Tank on fire
 

As a new person to tanks, see my post in War Room, and having not read all of the thousands of posts, please forgive me if my question has already been discussed and answered. As so much of what we do is for the desired effect or appearance of tanks at war, is there a way to redirect the smoke unit to fill the tank with smoke when hit or destroyed. The smoker would run at full tilt for a period of time to show damage or tank destroyed. I suppose one could add another smoke unit for this one purpose.
I left the fill cap off the smoke unit on the Taigen by mistake to note that the tank looked as if it were on fire. Has this been tried and then found to be overkill or not realistic?

Secondary smoke unit that kicks on during the destroying sequence?

Or, a servo opens a valve to let the smoke flow out of the existing smoke unit to fill the tank with smoke. When the fill tube was left open, 90% or more of the smoke filled the tank to then exit and didn’t exit via the engine exhaust tubes.

Key word here is "destroying"...that's what will eventually happen to your internal components like servos, electronics, etc. Even though "fog juice" smokers don't leave an oily film, the "fog" will condense on components inside the tank. The smoke juice is water and various polyols (sticky, syrupy...think corn syrup or pancake syrup). Eventually, the condensation will cause corrosion and build up a sticky film. This isn't a big problem on tank exterior surfaces because the fog isn't closed in and condensing on the surfaces very much before it blows away. And any surface deposits can be simply wiped away with a moist rag or Q-tip.
If you want damage smoke, it would be best to add tubes leading to and discharging thru smoke ports without letting smoke leak inside the tank.

I have worked on PCs for over thirty years and can tell when it came from a smokers house. It’s usually very dirty and harder to clean. However, it still works after years in that environment. So, I wouldn’t be too concerned about the very brief time some smoke was discharged into the interior of the tank. I believe that running the tank outside in the dust, dirt and muck would cause more issues than a few moments of smoke inside for battle damage effects .

However, additional ducting is another option for battle damage smoke.

Dry smoke from cigarettes is much different than the stuff that comes out of the smoke unit. I ducted one the length of my StuG that resulted in enough vapor to lock out the smoke and over time developed mold since there was no circulation when not in use.
Yes, coating electronics with a nicotine residue may be fine, but water droplets most likely wouldn't. It's all about temperature, hot exhaust in a cold tank would be the issue.

The trick would be activation via the battle system, a way to link the LED circuit to switch for the smoker. Problem is, when the final hit is scored, everything shuts down.

I read on a tank forum somewhere that someone was using a mixture of WD-40 and something to create the smoke. That actually might be good for the inside? I don't know the capabilities of the various boards such as Clark and DBC3. I just was asking the question and believe that this act of smoke at destruction time would be beneficial/cool/neat.
One of the features of these tanks that is always mentioned is engine smoke. To create battle damage smoke would be an additional use of that smoke system.

The idea of battle smoke is a great one. Needs development work.
I designed the original "Supersmoker" that Phil sold, and have built a lot of smokers for tank, tugboat, train, battleship models etc etc.
The problem with oil based smokers (like the WD40 one you referenced) is that the oil residue and hot vapors destroy plastic and paint finishes. Bad for a nicely finished model.
So water/polyol (fog juice) smokers became the design of choice. They also operate at lower, safer temperatures than oil based smokers.
The fog juice vapor, when free to dissipate in air (eg as exhaust smoke) doesn't condense much on surfaces, and when it does, it doesn't usually cause any damage to or change in appearance of a paint job. Any residue can be cleaned off with a moist rag.
When the vapor gets trapped inside a model, it will condense. Same effect as spraying sugar water over everything. The result is mold, corrosion and a general mess. That's why smokers are built tight - hopefully with no leaks, and with discharge outside the model only thru the tubes.
Attached is a picture of the rear axle area of my Tamiya KT. The smoker is a mini-design I made. It has a very small amount of "fog" backflow. The tank doesn't have many hours (maybe 20) of run time. You can see the effect on the axle (steel) and on the body pan. Even aluminum stiffening struts have a cloudy surface film. I've made and run a lot of smokers and have tested a lot of fluids, etc. Internal damage - or at least a mess - will eventually occur even with limited internal "smoke" release.

A possible approach to a battle damage smoker would be to use the existing exhaust smoker (given limited space for a second smoker), but have a second evaporator resistor/wick that gets powered when the "fire" starts. That evaporator could be high wattage to produce more smoke. (The regular exhaust smoker wattage is kept low to produce "just enough" exhaust effect and to preserve battery power usage for running/battling.) Once decommissioned, the use of battery capacity can go to high smoke production since the power is no longer needed for running. Once the high output evaporator kicks in, a simple valve can duct the extra smoke thru tubes to external smoke ports.

Here's the reality of a tank hit....
http://www.military.com/video/combat...2119489661001/

Thanks for all of the good information. Would your system have enough power to blow open a hatch and exhaust the smoke upward? I have on order several Supersmoker IIs.

I have no connection with the improved SS2. I don't think the fan should be used to blow open the hatch. The airflow thru the smoker and tubing is likely way too low to do that. BUT, if a tube is run from the smoker to the hatch, the hatch itself could be the valve mechanism. Hatch closed - all smoke goes out exhaust tubes. Hatch open - smoke blows out hatch thru larger tube from the smoker. A simple small servo could open the hatch. Having a second higher wattage resistor/wick evaporator kick in would help produce more smoke. See sketch...