Monday, June 30, 2014

How Many Rivets?

So having realized that there were some problems with the design of the brass upper for the Rhosydd slate quarry rubbish wagon I'm building, I reworked the template and had a second go. This time the template took into account the extra width added by the thickness of the metal when folded, as well as being re-worked to make it easier to fold. This second template works really well and I was able to easily cut out and fold the brass to shape. A small amount of superglue and the whole thing was assembled; from sheet brass to assembled model was about five minutes.


Given that I was happy with how this one had turned out I decided to add the rivets that are quite prominent on the prototype. Amazingly the Archer rivet transfers (sheet AR88025) I bought for detailing the Quarry Hunslet are a perfect match with exactly the right spacing. The only problem is just how many rivets there are to apply to such a small model. I think I added 26 strips totalling 238 rivets, which took the best part of two hours to apply. Time well spent though as I think the end result looks great. The next step will be to spray it with a red oxide primer to fix the rivets in place and to give a nice rust coloured base coat.

4 comments:

  1. It does look fabulous. Even in it's barenaked state I can well imagine it sitting up on the lonely tips at Rhosydd. I am amazed you applied the transfers so quickly...they are so fiddly, but the end result is superb.

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    1. Thanks Iain. You are right those transfers really are fiddly. Fortunately because they were a perfect match to the drawing (size and spacing) it was just a case of cutting the strips to the right length. Once I'd done one side I knew how many rivets I needed for each bit without counting so could just cut and apply. I used DecalFix this time instead of water and they seem to have stayed in place nicely as well. The primer is currently drying so I'll hopefully have another post later.

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  2. I've suddenly realise that that is a 5 pence and not a £1 coin. I hadn't realised how small model this is. I have tiny hands and still wouldn't contemplate that.

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    1. Yep, it's tiny! Dimensions are approximately 13mm x 20mm x 5mm. This version is slightly easier than the first prototype in that it can be glued together rather than requiring soldering. Having said that, it was actually fairly easy to put together and add the rivets as each run of rivets is a single transfer which helps.

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