Yeah I had same kind of problems, it isn't quite a popular mode. I read about it first when I tried to replicate the explosion effect from bomb chicken game. With additive/normal blending modes I couldn't quite make my explosions look like they were in the game, but with max blending I could get quite close.
Here's a video of the bomb chicken explosion and here's my prototype version. I slowed down the explosion animation so that the blending is easier to see.