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Hello all.

I am getting ready to start drilling and pinning my models (starting with a Daemon prince) as I believe it's the next step for me with regards to modelling. I was planning on going to a Local GW and picking up a Citadel model drill this morning (7ish hours). Was wondering if you guys know of any alternatives that are better? Or if not, what I should use for my pinning material? (I've been told paper clips by many). Finally, does anyone know what to do if your cit drill tip breaks?

Thanks guys!

So, my best advice is to skip the drill and drop the 40 on a dremel. I know i know its expensive, but trying to use hand drill on some of these models is a nightmare. A dremel makes it so much cleaner and easier. Just get the cheapest one and you'll be thanking me for a very long time.

I respectfully disagree on the dremel for pinning jobs. The dremel doesn't have enough control when it comes to speed for me. For nearly every resin, or plastic model the hand pin vice will serve you very well. I use something similar to this:

http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Micro-Drill-Vise-Chuck/dp/B001RJE3X8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1409795108&sr=8-3&keywords=pin+vise

For big metals or really big resin or plastic joints, I will break out the variable speed cordless drill as it gives me an infinite range of speeds to use with instant adjustment just by the pressure I put on the trigger.

For the material to use when pinning, paperclips are extremely cheap and work very well. Just remember DO NOT cut them with the side cutters that GW sells. Those cutters are not hardened steel and you will ruin them if you try to cut paperclips. Run down to your local Home Depot or equivalent and grab a cheap pair of wire cutters for the job.

Thanks for the replies. If it helps, I would mainly use them for vehicles/infantry, with the occasional monstrous creature. I've not bothered with the finecast models yet, but I hear they're hard to work with - hence my preparation to start pinning.

When using larger drills such as a dremel/cordless drill, what materials would you use for the pinning?

I use lockwire, though i'm not sure where you can get it as i got it from work.

You need a decent pin vice (aka 'hobby drill') a selection of bit sizes (I use 1mm most commonly). Note that on most, there are two chucks (the grippy bit), each with 2 size grips. One is usually hidden in the back of the handle. To use larger or smaller drill bits, use the appropriate chuck size or you'll end up stabbing yourself.

The GW one is good but expensive, and does come with a few drill bits, but I bought my pin vice at hobby craft iiirc for about half the price at the time. Still using it 6 years later.


Edit: for pinning, paper clips are great. Use a pair of small wire cutter to cut them, not your best side cutters.

Thanks for the help guys. I'm off to Hobbycraft then, to get my drill/magnets.

One final question; do you guys think it would be good to drill and magnetize or pin a GW helldrake for ease of transport? Whist it may seem an obvious question, I hear they're hard to magnetize due to their wings joining the body via a ball and socket joint.

 karimabuseer wrote:
Thanks for the help guys. I'm off to Hobbycraft then, to get my drill/magnets.

One final question; do you guys think it would be good to drill and magnetize or pin a GW helldrake for ease of transport? Whist it may seem an obvious question, I hear they're hard to magnetize due to their wings joining the body via a ball and socket joint.

I'd suggest practicing a bit with the drill before putting in magnets. I've never magnetized a helldrake, so I won't comment on that specifically, but generally speaking, mating a square socket is the easiest, then two flat surfaces, and a rounded surface (like a ball and socket) is the trickiest.

By the way, to your original question, the GW drill is really, really nice, but pricey. It also comes with 5 or 6 drill bits of different sizes (I think there are 2x1mm).

In reply to someone else's post about a dremel tool -- I have a dremel 4000 and it's not nearly as controlled as a hand drill for a shallow 1mm hole, unless you have the dremel press plus a very solid vise rigged up. There is always the possibility of a slight slip, which is far less likely with a hand drill, since you you'll have lots of torque and little speed with your hand. For pinning and magnetizing, your holes are generally so shallow anyhow. The one exception is bases -- precision is less important on the base (1mm either way on a base won't matter), and if you have to pin a couple dozen units to bases, using a dremel or a drill press will be a whole lot quicker.

Wow, two threads on pin vices.
See below:

Large pictures and some link details, open to view:I would suggest putting a pin or some kind of hardened point into a pin vice and use it to mark the center of the hole before you try to start drilling with a bit.

The Helldrake has many loose overlapping bits: find a way to join/glue them all together for more strength.
See if you can maneuver the wings so that you can get a 2 point contact to the body.
A strong magnet in the socket and a pin at the other end of the wing into the body may be enough.
A dremel is excellent if you need to drill into the white metal, use the pin vice to start the hole before using the dremel or it may "wander" around on you.

Magnetizing I think is usually the better than pinning I think, just because you usually don't have to drill so deep, although you do have to drill wider. For the ball and socket joints, what I do is magnetize the 'thinner piece, usually a limb of some kind, and then once I have the magnet in there put a nice little glob of paint on the magnet and then put it into the socket, that will tell you where to drill on the other piece. It's important to be careful when you put it in with the paint because you want the magnet to be EXACTLY where you want it on the body, otherwise the magnet will pull it out of shape.

Another thing I've found is don't pin or magnetize if you dont have to. SOme pieces just go on and stay there till you take them out (wraithknight cannon)

for ball and socket joints i have found just magnetizing to not work so well what i do now is put a pin in the direct center of the socket and one in the center of the ball based on what position i want the limb to eventually be in. Then i use 2 magnets, one above and the other below the pin to hold in place. Its worked perfect so far, though if your magnets are a little too weak one to either side of the pin as well will handle it (basically a + with magnets on the ends and a pin in the center)

 Todosi wrote:
I respectfully disagree on the dremel for pinning jobs. The dremel doesn't have enough control when it comes to speed for me. For nearly every resin, or plastic model the hand pin vice will serve you very well. I use something similar to this:

http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Micro-Drill-Vise-Chuck/dp/B001RJE3X8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1409795108&sr=8-3&keywords=pin+vise

For big metals or really big resin or plastic joints, I will break out the variable speed cordless drill as it gives me an infinite range of speeds to use with instant adjustment just by the pressure I put on the trigger.

For the material to use when pinning, paperclips are extremely cheap and work very well. Just remember DO NOT cut them with the side cutters that GW sells. Those cutters are not hardened steel and you will ruin them if you try to cut paperclips. Run down to your local Home Depot or equivalent and grab a cheap pair of wire cutters for the job.

Outstanding post.

I use the same drill and its awesome. Comes with some bits big enough to wallow out good sized holes if you need to crater or clear space on a larger piece.

Great point on the paperclips. Any set of wire snips from a hardware store will do you nicely. I have one set of snips for plastic/resin/pewter and another set for paperclips and hard metals.