Riveting 101

Captain MAGpie's most Riveting post yet!
How I make rivets.

A tutorial on how I rivet... wait, didn't I just say that?

Another question on how I do things was about how I make my rivets. I use the styrene rod method, mostly because I am cheap, and well, it works, so why not?

So lets get into it. For this tutorial, I used 0.6 mm round-rod, but you can use thinner or thicker depending on how "large" a rivet you want.

So lets start.

Step 1 - Rod, meet knife

As stated above, depending on the size of rivets you want, you need to select from the various thicknesses of styrene rods available. For this example, I am using a 0.6 mm rod, and its the size I generally prefer for tanks and the like. For flyers I like smaller rivets, but it seems the smallest you can get now is 0.5 mm. Nothing a little bit of sanding cant fix.

Well hello Clarice...

Step 2 - Thin Slices

Cutting the slices takes a bit of trail and error until you find the way that works for you. Now you may be wondering, hu? How difficult cant this possibly be?
Its not, but there is a trick here. Cutting slices that are reasonably consistent in length, that is not too short and will be reduced to a bump after smoothing, and not to long that it looks like an antenna on the side of your armour is what you want to aim for. I go for about the same height as the rods width.

And for my next trick, I will shorten this rod in small increments.

Step 3 - Just a few drops

Gluing them on is a matter of dropping a tiny drop of cement on the surface you want to rivet, then picking up the individual rivet and plopping it into place. I find that you can do 2 at a time. Its quick enough to get the rivets on the armour before the glue dries, but not so painstaking as one at a time.

Just one drop of bloo.... um glue.

Step 4 - Staby part

As said, not just pick up the slices and do the deed of riveting them into place. I gently stab each rivet with the point of my hobby knife and just press it into place.

Pick it up...

...plonk it down

Step 5 - Rinse and repeat

Now just keep on doing this until you got all your rivets in place. 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5. AMAZING! I got the same combination on my luggage!

Step 6 - Melt-em

To start the process of rounding the rivets, drop a tiny drop of cement on top of each rivet. This melts the material a bit, taking the edges off, and helps to secure them down on to the surface. 

Just...

...a few drops.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Step 6 - Round and polish

Actually, step 6 would be, let it dry properly! Overnight is the best, honestly. But allow at least a few hours. The surface area for the glue to work with here is minute. If you don't allow the cements to cure properly and the plastic to harden again, you will just sand the rivets off.

Once properly cured, LIGHTLY sand with polishing grit sanding paper. I prefer using sanding sponges as they allow for a "rounder" appearance. 

Rivets, meet sanding sponge.

And basically, we are done.

Step 7 - Done. Soooo done.

And thats the process.

Hope that helps!

Captain MAGpie,

Styrene Addict