5 posts tagged “factory”

#1 (on right) - Another 500g design that would be cool. I haven't really put that much thought into the effects, I just like the firing pattern. The smaller groups of three tubes are fanned and fused to fire all at once, each shot with a tail and the three effects are the same. Then three large shots one at a time, maybe something simple like peonies. The effect repeats with different colors and the last three big shots fire all at once.
The big shots would be similar to top quality 12 shot cakes, with 40g of powder each, the smaller shots would be 15g each.

#2 (no diagram) - Just a standard 12 shot 500g, but with effects I'd like to see in this kind of big break cake. The first nine shots would all be gold glittering willows with different color glitter, like in Gimmie Shimmy (7.3MB .wmv). The Finale would be three shots of silver (or possibly multicolor) strobe. It would be gorgeous!

This one is a bit different than other cakes I've designed, because it uses all rockets. I find Saturn missiles to be rather boring, and while Golden Bear Star Wars (1.1MB .wmv) is cool, I wanted to see some breaks, similar to a couple older Phantom cakes, Barbarian Blast and Pyro Pandemonium. In the interest of variety and having the larger rockets still have plenty of powder, I added some Saturn missile style shots as well.

The basic firing sequence would be 20 Saturn missiles, followed by ten larger rockets, and a finale of 20 larger rockets. In the diagram, the blue is quickmatch, green is visco, and yellow is fast visco. I didn't show it in the diagram, but the larger tubes are fanned. The 20 small shots fire all at once, with whistles and small tails to reports, like the opening shot in Great Grizzly Brain Twister (3.8MB .wmv). I like these because they are loud and surprising, one at a time is too boring. The first row of ten larger rockets would then go one at a time, with a second or so between shots. They would have white tails (no whistle) and alternate chrysanthemum and peony breaks, with a variety of colors. After the next 20 small rockets, another ten large rockets would start. Each of these would have charcoal tails and alternate tipped willows and glitter, with a variety of colors. After the final 20 Saturn missiles, the finale would start. All 20 shots would fire in around five seconds, with white whistling tails (for more noise and a change from the previous large shots) and alternate multicolor chrysanthemums and crackle.

Quick math on the powder content... Star Wars is a 500g cake with 252 shots, so just about 2g per shot. The Phantom cakes are both 200g with 25 shots, so 8g per tube. Assuming the Saturn missiles take 1g each (the effect may actually require slightly more), that is 60g, leaving 440g of comp for the rest of the rockets. With 40 large rockets, each can have 11g of composition per rocket, which should be plenty to make a nice effect.

I don't know about you, but I'd buy it!

On the drive home from my rained out shoot, I had plenty of time to design more 1.4g cakes in my head (click the "factory" tag in this post for others). None of them really benefit from diagrams like past times since they are all conventional layouts with no angles, but I can't have a post with no graphics! So here is my new default "fireworks factory" picture. Even if nobody else is amused by my crappy Photoshops, I am, and this is my blog, so deal with it! Ironically, the conveyor belt image was stolen from a company called TNT, but has nothing to do with fireworks.

500g

#1 - I really like BP Wild West, so why not a 25 shot 500g along those lines? Each row would have a single effect type but a different color in each break, and each row of five would fire in about 4 seconds. First peonies, then chrysanthemums, glitter, crackle, and finally gold glittering willows.

#2 - 12 shot color peony with silver glitter pistils* and finale. This one is sort of based on Glorious Tropical Typhoon. The goal is strong colors with symmetrical breaks and an elegant glitter pistil. Each peony would be a different color; red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple, pink, white, and something else. The finale would be the last three shells at once, with aqua peonies and glitter pistils, a nice and very rare color (one example is BP Major Mojo) that would be a great way to finish a cake all about nice colors.

200g

#1 - 16 shot mine cake. There aren't enough 1.4g mine cakes, and I'd love to see more solid performing 200g. Each row of four shots would be the same effect with a different color, and a consistent shot rate, no finale. First would be peony stars with glitter, next colored chrysanthemum stars, then peony stars with crackle, and finally gold glittering willow stars with some color peony stars mixed in. This would provide great variety, and grouping the effects instead of alternating would make it easier to shoot multiples without it looking messy.

#2 - Just a repeated plea for nice low shot count cakes, 9-12 shot. I was very impressed with both Beihai 4th Of July Spectacular (9 shot) and PYK Mile Stones (12 shot) this year, and would love to see more large breaking 200g cakes. I don't have any specific designs in mind at the moment, I just want more of them in general...

