What?
Yup, What? A typical thread about Rivets( Maybe the counters too)! Nah not really. I just wanted to clarify some points about those scudders. I have actually held a rivet that weighed about a pound! That's the kind you see on Big Bridges and Constructs all over the world.
Can you imagine what it was like? Throwing that up to a guy who then slid it in the holes while two other workers slammed it home with the tools necessary to fit the head and swage the back into a flat surface that spread out into a Piece of steel that was maybe an inch thick and twice the diameter of the original!
Now enter Aircraft rivets. Yes, they stood proud for many years. Not much but you could feel them. Today? Well, they are probably done by a Robot or whatever at the factory. Can you feel them, maybe? If your hands are so sensitive that you can feel the slight depression from the flatness of the head.
When done after-market or repair they are Bucked and set by a person,who has the skill to set it in flat and flush! Notice, I said Flush. Yes, you can see the rivets up close. But can the average person feel them? Maybe just a little, if at all. By the way when they paint Aircraft they buff the rivet lines smoother than in natural metal.
Ships, well, till they started welding them in W.W.2 they were covered with the things. All over the place, even on bulkheads in the passenger areas. they ranged in size from the two inch or four inch heads on the hull to two and three inch heads in the cabin areas. They were a pain believe me.
The Navy in it's wisdom, had the brackets holding Expansion joint material in place with two strips stagger riveted in place on each side of the relief opening. These consisted of very thick special compound rubbers that were able to hold up to salt water. Yes, Folks, ships flex enough to see those edges slam together during a storm!
Rivets will always be with us. They are just so darned useful! But, let's face it. When you see a 1/25 scale truck tractor(Cab-Over) festooned with them in a finished state it is wrong! Yes, in some areas they are round head rivets. Mostly they are flush headed types. This goes for planes too. Except when they are of two merging technologies, Flush versus Round head. Planes are more Aero-Dynamic with flush rivets on the outside. Especially if they are jets! It really doesn't matter on prop jobs that much!
Now Armor is a hotbed of rivets in the older stuff and moderately so in modern equipment where welding has stepped in to fabricate those deep, deep welds. Without the Rivet the " Male" and " Female" Tanks and Dreadnaught ships wouldn't ever have existed. All Hail the Rivet, and NO I don't count them on models!
Counting rivets on models is a self defeating attempt at realism! If you could really see them on a 1/72 scale tank from two feet away! Much less on an 1/32 scale F-86 at four feet! But even a dimple will suffice to indicate them. They are there!
How many rivets can you find on your Auto? Check it out sometime. You would be really surprised.