How to make rivets on small scale AFV:s

Rivets are the nemesis of all smallscale AFV modellers. You just have to have them, as they are such a prominent part of the original vehicle. Some kits lack them all together, sometimes they get lost when you sand the vehicle, and often when you do some scratch-building or conversion work, you will need them. 

But how?

There are several methods around, and a modeller is recommended to try around, to see which one will suit him or her the best. Anyway, here are the methods that I think are the best:

1. You can use White Glue, which is placed in small dimples, by using a toothpick: when it dries, you will have, well yes, a small dimple. Not a perfect rivet, but it's better than nothing. 

2. You can do it the hard way, which is also the best if the number of rivets are relatively small. And that is to carefully slice rivets from an old kit, one by one, and then pick them up with a knife edge or moist brush, and glue them back down on your other kit, using either liquid glue or gloss varnish. 

3. There is also a new and incredibly ingenious method developed by Ian Saddler and Keith Forsyth - using the innards of Water Filters! -, that I not tried myself yet, but it could work in our small scale as well. Anyway you just have to check it out! (Try also this link!)

4. There is also the so called raft method. You lay several thin pieces of thin, heat stretched plastic sprue on double-side tape, side by side like a raft. You then uses a straight razor to slice off sections, just like cutting sausages.

5. Darren Thompson recommends that instead of using a punch and die set, you can just use a plastic type pencil eraser as a punc and use some thin metal sheet (lead foil or aluminium drink cans work best). Place the foil on an eraser and punch away, but be careful not to follow through too far, else you'll bury all your rivets in the eraser. The bonus with this method is that the rivets are actually domed as they're made. Also, if your punch doesn't go down small enough, you can use any size drill bit, inverted in a pin vice. 

6. A very good method has been invented by Pedro Andrada: First mark the position of all the rivets using a pencil. Then make a hole with a small drill (say, 0.120mm), with the help of a ruler. In this way, all the rivets will be properly aligned. Then put in each hole a piece of stretched plastic, fixing it with extra thin liquid cement. Cut all the rivets using a small scissor. And finally, file down the rivets with sandpaper, using a piece of plasticard for reference (to get a proper and uniform height).

7. Yet another samrt method has been devised by Bill Powers, and now I'm quoting his posting on the Braille Scale Discussion Group: "I make small rivet heads using a disposable hypodermic needle. The rivets are 15 thousand in diameter...still large for scale, but usable. I cut the pointy end square and beveled the outside. Then I bought a small diameter drill pit to fit inside the needle. The bit has to be long enough to reach through the needle. I made a knob on the working end of the bit. Use the smooth end inside the needle. Remove the drill bit from the needle while making discs. Place the hypodermic beveled end on some five or ten thousand plastic and tap gently. Repeat about five times max. Then insert the drill bit and gently push out the plastic discs. Works but the pieces are so small I do all this over black paper to make locating them easier. Use the sharp pointy end of a #11 to pick up the disc and place on the model.