Should I drill the barrels of Plasma blasters/guns?

[Axineton]

So I’ve seen people say to drill bolter barrels but what about plasma blasters/guns?

[Major_Gilbear]

Personally, I drill all weapon barrels. If in doubt, just look at the 40k artwork. :)

[Beaky Brigade]

With plasma you can get away with it if you paint a burst of blue (or your choice of plasma colour) on the end, otherwise drill them out.

[Axineton]

Good to know cheers lads!

[ezekill]

With plasma you can get away with it if you paint a burst of blue (or your choice of plasma colour) on the end, otherwise drill them out.

what size drillbit are peeps using to drill out barrels ??

[sockwithaticket]

1mm generally does the side vents of bolters and bolt pistols perfectly, so I use that for the front too.

Usually a 1.5 for meltas, plasmas and flamers*. Heavy bolters vary in size, so i vary drill bit between 1.5 and 2

*Some heavy flamers and flamers have an actual nozzle which will help guide as to what size you need.

[Major_Gilbear]

I prefer smaller bores on the bolt guns/pistols, so I use 0.75mm for them. Otherwise, I use fairly similar sizes to sockwithaticket.

[Beaky Brigade]

Pro trip for drill bits... Buy individual high quality bits for the sizes you need rather than a cheapo 'hobby set' that has loads, as the smaller sizes are usually low quality.

[DBadger]

I might try this tomorrow. Are we talking Wickes or Hobbycraft do you reckon?

[Beaky Brigade]

I might try this tomorrow. Are we talking Wickes or Hobbycraft do you reckon?

 

I got mine from RS supplies (UK company), I think they sell 5 packs of the same sizes for about £1 per bit, and next day postage included in the price (scary fast too). Relatively expensive, but I've found not having to stop a project because I broke a bit more than worth it.

 

The key with anything smaller than 1mm is not to press too hard and be patient ;)

[Axineton]

What about the citadel drill, what’s the bits quality like with that?

[Major_Gilbear]

Technique for drilling gun barrels:

 

 

You will need a small drill bit about 1mm diameter, although I use 0.8mm as I prefer the smaller bore.

 

I also use a rather larger 2.5mm to countersink the end a tiny amount.

 

[...]

 

Now the technique:

 

1) Using a small file or emery board, smooth the front of the muzzle to give you a nice flat surface.

 

2) With a knife tip or a sharp awl, make a small divot in the middle of the muzzle where you will drill. This divot will help you start the hole off in the correct place.

 

3) Drill your 0.8-1mm hole. Don't go too deep!

 

4) Holding the bigger drill bit in your fingers, carefully offer it up to the hole drilled and give it a little twiddle. You just want to take the burr off the hole you've drilled, not make it bigger.

 

5) Optionally, you may want to return with the small drillbit and drill cross-ways through the side of the muzzle for the two vents.

 

It may be that it all goes wrong somehow, and you muck it up. Don't worry! The hole can be filled with a putty like Milliput Yellow-Grey and re-drilled when cured; alternately, you can chop off the muzzle and replace it with a small piece of plastic rod before trying again.

 

If you're drilling through metal models, the drill bits you buy need to be carbide-coated or they won't cut properly. To avoid the small bits getting stuck in the metal model and then breaking, first drill into an old wax candle before drilling into the model - this coats the bit and helps to avoid it sticking in the first place.

 

 

On buying drill bits and pin vices drills:

 

Okay, pin vice drill is what you need. Should cost like $5-7:

 

http://www.newmodellersshop.co.uk/images/expo_tools/750-10.jpg

 

Then buy ground drill bits (ebay is excellent for this) with a carbide or carborundum coating (should cost about $2-4 for a pack of ten all the same size).

 

[...]

 

1) Buy a hand pin vice drill (sometimes a pin vise drill) with a little "rest" at the end like the one I've shown above. Your hands will thank me for it! These normally come with two double-ended collets for holding different-sized drill bits. One is in the end where the bit goes (duh!), and the other is usually stored inside the handle.

 

2) Buy some brass rod for your pinning efforts. It's a little more ductile, won't rust, won't blunt your clippers, and can be filed without too much difficulty.

 

3) Buy "ground" drill bits - not "twisted" or"rolled". The cost more, but are properly-made and won't get stuck and break as easily. This is because the spiral cutting faces are machined onto the bit, rather than the bit being stamped and then twisted or rolled to get the spiral. The swarf (the stuff you drill out of the hole) gets stuck very easily in small bits, and the twisted/rolled bits aren't even enough to let it come out smoothly. Once you know what size brass rod you have, buy drill bits to suit that are 0.25-0.50mm larger to give the rod and glue some clearance in the hole. Avoid a multi-pack of bits, because you will never use at least 2/3s of the sizes!

 

I buy my drill bits from UK Drills on eBay here.

 

The most useful sizes I have are 0.7mm ground HSS and 1.0mm ground Cobalt (both here). This is because the two most common sizes for brass rod are 0.020" (0.51mm) and 0.032" (0.81mm).

 

Whilst I prefer to have ground Titanium-coated or Cobalt drill bits for the 0.7mm (and I have some I bought elsewhere), they are pretty delicate and wear out quite fast anyway - sometimes just using them a few times and then ditching them is a better practice for such small bits. I really only use the Titanium/Cobalt ones in this scale when drilling though metal parts (usually Warmachine, Infinity, and old Malifaux models).

 

 

Finally, on collets vs chucks in pin vice drills:

 

The main advantage of the collets compared to the chuck is that the overall drill is slimmer, which can be very useful in getting into tight areas on models.

 

And whilst I agree that the chuck is a little less faff than swapping collets, the main collet I use is the same for all sizes up to about 1.5mm diameter anyway, which makes swapping collets over very infrequent to start with.

 

Finally, for the relative cost difference, I could suggest just buying two of the collet-style pin vice; this saves you even swapping drill bits if you need to change between small and larger drill bits very often.

 

 

Hopefully that's helpful, but feel free to ask if you have more questions.

 

 

 

 

[DBadger]

Going back specifically to plasma weapons:

 

I bought a pin vice and had a play around.

 

So what I did was paint the gun black, then dry brush with boltgun metal. Then I burnt the edges using tin bitz and then orange.

 

I drilled partially to create a domed inlet.

 

Both the plasma coils and the barrel are painted in silver and then highlighted blue.

 

 

Was difficult to get a good picture of this.

 

[Axineton]

Great stuff mate

[DeadMilkman]

I use a center drill with a 1mm tip for just about everything. For bigger things like heavy bolters, I just run it in a little deeper to make use of the countersink to widen the hole a little.  I like it because the shaft is big enough for me to handle without a pin vise or drill.

[Subtle Discord]

*Flips through his 'Hobby Universal Rule Book'*

 

Yep, I knew it said it somewhere... See, right here it clearly states that, "ALL weapon barrels MUST be drilled to the best of abilities of the modeler."

 

/sarcasm

 

It's one of the few little details that always sticks out like a sore thumb and irritates me. It shouldn't bother me so much, but no matter how well the rest of the execution is, if the barrel isn't drilled it just breaks the immersion for me. But I also suffer from hobby-OCD so I'm no role model. :)

[Aramis K]

@Major Gilbear

 

Nearly 25 years in and out of the hobby and I drilled my first bolter barrel today thanks to your tips above.

And it looks great.

 

So thank you.

[StraightSilver]

If in doubt - drill it. :)

[DBadger]

Another example though the rest of the model's painting leaves much to be desired.