*Pistil, people, not "pistol." Many fireworks effects are named after flowers, and a pistil is part of a flower, not a gun!

48 shot shell, pearl and mine expanding fan (left) - This one is inspired by some of the new Winda cakes like Magnum Power and Stunt Rider. Each row fires from the center outward, the shells are vertical and the pearls and mines are angled (not shown in the diagram). The two shells (with tails) would fire at the same time, then the small tubes fire tailed stars and the mines on the outside fire just as the shells break. The shells and mines would be matched for color and effect. For example, the first shot would be color chrysanthemums and chrysanthemum mines, the next glitter with glittering mines, another chryanthemum row and last brocades with color changing tips with charcoal star mines with color tips.

The other cake I designed doesn't really need a diagram, so I didn't bother. This one is a 49-shot cake, seven rows of seven angled tubes. This is sort of inspired by cakes like Wild West, 25 shot 200g that have a nice mix of quality effects. A 25 shot 200g cake would have 8g of composition per shot, so a 49 shot 500g would have 10.2g per shot. Brothers has something similar to my idea in Major Mojo, showing it can work well (demo here, actual performance video here). Unlike Major Mojo, which fires full rows at once, this would fire one at a time, but with a quick pace, so all fire in about 35 seconds.

Row 1 - Assorted color chrysanthemums with tails (see Buck Fever, multiple in this video)
Row 2 - Color pearls to blue and purple peonies (similar to Twisted Nights)
Row 3 - Willows to color tips (like Cosmic Clouds, though they would be a little smaller)
Row 4 - Tails to palms with color tips
Row 5 - Crackling tails to color chryanthemums with crackle (like City Crasher)
Row 6 - Color pearls to yellow and orange peonies
Row 7 - Crackling tails to crackle breaks (last row of Wild West)

That's it for now I guess. If you own a real fireworks factory and want to make these, send me a few samples!

I have two designs using this layout, in both cases, shots 1-6 are vertical and fire one at a time and shots 7-9 are angled and fire all at once.

#1 - The first shot would be colored glitter with a palm pistil, like the main breaks in Cold Fusion (Megabanger, vid). The second shot would be a colored chrysanthemum like those in New Dimension (Golden Bear, vid). Third would be a color palm to crackle, like the first shots in Gamma Glow (Brothers, vid), but fewer and thicker palms. This patter would then repeat with new colors for the next three shots (4-6). The last three shots would be fanned out and fired all at once, with drooping gold willows like the ones in the original Baby Boomers (Brothers, vid).

#2 - This one is meant to be less pretty and more noisy. The first shot would be a multi-color peony with crackle like in the 4th Of July Spectacular video above, then a multi-color chryanthemum. This would repeat with new colors for shots 3-4. Shots 5 and 6 would be crackling flowers like in the new version of Baby Boomers (Brothers, vid). The last three shots would be fanned and fired all at once, all with popcorn crackle breaks like the other half of Baby Boomers.

The other two designs are for higher shot count 200g cakes which make more use of angles. I tend to be of the opinion that more angles are better, and I'd love to see cakes Wild West (Brothers, vid) or City Crasher (Pyro King, vid) remade to fire at angles. [Update! Somebody just posted a video on PyroReview of the Dominator Cake 5x5, which has exactly the effect I'm talking about. Vid here]


This one is sort of a hybrid of Fireworks Fiesta (Winco, vid) and City Crasher. The first two rows fire the same tailed color stars as FF left to right in about 7 seconds, basically just speeding up FF a bit. Then the three shells fire one at a time at angles, each a different color chrysanthemum. This repeats for the rest of the cake, then the last five shots fire all at once, three white chrysanthemums and two crakle.

Last one for now... This one is a 200g in the style of a couple spectacular new 500g Winda cakes, Magnum Power (vid) and Stunt Rider (vid). Each row fires all at once, with six rows of 3 for 18 total shots. The first row as a vertical mine sort of like Pyro Alert (Pyro King, vid) and two tailed shells that fire in a "V" with chrysanthemum breaks. The next row is two colored comets like Red Razzle (Pyro King, vid) fired in a "V" and one tailed chrysanthemum fired vertically. This pattern repeats with new colors for the next two rows. The last two rows, three mines and three shells, fire all at once for a finale.




Well that's it for now, tune in next week for more fun.