"What are good ways to model rivets?" Topic

I am working on converting a vehicle for a 40K(ish) Ork force, and I was wondering how people make rivets on models and model buildings. The one technique I have heard of is to cut the head off of straight pens. I did that for a door for a fantasy building one time, and it worked well – but was fairly time consuming (and you have to be careful not to let the rest of the pen go flying off!). I was just wondering what other techniques people may have used.

Wait, just thought of another technique I tried – cutting off bits from a small plastic rod. That technique didn't work that well for me – could never seem to cut the pieces off straight and at the right thickness.

They make some premade rivets but I have not bought any yet i am sure they are nice and would work
barrule.com/workshop

I have tried both heads of pins and plastic rod, and my favorite method is still the simplist. I dab small beads of pva glue using a toothpick. It takes a bit of practice to make them very regular and precise, but it is possible. I would do a first round, allow them to cure, and then add a second blob on top of the first. They cure as single, well defined rivet.

The upside is that you can quickly do large numbers of rivets in varying sizes. And after sealing with Future and dullcoat, they are quite indestructable. I was just looking at an old scratchbuilt SM Predator I did about ten years ago-the rivets are still just fine.

Jason

Another source is scalehardware.com. They make a line of simulated rivets, hex head bolts and nuts, square head bolts and nuts, as well as miniature threaded fasteners.

Rufus

I prefer to use styrene rivets, more costly than PVA, but a lot faster.

link

Wait, just thought of another technique I tried – cutting off bits from a small plastic rod.

This is what I have done: link The comments on the last picture of the finished vehicles indicate how I was able to do it. You ended up with a system, but buy lots of rod/dowel and practice, practice, practice. Even then be p[rpared for every 4th or 5th cutting to be discarded. Styrene rod/dowels are dirt cheap though. This should work for GW size stuff.

The PVA method is not as good for me: see the M3 GMC drop ins here: link It was very hard to control the size. Mind you, this was my first and last PVA rivet project and there may be a technique to it one can develop. However, for my scale, the white glue was too runny. Perhaps if you could get some thickened up stuff, but I find as small a blob as you put on, the spot settles and spreads out considerably.

I've also purchased a pile of plastic styrene rivets that I wanted very close to scale of various sizes of bolts and rivets for a Polish armoured train project I am working on. My source was link

Great service from these folks. However, the kits come on sprues, so you're going to have to cut them off the sprue, and they come with longish (relative to the size of the bolt/rivet) stems. For my Polish train, I'll just pin vice a hole for them in the plastic card I'll be using, but this may be problematic for an existing model, so I'd simply recommend the first method, cutting them off a rod.

Hope this is of some help.
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Tim

Go to the craft store and find the smallest doll eyes they make (they get pretty small). They come in largish packs for a dollar or two. They are ready to use as opposed to the other methods listed, cheap, and uniform.

I would suggest using super glue gel and having a paper clip or other similar utensil on hand to position them.

One step down in efficiency is to go Walmart or such and get a plastic styrene garage sale sign for about $1. USD Take a relatively new rotary leather hole punch and hold the sign over a plate or bowl. Start punching. You can dial the punch into new rivet sizes as needed.

Styrene garage sale signs-that sounds like a great sources for plastic card!

Yes it does – and nobody has plastic card around here!

Thanks for all of the suggestions, everyone. Many many years ago (hmmm, 30 +) I used the pva glue to make studs on plastic shields; they looked so-so – I could never get them as uniform as I wanted. I still have those figures around here somewhere

With the tichy train site, what scale works well for vehicles desigend for 28mm figures? I may try some of them.

Doll eyes? I'll have a look, cloudcaptain. And a rotary leather hole punch… interesting.

Thanks, everyone.

Mweaver, as far as scale, probably best to ask a question on that as a separate topic, ie, what train scale works for 28mm? I seem to recall several topics on this in the distant past, but I simply can't recall if S or O works best, sorry (HO = 1:87 and N scale is even smaller).
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Tim

I use a punch-and-die.

To make rivets for 28mm-1/56-1/48 size models/vehicles, I prefer sizes of 1mm or smaller. That's .04 inches.

The closest I found was an Archer rivet sheet. Problem is, the spacing between rivets is too close, and to cut and apply each rivet individually is too much work.

Leather punches are too big.

I have tried dots of PVA glue, but it spreads a bit and shrinks. I would have to apply 2-3 dots at each spot to build up the height. Unsatisfactory results. But…the technique had merit.

Now I use 2-part epoxy. Much thicker than PVA so it holds its shape. I use 30-minute epoxy so I have enough time to apply numerous dots (20-minute may be good, too, but my store didn't have it; 5-minute epoxy sets too quickly). I use a toothpick. A simple dunk and dot, and I get a rivet of 1mm or less each time. Larger rivets can be made either by double-dotting, or "blunting" the tip of the toothpick.

