I tried cutting a thin plastic rod into 1000 little rivets and it was so tedious I just couldn't stand it anymore .. in the end what I ended up doing for my baneblade dozer blade was I just took white glue and put a little dot on the model, after it dried, I went over each rivet again just to get some extra height. I didn't paint it yet but it looks like it will look just fine once it's drybrushed, and it was quick & easy to do. Not perfect of course but a great easy way to get decent looking rivets
here's a pic of the dozer blade thingy I was building..