Mike_G Posted April 13, 2016 Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 Seems like the focus on getting the tropical look is trying to modify the dial after its printed and lumed. Wouldn't the effect be easier to achieve if you could start with a blank dial. Create the look on the blank dial and then have the printing done after. This might be a question for Whoopy and would certainly depend on the ability to have a dial custom printed. Yuki sells a brown dial but it looks nothing like a "tropical" I think what I have in mind would have to be hand finished before printing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted April 13, 2016 Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 Exactly... the tropical effect doesn't appear over the whole dial evenly (I was going to say it's not homogeneous and isotropic, but figured I'd get a brick thrown my way). It's more pronounced at the perimeter, date window and the central hole. Here's a gen... Some people have started with an even brown dial and carefully added shoe polish to darken it. I tried that and the results weren't very pretty... Maybe someone with more skill could get it to work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revere Posted April 13, 2016 Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 I've made experiments on tropical dials with careful airbrushing. I pretty much cut out a lot of slots for date wheels, circular edges, and other features in a chunk of brass and painted over in black. Then I airbrushed with brown paint. That was a while back, the results were ok, I think they could have looked better if I had spent more time picking out colors, mixing ratios for air/paint, tips for the air brush, texture for the base layer of paint, some other things... It just needs a lot of time and attention put to practicing, and I didn't have the opportunity for either when I started the experiment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_G Posted April 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 To me starting with a blank dial makes sense for a couple of reasons. First, seems impossible to work around the printing on the dial and gave it look natural. Second, if you mess up on a blank dial just start over. Not possible on a printed dial. I've destroyed a couple of dials and it hurts deep. When I see a tropical dial I'm reminded of a faux leather paint effect. My wife's boss did this on an accent wall in his house and it looked great. Whoopy if you see this can you chime in. Could someone supply you with a blank dial and you have it printed? ( is printed the right term?) I'm not suggesting copying something like this 1:1, but I bet someone skilled with an airbrush could produce a really nice blank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Champagnesky Posted April 13, 2016 Report Share Posted April 13, 2016 This is what you need for the tropic effect http://www.qcmachine.com.tw/eng/PT-2030%20UV%20LAMP%20FADE%20TESTER.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike_G Posted April 14, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2016 1 hour ago, champagne-communist said: This is what you need for the tropic effect http://www.qcmachine.com.tw/eng/PT-2030%20UV%20LAMP%20FADE%20TESTER.htm Wow, one machine to satisfy all of my fading needs. I bet it could double as a dehydrator for dried banana chips and beef jerky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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