Quarry Hunslet: Riveting

As I pointed out in a recent post there was a slightly problem with fitting the rear cab doors. Essentially the cab wall had nice etched rivet detail that would be completely hidden by the door runners. I did contemplate fitting the doors to the inside of the cab instead, but not only would this not be prototypical I don't think it wuold have looked great either. The only solution then was to file off the etched rivets and add new rivets to the runners.

Given that the runners were made from etched brass it would have been possible to punch new rivet marks into the soft metal, but I decided that doing it well and getting the spacing right might be difficult. Fortunately in the comments on another post the possibility of using resin transfers to add rivets had been raised, and Paul had even recommended a particular transfer sheet. So I ordered Archer's resin transfer sheet number A88025 from their main UK stockist, DCC Supplies, and set about adding the doors.

As you can see this was a three step process. First I had to file off the original rivets to enable the door runner to fit flush against the wall. In the photo you can still see the rivets, but I couldn't feel them and took the decision that was good enough as I didn't want to risk filing away too much material. The next step was to glue the doors and runners in place. In the end one of the doors is on a bit of an angle, but they were fiddly enough to fit as it was so I decided to leave it as it adds character. The final step was to add the new rivets.

The rivets are resin on a transfer film and are applied in the same way as any other transfer; get it wet and slide it off the backing paper and in to place. The only difference to normal transfers is that you apply them before painting rather than after. While it's a shame I had to file off the etched rivets I think the result looks pretty good.