Best way to fill engraving on a painted camera?

tunalegs

Pretended Artist
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I'm curious about this. On a chrome camera I usually paint in the engraving by hand then run a cloth moistened with paint thinner over it to "pick up" any excess paint outside of the engraving. But this would probably ruin the finish on a painted camera. So what is the best way to fill in engraving on a painted camera?

Thank in advance.
 
I have the white paint stick and have used it on my M4-2, which is not painted. All you do is apply the stick and clean the excess or overflow with a dry cloth. I cannot recall the name of the thingy but I'll check and get back to you.

Just guessing it may be the same for black paint cameras... Just don't use thinner. 🙂
 
I use paint sticks from microtools. I wipe off the excess with a tissue and a few drops of oil. The black paint that I use can be wiped freely with alcohol, acetone, etc.
 
I believe Tomosy may mention a similar approach to what you've used but with a little lighter fluid, before the paint has completely cured? This shouldn't harm the existing paint but will help pick up any overflow from the lettering. I haven't had to try this myself yet but it sounds fair enough. What do you reckon?
Cheers,
Brett
 
I believe Tomosy may mention a similar approach to what you've used but with a little lighter fluid, before the paint has completely cured? This shouldn't harm the existing paint but will help pick up any overflow from the lettering. I haven't had to try this myself yet but it sounds fair enough. What do you reckon?
Cheers,
Brett

I've used lighter fluid before and it also works well.
 
Assuming your original paint is dry, using thinner shouldn't cause a problem, assuming that when you say "paint thinner" you mean a product with that name, not some other solvent. Paint thinner is a very weak solvent, and is for thinning, not removing; if it attacks a dry paint or varnish, something is horribly wrong.
 
I have succesfully used just a cotton swab to poor the white paint and then wiped the excess with a scrapper made of a kleenex tightly wrapped around a piece of metal.
Just hold the assembly at 90° with respect to the surface and do one pass only.
Light leftover may remain. Leave it to dry and clean up with a light solvant like gasoline.
 
If you're reasonably careful in applying white paint so that most of it goes into the engravings, then you can easily clean up the overflow with some Q-tips (no solvent). You may want to give the paint a 30 minute head start to begin to harden up slightly before you gently wipe around the engravings with the Q-tips.

I've used white paint meant to touch up washers and dryers from Whirlpool. When wet the paint comes off very easily with the dry Q-tip. Once the paint is fully dry, it is very resistant to chipping or flaking.
 
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