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Doing some scratch building and have been trying to find the perfect technique for rivets.

I bought a pack of pins but that has proven kinda annoying, in a few aspects, cutting off the heads and glueing the buggers on, the latter cant be avoided with any technique I imagine. I was looking at my green stuff going "hmmm, maybe" but then i thought gotta be a better way than that too.

Cheers folks, how do you do it?

There's devices you can get for punching rivet heads out of plasticard.

Oh sweet, i was hoping that was the case, but the only thing I have found thus far is a pin like roller device, which is of no use. Still a couple of model shops to try so fingers crossed...

Would a leather punch work similar enough?

Check out this. It's in French, but you get the idea.

http://www.leplastiquealacarte.com/2007/11/une-histoire-de-rivets.html

Here's some places on the web for rod.

http://www.k-mac-plastics.net/ptfe-hex-rod.htm

http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/Shapes.htm

A cheaper, but more time consuming way is to roll greenstuff out into thin 'ropes' so theyre the thickness you want your rivets.

You can play around with it getting square and other shapes out of it.

Let it cure fully, then slice the 'rope' into rivet heads. They may not be exactly the same, but hey, its orky!

Or if you want a somewhat quicker version of FreekyE's method, just roll balls of about the size of the rivets you want, then cut them in half. Glue on the half, and call it a day.

The way I've heard from a lot of sculptors is to drill a hole into the model with a pin-vice where you want the rivet. The hole provides a guide for sculpting the edges of the rivet. Just slap on a bit of greenstuff on top of the whole, and get it as even as you can.

Oh that french site was great, has given me lots of different ideas, and i now understand how that roller thing works. Hopefully I can find some of that hex rod, almost too simple!

I had not thought of using green stuff like a rope and letting it set before cutting. This is whaat I'll try first as I have some GS on hand.

Thanks, you guys have been most helpful.


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Will try that too thanks tarot.

A leather punch or a regular old paper hole punch will work just fine, if you can find one with a small enough diameter. Personally, I just use thin slices of styrene rod. Chop off a bunch with the hobby knife (5 minutes will give you dozens and dozens), pop them in a small container (old pill bottle to avoid spills), and I have enough to keep me going for quite a while. Sure, I can't simulate round or truss head rivets this way, but they're orks - leave that crap to the Imperium (actually, I use the same rivets on Imperial stuff, too...). If I had hex rod, I'd just pop one of my rivets on top of a larger slice of hex rod to be able to simulate nuts and bolts, as well (plain hex rod for bolt heads - I don't like the over-sized washer effect shown on the French site).

Anyone know a source for .125" hex rod? The only ones I have seen are .250 which is maybe too big for this application.

If you want a realistic rivet look try this method.

Many folks do end up using plastic rod chopped up or punched out, but the above is the best way to get that true rivet look with a much smaller diameter than any punch I've seen. It also doesn't take long to do, you can easily rivet an entire panel in a matter of a minute or two.

Ok have had a go with the green stuff and it looks like it will work, need to find the styrene rod to try the other techniques out.

That realistic method is the business, I think that will just to the top of the que, just gotta go to spotlight and grab the beads, which i know they have.

Thanks for that site, has some nice hints and tricks.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/242642.page#752932

Check out this thread.

You can also use Grandt Line model rivet heads. You can get 100 plastic rivet heads for $3 and they have three different size choices. They're really easy to use of you feel like finding a place that sells them (they're kinda obscure).

All I do it cut small bits off from plastic rods. I normal rod will yield at least 300 or more rivets. Make sure that you use a new blade on your hobby knife or a razor blade.

I use a holepunch I bough from walmart. It was in the craft section for like 3 or 5 bucks. Its awesome, just do something like watch tv while doing it, because for Orks, you need thousands of those things to build a decent looking vehicle.