Circle pattern Archer rivets? A possible new product? What do you want to see?

[SandyEggoJake]

Long story short:

For those of you that use Archer rivets, would you be interested to buy N (or HO) sized rivets in circle and oval patterns? 

If so, what would you use them for?  What specific prototypes?  What diameters / rivet counts would you hope to see included in such a set?


Rest of the story:

As I've been moving forward planning a new N scale scratch build, I was doing some rivet counting.  Objective is figuring out my need to restock my Archer rivet supply.  In doing so, learned that Woody has recently created circle patterns for airplanes.  This intrigued me as my build has several circular patterns of rivets.  But then I learned his new set is of fairly large -  rivets scaled for 1/48 & 1/32.  Oh well...

If you've ever tried to place individual rivets in N scale, you know how tedious and trying even straight lines it can be.  In my limited attempts at such, getting circles right took it to a whole other level of frustration.

Now Woody does have a video, that details one way to forming a circle of rivets, by using Micro Sol and bending a line of rivet around a central object - say a steam dome.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aptnvFeEqio  But he admits it's fiddly and still leaves an issue of matching the ends.  For full disclosure, I've not personally tried his method.  My attempts have only been in HO where I place them around in pairs, which while time consuming, wasn't so bad as the dome blocked the view of most, making the errors in the spacing less apparent.

But my new build has a circle of rivet in plain sight on the front of an otherwise stark boiler front.    Also has the usual sand and steam domes.  So having preset circles would be far faster and I suspect allow a much better result.

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking circles and ovals of rivets could find a use in many structures I have plans to make as well.  Face of retorts.  Around stacks.  Tops and man doors of of storage tanks.  Patches.  Etc?

So I mentioned the idea to Woody and he seems to like it and is willing to consider adding such to his product line.  He agrees the 1/32 - 1/48 are far too big for most HO and N, so it would be done in several classic railroad rivet sizes.  So back to the question at hand. 

If made, would you use such?  If so, what size circles and rivet / rivet counts would be ideal for you?  (Let's use dimensions of specific prototypes.)

Cheers, 
Jake

[Chris333]

"Bending a line of rivets"
I have never been able to get more than 5 in a row to stay together. And that is in a straight line.

[mmagliaro]

I used the Archer ready-made circles on my 0-6-0 smokebox front and I thought they looked good.   They make another sheet of circles, besides the one you reference:
https://www.archertransfers.com/AR88096.html

88096 has some really fine dot patterns on it (.010 inch = only 1.6" in N Scale), quite suitable for N Scale.

Before those, I used the "few at a time" method you describe (see two photos below from my 4-6-2 project).  It's not really so bad.  I say in the caption that I did 2 at a time, but I remember doing more than that for some sections - more like 4-5 at a time.  Once a strip is on, a swipe of Solvaset will make them flexible and they can be positioned into the circle.  Yeah, I know in these super macro close-up photos, you can see that they are not perfect, but you'll never see that with your eyes, even with an optivisor.

[SandyEggoJake]

Thanks Max.  Those do look very good.

Wasn't aware of the set you mentioned.  Surprised Woody didn't mention it.   Maybe there isn't a need for N or HO scale sets after all. 

Of course, at the price of these sheets, one would kind of hope for more than just a few circles with rivets in the scale of interest....

[peteski]

Thanks Max.  Those do look very good.

Wasn't aware of the set you mentioned.  Surprised Woody didn't mention it.   Maybe there isn't a need for N or HO scale sets after all. 

Of course, at the price of these sheets, one would kind of hope for more than just a few circles with rivets in the scale of interest....

Tichy Train Group makes custom decals.  Their (UV-curable ink?) ink jet printer uses very thick inks, which I bet are similar to what Archer uses.  You could design your own customer rivet patterns and have them printed by Tichy. You might have to ask them to overprint couple of colors to build up the thickness, but it should be easily doable.