dashboard and gauge painting

You could try painting the entire dash the gauge colour and then paint the dash colour around them

If the gauges are round, I drill them out and put Micro Glaze in the hole.  Then I lay out the instrument faces on my computer (if there is no decal provided) and glue them onto the back of the panel.

WhatI usually do in this case is simple.I am always cutting guages out of adds (full color ) and so I have quite a few.I drill out the guage holes and put a piece of clear plastic against the back.I then take the guages frommy stash and using white glue(ALEENS is my choice)Iglue them to the clear.

Next take the guage bezels you can get from model car garage.Place them on the surface AFTER you have slightly tapered the holes to allow the rings to be inset slightly.Now glue it all together.There you have it.ALSO, you will have guages that heve different color backgrounds allowing you to play with the background colors of non-stock additions.    TANKER-builder

How many of you old heads remember this?

There was a time when AMT made the gauges with raised numbers - etc. You painted the gauge black and then carefully scraped off the paint to have "Read the gauges" detail way back when!!!
They also had white plastic racing slicks with raised lettering. Same thing, paint 'em black then scrape the paint off the letters.

tankerbuilder

WhatI usually do in this case is simple.I am always cutting guages out of adds (full color ) and so I have quite a few.I drill out the guage holes and put a piece of clear plastic against the back.I then take the guages frommy stash and using white glue(ALEENS is my choice)Iglue them to the clear.

I find for customs and muscle cars that there are a lot of aftermarket sites on the web that give good graphics for gauges, especially lines like Stewart Warner and the like.  I grab the image and resize it.  I have started folders for both car and aircraft instruments.  I frequently just google the specific instrument I am looking for- ie oil pressure gauge, etc.

I use a toothpick the rear flatter round end (the part not for your teeth) dab a little paint on it and insert it in the dial then after take the pointed end and dip in a little white  and carefully coat the numbers or not! depends on the dtail you want

Ok my best tip for this would be a slightly dull colored pencil. I don't remember what brand works best ill check and let you know...

I find the gauges and what ever images I require through Google and then print them onto photographic paper. Cut them out as required and you have  a very nice glossy gauge, wheel centre (Oz spelling), emergency triangle, radio, woodgrain inserts for the door trim and dash etc.

I use a hand-held hole punch (a few sizes-really cheap) to 'press' out the round gauges and a scalpel for most other shapes. Scissors generally leave a horrible edge on very small pieces.

Quite inexpensive too.

I'm kinda fond of the cut out and print method too, if decals are not supplied. Here, I cut out the instrument cluster holes, scaled and printed a shot of the cluster all lit up during it's power-on test, and placed it to the panel from behind.

Before:

After:

The rest of the details I will dry brush

Prismacolor white wax based pencils work on raised lettering. The dry brush method works too. On closed cars I just rub silver pencil too, because you can't see too much. Convertibles I am more meticulous (LOL)!

In other words, I just give the impression of the lettering, unless it's a contest model. Happy painting!

try dry brushing