Felt pens for golden pin striping.

[Mormon S]

Hey guys. I need a suggestion for a golden paint felt pen to use on the striping of a horn. I'm currently repainting an H&S horn for victor machines, and want an accurate gold color. I've noticed that old golden paint always has more of a brownish-orangey hue to it, and isnt very reflective and shiny. The last horn I painter, I used a decocolor "premium prime premio" pen, and it was too bright and new looking. Any suggestion?

Thanks
Martin

[phonogfp]

For paint, I use a gold I bought over 30 years ago (I keep adding lacquer thinner to keep it from drying out). I've seen similar paint in hobby/craft stores. It seems to have tiny, tiny, tiny brass flakes in it. It goes on looking gold, but without the brightness of the pens and stuff like Testor's (which I think is awful - - not even paint). And after a short period, it seems to darken slightly as if the brass is tarnishing. The color is a very close match to original Edison striping.

As for pinstripes, I use a variety of drafting pens. You can adjust the width of line, and with a little practice you can lay down a perfectly straight line about 2 feet long.

George P.

[Mormon S]

Thank you George. I will keep looking for felt pens of the right color, it helps with accuracy, especially when painting the ribs. Here is a picture of the horn I'm currently painting for this curious.

Martin

[alang]

You could also look into golden pin stripe tape like mentioned in this thread http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... 3&p=162101.

Andreas

[phonogfp]

Sorry Martin - I misunderstood that you were looking for suggestions for felt-tip PENS. I can't help you there, as I've never found any that I liked as well as paint. You can mix paint when necessary (I've occasionally mixed gold and brown to darken it), and thin it too.

The external ribs of flower horns can be pretty easily painted by brush. The key, of course, is the right paint. Here are brush-painted external ribs (I didn't enhance color or brightness on any of these photos):

Here's the same paint used on the internal seams (done with drafting pen) and petal borders (by brush):

Pinstripes by drafting pen:

I see sets of drafting pens at yard sales and antique shops for around five - ten bucks. Here's the 1940s set of drafting pens I've used for the past 35 years (courtesy of my late father-in-law). I very much like the ability to exactly match the width of line which can be done with a drafting pen. I find I use the pen at the top and the one at the middle right 99% of the time:

You needn't limit yourself to felt-tip pens unless you really prefer them for some reason. But you can adjust drafting pens, mix your paint for color & consistency, and select the right brush for the job at hand. That's a lot of flexibility.

George P.