Spherical Rivet – Full Batch Set

The rivet as the signature of an age

Before welding took over heavy manufacturing, rows of rivets held hulls, boilers, bridge girders and the armor of the first armored vehicles together. The domed head shrank as it cooled and made a joint that stood up to shaking better than the welds of the day. For a model that means a characteristic texture: a regular run of small domes along every seamed edge, which by itself gives away the age of a machine and the way it was built.

Scale and quantities

The package brings together eleven part-sheets, one for each head size. The span reaches from 0.3 mm up to 1.6 mm and there are 2392 pieces in all. The smallest diameters are the most numerous, because they are what long continuous rows are covered with. The coarser end of the scale suits large boiler and ship assemblies, or the large scales, where a fine rivet would disappear.

How to lay a row straight

It is the spacing that decides, not the part itself. It works well to stick a strip of tape along the edge as a guide rail and to step the spacing out with dividers or against a grid. The glue goes onto the surface, not onto the part, or the head will be flooded. Once it has dried and been primed, it is worth checking the whole row against the light, because a single dome turned out of line shows up at once in the reflection.

The rivet under paint

Compared with a flat one, the domed shape has the advantage of surviving even a heavier coat of paint. Even so, it pays to lay the primer on in a thin mist and to run the dry brush across the direction of the row, so that each dome is brought out individually. The shadow under the head does more for legibility than the light on its top.