How best to paint tiny lettering ?

Beano

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This isn't a French car, but is about some tricky painting. And you never know, advice about this may one day be used for a car.

I have a vintage radio which I really like, not only because the cabinet is the most stylish I have seen but also because it was my grandfather's.

Twenty years ago I re-painted the badges but did a poor job. I couldn't figure out how to neatly paint the lettering and ended running an indelible felt pen across the tops to blacken them, but that has now mostly faded off. And the brass outer has tarnished, plus the screws have rusted.

The whole badge is much smaller than it looks in the photo.....it's only 2 inches across and 1 inch high. The letters are only about a millimetre square and they only stand a fraction of a millimetre high.

I want to apply black paint to the tops of the letters, but how to do this neatly ? All I can think of is to dilute some paint to the right consistency by trial and error........neither too thick nor too runny........ and apply it with a single brush hair, under a magnifying glass. Chinese artists did this on rice grains !

I had thought of using a tiny sponge held with tweezers which I could wipe across, but the letters don't stand high at all. Mind you, that is basically what I did using the indelible pen, but the nib of that was fairly hard, which made it easier, by not splodging the paint (or in that case, the indelible ink) down the sides of the letters. And that is the problem : how to keep it all on the tops of the letters ? Any hobbyist suggestions greatly appreciated.

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An inpad and small roller. These are tools made to colour embossed designs.
 
Hi.

Apply some black paint onto a piece of cardboard, similar to a breakfast cereal packet. Then place on top of relief lettering and apply pressure with the pad of your finger. Hopefully, the paint should transfer to the tops of the lettering.

Cheers.
 
Printmaking ink rollers have a hard smooth rubber face.
Japanese printing blocks are carved hardwood.
It’s difficult to judge scale from your photo but I would try shaping the end of a hardwood timber stick with a curved face that matches the width and length of the lettering blocks. Dip that in acrylic paint (as used in printmaking, that is any tube of artist’s acrylic - printing ink has a paste consistency), clean off excess blobs and roll your “inked” hardwood tool across the lettering. Let dry and reapply if necessary.
My BIL hand paints miniatures with a superfine brush and a steady hand then sprays the figures with clear coat to protect the finish.
 
Talk to a craft shop. People who emboss designs in paper do this.
 
In the absence of a Chinese artist and if you can consider a small compromise you could just flood the lettering with black paint and let it dry thoroughly before sanding the high points off to reveal the alloy below similar to an etching.

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An inpad and small roller. These are tools made to colour embossed designs.

I was going to recommend the same thing.

Or try to emulate silkscreen printing by using some sort of thick cloth tensioned against a hard back say foamboard, saturated in ink/paint and then just pressed against the lettering.
 
The cloth can’t be too thick or you risk pressing too deep and overprinting the lines.
 
Great ideas !

Simple is best though....I shall experiment with an eraser, but I suspect that I may have to get a roller and cut it down so that it is really tiny......elf-sized!
 
or potato.

Are you planing on replacing the screws with ones that fit the casting??
 
^ Thanks for the idea...hadn't thought of doing that. I guess I should, even though I am almost certain they are the original screws. In real life they really are quite small though. I am not sure if the hardware would have smaller ones with the same thread. And I would require the same thread.
Perhaps I will buy some that are the same and carefully grind down the head diameter by holding them against a rotating grindstone in my electric drill ? Not a lot needs to be taken off.
 
^ Thanks for the idea...hadn't thought of doing that. I guess I should, even though I am almost certain they are the original screws. In real life they really are quite small though. I am not sure if the hardware would have smaller ones with the same thread. And I would require the same thread.
Perhaps I will buy some that are the same and carefully grind down the head diameter by holding them against a rotating grindstone in my electric drill ? Not a lot needs to be taken off.
I would bet my …no, your left nut they are not original.
Even if they are, they suck.
go to edcon or any otherquality engineering supplies and they will have nice ones to suit
 
The eraser idea sounds good. I recently bought a pack of pencils with erasers on the ends, to do some fine Emery paper work on stone chip repairs. The little rubber ends worked well, and could be the correct size/shape for your job?

(BTW, I used a hole punch to cut small round patches of Emery, and glued them to the pencil eraser end, for that purpose)
 
(BTW, I used a hole punch to cut small round patches of Emery, and glued them to the pencil eraser end, for that purpose)
Time to raid the manicure set for precision grinders
 
Thanks for that video, Driven....it's an interesting reversal of the procedure that one would have thunk was the normal procedure.
Briefly running across a suitable piece of turps-soaked rag to wipe off semi-dried paint is much less likely to cause any paint to run down the letters and go "splodge". I'll do a test run of the other method using an eraser though...since that is so easy to do.
Will report back with my findings on the reality of elf-sized lettering.
 
Thanks for that video, Driven....it's an interesting reversal of the procedure that one would have thunk was the normal procedure.
Briefly running across a suitable piece of turps-soaked rag to wipe off semi-dried paint is much less likely to cause any paint to run down the letters and go "splodge". I'll do a test run of the other method using an eraser though...since that is so easy to do.
Will report back with my findings on the reality of elf-sized lettering.
i would say suitable rag would need to be very low nap, like an old lint free woven hanky tightly stretched over your trusty erasor, with just a small sniff of solvent, and be ever so lightly dragged across the surface.
problem is though, one tiny mistake will mean starting again from scratch with another drying cycle.
 
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