Have you ever used rivet decals when scratchbuilding things? If you know anything about it, please tell me your secrets.
In this hobby, they’re basically unheard of. There USED to be a decent British-based military modeling manufacturer who made great rivet decal sheets, in several sizes and spacings. The rivets actually had relief to them, which made them VERY useful. Unfortunately, that manufacturer went under a couple of years ago, so we’re stuck with laminating or embossing our own rivets to scratched models (most “professionals” I know in the hobby glue 'em on one at a time)
Very interesting answer. I found a picture on the net, is this what you mean? http://www2.gpmd.com/image/a/autc3854.jpg Do the professionals make the rivets themself or is it possible to buy rivets? What methods do they use to glue them with good result?
Basically, yes. But the Mil Mod rivets were much finer in terms of scale fidelity, and had useful rivet patterns. What you found are basically stick-on cereal bowls!
Tichy does make styrene rivets, but most of the guys I know just shave the rivets off of old Athearn freight cars, especially the boxcars and steel reefers. As for gluing them, they pencil in the locating centerlines, and then start adding them one at a time: add a little Tenax to the point where you need the rivet, pick up the rivet on the end of a wetted #11 blade, position the rivet, add a little more Tenax, and then remove the knife. I’m “told” that this process doesn’t take all that long once you get the hang of it.
One trick they use to make sure that they get the rivets right side up os to add primer to the model “donating” the rivets first. If they see gray they know they’ve got the top of the rivet. If they see black, they know it’s upside down.
I just looked at tichy’s webpage and I saw the rivets. But I did not understand what they mean by mounting post? Regarding the #11 blade, I’m pretty sure you mean Exacto blades. I have heard a lot about these blades. Are they some kind of standard in this hobby?
The mounting post is attached to the underside of the model rivet. It is of a smaller diameter than the rivet and is inserted in a hole that you usually have to drill in the model. It helps secure the rivet onto the model, however, for certain situations it can be shaved off and the rivet can be mounted directly to the model. This method does not require you to drill a hole and allows you to accurately position the rivet before the glue dries. This topic was extremely useful to me in that I checked out the Tichy website and saw the variety of rivets available. Before that I made them out of globs of glue or cannibalized other models for them. The Tichy rivets scale out perfect for Large Scale.
I made a decal for this on a model I was building. I had overlooked scribing two access hatches and 4 small sand filler doors on a shell I had built and already painted. I printed the scribe lines and the rivets/bolts that held the panel in place to correct the problem. you can see the decal in the second picture on this link. http://www.dansresincasting.com/GE132%20ton%20PG5.htm The small sand filler doors, large panel in front of the cab as well as the rivets are all decals on this model.
Dan Pikulski
For G-scale I buy bolt heads and rivets and glue them on. For smaller scales I have the NWSL “Riveter”.
http://www.nwsl.com/Catalog/pg013-cat2-03-v0501.pdf
http://cgi.ebay.com/NWSL-Sensipress-and-Riveter_W0QQitemZ280006139349QQcmdZViewItem
How about someone elses secrets:
http://www.geocities.com/budb3/arts/meth/rivdet.html
And then you can get really elaborate and buy a computer controlled one:
http://www.galtran.com/PRR_L2_Construction_Information/Rivet%20Machine/computer_controlled_rivet_emboss.htm
I think I would have to be a professional model maker to go that far!
danpik: You are really good. I looked at the whole project, very nice. Texas Zepher: Thanks for the great links. The computer based thing is way overkill 
But the Sensipress looks interesting.
never heard of rivet decals before. what a great timesaving idea.
in 0 scale we have NBW’s (nut-bolt-washer), and rivets made of brass or plastic and need to have holes drilled for mounting. there is also a nut/washer combo that slips over a brass wire “bolt”.
Grandtline, and Precision Scale are two of the companies i deal with. i’m pretty sure they make the products in H0 also.
some enterprising folks adapt an old sewing machine to emboss a rivet pattern from the backside of brass or thin plastic.
I sat next to a master scratchbuilder at a show – I was doing cardboard buildings and he was scratchbuilding a plastic car.
He was putting in rivets by drilling a hole, gluing plastic rod into it, then cutting it off when dry.
Years ago, I built a one-off design MOW car. I applied diluted white glue dots via a round toothpick. The results were pretty good, but I’ve never done it since, as it simply takes too much time.