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Old 20th Nov 2019, 9:58 pm   #10
David G4EBT
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Cottingham, East Yorkshire, UK.
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Default Re: Translucent Tuning Dial 'knobs' - re-manufacture?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tractionist View Post
You dial looks to be scan-able - and then maybe re-touch'able with paintbox or some other programme? The most important part of the image is the actual scale markings - these seem to be pretty legible and should come out in a scan. One you have a good clean image of the scale elements [with the background gold omitted] - you could then get them printed onto transfer paper and stick that onto a thin gold disc [could even be gold foil]. BUT - half the scales 'colour' is white - so you will not be able to do that on a simple ink jet printer.
If you use white decal paper you can in fact create white lettering on ink jet waterslide transfer ('decal') paper using an ordinary domestic ink jet printer. (Or on a laser with laser decal paper). With careful colour selection, you can also mimic 'gold'.

Looking at the state of the dial, I think you'd have to use it as a guide to create a new one in Photoshop or whatever as it looks rather too far-gone to clean up a scan. Waterslide transfers have to be sprayed with several coats of clear gloss acrylic lacquer before they're applied, so the 'gold' background would I think, create a good likeness - certainly far better than what you have now.

If all the lettering was black, red, blue, green - whatever (anything but white), you could create a waterslide transfer on clear decal paper and apply that to gold foil paper on a replica dial. No-one is going to look at the replica dial and say 'it's not genuine' - how would anyone know without a genuine example alongside with which to compare it?

Rather than repeat what I've written in previous threads when this topic has cropped up before, the link below might be of interest. All of the images in the quick examples shown were created from the top one, which was black letters on a white background. If you look at the third image down, you'll see that its a reasonable approximation to white lettering on a gold background.

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...lide+Transfers

It's also often said that we can't print white lettering on labels etc, such as for replica radio backs. The label on the replica back at the picture below, which I made for a little Maestro, printed on ordinary paper in an ink-jet printer is, I think, passable as white lettering on a dark brown background. Simple to do - the lettering was created black, then the image was 'inverted' so that the lettering showed up as white on a black background. The background could easily have been changed to another colour in a few seconds - dark brown for example, but I was happy with it as it was.

Hope that might help a bit.
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