine through. I tried something similar a long time ago, with a small LED inside a plastic egg with some paint over it. As you say, just experiment a bit with the thickness of the layers!

[@FormerlyChucks112]

N I C E

[@dehoofdwerker]

thanks!

[@SparkSovereign]

How fortuitous, I was just wondering how to do this. Another win for The Algorithm (all hail its benevolent wisdom), and it looks like the rest of your channel is stuff I should check out too!

[@dehoofdwerker]

Thanks for joining, hope you find some useful stuff here :)

[@packe93]

I'm so stealing this, I don't know for when or what, but I am definitely stealing it.

[@dehoofdwerker]

Go for it! It's quite easy and the results look great

[@andrewbarnett4518]

I hear the techpriests have upgraded your vocal cords! Good good, machine is strong.
The candles are great, will try it out on some animated skulls for Frostgrave (which I dubbed fantasy servo skulls). The diorama looks fantastic, did you sculpt the iconography of the warrior in the middle or is that a cast?

[@dehoofdwerker]

It's either a blessing of the Omnissiah, or of Grandfather Nurgle. Not sure which one... But seriously though, I got a better microphone to improve the sound quality and then the jack-to-8pin for iPhone bummed out and gave me this instead. Which I only heard after finishing recording. Yet another thing to watch out for apparently.
Anyway, many thanks! And the icon in the centre is a cast from a sororitas icon. My greenstuff skills aren't quite there yet :)