Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Ok, Im way new to this- I painted mini's as a kid, out of the Battlemasters and Herquest games (and Mutant Chronicles, and Dungeon Strike, and... lol). Never got into WH40K though. Now I've got a ton of Dark Eldar (thanks to Dakka!), and Im reeeeeeeeeally wanting to get back into all of this, more for painting and modding than for any game play- though that may come.
Im going to start on these minis as soon as my supplies come in, so I've been giving some thoughts to various ways to mod (convert?) them. I was thinking that a woodburner might be a good way to add etching, inlays, etc to the models, as well as to remove unwanted pieces. The heat would keep it smooth, hypothetically at least. Plus, woodburners have all kinds of attachments and such for various designs.
So, has anyone tried this out? Or heard of anyone doing it? Any input would be great. Thanks guys!

Well, I've never used a woodburner, but I'll offer what small bit of knowledge I can to support this probably not working out as well as you'd like.

The heat from it probably isn't enough to completely vaporize the plastic, just to melt it, which means that when you push the burner into it, it's just going to blob up around the tool, leaving an unsightly mess that has to be trimmed away. You may be able to achieve some effects like this, but I don't think you'll be able to get anything detailed or even particularly smooth.

Mind you, the only way to find out for sure is to try it yourself. I'm basing my opinion of the result on having pushed a heated pin into a model. The only way to find out for sure if your idea will work is to try it out...preferably on some spare sprue bits.

The only thing a woodburner is going to do for plastic models is melt and scorch them. While some people have made decent shows at using heat (many have used soldering irons, which are comparable to woodburning irons, if not directly interchangeable) for serious battle damage, the majority of attempts just make a mess of things. Problem is, when heated, the plastic goes... well, plastic. It won't cut cleanly and smoothly, like running a hot knife/wire cutter through foam; it'll soften and stretch and blob up on you until either you give up or it goes black and fills the room with noxious smoke.

For clean cuts, stick to a sharp knife blade for thin parts and a fine-toothed razor or jeweler's saw for thick/metal ones. For engraving, I'd suggest scribing for plastic (you can buy dedicated tools from hobby suppliers, but a needle or even the back of a knife tip will work, in a pinch). Engraving metal models will take actual engraving, whether you use a fine cutting bit in a rotary tool or a traditional graver/burin (I've had success with the latter method on both plastic and metal, but the tool isn't a worthwhile investment for the majority of modelers - if you have one, great, but I wouldn't necessarily suggest buying one just for your listed purposes).

Also, don't underestimate the power of paint. There are fantastic examples in the Dakka gallery (and elsewhere) of chipping and engraving effects on perfectly flat surfaces, achieved purely through trompe l'oeil (additional Space Wolf runes are frequently done this way by a number of top-notch hobbyists).

Dremel makes an engraving tool that would work. It comes to a fine point and has variable speed settings. It wont melt the plastic, which a wood burner most likely will. You should also look into dental hook tools or you can find something on Micromark.com that might do the job.

This comes to mind after a quick search: http://www.micromark.com/3-piece-scriber-and-scraper-set,7763.html
Its a scribing set for cutting panel lines into models

Thanks for all the info guys, that's all I need then.