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I am looking for a better way to do rivets. I have used a hole punch with plasticard and it work well but they are a bit large. I read an article about using white(Elmers) glue for rivets and I tried it but it seems to flatten out as it dries.

I have a ton of rivets to put on my orky dice tower and I am hoping for some pearls of wisdom here and I know yall have 'em so give em up!!

But honestly any help would be a real help here.

I use a teeny tiny ball of greenstuff and flatten it slightly with the bottom of a biro. Gets the results I want with little hassle.

If you make the ball an almost perfect sphere and push the biro almost central it sort of flattens quite evenly.

Get thee to a hobbyshop!

Most hobby shops that specialize in model trains or plastic models will sell brass rivets created by photo etching. Pros; consistent size and shape, lots of them for a low price. Cons; fiddly to work with, expect to krazy glue your fingers together.

You could always try flat headed pins. You can get them at hobby stores and even *swallows hard* craft stores.
Anywho, just poke the hole, then clip the ends off and glue them on. Holds REALLY well too.

Forgeworld use the beads out of water filters

For small roundhead rivets and hex bolts I'd recommend Scale Hardware. They have an assortment of stuff including speciality items like working 0.5mm nuts, as specialty tools for actually tightening them.

http://scalehardware.com/

I use a small diameter plastic rod and just slice off little discs with an exacto knife. Kind of tedious, but it works if you want less consistency and more orky rivets.

These are large pins that I cut the head off and pressed it into the plastic with vice grips (small ones)...

You can use a Trumpeter Hobby Craft Rivet Maker Tool. It makes rivets in HO scale and can be picked up on ebay. One commerical site I saw had one for sale at 5 GBP. Just copy and past the name.

Dobie wrote:I use a small diameter plastic rod and just slice off little discs with an exacto knife. Kind of tedious, but it works if you want less consistency and more orky rivets.

That's what I do, and like you said it's a little tedious but I think it produces the best results.

Agamemnon2 wrote:For small roundhead rivets and hex bolts I'd recommend Scale Hardware. They have an assortment of stuff including speciality items like working 0.5mm nuts, as specialty tools for actually tightening them.

http://scalehardware.com/

wow that stuff is perfect. I do try to keep cost down and that stuff does seem to priced well.

Thanks for all the advice. I will probably try all of your advice on the tower. It seems perfect that I should have different types of rivets and bolts and blah blah holding the thing together.

I use the method dobie and irishthump mention.

To elaborate a bit, and save you some frustration- I'll go over the basic process I use.

First I get some plastic rod at the hobby shop(very few game shops carry this stuff- need a regular hobby shop that does at least models & RC stuff). Evergreen or whatever brand they carry is fine.

I usually use .8 mm or so for regular rivets, up to 2 mm for fat ones.

You can use square rod or round, its not a big issue with tiny rivets. I prefer square- as its easier to slice since the rod rolls less when cutting.

Once you have your rod- get a brand new xacto blade, and a soft cutting surface(if you cut on a hard surface the rivets are prone to fly off more often).

If you are right handed- place an empty box just to the right of where you are cutting- standing up on its side- a rhino box is about the perfect size. This will catch almost all the fly aways you might have.

Now- the cutting. Imagine the plastic rod is like a lil loaf of bread- and you're trying to cut it into tiny little slices. Use the middle/back of the blade only- not the tip (you'll see why later) It takes practice, but just put on some good tunes and start cutting. Ideally you want flat little disc shapes- if you cut one too long- pick it out and toss it in your scrap plastic pile(which you can use as rubble for bases!)

Once you get good at this you can slice up 12" into rivets in about 15 or 20 minutes- to store your rivets I'd recommend an empty paint pot, or something similar with a lid on it- spilling the rivets on the carpet is bad- as theyre gone lol.

To apply the rivets- that shiney new blade you used to cut them is used again- this time we just want its super pointy tip. Gently stab a rivet- just enough that it sticks to the point. Now, on a scrap piece of plastic(I use a flipped over base as a lil bowl) put a few drops of CA glue- make a lil puddle so it doesnt dry right away.

Now- dip just the tip of the rivet on your knife into that lil puddle just enough to get a lil glue on it. Look where your rivet goes- and gently press it on- count to 3 (letting the glue set) and wiggle the xacto a lil to work the tip loose and pull it away. If all went well- you have a rivet!

Tips- too much glue makes it take longer to set, and can obscure the rivet. not enough means it can pop off later (sucks if its been painted). Poking it too hard with hte knife might make it stick to the blade during the application part. And not poking hard enough means the rivets will fall into the glue puddle. Also- make sure the glue puddle doesnt get too tacky or it will eat your rivets off the knife tip

This might be easier using just plastic cement- but Ive never tried it. If anyone has- post up how it worked for you

Cut plastic rod is easy and looks good, plus you can get rod in round, hex and square.

It is by far easier than my first try which involved rounding off brass rod, cutting it short, drilling holes and super glueing the pieces in. It looks really good, but it is madness.