Revell Type VII-C Drilling the Limber Holes (Flood vents)

[corsaire]

Hello folks,

To those of you who already finish your static Revell Type VII-C 1/72 kit,

What tools did you specifically use to drill sucessfully the
tiniest limber holes on the bow (above and in between torpedo doors), as well as the little ones underneath the stern (grated holes) ?

I have small, little files but even these don't seem small enough for the task at hand. Is there any other way to drill these pesky little vents?

Thanks,

Corsaire

[raalst]

I scraped away the plastic

I scraped away the plastic from the
inside until they could be punched out
with a sharp-pointed hobby knife blade.

You will see the form of the holes appear while
scraping.

I used a somewhat broken file as a scraper.

the plastic got very thin at some places...

btw, I was also able to get 0,4 mm (!) drills.
were sold by a metalworking hobby shop.

[hakkikt]

I use a range of

I use a range of drills that I obtained over time from hobby shops etc.
My main modeling subject is 1/72 aircraft, there you often use 0.3mm; I now have 0.2 - 1.0 in 0.1mm steps and 1.2 to 2.0 mm in 0.2mm steps.
It is sometimes difficult to use the smaller drills, even with a pin vise, so I build my own shafts for those <1.0mm from polystyrene leftovers.

[boss subfixer]

Corsaire,
Along with what these fine

Corsaire,
Along with what these fine gentleman are suggesting for drill bits, Here is what I did. After drilling out the majority of the plastic by hand, I did not make the plastic thinner but left it as it was, I used diamond coated finger nail files that I found at one of those cheap places like the dollar store (2 for $1.00). They are very thin, one side is course and one side is fine, I used my dremel to shape them to the width I needed to fit a particular opening. Now you don't want to get the file too hot when shaping it as the bonding material will flake off and take the diamonds with it.
Hope this helps.

[corsaire]

Micro files

Thanks for all the advice, all worth trying.

Also, I happened to bump into these tools which I think you'll
find useful after getting the tiniest vents opened either by grinding the back or drilling them out first:

www.micro-mark.com

12-PIECE MICRO FILE SET
Item Number]http://www.subcommittee.com/forum/icon_smile.gif[/img]