I am looking for a good way to represent rivits on steam locomotives. Such as the firebox and other areas where riviting is located. When I kit-bash a loco and tender, there are times when the rivit detail gets filed off at splices, etc. Who has a method which is easy, quick and does a good job of representing rivits, other than embossing them.
I have had fair results using a small piece of wire to place a small drop of epoxy or plastic cement where a rivet is missing. I don’t feel it is as good as what was there, but better than nothing. This technique does take some practice, so use a scrap item to get the feel. If you use the plastic cement, use the tube type, not liquid. Either way, watch out for “stringers”, as they can make a mess. Good luck!
Take a look at these article, Bob Hundman goes into great detail on many methods.
Modifying Athearn’s USRA 2-8-2, Part One
Mainline Modeler, February 2000 page 67
The Tender Prototype and Plans
( 2-8-2, ATHEARN, DRAWING, “HUNDMAN, ROBERT L.”, NKP, STEAM, SUPERDETAIL, TENDER,
USRA, ENGINE, LOCOMOTIVE, MM )
Modifying Athearn’s USRA 2-8-2, Part Two
Mainline Modeler, March 2000 page 53
The tender shell
( 2-8-2, ATHEARN, “HUNDMAN, ROBERT L.”, NKP, SCRATCHBUILD, STEAM, SUPERDETAIL, TENDER,
USRA, CONSTRUCTION, ENGINE, LOCOMOTIVE, MM )
Modifying Athearn’s USRA 2-8-2, Part Four
Mainline Modeler, May 2000 page 52
The Tender
( 2-8-2, ATHEARN, DRAWING, “HUNDMAN, ROBERT L.”, NKP, STEAM, SUPERDETAIL, TENDER,
USRA, ENGINE, LOCOMOTIVE, MM )
NKP USRA 2-8-2 - The Tender - Coal Space and Coal Gate
Mainline Modeler, June 2000 page 45
( 2-8-2, DRAWING, “HUNDMAN, ROBERT L.”, NKP, STEAM, TENDER, USRA, ENGINE, LOCOMOTIVE,
PROTOTYPE, MM )
NKP 2-8-2 Class H6e
Mainline Modeler, September 2000 page 61
Special attention to Number 636
( 2-8-2, DRAWING, “HUNDMAN, ROBERT L.”, NKP, STEAM, ENGINE, LOCOMOTIVE, PROTOTYPE, MM )
Modifying Athearn’s USRA 2-8-2 the tender
Mainline Modeler, March 2001 page 70
making the riveted wrapper and detailing the tender
( 2-8-2, “HUNDMAN, ROBERT L.”, NKP, SCRATCHBUILD, STEAM, TENDER, CONSTRUCTION, ENGINE,
LOCOMOTIVE, HO, MM )
And there are the old stand-bys: a garage sale sewing machine or cut a rivet strip from another model…
Have fun.
When adding rivets to a scratchbuilt part or entire car, using a rivet embossing tool like the NWSL Riveter will do just fine. Bob Hundman’s riveting machine is nice, but is probably overkill for most of us. I saw an article fairly recently (in Mainline Modeler, I think) where someone used a sewing machine to emboss rivets.
When you want to add a rivet or three onto a model that’s “lost” some, do what most of the freight car model artists do: shave off a rivet from an Athearn boxcar, add a small drop of plastic cement to the area you want the rivet, and transfer the rivet to the drop. This technique is used regularly in the resin freight car building world.
Saw a neat tip in another forum: Use a reversed drill shank of the appropriate diameter as the punch and a drill gauge of the appropriate diameter as the die. Use in a pin vise or a dialed in drill press.
Haven’t tried it but it obviously would work for limited applications where registration wasnt critical
Randy
I thought I was being specific enough. However, I see I forgot to specify what scale I model. I model in HO. Also, I am not looking for input on the embossing process. I know NWSL has a riviting tool and there are countless other ways of embossing rivits. Embossing lends itself to sheet materials (metals, plastic sheets), not cast or molded items. Thanks for the help previously given!!
A couple years back I read online something about a business catering to the military diorama crowd who sells some sort of rivet decals which were supposed to look pretty good. Sorry, don’t know the outfit name but maybe another lister knows or you can do a Google-ectomy and dig it out on your own.
Good luck!
Deschane,
Follow this URL to a note by a Brit model maker. Believe it or not, it involves taking apart the filter cartridge from a counter top water filter and using the beads inside.
http://www.ww2modelmaker.com/articlepub/ISrivtip.htm
It definitely is not embossing. Hope this helps.
Bob
Deschane,
Okay, so I’m at Tommy Gilbert’s hobby shop in Gettysburg, PA, today looking at his display of Tichy Train Group products and what do I see ? Rivets ! In impact grade polystyrene. Okay, so you may have to drill a mounting hole, but they come in a variety of diameters, and you don’t have to buy a water filter cartridge. To see all the rivet diameters that Tichy offers go to their Web site at:
http://www.tichytraingroup.com/index.php? page=view_category.php&category=NBW+%26+Rivets&offset=0
Sorry the URL may be broken, but you get the general idea. Hope this helps.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543