First time member and user of this forum. I have purchased a 1/72 scale Revell warship kit and although quite detailed the makers seemed to have neglected the finer details such as rivets on the hull and the superstructure.
I have thought of a variety of means to dot the hull (and other appropriate areas) with well-placed rivetting but I would rather ask the experts if there is a way of achieving this end. I thought of dipping a toothpick in paint but I can see this will take an eternity and end up putting me off the model.
Not sure if I should just bite the bullet and give the rivetting a miss but the scale does allow to show rivets and my Virgo perfectionism drives me forward.
There’s no real quick and easy way I know around placing rivets. Well, maybe two: decal strips with little dots printed on them, or using a ponce wheel to make indented rivets.
One thing I’ve done in the past on sci-fi subjects that need this detail is to drill small holes along a line, and then cut off pin heads and glue them into the holes. You’d probably go blind doing that on a 1/72 kit, though.
Toothpicks work kinda ok, and so do fine brushes. My technique is to use a straitedge, pencil and a syringe filled with medium CA.
Draw a line and make marks as to where the rivets are to go and then place rivets by using the syringe and CA. I have also tried 30 minute epoxy for a more robust rivet, but it doesn’t go through the syringe as well.
You may think it may take and eternity, but it really goes pretty fast.