Bridge at South Wayside

[ocalicreek]

Galen, scratchbuilding is the "proper" way to do this, but I just don't have the experience to do the rivets. Would they be done by poking a blunt needle into thin plastic, or with a riveter tool or what?

Yes and yes. I've made rivets by pushing (gently) a blunt tool like a needle into a sheet of plastic laying on a moderately firm cutting mat, so that it gives room for the rivet to take but does not let the tool push through that easily making a hole. This can be used on a large project but I think it's best left for smaller areas. I used it to make a few rivets on a bracket for the Shifter tender lamp.

I've also used a rolling wheel or pounce wheel, as on the Hart Gon project.

I'd LOVE to have a sensipress with riveter table attachment but it's out of my price range at the moment, and most of the projects for which I'd need rivets don't require the kind of precision spacing and consistent size that tool will give you. You get what you pay for (or you learn to make do!)

And Kevin is right, brass rivets will hold up longer than styrene depending on what type of cement you use. I really wasn't thinking scratchbuilding was the ''proper" way to do it, but that it might save you some time in the long run. The right way gets results, is one way to look at it, and you certainly do get some mighty fine results!

Galen