I do a side, let it harden, then do another side until all sides are done.

Quick and simple, with great results.

Historex has a rivet punch & die set, with 9 different sizes (4mm, 3mm, 3/32, 5/64, 1/16, .045, .040, .031, .024), but it's quite expensive ($80 at a local hobby store).

Ah, here's something from wikipedia:

link

S = 1/64

O is listed as:
1:43.5 (Great-Britain and France)
1:45 (Germany)
1:48

HTH
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Tim

With 28mm (or larger) orks I use relatively large rivets, .04 to .08 inch diameter. I got a bunch of the Tichy rivets from the local hobby shop, so didn't order them as O or S gauge, etc. They were listed by diameter on the packages.

To apply, I cut the rivet head off of the sprue, apply a drop of solvent with w syringe, and pick up and attach the rivet head with the point of a sharp hobby knife.

On styrene sources, Home Depot or another DITY store is your best bet. Plus you can get a variety of thicknesses.

On rivets, for smaller scale (say, 15mm down to 6mm), I cut thin strips of styrene out and then indent them using a woodworking tool called a "pounce wheel". This gives a nice even row of rivets. But, it wouldn't look right on 28mm constructs. There are some pics of an Epic Gargant I scratchbuilt on my Photobucket site, which show the results of the technique:

link

Otherwise, I use plastic rod (especially hex-shaped rod) and trim small pieces off to glue on as hex bolts.

Oh, and an essential tool for cutting that styrene rod is a hinged cutting tool, the kind that comes with a cutting pad and uses razor blades. Makes good clean flat cuts.

Verlinden produced some bolts an rivits for 1/35 tanks.
They may work for 28mm Orks stuff.

I was trying to do it with just a basic hoby knife – no good!

Interesting variation on the glue trick, Schogun. Might give that a try.

Thanks for the info on scale, Tim and cycad1.

Take apart a water filter – they normally have two or three sizes of small round beads and they make great round rivets – you need to press a small hole in the model body and just sink them in.

Andrew
kings-sleep.blogger.com

mweaver – from Jed:

link

can't be beaten he says (we're all out of stock and they're closer to you anyway)

theres a few tricks to applying smooth rivets he says – drop him an email and he'll pass them on.

Try the waaagh! they probably have some ideas.
the-waaagh.com/home.htm

Sorry, I forgot add you can use the bolts & rivets off any spare Ork weapons. You'll need to carefully slice them off(the bolts& rivets not your fingers!) and glue them onto your conversion.
I'd use a combination of homemade rivets for overall effect and just add the more detailed bitz where you like.

Thanks for that link, Palewarrior! Lots of neat ideas there.

I'll drop Jed a line, Mrs. A., thanks!

Buy styrene rod, hex rod, or square rod stock and then just glue it on and cut off any excess with nippers and file flat. Works great and the rods come in a variety of diameters/sizes.

Hollow punches are another option – I bought a cheap set for around $10, and it included several small diameters.

P.S.:

A very similar topic was up slightly over a week ago:

TMP link

And the same search for "rivets" in titles turned up quite a few more threads.

One way to make small rivets in plastic is to take a pin and lightly poke the plastic, this will give you a tiny hole with a raised rim. When you paint the paint will fill the hole, and you'll be left with a small, rivet like protrusion.

These can be to small to see at tabletop distances though, so are probably not ideal for orky conversions.

Make your own plastic rod by heating & stretching plastic sprue, then heat a piece of metal like an old, throw away screwdriver blade, and apply it to the cut end of the stretched sprue which will cause the sprue to mushroom. Cut off the mushroom with or without a stem & repeat a few hundred times.

From Airfix Magazine I think, 30-odd years ago. Various thicknesses produce various sizes of 'rivet'.

Plastic rod: cut to about 3mm length, drill hole, dab glue, insert. Repeat a couple of hundred times. Photo: link Click on image for full view.

OR: cut larger diameter rod to about 2mm length, dab glue, set directly against hull. Repeat a couple of hundred times. link Second from the bottom.

I like 7 rivets to the inch for 28mm.

Al | rivetsandsteam.com

You will kick yourself that you didnt use doll eyes before :) They are smooth little plastic domes. They make them in very tiny mm sizes.

Cut bits from rod or sprue (if you can still find round sprue) glue in place and sand. There was an article in White Dwarf about it way back in the day when I still read the WD.

Greenstuff?

Roll out a very thin sausage of GS, cut off a tiny bit from the end, roll it into a ball between wet fingers, apply and gently mash down. Did this last night on some Orky Epic 40K aircraft.

w.