Acrylic Or Enamel Paint

[Davey57]

I am going to have a go at refinishing a dial that has really bad lume. I have read somewhere that better results can be had by giving the indices an "undercoat" of matt white. I am not sure if acrylic or enamel should be used but I have bought some acrylic as it is cheap enough anyway and it seems to go on pretty good when thinned down with a touch of water. Haven't tried any lume on top yet. I also want to give the seconds hand an orange colour and have also bought some orange acrylic. Has anyone done this sort of thing before that could tell me if I am using the correct paint.

Many thanks.

[ro63rto]

I've read that acrylic last longer but I've only tried Humbrol enamel on some Seiko hands. Pretty tough stuff.

Still have to re do the engraved numbers on a bezel so might buy an acrylic tester.

[Rafal]

boley.de sells some paint for watchmakers, about 4 or 5 colors and tiner. I have set of 3+tiner from them but I didnt use it so far. So, you could check this out.

[Davey57]

I'll take a look at the paint boley sell. In the meantime I'll try some lume on top of the acrylic on the old dial that I am using for practice. I have left the acrylic for a couple of days and it seems to have dried out quite well. I bought some tubs of acrylic online from Hobbycraft, they were only £1.60 per pot so not too expensive to experiment with. I will post some pictures of the results and let you know how it worked out.

[bobm12]

I'm just trying to repair a black dial and I believe I made it worst! :(

 

In any case, I'm following this thread so any information is deeply appreciated!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

[Davey57]

Are you trying to repair the face of the dial itself Bob?  Luckily mine is not too bad and cleaned up quite well but the hour markers were way past their best and do not look good. I imagine it would be very difficult to apply paint to the dial without it sticking out like a sore thumb. I will put some pictures up anyway and you might find them of some help. This might be a slow process though so please excuse.

This is the one I am attempting to tidy up. The light is not good enough here now to take some pics of my practice dial but I will take some tomorrow.

 

[clockboy]

I have painted clock hands & found for the best results it,s best to really clean & de-grease the hands first. Then I use a spray undercoat (for metal) & leave for 24hrs. Then spray with an enamel top coat.

I purchase the paints from craft shops.

[Davey57]

Here's a helpful page.

http://vintagewatchparts.co.uk/index.php?id=14

[Davey57]

Thought you might like to see my attempts so far. This is just an old dial that I am practicing on by the way.

 

Here I have applied some white lume over the top of the white acrylic basecoat. The 1 o'clock baton has some of the green lume over the white, it looks a little stronger in the flesh.

The 2 o'clock baton has green lume applied directly without basecoat.  Not nice at all.

4 o'clock baton is the original gold colour.

5 o'clock shows the acrylic base alone.

 

This is the paint I am using.

 

 

 

 

The finish looks quite thick in the pictures but isn't actually that bad.

 

 

What I intend to do now is strip all of this off again and re-apply some white basecoat. Then I am going to have a go mixing some of the lume powder with some slightly thinned down acrylic and see how that goes on. Maybe my lume kit wasn't the best but I find it it turns into an icing sugar consistency very quickly and doesn't run enough, regardless of the mixing ratio. Whereas, the acrylic is much better to work with.

Just a thought, but why actually bother with lume at all? As far as I'm concerned the colour of the green or white acrylic would be fine with me. I can't remember ever trying to tell the time in the dark by peering at a faintly glowing watch.

I'll post some pictures of the results of the next experiment.

 

 

[bobm12]

I think I will have to re paint most of the dial black...I did scr*w it bad! I'm using acrylic paint from Testors...The problem is how to make the paint blend and get a smooth finish...

[Davey57]

It seems from what I have found, that acrylic might not brush on too well. I've seen clips on youtube where people mostly seem to use it slightly thinned with an airbrush .

I haven't managed any pictures but I found that mixing the lume with some slightly thinned acrylic was ok. I am still finding that it dries out rather too quickly to be able to apply in one go.

I have also discovered that my green lume that came with the kit isn't luminous at all. Might have made a bad choice when I bought it me thinks.

[ro63rto]

For home made lume try...

Humbrol (slow drying)

AC5601 Matt Cote

AC5401 Satin Cote

AC5501 Gloss Cote

WITH

Watchlume glow powder (left hand one)

Result

Edited September 8, 2015 by ro63rto

[bobm12]

Good advise, I'll dilute the acrylic and try. I'll report back!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

 

PS. Good result ro63rto! I'll use it soon.

[Davey57]

For home made lume try...

Humbrol (slow drying)

AC5601 Matt Cote

AC5401 Satin Cote

AC5501 Gloss Cote

Think I might give some a go .

Thanks for the tip.

Thinners necessary do you think?

 

[ro63rto]

Yes for thinners.

Make sure you get their compatible ones.

[clockboy]

Have you tried to spray.

[ro63rto]

Have you tried to spray.

Me?

I had thought to try for the hand colour but the humbrol tins are only £1.50.

Edited September 10, 2015 by ro63rto

[Davey57]

I am only trying my hand at a re-lume and painting the seconds hand. Again I have been practicing on some old hands first. I can get the paint on ok with an oiler but close up it does look a bit lumpy, even when thinned. Spraying might give nicer results I suppose but it means wasting a whole can of aerosol if I used that or investing in a small airbrush kit. I'll see how the practice ones dry out. From normal viewing distance they look ok it's just when you look through a loupe they reveal the lumpy finish.

[Davey57]

Well after lots and lots of practice on the old dial I took the bull by the horns and just went for it with the main job.

After trying various different mixes I found one that worked pretty well for me so decided to just use what I had mixed and have a go.

 

 

It's a big improvement. I also lumed the hands too. It was pretty nerve wracking to be honest, I had done the old dial that many times I was getting a bit too used to it and when I came to do the actual job on the good one I was a bit too tense and had some shaky moments.

Although it went ok I am still going to try out some of the Humbrol.  It did not seem to make any difference how or what I mixed, it just did not stay wet long enough to get consistent coverage and application.