Pewter Gets Hot!
If you’ve ever drilled or ground on pewter with a Dremel you know full well that it heats up quickly from friction. Small pieces, like the DJ stacks, are the worst. My fingers are pretty used to it after 20+ years in the hobby, but it’s still painful when you go too far. One trick I learned a few years ago is to run your drill bit into an old candle. The wax melts from the friction and helps lubricate the bit. It increases the bite and slows down the heat buildup for a bit. When it gets hot, repeat the process. It sounds odd at first, but once you try it and see the difference you’ll understand.
One of the biggest problems with the way I build models is not the time factor, but trying to disassemble them. I was physically unable to separate the torso section from the waist no matter how I tried. I could have soaked it in Castrol Super Clean overnight and that would have made the glue bonds brittle. Maybe. 4 pins is a bit of overkill, but that’s my motto. Why just assemble when you can overbuild? 
So, after tearing the DJ back apart as much as I could I set about drilling out the center tube for the shoulders where I had filled it with Apoxie. This was annoying as I had never intended that to come out again. Ah well. The hollow area makes a great spot to house the LEDs though, so it had to be done. Once the area was clear I started planning the wire run from underneath the base. I initially drilled two smaller holes right behind the foot, but the pewter is so thick there that a small bit was struggling and I had second thoughts about weakening the area where all of the weight is resting so I moved further back and made one large hole for both wires to chase through. They’ll be easy enough to disguise with a bit of creative putty work in that location. The red marks the hole I will be using.
Next came the stack joins. I’m going to house the LEDs inside the body, shining up through the shafts to light the stacks so I needed as big of a tunnel as I dared. I started with a 1/16″ bit and then just kept sizing up until I felt I had to stop.
Now going the other way, I opened up the port in the chest to the cavity, again sizing up as I went. I could only get one “rib” piece back off, but it was enough to work with in the area. Two small tunnels were drilled along the neck into the cavity to slide fiber optic lines for the eyes as well. They won’t have a specific light source I think, just the ambient light from all of the LEDs in the cavity. It should be sufficient. Two more holes up under the chest plate for the wire leads to run through to supply the lights.
Now the fun part. I started tearing up my base sculpt for the skulls. I drilled an eye socket and nasal socket for each one and then opened up a cavity to house an LED in each. This was more difficult that it looks, as I had a brass rod post pinning the Deathripper jaws in place. I had to bore through the pewter jaw and the post to get through.
The stacks, oh the stacks. Burnt finger fun. Each one was bored all the way through with the same diameter bits as the body, then each venting grate (I have no idea what else to call them) was ported out and filed.
I checked them with a flashlight and they light up pretty well. I’ll have to mask the shiny metal insides when painting so that they stay reflective.
So here’s the plan. 3 LEDs (I might have to go to 5, but I’m hoping not to) housed in the body cavity to light all stacks, the chest and the eyes. 1 more LED in each shoulder to light each Skull of Hate. It should prove to be pretty cool. Now to obtain the required parts and dust off my rusty soldering skills…
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