How-To: Tinting your resin-filled indices

[PatronSaintofChainsaws 1]

As a follow up to this post on resin-filling your indices, we'll show you a simple way of tinting your resin. This helps to both give it an aged, radium-exposed appearance, and also helps impart depth. As originally posted on HomageForum.

 

We'll simply be using translucent paints and clear-coat to achieve the look we're after. Here are the supplies I used:

 

• 1 bottle Testors Dullcote Lacquer
  
• 1 bottle Tamiya X-24 Clear Yellow
  
• 1 bottle Tamiya X-26 Clear Orange
  
• 1 bottle Tamiya X-20A Thinner (optional)
  
• 1 Princeton Art Size 1 brush #4000B
  

 

 

Here's the back of my dial. The dial had resin applied as per the previous tutorial, and after curing for 48 hours, I used the griding attachment for my Dremel to grind off all the excess resin.

 

 

First, we pour out enough clear lacquer to equal roughly the size of a U.S. Nickel. Then, we mix around 3-4 drops of Clear Yellow paint. It may help to add a small bit of Thinner as well, to keep the mixture from being too thick. We don't want to blend it too well, as we want to emulate the uneven coloration of aged indices.

 

 

Next, use your brush to apply the paint across all of the indices. Try not to apply it too thick, and avoid getting the paint too close to the edge of your dial.

 

 

Here's what it looks like once we let it dry. I'd leave it to dry for 30 minutes before moving on to the next step.

 

 

Next, we pour out enough clear lacquer to equal roughly the size of a U.S. Nickel as above. Then, we mix 5-6 drops of Clear Orange paint, and adding a bit of Thinner as necessary. As before, we don't want to blend it too well.

 

 

Next, use your brush to apply the paint across all of the indices. Here, I applied an initial coat and let it dry, then I applied another coat to further darken it, as the initial coat was a bit too light. Keep in mind that going too dark will affect your lume, assuming that you want the lume to be visible. Afterwards, you'll want to let it dry several hours before luming or attaching it to a dial backplate.

 

 

Here's how the indices look after drying. I attached it to a solid white lumed backplate here. If you go with a different color backplate and/or lume, that will affect the final appearance.

 

 

Here's the same dial installed in a Rad case, to give you an idea of how it would look once installed.

 

 

Good luck with your project.

[greg_r 81]

Excellent tute... MUCH more convincing than the usual flat orange look that you see so often in these so-called vintage dials.

 

[GC 4,507]

That is some of the nicest results I have seen, thanks for share'n!