. . . I will need to cut off tiny rivets from the runners to put on the inner rim of the bogies . . .

. . . there are exactly as many rivets as you need, i.e., no extras for when my #11 knife slips, I find out too late that my knife edge has gotten too dull and has destroyed a rivet . . .

It would be nice, and sometimes they do. (I seem to recall an Italeri kit with extra grab handles...)

As for those Tasca rivets, I've never bothered. A dab of crud packed into the rims hides a lot of sins! Life's too short to build my models one rivet at a time...

The model kit and PE companies feel it is hilarious to take the calming, stress reducing effects of model assembly and periodically elevate them to just below the level of bomb defusing.

I would recommend going with Archer raised details.

http://www.archertransfers.com/SurfaceDetailsMain.html
They also videos on how to apply them, its easy to do.

The are many tools to make grab handles in varies sizes, length and dia. Many people will make there own, they can look nicer and not have a seam line to clean up.

As the trend these days to include bending templates or jigs in the kit for pe, etc. I would like see it expanded more to include other bits and maybe some thin wire/s and foil.

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. . . I will need to cut off tiny rivets from the runners to put on the inner rim of the bogies . . .

. . . there are exactly as many rivets as you need, i.e., no extras for when my #11 knife slips, I find out too late that my knife edge has gotten too dull and has destroyed a rivet . . .

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Three things I've done that are helpful in this regard:

- Buy X-Acto brand #11 blades in the 100 pack so that you never have the need to keep using a dull tool.

- Buy another #1 handle; buy a pack of #17 blades, and use this exclusively for shaving parts.

- Buy another #1 handle and put a brand new #11 blade in it. Mark it to avoid confusion with your "everyday" knife and use it exclusively to "pick and place" things like rivet heads on the model, ala Zaloga.

"Having built up an inventory of rivets, I proceeded to attach them to the model. The one technique to avoid is applying liquid cement directly to the model’s surface. Even if you cut down the brush so that it has a finer tip, it is impossible to control the amount of liquid cement that flows on to the model. The result is a blob of liquid glue surrounding the rivet. The preferred approach is to put a drop of liquid glue on to a non-porous surface. I use a worn-out, single-sided razor blade. Then, using a sharp No.11 blade in my hobby knife, I pick up a rivet on the sharp tip of the balde, dip it in the drop of cement, and then transfer the rivet on to the model. This takes some practice, but I fond it is the best way. Incidentally, this technique is a very good way to attach other very small parts to tank models to control the amount of glue that reaches the surface."

KL