Hi Colin @coling!
I am amazed by your creativity to resolve this!
Also amazed by the level of detail you are putting on the Shiden.
This is going to be -another Colin Gomez - super build!

Thank you for the riveting tutorial! Looks great so far. Looks like a lot of work though

Hi Guys. I just thought I'd post a few explanatory pics on some of the trickier aspects of "riveteering". First up, the challenge of lining up rows of rivets done on one side of the fuselage with rows on the other. There are 25 rows (!) of vertical rivets aft of the wing root on each side the Shiden Kai. They are mostly in groups of 3 ending halfway up the fuselage on each side. The third line continues all the way up and over the top to meet the same line on the other side. I studied drawings for a heck of a long time before I figured out how to do this on the Hasegawa model. I also looked at museum birds to double check the pattern in the plans.

I was then very careful with the riveter to keep the right spacing and follow the models panel lines correctly (keeping every line vertically plumb). The pics show the strips of masking tape I used to mark where I would later lay Dymo tape to run the riveter over the complex curve of the fuselage spine. It took hours of work to fit each Dymo tape guide and cut the rivets but I was successful in getting it all to line up (a testimony to earlier work measuring). Next, some pics of how to use Dymo tape. I added some horizontal lines cross cutting the vertical ones. Pics show how long these lines are. I measure, mark them with masking tape and then pencil them in. I then lay a strip of Dymo tape for whichever side gives it firmer anchoring. It's a long piece in this case so I used a second piece to anchor it from behind so that it doesn't slip as the cutting wheel runs along it. I also put a double thick strip of masking tape at each end to further anchor it and stop the cutting wheel from engraving rivets past the end of the line. You can see the size of the gap I leave between the engraved panel line and the edge of the tape - just enough for the wheel to avoid the groove.

The third process to explain is how to use the rivet pattern accurately on the model through pragmatic measuring techniques. The next pics show the long process of transferring a drawing of the rivet pattern to the wing of the model. I first rough up the surface of the plastic overall with some 1500 grit sandpaper so that my pencil lines will show up.

I then plan the pattern by drawing the lines that run along engraved lines common to both the model and the plan. I then measure the spaces between these major lines on the model and count how many rows are indicated between the major panel lines on the drawing. Dividing the measured width of a major panel by this number yields the required gap between rows of rivets running along bulkheads. Doing this for just one simple rectangular panel revealed the spacing of the bulkheads and rivet lines for more than half the wing (7.6 mm in this case). As I drew these on, I was pleased to see how well key lines continued to line up with Hasegawa's panel lines along the way. BTW, I cut a custom ruler from thick styrene which was sightly narrower than 7.6 mm. This allowed me to quickly draw lines and check their spacing all along the wing (and later redraw them as handling rubbed the pencil off in places). I did a similar sequence of measuring for the rivets matching stringers along the length of the wing (spanwise). These are very long lines and have to line up as well as converge in some places towards the wingtips. Again, by keeping a careful count of how many there should be and also following panel lines, it all comes together accurately. I wouldn't like to call myself a "rivet counter" but I am a rivet line counter (or stringer counter) because if you don't follow the plan, it doesn't look right. Anyway, it will be a lot easier for the port wing since it is just a mirror image of the almost completely planned starboard wing.

I hope this helps someone. I am floored when other modelers casually add a statement at the end of an article on a model they completed to say "Oh, by the way, I riveted the whole model" without explaining how much work this entails. I guess its a Zen approach and my hat is off to them. Maybe it's just me but find it hard to figure out how to do this other than by a monumental amount of work. Happy modeling. Comments and questions welcome.

Hi Colin @coling.
This was a great tutorial, the riveting itself being a triumph of patience, persistence and skill.
My hat is off to you, Sir!

Thanks, Erik. Sorry to hear that I may have discouraged you from the whole riveting thing. I will probably feel happier about the effort after the model is finished. I will also have a clear idea of how long it takes and how to speed things up. I am already thinking of doing another 1/32 Hasegawa FW-190A and FW-190D-9 in the near future, the riveting is so much less complicated on these ( I did the FW-190 years ago, as I mentioned/illustrated earlier in the GB article). Apart from having flatter fuselage sides, the 190's rivets appear to have been puttied over in places, so you don't have so much to fill in between panel lines, especially on the fuselage. So, even with my grumbling, I will not be giving up on the whole process.

In answer to your question, the Dymo tape leaves no significant residue. I have checked this visually and by running my finger over the surface. I also had no problems using it on my FW-190 ten years ago, when the tape was newer. The glue on the back of a strip dries up in the air almost immediately. The only effect of the glue is to lift the penciled in lines and smudges adjacent to the line you are working on. I am now cutting the strips in half along their length to minimize this and also cut down on waste (I have used a whole roll of Dymo tape for the fuselage and one almost complete wing).

Thanks for the detailed reply and great tips, Louis. That is impressive that your work was published in FSM! I may downplay my approach to chipping on this model after all. I have a Ki.84 to do in the future, however and may go to town on that. For the Shiden Kai I want to get a combination of paint fading as well as paint loss but only in limited places. To do that I may start with a sponge method on the wing root and very small areas of exposed metal inside that. I did something like what you did with an undercoat of Rub n Buff and green Tamiya acrylic over top on an experimental panel. The green flaked off in chunks, as you demonstrate. The problem was how to limit and control this because the whole surface was very fragile. I guess your overspray/flat clear sealer may have stabilized that. I didn't attempt it.

First of all thanks again for the tutorial on adding labels, Spiros. Here is my update on the pimply Shiden Kai. I have done all major riveting on the topside, as shown.

. I had to fill gaps left by Hasegawa inserts before I did any underwing riveting. I finally got all this done and set to work with Rosie the Riveter. However, I stopped short on one large panel for each wing, which museum pics seem to show was not riveted. What do you think? Would you concur with my decision to leave the large (access?) panel smooth? I have included a few more pics of the underside of the wings with leading edge rivets done and penciled-in rivet lines over the panels in question. The rows for stringers were trickier underneath than topside and I had to fix a major line on each side. There is smudging of pencil and the darkened ghosts of deleted lines, but these will disappear under paint. I left the rear underside of the fuselage unriveted because I have to join the wing on and this will require fairly major filling, sanding and rescribing first. This is the exciting stage because I will install the detailed cockpit before buttoning things up. I did most of the riveting in advance because I didn't want to damage cockpit details that stick out a bit. Now I will need to risk that to get on with construction.

So, you can see now that this process can actually be completed. I hope you like it as modeling work worth considering. Please let me know your opinion on the raised panel under each wing. I think maybe it should be left clean like the access door for the guns on top (much clearer the case in plans). Comments welcome.