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I have seen here on Dakka that a great finishing touch to any mini is drilling out the barrel of the Bolter (or any gun for that matter) it seems like such a simple concept that I can't believe I didn't consider it before. I came home tonight and gave it a go, but my results were not quite as simple as I had in mind. I am sure my full sized drill is not the optimal tool but it is all I have at the moment. Does anyone have any advice or techniques that could help me out with this endeavor. My marines are already put together and I am hoping not to take them apart.

Use a pin or a scribe to make a dimple in the the middle of the barrel. This will be pretty easy to do. Now, grab your pin vise with a 1/32 bit and using the dimple as a guide, drill a small hole. If you want the hole to be bigger, and your initial hole is centered to your satisfaction, switch out bits and enlarge as desired.

Anubis_513 wrote:I have seen here on Dakka that a great finishing touch to any mini is drilling out the barrel of the Bolter (or any gun for that matter) it seems like such a simple concept that I can't believe I didn't consider it before. I came home tonight and gave it a go, but my results were not quite as simple as I had in mind. I am sure my full sized drill is not the optimal tool but it is all I have at the moment. Does anyone have any advice or techniques that could help me out with this endeavor. My marines are already put together and I am hoping not to take them apart.

I think the bolded bit is the important part. If you mean full sized drill as in power tool or something you would use for wood working, that is indeed your problem. It's just too large/coarse of a tool to use for drilling out a barrel. As the above poster said, get yourself a decent pin vice (my favorite being the ones with the wood ball ends as they're more comfortable). Gale force 9 produces one I think, for the price of ~10-15 dollars with a few of the most common sized bits.

Hole in one (pun intended) for Ifurita.

Would just add that it is best to just do a twirl or two with the pin vice, check to see if you are good, then continue.

The advantage of starting with a smaller bit is that you can correct an error by carefully rotating a number 11 Swann Morten scalpel blade (has a nice elongated shape to the point) to recentre the hole. But only through an arc enough to make the correction.

The other thing is that you need not drill very deeply into the barrel, just sufficient depth, to which you can add black paint.

hth
(hope that makes sense)

Thank you all, I now have a project for the weekend

A cheap pin vise alternative is to simply wrap some tape around the drill bit. It's simply to make it easier to hold and twist. Generally speaking the vent holes on the side should be smaller than the borehole of the barrel itself though sometimes the vent holes are modelled pretty large.

A full size drill isn't very useful for modelling because it is too heavy and powerful.

A pin vice is good for light work.

If you do a lot of drilling, a Dremel or a light electric screwdriver can be useful.

I have a guide for drilling barrels in this tutorial:
http://www.winterdyne.co.uk/maz/winterdyne_tutorial1.pdf

It's a handy trick.

I drilled the barrels for my Empire Handgunners. Having a guide hole is almost necessary, but you still mis-drill every now and then. I decided to drill the barrels before gluing the guns to the miniatures, so I didn't have to use any that were not perfectly aligned. I am not 100% sure about marines, but Empire Handgunners did come with extra guns.

Although most GW tools are over-priced and under-quality, I have been very very pleased with my small GW drill.

I can't remember the cost, but I have found it to be high quality, easy to use, just the right size for my hand. The only slight complaint is that I could do with more than one size of drill bit, but that would be easy to rectify if I could ever remember to buy some spares on one of my numerous visits to art supply stores or modelling stores.

If you are using a larger electric, it can still be done, so long as you have the properly sized bits. The trick is to leave the drill stationary and move the model onto the bit. I'd heavily recommend investing in a pin vice, but if you're careful (guide holes become extra important, here - I start by making an indentation with a pin, then twisting the tip of my hobby knife's blade gently to enlarge the hole) with alignment and pressure applied, it can be done successfully on slow speeds, since the plastic is so soft.

I usually use a knife to drill barrels. Use the point to make a little indentation and then waggle it back and forth carefully to produce a drilling effect. It takes practice but it's something I taught myself years ago when I couldn't get hold of a drill or pin vice.