Silver paint pen & Silver pencil

Tools 'n' Tips Article by Steve Bamford

 

Silver pencil and silver paint pen....with blow-up of pen tip.

 

Here's a couple of useful items that fall into the "under $5 category".....both of these items can be purchased at any well stocked stationary store or artist supply shop or drafting supply shop.   

The first item is a silver pencil.  My example says on the side of the pencil "SANFORD PRISMACOLOR PC949 Metallic Silver (Argent Metallique)" on the outside.  The silver pencil provides beautiful silver color that can be wiped away with your finger.  A lighter touch will provide a lighter finer silver as compared to a firmer hand using the pencil will provide a more solid silver.  This is a no-brainer item to use, because you can pretty well wipe most if not all of the pencil marks off with you finger if you don't get it right the first time. 

The second item is a silver paint pen.  My example says on the side of the pen "Hybrid Gel Roller K105 Pentel Japan".  This silver paint pen is basically a ball point pen filled with silver paint (these also come in other colors such as gold paint).  The paint looks like bright shiny bare aluminum and can be dulled down somewhat with a dark wash after the silver paint has dried.  I love to use this Silver Paint Pen for Photo Etched seatbelt buckles........it never misses and is 100% accurate....unlike using a brush which requires a tiny bit of skill.  Doing seatbelt buckles with this silver paint pen requires no skill....idiot proof...my type of tool. 

Seatbelt buckles done with silver paint pen in this 1/48 Hobbycraft Avia S199 cockpit.  Please excuse dust on seatbelts....appears as tiny spiderweb lines in the above cockpit photo....this project has been on the back burner for a couple of years.

One thing to remember....the pencil can produce almost feathered edges....softer more erratic edges....the silver paint pen uses paint so the edges are very sharp.  So the uses for each one can be quite different.

Steve Bamford

Seatbelt buckles done with silver paint pen.......chipping on edges of side consoles done with silver paint pen in this 1/48 Dragon/DML 2 seater Me 262.

Photos and text © by Steve Bamford