TeeJay

Beauties indeed That NATO doesn't look like the standard fair, what material is it?

I bought an LV messenger from Ken about four years ago now, and have always been more than happy with the quality. Okay, yes, one of the strap's metal adjustment sliders snapped while I was carrying the equivelent of 3 telephone directories worth of advertising fliers, about a week after I got it, but let's be honest, that was way more weight than most bags could reasonably carry without some kind of structural failure So what did I do? Did I piss and moan like a bitch to Ken about it? Did I run crying to Paypal that I'd been scammed by someone? No! I tied a knot in the strap and continued using the bag every single day, never once having to resecure the knot... The only reason I don't use the bag for daily use anymore, is because it doesn't have enough space to carry a survival kit and groceries. Not because I don't like it, not because it fell apart, not because it's 'cheaply made' so not 'upto the job', but because my needs in a bag changed, requiring more capacity, and no other reason. If I was going to restock my wardrobe, or get new baggage, Ken would be my first port of call

NightColor has a pretty grainy texture, I'm not sure if it's acrylic or not, and when I've used it in the past, I've improvised a pestle and mortar to get it to a smoother consistency. Another luminous paint I picked up a while back was branded as 'glow in the dark paint' and that had a really creamy texture right out of the bottle, so was a pleasure to paint with (glow in the dark ouija board for a friend) but the luminosity was abysmal, certainly nowhere near long enough for use on a watch dial... I'm hoping that where the gold prep coat shows through the transparent areas of the decal, it will also lend a bit of tint to the lume I'm 50:50 on this at the moment, I can easily see it going either way with regards finish, but I'm looking forward to doing it, so keeping my fingers crossed

And what happens when you receive the refund, but just think "screw it, I'll just keep the stuff and say it got lost in the post..." I don't care how long peoplle have been posting, if they're a newcomer or a veteran, but I consider Ken to be one of the most honorable people I have ever dealt with, as a personal friend who sadly, I'll likely never have the pleasure of meeting in person, and it angers me beyond belief to see people behaving like this on transactions...

Very nice, what's the source?

For luming, the best paint I've used so far is NightColor by Revell, and as 'the tool', I took one of the nylon threads which are used to attach labels to clothes, and fixed it to the blunt end of a triangular paintbrush I found a spare rep dial this evening and stripped the paint from it, so will be putting my plan into action tomorrow if the weather's okay The issues I'm having, are not only is my pc not working, but my iPhone is now experiencing the camera/insufficient memory glitch which I've read is quite common, so even if I was to use my regular camera, I don't have access to a pc to load the photos up

Oh for sure, I totally understand what you mean, and I'm exactly the same, I'm now noticing flaws I wouldn't've noticed before, but, that's because we're watch enthusiasts The guy on the street, or even the average gen owner, simply would not know the flaws even if they were pointed out to them For example, the etchings on the clasp leaves of my DateJust are gibberish spelling, and I think the minute markers on the dial should be in line with the lume dots, rather than lining up with the tips of the hour markers, but on the wrist, it looks the business, and it's not as if I take it off to read the clasp, I keep it on my wrist, so while the watch is a far from flawless replica, it's still a perfectly passable rep in the context of flying under the radar on a day to day basis You're very welcome, I'm always happy to help where I can But as above, please do not buy a gen just to then throw it in a safe... If you're going to do that, just donate the cost of the gen to an animal welfare charity where it can be put to good use, because IMHO, when you get a rep, even if it's not 1:1 perfect replication, that will become your watch: the one that feels familiar on your wrist, and unless you hang around with a bunch of douchebags who're likely to actually call you out on the watch, honestly, hardly anyone will ever comment on it. On average, I've had maybe one comment per year over the last five years of collecting. One was about a 16610 Submariner, two were about a Panerai 029a GMT, the other was about an innacurately built Snowflake Submariner project in progress, and they were simply polite interest, nothing sinister. As I said before, unless you plan on trying to sell the thing as real, the flaws I mentioned above such as clasp etchings or movement decoration simply become irrelevant when it comes to wearing your watch day in day out

Another fine build from the maestro

Hmmm, might it be worth trying to achieve a kind of semi-gloss appearance? Not a uniform finish like the DSSD dial, but maybe a gloss clearcoat, but then an irregular dusting with matte clearcoat as well to create 'patches of patina'? The project I have in mind is a fantasy build of a GMTIIc, but as if rather than building a 6542, the guy got bored and instead pulled a load of parts from stores and slapped them together for the lulz, so if gilt dials were originally gloss and that gloss degrades over time, that is definitely something I would want to try and achieve I want it to look as period accurate as possible, as if it was a completely one off build from back in the day I've been having photographic issues lately, but will report back on the progress of the dial

Very helpful indeed The project I have in mind will be closer to the 6542 than a Submariner or Explorer, so maybe I shouldn't be so hasty as to dismiss the silver hands... The Antique Gold is a funny color to describe, it's quite a dark color, almost bronzey in its finish, rather than yellow gold or polished brass, and I'm hoping the translucency of the decals and then matte varnishing would subdue it further, so it's 'more color, less shine' As with most of my projects, this one may be a while before it gets put into action (I need to complete my 16610 to 16800 transition first ) but I thought it wouldn't hurt to do a little research into the options

There will always be some flaw in replication, so unless you want to try and sell the replica as the real thing (the only time flaws would truly be noticed or an issue) you might as well just buy whichever one you most like the look of, and enjoy it Chances are no one will even notice what watch you're wearing, so personally speaking, I don't think it's worth the hassle of worrying about the flaws, which really only show up when the watch is viewed in dinner plate-sized photos on a screen... On the wrist, most flaws will simply not be noticed, so wear what you like the most

I found a spare set of dial decals the other day for an Explorer Precision dial, and thought if I was to prep the dial blank with Plasticote's Antique Gold paint rather than white, it might give a nice gilt effect Of course, planned watch will not be an Explorer, but I just wondered if gilt on gilt was the acknowledged route

Thanks for the continued feedback and fantastic examples, amigos I may indeed have to go gilt on gilt with my idea (when I can get it off the drawing board and onto my wrist )

That would give away that I'm overcompensating Gotta keep it subtle

Many thanks

Just wondering, TIA

I'm poor and hung like a hamster, so need to wear a Rolex to feel like a Real Man

For lining up, I simply put the crown stem back into the movement, center the dial's centre hole precisely over the pinions, and then use the stem to align against the 3/15 minute marker

Same reply as above really, I just put the tape on the front of the movement where it won't foul any moving parts, sometimes using two or three layers of tape to get the right spacing, and ignore the ring all together I would recommend tape over the dial dots, as it's possible to cut the tape into squares larger than the dots, so getting more adhesion between movement and dial

Fantastic

Either a vintage GMT, or a Tudor Snowflake

Beautiful photography Not watches I'd choose for myself, but they all work very nicely together

Sorry to hear that, I hope she will be okay :-\

I've never used the ones specifically sold as 'dial dots' but have used regular double sided tape on many occasions to fix a dial to the movement, and never had an issue with the dial slipping or moving over time

I'm sure great-grandpa Wilbur would rather an heirloom get melted down to put food on the table if the situation came down to it. Sure, greed is one thing, but when there is a genuine need for money to pay food or heating bills, people often have to make tough choices