Which glue and how, suggestions?

I'm working on a 1/12 scale Ducati 916 and am having a problem gluing in .7 mm Top Studio rivets in the exhaust. I tried putting a little thin Tamiya glue on the rivet and placed them in the small holes I drilled but the rivets fall out and the darn paint runs around the rivet head. Is there some other glue and fine tip applicator I should be using? Any help would be appreciated. Or should I be drilling the holes to exact size so they press in tight, which would be difficult. Thanks.

The easiest way would be to use something like clear glue (a-la Microscale Kristal Klear) or simple PVA (aka wood aka white) glue. These will not damage the paint, dry clear and can be cleaned up with water. These adhesives aren't the strongest but you don't really need them to be for this application.

Another option is to use superglue but it will damage the paint and will not wipe off so the trick is to use it very sparingly. This is a more risky solution but the upside is that it dries quicker than white glue.

For both these cases you can use a sharpened toothpick for the applicator to place a small amount of glue into the drilled hole.

It appears that the Tamiya glue you're using is plastic cement that will only work on certain plastics - it works by effectively melting them to create the bond. It's not effective on metals at all.

Good luck

Try putting some glue into the holes you drilled instead. This might work and be less messy. You can also use white glues that is thinned a little. That way if you mess up you can wash the parts and start over. Also, due to the shape of the rivet, the white glue when dried will hold just as strong as any super glue, but will be more forgiving and give you a longer working time.

White PVA glue all the way for this application. I usually place a small puddle of the glue on my workbench, take the rivets with fine point tweezers, dip them into the puddle of glue and straight into the holes you've drilled. Any overspill can be simply wiped away with plain water and no damage to your painted surfaces..

Thanks guys never thought of white glue. Should have asked before I messed up the nice alcad paint. I also figured out that you cannot brush the alcad very well. I had to touch up with tamiya x-11 which doesn't look near as good as alcad. Thanks again. The paint also covered up the rivets losing realism.

glues also don't want to hold onto a gloss/paint surface that well either.
When-ever I've had to glue something with white glue, I use a small drill bit to mark the paint or even drill a small hole so that the glue has something to bite/hold on to.