With a lot of people ordering from me, I decided to revisit trying to color etching on darker plastics. I found that cheap correction fluid works great! You'll want to make sure it's pretty thin so it wicks into the etching nicely. Add a nice thin layer over the etched areas of your parts and let it dry:
After letting it dry use a paper towel or a nice non-abrasive cloth and rub off the excess dried marking fluid to reveal the crisp text and graphics underneath:
Back in the ’70s and ’80s we used Crayons on D&D dice for the same effect. It also works well for the stamped lettering in Lian Li pc cases. Since it is just colored wax, it can be wiped down with water without needing to reapply afterwards.
I tried wax pencil but it didn’t turn out particularly well. I’ll give straight up crayon a go and see if they work any better…
Hi,
Love the correction fluid idea! It would then be pretty easy to colour with a texta or similar.
In the past I have used hobby shop spray cans. Before I remove the protective paper, I mask off the areas I want to colour then spray – first with a plastic primer and then with the colour of choice.
I’ve got an example of a switch panel on my flickr page –
This has 3 different colours.
Once the paint is dry, I can then peel off the paper and it’s done!
Used Bic Wite-Out and I was finding it very difficult to completely remove everything. I found that the sides of other pieces of plastic/case (spare light pipe?) worked REALLY well!
I used water based model paint.
Looks epic.