Etched rivet detail

[Tor Giffard]

Evenin' all,

I'm comparing options for decorative rivet detail on the girder bridges for Tor Giffard and already have the Slaters Plasticard representation.

Is anyone aware of etched rivet detail suitable for slicing into strips?

Cheers

Dave

[Paul Willis]

Evenin' all,

I'm comparing options for decorative rivet detail on the girder bridges for Tor Giffard and already have the Slaters Plasticard representation.

Is anyone aware of etched rivet detail suitable for slicing into strips?

Shoot me down for a daft idea, but given the size of your bridge project (which is most impressive) have you thought of designing your own strips of rivets and having them etched?

An A4 (roughly) size test piece in 12 thou brass cost me about £52, which sounds a lot as a sum, but if you think how many strips of rivets that would produce, and the equivalent cost of many individual packs of (say) Archers rivet decals, it actually may make a lot of sense.

Using a CAD package means that you can do a lot of copy/paste that would greatly speed up the design element of it, and the turnaround time for me was only about two weeks.

Something to think on...
Cheers
Flymo

[jim s-w]

Mainly trains do strips of etched rivets.

Hth

Jim

[Mike Garwood]

Why not use Archers decals?

http://www.archertransfers.com/

They are available from UK suppliers but I can't remember which ones at the moment.

Mike

[Tor Giffard]

...thanks guys...an etch of pure rivet detail is the most likely one for me to commission but I didn't want to go to the trouble and then find that they were already available.

I do have the Archer range and Slaters Plasticard variants already...I'm simply comparing the appearance and ease/speed of application first.

Cheers

Dave

[HowardGWR]

How do people get around the 'strips of rivets' problem? I mean, if the prototype does not have a washer plate, they are useless aren't they? I thought that is why the Archer approach is the only way (apart from punching from behind) for simulating rivets without washer plates?

[Tor Giffard]

Hi Howard,

....one test that I'm trying on the potential Slaters Plasticard 'strips of rivets' route is applying a spot of super glue to each 'washer plate' with a pin (to form the rounded top)...this is still a fairly quick route because there is no need to think about spacing...just keep dipping and spotting. I'm trialling different viscosities of glue...the more viscous the better at the moment.

I like the result with the Archers route but it isn't good for sanity with this number of rivets, as each would have to be spaced correctly as well as applied.

The rivets on the prototype LSWR bridges were pronounced...therefore the riveting is more important than it might have been.

Also, the .25mm nickel-silver sheet from which the bowstring sections will be made still looks fine with its thin Plasticard cladding, which is another consideration.

Dave

[martin goodall]

I would second Mike Garwood's suggestion - Archer decals.

For a good practical example, see the item posted in the 'Farthing Layouts' blog on RM Web (or onthe 'Farthing Layouts' website).

I have recently been building a large rectangular GWR water tank, which is absolutely covered in rivets. I could not have faced building this model if I had been forced to punch all those rivets out in sheet brass or nckel silver or any of the other suggested methods. The rivet decals were a doddle to apply, although I shall have to be careful not to smother them with paint. I shall probably spray paint the model.

[Tor Giffard]

Martin,

...the etched rivet strip route would easily be the least time-consuming/demanding approach because the etching process would leave the 'rivet heads' in the correct places on the strip to a highly uniform and accurate degree.

Neither I nor any of the other posters on this thread have suggested the 'punch' route.

Dave

[martin goodall]

Using the Archer resin decals is bound to be quicker than having to mess about cutting out strips of etched material. For the job I was doing (a standard GWR 12,500 gallon water tank) etched strips would have been no good, as the rivets are on the sheet material itself; there are no raised ribs or strips to which the rivets are attached. As well as being rivetted at 1.5-inch intervals all along each edge of the sheet, these sheets also have other rivets (at different spacing) down the middle of the sheet. The model is built from styrene sheet, painted gloss white to ensure adhesion of the rivet decals. (Final painting will be in matt Dark Stone and Light Stoe colours.)

