The Trumpeter A-10 I’m working on has some raised rivets molded in on the rear of the fuselage (yeah, they really should be raised in that area according to the pics I found, although the molded rivets are a bit too high). Unfortunately the fuselage didn’t join very well and I’m going to have to sand and possibly fill the seam which will cause me to lose a line or two of rivets. Sunken rivets are easy to fix when that happens, but does anyone have a good way for adding raised rivets back? I thought about using a tiny drop of white glue or CA for each of them, but I’m not sure I can control it well enough to make things look right. Any advice would be much appreciated, as usual.
Depending on how close the rivets are to the seam, you could protect them somehow while sanding. If the are really close to the seam it’ll be a bit difficult, but if there’s a bit of space between the seam and the first row of rivets, cover them with masking tape and sand.
If you have to lose a few rivets, the CA or white glue trick is probably the way to do it. I’ve heard it works better if you let the glue dry a bit on the end of a toothpick before applying it. As usual, practice it and you’ll end up with some half decent looking rivets.
hope this helps.
Use dimensional fabric paint. Comes in lots of pretty colours, which will make it easier on your eyes than uncolored wood or super glue…! Also, dfp keeps its ‘volume’ while drying, unlike wood glue…
Any craft sore will carry them. Several makes available. Plaid is a good one. Quite cheap and will last a life-time!
Like everything, though, it does take a bit of practice to get an even line of regularly sized ‘heads’. I use a cocktail stick; each dipping bring enough paint for 2 to 3 regular sized ‘heads’, then I wipe the stick clean and start again. Great thing about it is that if you’re not happy, you simply scape it off the plastic and start again. It’s also rather resistant once dry, but I always put a coat of future over my rivet lines, just in case…!
Here’s what Plaid dimensional fabric paints look like…
Thanks, guys, I appreciate the advice.
Pingtang, they were just too close together not to lose some. The rows are about 1/16" from the middle of the seam (about 1mm) and there was just no way I could get in between them to sand without losing a row on each side. I got the seam cleaned up but I lost about a dozen rivets.
DJ, I’ll give your idea a try. My concern with CA or white glue was it settling while it dried, and your paint seems like the trick. Much as I hate to go to Michaels on the day after Thanksgiving (the largest shopping day of the year here in the States) I’ll fight my way over there and pick some up.
Or as my friend in our local chapter of IPMS did, go to the Railroad store and get model rivets, drill the holes out and sink NEW rivets in to the desired length. He is redoing all the rivets on his Hellcat…[:0]
Thanks for the advice, but all I can say to that is that he is far more concerned about scale correctness than I am[8D] I’ll repair the ones I sanded off, I’ll even sand them all down a bit so they don’t stick up so high, but there ain’t no way I’m drilling them all out and putting new ones in.[xx(]
have you ever thought about using an scratch awe and using it to press on the back of the part(before assembly) that will raise the portion of the plastic slightly into small dome which is about the size of some raised rivets but you have to do it lightly or youll break the part.