RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

When I started adding stuff to my TongDe M113 it was fitted as one used in the Vietnam war. And one thing I noticed from looking at images of the real thing, were their sides. The sides of the M-113's in Vietnam, were left bare - none of the crew's personal effects, no helmets, no rucksacks, nothing was hung off the sides. No doubt due to passage through dense vegetation, which would have simply ripped off anything the crews hung off the sides.
So I made my M-113 with bare sides as well. But this left several ugly small holes on the hull where the accessories were supposed to go.
First I filled the holes with putty. But the putty shrank upon drying, which left a small dent instead. So I had just resigned myself to the holes until I saw this image of an M-113 with crew in Vietnam, that gave me a very simple idea.

So it turns out the M-113, like almost every armored vehicle, is chock-full of rivets! Rivets here, rivets there, anywhere welding on the tank isn't an option voila RIVETS. In the case of my M-113 I had several ugly holes left behind even after adding on all the fittings. So I decided to fill the small holes with rivets.

Turned out the small ones fitted most of the holes.
(One could argue that, compared to the molded-in rivets on top of the water shield plate - at least I think that's what the part is - the rivets I added on are comparatively huge, because they are. But I think I'd need to use something really tiny, like a pin-head, to make scale rivets. But the tiny rivets I used were hard enough for me to work with, even using tweezers, and I wound up just dropping the rivets on the ground more often than not! So I think these are the smallest rivet heads I want to use.)
Of course they sell rivets made of almost every metal you can name, plus plastic ones too. But I chose copper rivets as they're easier to cut down if I need to.
Even the smallest rivets were slightly too large for some of the holes, so I reamed out the hole by spinning the tip of an X-acto knife. Then I super-glued them on.
I left these unpainted to take the image to be touched up later.

Anyway, I bought a life-time supply of copper tank rivets, from South American River for $12

I like that detail option. Thank you for sharing this. I recently needed bolts so cut them off a plastic Panther wheel.You ain't kiddin tiny little buggers. I do 1/16 to maintain my sanity. Too many little details that I can drop and lose ruins my relaxing approach to this hobby.

MrChef wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 2:50 am I like that detail option. Thank you for sharing this. I recently needed bolts so cut them off a plastic Panther wheel.You ain't kiddin tiny little buggers. I do 1/16 to maintain my sanity.

I sent away for scale bolt heads, as I wanted to use them on my latest tank (a TD M60)...but they are too tiny for a 1/16 scale tank! Most of the "scale rivets" they sell are much too small, even the ones they specify as "large" are only 2 mm, and hard to see on the model, let alone to handle and glue a whole bunch of them onto something.

But as for these metal rivets, I got copper because I figured I would cut the stems off if I wanted to add one where there is no hole. But that idea didn't really work either, you just can't cut them enough inside the rivet head to make them flush, nor is sanding or filing them really an option either. You can't just hold them in your hand to file them - again, too tiny - nor can you grab them with pliers without mutilating the rivet head. So I bought some plastic rivets too figuring they might be easier to work with; haven't tried using them yet though.

Cool tip on the rivets

Clamp your metal rivets in the chuck of a drill. Best holder of bolts and stuff when you're working on them and does no damage like pliers. I take them off my old drills when they die.

Mike.

Plastic rivets..? Are these plastic rivets intended for modeling or are they for other purposes? Perhaps one could insert them in left over holes, as in the M-113, and then sand them flat.