Decals as a drilling guide?

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nanook177
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Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 12:52 pm

Decals as a drilling guide?

Post by nanook177 »

I'm building several 1/1000 Star Trek starships (a Miranda and an Excelsior Refit-class). I'm going to have to drill it all the windows for the fiber optics I plan to install. My question is if I apply the decals, can they be used as a template to guide my Dremel tool? If so, any suggestions to make it work the best? If not, any suggestions on how to do this at all? Thank you!
Kekker
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Post by Kekker »

First off yes you can use them.

Second to make your holes as accurate as possible, use a pin or something very sharp to make a dimple right in the center of the window. This will give the bit a place to rest when you start to drill.

Third, you might not want to use a dremel. They spin fast, and can melt the plastic, which can be a mess. They also can be off centered just enough to make the hole in the wrong place, or wobble around enough to make the hole wonky. Use a pin vise for better control. It may take more time, but the result will be better and there will be less cursing involved!

Kev
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SpaceRanger1
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Post by SpaceRanger1 »

What I suggest is to make a copy of the decal sheet (scan or photocopy) and cut out the window portions and use them as your templates. Save the decal sheet for future use.
Michael McMurtrey
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"Yup, exactly what SpaceRanger1 is saying. 100%" — seashark
irishtrek
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Post by irishtrek »

Also just so you know the right hand side windows for the secondary hull are inaccurate.
Normal?? What is normal??
nanook177
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Post by nanook177 »

On the Excelsior-refit/Enterprise-B? How bad? I mean mildly inaccurate or "they had no idea what they were doing" inaccurate?
I am not too concerned about this model, as it's just a test or prototype to work out the bugs for building (either scratch building or who knows) a 1/350 Excelsior-class Refit. Yes, I know it will be huge (about 57"x22"x10"), but it's going to be a memorial (eventually) for my dad when he passes, so I'm going for the gold. However, I will be basing a lot of that build on the smaller 1/2500 and 1/1000 scale models, so I'll eventually have to correct the inaccuracies
irishtrek
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Post by irishtrek »

On the studio model the 2 sides have different window patterns and what R2 did was make both sides the same.
Normal?? What is normal??
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