Other Stuff > Misc / Open

What colour is best for the lettering on switchgear?

(1/3) > >>

Oddjob:
I've had some old halves of switchgear ceramic coated so I an experiment on them, plus I wanted to see how they came out as from what I've heard powder coating being much thicker can obscure the lettering.

Finally got round to doing a little painting on them but I'm unsure on what I consider to be the closest colour to the original, plus are the original letters done in red or a sort of burnt orange?

I've done 2 switch halves, both upper halves of the left hand switch on a CB550F. The L and the R are both different colours with 4 colours used in total.

Here's how they came out. The letters aren't full of paint yet so they may go a little darker or brighter after they get painted more, you can get the gist though.



If you prefer the L vote number 1, if you prefer the R vote number 2.

Next switch



Again, if you prefer the L vote 3 and for the R vote 4.

Just so you can see how they came out here's the lower half of the same Left hand switchgear.



I think they've come out really well, these are just spares as my switchgear I will be using haven't been done yet, just in case they didn't turn out as expected. Shame really as they are in excellent condition, seems a waste to get them done but needs must etc.

On an aside, once you start to remove the original paint on them (and I don't think these are anodised as that wouldn't cover up the casting marks) the surface under whatever they used at Honda is pretty poor, loads of small pits, casting marks even blemishes, you can see some of the pitting in the top pic. I also found out that if you use thinners on the new ceramic whilst it doesn't lift it off it does turn it shinier, on pic 1 you an see where I just did a small section and on pic 2 I've done the whole switch. Whether this will dull done as it evaporates off I have no idea. Worth noting though if you get yours done.

K2-K6:
They look good Ken and certainly have coating thickness to keep the markings clearly defined.

Johnny4428:
Hi Ken, I think the 1 and 2 are too red. I would go for No3. Nice looking job on the switches. I mixed my own colour using red and orange mix.

Oddjob:
Funnily enough Johnny the first 2 are red colours and the last 2 are orange colours. No 4 for instance is almost dayglo on the tin lid.

The odd thing is the original colour Honda used looks more red than orange, I used some Humbrol paint 40 years ago when I first did a set of switches and the colour came out perfect, no idea what it was or if they still do it. I'm leaning toward No 4 for some reason, maybe I should take a pic of a good switch and post that so it compares on screen.

taysidedragon:
Number 3 for me too. I painted mine with Humbrol Bright Red, can't remember the number.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page