Please note please dont try this and wreck your bezel

I tried this once before and sort of made a mess of a bezel a few years ago

Since ive been doing modelling i like to think ive got a dab hand with a airbrush

Any way since it had a few cracks in it I tried it again and im pretty pleased with the result not perfect by a long shot but better than it was

Just need to master the resin part

 

Nice. Can you explain a little bit more how you did it?

 

Yes

1st is you need a razor blade very gently push it in one of the cracks then slowly apply pressure and the bezel will start to lift once it’s about half way up change to a scalpel till you can put the blade under the bezel

Slowly push the scalpel under the bezel and it will start to lift moving around the bezel

You have to be very careful otherwise you will get more cracks

Once out gently sand of any old back paint with 1000 grit sand paper

Get some modellers clear gloss varnish and a small brush dab the numbers and indexes with it let it dry if you don’t do this when you paint it black the paint will seep into the indexes and numbers turning them nearly black

Paint any indexes with white paint taymia flat white 50% and thinners 50% for this you will need the thinnest brush and loupe

You may need a lume kit. I had a small vile of Tritium I’d scraped off a old dial I got from the car boot for 10p

I ground it up pressed it in the bezel (triangle on this one) then used the clear gloss to set it

Once all dry roll out some blue tack flat press on the bezel and the with a low psi spray over 3 coats

I used taymia flat black 50% paint 50% thinners

Same in any of the indexes are missing taymia flat white 50% and 50% thinners

Once all dry and your happy reinsert the bezel gently

I made the mistake of using the gloss varnish on the whole bezel that’s why you can see little marks in the paint

 

I am personally, very impressed, John

Your skill is undeniable…if not quite perfected yet

You have the potential to be the first English ‘Aldo’ !!

 

and when all is done, do you glue in the insert? if so, what do you use? kind regards. achim

 

at the moment its not glued in it fits snugly enough to hold it but what i thought was gloss the black to seal it them use a tiny amount of pva glue

 

for those that are interested ill do some pictures of the process and the products

but as i said before unless you have a old bezel you dont care about dont try it and wreck your bezel

 

Had another bash this morning paint is pretty much perfect marks are now in the bezel resin

going to buy some resin and have a practice

glued in with PVA glue but fits back pretty tight

 

the products i used the needle is out of a old .20 airbrish perfect for getting into one of the cracks which you can see on the last post between the 2 and 3 marker