Any help would be great on this topic. I always have had trouble drilling out the plastic gun barrels used for battleship kits. Do not have all the money to buy different ones and would like to know if there is a jig system or some guide to keep the drill steady and centered. So if you have any ideas or any great insight please let me know. Thanks to all.
freeblee
The way I do it is to use both an Optivisor AND 3X reading glasses together–you can see the point blown up to like, gigantic size, and can more readily control your point-of-entry for the drill. Of course, you have to have reasonably steady hands.
I know of no such jig for drilling per se, but you could probably jerryrig one–it would have to be made to extrememly tight tolerances though, IMO.
How deeply do you need to drill out the barrel in order to imply that it’s hollow? Shouldn’t need to be all that deep. It seems maybe an eigth-inch would do it. Maybe a bit more on larger scales.
Then drop some dark wash in the hole to keep it dark.
Besides…don’t those battleship rifles come molded in a group of three? In order to rig some kind of jig for drilling, you’d have to separate the barrels, no?
I’d take Doog’s advice about magnification…then start with the smallest diameter drill bit you can stand, and work your size up step-by step.
Nam
Sometimes the barrels are not perfectly round and a drill will make this obvious. I use an x-acto knife. I put the point in the center then twirl it around like a drill bit. Because the blade is asemetrical you can work the hole wider one direction or the other. now you can match the hole shape to the barrel shape.
I use an old stereoscopic microscope, found at a thrift store, to drill out my aircraft gun barrels. Like Doog stated, it makes the barrel tips huge! Then all I have to do is punch a pilot hole (I use a heavy gauge sewing needle), then hit it with the pin vise. You don’t have to drill too deep to have it look convincing.