rivet modeling technique was: Re: [OT] Ironclads and Tanks and Such

When doing a scratchbuild and you need to model rivets there are not a lot of
"good" options. If you can find some styrene with the rivets already
pre-molded
into them (or something similar) it will be the easiest.

If you can't then you have to model them individually and it can easily send
you to the rubber room.

Here is an idea to simplify things and hopefully make it not so exacting.

Cut your styrene to the shape you need it.

Mark out your rivet pattern.

Drill a hole for each rivet. The size should be big enough for an ordinary
straight pin to go through, but not the head of it. (flat head pins look the
best IMO)

Put a pin in each rivet hole. (Don't bother with glue yet)

After you have your pins in the holes (obviously this is going to work better
if you do all of one piece in one sitting), cover the front of the piece with
masking tape. This will hold the pins in place.

Glue the pins into place from the back of the piece.

Allow the glue to set.

Snip off the excess pin with your favorite pin cutting tool.

Remove tape.

This technique will alleviate some of the fiddling with micro-sized bits
although it probably won't be any less tedious.

I hope someone finds this useful.

Brushman

> At 11:00 02/08/99 -0500, you wrote:
SNIP

Another technique (which I've never tried; I got it from an old Airfix guide
to scratchbuilding AFVs) is to build the model without rivets, then cover it
in sheets of 5 thou plastic card on which the rivet pattern has been embossed
on the REVERSE side. This needs an embossing tool (a pin or the like) and a
slightly resilient surface on which to work (e.g. a cutting mat or thin
cardboard).