Painting a photo etch instrument panel - I'm at a loss

Just for info purposes 'permanent ink markers' are a vegetable oil based ink they are easily removed from surfaces with said oil ,just ask any landlord in the bad side of town how he removes graffiti!

You got it in the end Fred!!!! That looks great!!!

Now that you guys mention it, I could have used a round toothpick, like a roller.  Give it a little paint, then roll over the highlights.

I did think about using enamels and acrylics, but as it turned out, I didn't have either color in enamel.

Anyway, here's my finished piece

-Fred

Fred glad to hear you got it fingered out. This is a shot of my PE IP for my 1/48 Buccaneer and I painted the base coat then went over the bezels and other bits with a toothpick as Tucoh mentioned.

Use a toothpick for a paintbrush. Very easy to control for any kind of fine raised detail. Got that from a Floyd Werner DVD. It works great.

Gig...thats a great idea!!!! need to try that out sometime,

The other thing you can do is use enamel paint for one color than acrylic for the other so say a base coat of semi bloss black enamel...let that cure well then hit it with the light blue acrylic...gently wipe off with acrylic thinner damped cloth/wipe....this should take the blue off the guages without marring the black...light touch!!!

Carlos

Well, I finally figured it out.

I painted the PE with the top color.  Then I created a stamp, of sorts, using masking tape and a sharpie.  I wrapped the tape around my finger (sticky side to my finger).  Then I took the sharpie and scribbled on the front side of the tape (the part that's over the pad of the finger) until it was good and wet with sharpie ink.  The lightly rolled it over the PE.  It landed only on the high points and came out great.  Took 2 or 3 applications to get full coverage, but it's done.

-Fred

Hi Gerald,

It's a PE panel that has a backing sheet with dials on it.  The main IP itself, though, is just bare PE.  Unfortunately, it should be some shade of light blue with black bezels and buttons.

It should look like this, when finished;

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/shared/media/photodb/photos/060830-F-1234S-007.jpg

But what you get in the kit, starts out as this;

http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/sh/images/sh_32031_parts3.jpg

The raised detail on the IP is almost not raised at all, so dry brushing doesn't really work.  There's nothing for the paint to collect on.

-Fred

Is this a two piece affair, outer panel that covers a decal applied to the kits panel or another PE one?

Make sure it is clean, lightly prime it then apply the final color...leave it. Apply a drop of Future to the dial faces and let it cure. If it looks as if it needs more hit them again. You probably won't see too much of the panel through the greenhouse canopy anyway.