Good way to make holes in plastic?

[Swanningabout]

I want to make a hole in a plastic schurzen plate (1/35) to indicate damage (either by AP round or HEAT round, haven't decided yet). I would imagine heating something and just poking a hole through would be a good idea, but what's a good way to do this without catching the plastic on fire or just making a gooey mess?

 

[Belugawrx]

Heating plastic always seams to distort, and round the panel,...
My advice would be to grind away at the back of the plate, making the plastic thinner (in scale),
Then take the back side of your exacto blade and poke thru, and rip the styrene open,
Creating battle damage is tricky to get it to look right.
Practice on other plastic before trying on the actual part.
Good luck
Cheers

 

[urumomo]

Like Belugawrx says -- practice on some scrap . Styrene the same thickness as the kit piece .

I've never used heat , a hot nail etc .. I drill the appropriate size hole and use a knifechisel and putty to shape the surrounding material .

Look forward to your results ..
.. post pics of your practice runs with different methods !

Ciao ,
Uru

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

Take a look online at photos of tanks with hits on them.

AP round is a fairly neat small hole. Heat hits may show some melt (as it is usually a shaped charge, which is essentially a jet of hot metal, usually copper, going through the armor), around the edge of the hole, and some soot, but otherwise a fairly clean hole.

 

[Swanningabout]

Thank you all, for these replies. This is very helpful.