Rivets

[Logansama]

I\'ve been converting using green stuff for years. I can do most things. I\'ve read a dozen different online tutorials on fantasy miniature sculpting.

Nowhere can I find the 2 lines of text it would take to explain exactly how to do those TINY little studs that can be seen on old space marine armour or plate armour of knights etc.

Is it simply a matter of rolling miniscule balls of putty and affixing them to the model using a scalpel blade to pick them up and putting glue on the surface? I\'ve tried this and it doesn\'t look very neat. Is there another really simple technique that I can\'t work out?

As with most aspects of painting and sculpting, it\'s really easy once someone tells you the secret, so I\'m asking for the scret.... or am I going to have to struggle on trying to place these tiny balls of putty onto surfaces? lol

 

[Ritual]

An easy way is to use an empty 0.5 pencil. Put a small blob of GS on the surface where wou\'d like the rivet, then press the empty pencil point into the GS.
Remove the excess GS with a modelling knife and make sure the remaining rivet is neatly attached to the surface. HTH

 

[Corvus]

take a piece of plastic or metal sheet and make some small holes in it, push GS through the holes, and cut them with a knife

voila

 

[minimaker]

Here is a common technique (similar to the pencil thing but here you can decide for yourself how big it is to be and what shape):
http://shorterlink.com/?Y4BQJR

It can even be used for bolt/nut combinations.

 

[Itchy]

Hey MiniMaker... i can\'t get the handle of those Yahoo boards (heck, it took me MONTHS just to figure out how to register there) so i\'ll ask you here. How do you make teeny tiny threads with GS? i\'ve wanted to put a jimmy-rigged sight onto the gun of a goblin for a while and have extra thread sticking out the bottom... but have fail (miserably) at making threads. Any help?

 

[minimaker]

Itchy, what do you exactly mean with thread? A bit of rope dangling underneath the sight? Or more like the thread of a bolt?

If it\'s a rope you could try a bit of string and harden it with diluted PVA glue (or superglue). If you want to use green stuff you can make a thin roll and let it cure till it\'s hard enough not to deform when rolling it. Then roll it with a knife placed at an angle on the roll. This should cut in the lines sugesting the rope.

As to a bolt, having tried this but it should work. Take a thin screw like you find in a compass. Make a 2 part green stuff mould of it (don\'t forget guiding pins). Then press yourself a GS screw and use what you need of it in your sculpt.

 

[Itchy]

sorry... yeah, i ment as in a bolt with a thread... but now that you mention it... i could just use machine screws and cut off the heads!:idea: No GS needed!

 

[Aragorns_mate]

pin heads! if you look, there the exact size and shape a bit tricky to cut, but theyll work pretty well

 

[freakinacage]

or roll a really long and thin sausage of gs and cut off rivet size pieces when it hardens (you\'ll need a really sharp and thin blade for this like a razor). this is good because you can have loads of different size rivets and it\'s good for using up those leftover blobs. oh if you cut them longer, they can be used for bullet casings