Get A Complete Pinning Kit For Less Than The $26 Citadel Drill

There’s been a lot of discussion recently about the newly released Citadel Tool set, particularly the cost of this set. While I’ve seen some reasoned attempts to justify what Games Workshop is charging for their hobby tools I think that the price for this set as well as the individual tools is, quite frankly, absurd. I’m not going to address every item here (I may do that separately in an upcoming article) but I was looking at what I personally use for “hobbying” and thought it would be helpful to share some of the things I use with you. Today we’ll take a look at the the Citadel Drill/Pin Vise and I’ll show you how to beat Games Workshop at their own game and come out way ahead in the process.

Is That Thing Made of Gold?

The Citdadel Drill costs $26 and includes the pin vise and 6 drill bits. It’s a nice looking pin vise and it comes in a nice box I guess, but damn, $26? For that same $26 you can put together a complete pinning kit that includes a Pin Vise, Drill Bits, an abundance of Brass Rod in two useful sizes and a set of full size wire cutters for trimming the brass rod so you don’t screw up your sprue cutters.

Assembling Your Pinning Kit

A pin vise will cost you about $7 – $8 depending on where you source it. I have a couple different ones but this is the one I use most. I like the round wooden handle because it feels more comfortable in my hand. I’ve seen these with both the ball type handle and a more mushroom shaped handle, both are about the same price.

This particular Pin Vise is currently available on Amazon for $7.95 with free Shipping.

Drill Bits and Brass Rod

You can go a couple of different ways here. What I mean by that is that you can get a set like this one that has an assortment of micro sized drill bits that will potentially give you a lot of flexibility – but in my experience you’re going to end up using the same two or three drill bits for about 95% of your hobbying. The other route is to just build a pinning kit with two sizes of drill bit for two different sizes of brass rod. This is what I’ve done and here is what I’m recommending based on my own experiences.

I use two different sizes of brass rod for pinning, both of which I source from K&S Precision Metals. K&S makes metal rod and tubing for modelers and the model train hobby and they have a wide variety of sizes and types of metals. You can usually find this stuff in big hobby shops or model train specialty shops. According to the K&S website you can find them at Hobby Lobby, Dick Blick, Utrecht and more. Your Friendly Local Game Store may also be able to get it for you via their distributor depending on who they use.

The first size I use is .81mm (.032”) Product Code KS1602 – this is a five pack of 12 inch long pieces & you can get this for around $2, slightly less online but you’ll have to pay shipping. For this size brass rod I use #66 drill bits which are .033” – a bit larger than the brass rod so you’re not jamming it into the hole you’ve drilled (and gouging your thumb in the process). You can pick these up from your hobby shop or online and they’re a couple bucks each in a two pack. You can also get a package of 6 or 12 drill bits for under $10 on ebay or Amazon. I mention this because eventually they will wear out or break and it’s worth having spares on hand because it sucks when you have to stop in the middle of a project because you’re short that one critical tool or item.

The other size brass rod I use is .51mm (.020”) Product Code KS1596 – again a 5 pack of 12 inch long pieces for around $2. These are paired with #75 .53mm drill bits, another couple bucks each for a pair or you can currently get a 10 pack on Amazon for $3.80 w/free shipping from the same vendor as the wood handled pin vise mentioned previously.

Last but not least I recommend a full size set of offset cutters (wire cutters) so you’re not tempted to use your sprue cutters and ruin the edge on those. You can get one of these at Harbor Freight Tool supply for $5, it’s item #66277. If you don’t have a Harbor Freight locally, you can order one – they ship everything FedEx Ground for $6.95 and there are some other items you can get from them that you’ll find very useful and inexpensive. I’ll have another post up in a few days with a list of useful items from Harbor Freight Tools.

To sum up, your cost for this complete pinning kit is:

Pin Vise 7.95
#75 Drill Bits $3.89
#66 Drill Bits about $4
Brass Rod .51mm & .81mm about $4 (5 feet of each size, that’s going to last you awhile)
Full Size Wire Cutters $5

Total: $25 – that’s just a bit cheaper than the Citadel Drill and you end up with a complete pinning set up instead of just a drill and 6 drill bits.

For those of you interested in getting a micro drill bit set as an optional add on, those are also fairly inexpensive and while this one isn’t the exact one I have it’s very similar – 20 drill bits for eight bucks and it ships free if you’re an Amazon Prime member.

As you can see, there’s no reason to shell out twenty six bucks for a pin vise. If you only need a pin vise you can get one for a lot less. If you’re just starting out and you don’t have any of this stuff then your $26 will get you a complete set up that will meet all of your model pinning needs for a long time.

 

Have something to add or a helpful bit of advice? Feel free to drop some knowledge down below in the comment section!