I was able to use strips of rivets of the correct size and interval spacing, rather than appying rivets individually. (The latter would certainly be a somewhat tedious process.) Where laying a strip of rivets from the decal sheet, it is an easy matter to slide them off the end of a length of backing sheet that has been cut out and soaked in warm water, then apply Solvaset (or similar) to ensure that they are firmly fixed down with no visible carrying film.

[Joe Newman]

I am unsure about what size of 'rivets' to use on wagons. The Historex list quotes three size of Archer rivets - 0.2 mm, 0.28 mm and 0.36 mm.

What would colleagues recommend for use on a GWR bogie iron mink? Or indeed on wagons generally.

Any advice will be gratefully received.

Joe Newman

[Mike Garwood]

Joe

There is a 'beginners' kit (AR88001 or SD99001) that has a variety of size and spacing of rivets. That's the one I ordered. You then have a choice.

Mike

[Joe Newman]

That's very helpful Mike. I have not spotted the beginner's kit you mention.

Many thanks.

Joe

[Paul Townsend]

Why not use Archers decals?

http://www.archertransfers.com/

They are available from UK suppliers but I can't remember which ones at the moment.

Mike

DCC Supplies is one in UK.
They stock the beginners kit AR88001 but not SD99001

Archers website shows dealers all over the world.

[DaveHarris]

As I was also one looking for some kind of rivet display system on a model this thread is of interest to me. I have e mailed the company who can either send one a pdf copy of thier catalogue or are prepared to post one to an enquirier almost by return! Their charges for postage are very resonable. They admit that not all of their distributors will keep all of their sheets and are quite happy to mail direct from the US. Their 'how to' videos seem to answer most questions and any further queries can be easily dealt with by an email enquiry and produce a quick and helpful response.This seems to be a very helpful company.

Dave Harris

[David B]

DCC Supplies is one in UK.
They stock the beginners kit AR88001 but not SD99001

Archers website shows dealers all over the world.

I think it cheaper to buy from Archers. DCC are £14.50 + P&P (added when you check out). Archers $17.95 (£10.73) + $6.50 (£3.88) P&P to the UK= £14.61. That's for one sheet!

[HowardGWR]

As a guide, when you go the page for AR88001 on the Archer site, you need to reduce it by one third to get the actual size of what you receive. It's a dear do, but perhaps use to correct sundry mistakes when rivets are filed off, or other types of gaps caused by inaccurate kits,it's a good method IMO. A scratch builder would spend a fortune though.

[martin goodall]

I think I got mine from Historex Agents, but they were not cheap.

There's an alternative product also made in the USA, but I have not seen it. Some say it's better than the Archer product. (Sorry I can't remember the name, but it was mentioned on RM Web when this topic was under discussion there.)

[Natalie Graham]

There's an alternative product also made in the USA, but I have not seen it.

There's a few I think. Micromark and Mike Grant are a couple of sources.

[Paul Townsend]

DCC Supplies is one in UK.
They stock the beginners kit AR88001 but not SD99001

Archers website shows dealers all over the world.

I think it cheaper to buy from Archers. DCC are £14.50 + P&P (added when you check out). Archers $17.95 (£10.73) + $6.50 (£3.88) P&P to the UK= £14.61. That's for one sheet!

But if ordered from DCC Supplies at same time as decoders etc, postage is shared. Also no risk of customs adding VAT /Duty and Royal Mail surcharging a collection fee.

Last package I ordered from USA was clobbered.....goods value c $20 cost me over £40 in all.

[David B]

Good point, Paul.

A friend orders some smaller items a couple of times a year from the States. She has an arrangement with the seller that the items are always valued at less than $15 and labelled as Gifts. So far, there have been no added costs.

[MarkS]

All this talk of rivets and ordering same from the USA, made me think of this - from the April (1st) issue of Model Railroader...

http://mrr.trains.com/news-reviews/staf ... nting-tool