One of the most difficult little things in the hobby is getting the portholes straight. Wobbly rows of portholes can spoil the look of a very fine model as the eye picks them out immediately if one is looking from a bow or stern angle. Many older resin kits seem to have them and if you're scratchbuilding you also have to drill new portholes of course. So far I have not found a perfect solution but in this thread I will suggest a method which makes the problem manageble at least. I hope others will come up with their preferred method of drilling portholes. I will use a freshly scratchbuild hull for this so I don't ruin an expensive piece of resin.
The method is actually very old and is based on real life shipbuilders marking out holes to be drilled using a flexible strip of wood (dutch: "strooklat") on a hull for rivetting.
I start by taking a strong but flexible strip of plastic (or wood) and glueing it to the hull with some drops of glue. The position should be just below the row of portholes to be drilled.
After the glue is dry I take a pin vise and put in a drill of the right size. In this case a .5mm drill in a Tamiya vise. The drill should rest horizontally on the strip and the vise should be turned around, not pushed. A good drill will draw itself in and it is worth investing in a good one for this. When a few mm in the hull the drill is retrieved by turning backwards. Turning backwards instead of simply pulling out reduces the chance of the drill breaking off. Repeat this at the next spot, and another etc...With some practice it is possible to keep the distance between holes constant if neccesary. Turing a pin vise in one's hand is suprisingly easy and not very tiring as long as you son't push the dril in.
After this the strip is cut off, the glue spots sanded away and I have a nice looking early C class hull.
Some don'ts:
Don't use a strip that's too thin. Styrene strip of less than 1mm thickness will warp doring the drilling.
Don't push the drill in or out.
Don't go back once you have removed the strip. If you have forgotten a porthole you'll have to live with it as it is almost impossible to re-attach the strip in exactly the same position.
