Railmaster dial relumed - feedback welcome

Dan S

Can you clarify which photos are before and which are after? You can just edit your original post. If the first photo is "before" and the remainder are "after", then I think the re-lume job is quite sloppy and unappealing. I don't know if you consider that "constructive", but it's honest.

R Reporter

Good evening everyone,

Need advice on a Railamster dial that has been relumed with radium.
Sharing before and after photos: fist photo is before, all the rest are after.

The dial belongs to the person who did the relume, hands are mine.
Asking price for dial + the relume job - 1000 Euro.

How does this look to you?
Please be constructive.

Thank you.

R Reporter

...
Ok, be honest, evetyone - is this worth paying 1k Euro for?

R Reporter

Seller claims the dial to be original, but reprinted.
Ok, be honest, evetyone - is this worth paying 1k Euro for?

watchyouwant

Depends......looks like one of the dials, sold from Canada. Quite a bit of work, to mill out the luminous wells. Printing so-so, but better than many others, I've seen. The minute strokes are too short, most reprinted dials share that feature. The effort, to make a pristine manufactured dial into a typical Railmaster look used dial with uneven relume and a few discolourations, is not bad. The use of blue shiny activated lume , is just sloppy. A No-No. Use water based Tritium for an old look, not that stuff. Apart from the printing, the first glance is better than before. I'm unsure rgd. The price: you buy the complete dial and the re lume for euro 1000 ? As a temporary solution that sounds ok. Euro 1000 for the relume alone is outrageous. With the time involved, that is maybe worth euro 400 max. Kind regards. Achim

snunez

Leaving aside the condition of the dial, which others have covered, wouldn't the original lume be more white than orange/brown?[/QUOTE

No, not white. Dark yellow/brownish after 60 years and lume Radium based till around 1962. Kind regards. Achim

Spacefruit

And how long, once you start looking, before you start thinking maybe that this dial is better than nothing....😀

R Reporter

Thank you for your feedback, everyone.
I will not be paying for this job then, will request to send my hands back.
My main issue then will be finding a new dial, or restring my original dial, which was also repainted in the 90s and looks very poor.
Can anyone restore this kind of dial to a 100% original state?