The one that got away 1016 Tropical Explorer: a case study

[369mafia]

Gave it another go after supper this evening.


Now that's whats up!!
I think Im getting the hang of it.

The LED lighting at my bench is a bit much and distorts the colours a bit. the lume is not that bright IRL

overal quite pleased. now lets do it again without the scuffs.

 

[369mafia]

A few more attempts

I think I am starting to develop a technique that provides realistic and consistent results It’s taken a number of hours to work out the paint consistency the air brush settings and also the technique to make it look natural and organically occurring. You can hardly tell the dial was a caramel tone. I tried just appling a black fade but it doesnt look natural to me. So i have gone with an ochre a chestnut brown and transparent black while trying to maintain the visibility of the gilt text.




I think my favourite of the three is the third. And i think I may clean off rhe second one and do another attempt and just use the black on it to see how it turns out. It looks too paint splattery too me

What do you guys think ? Getting close ? Definitely an improvement on overall appearance from my earlier examples in the thread.

Input welcome

 

[369mafia]

A few gen examples of tropical dials. I dont think I am far off the mark really

patina tropical dials.... This I can achieve . I am not far off the mark here, now that I am dialing in the technique.

 

[1016_idiot_savant]

A few more attempts

I think I am starting to develop a technique that provides realistic and consistent results It’s taken a number of hours to work out the paint consistency the air brush settings and also the technique to make it look natural and organically occurring. You can hardly tell the dial was a caramel tone. I tried just appling a black fade but it doesnt look natural to me. So i have gone with an ochre a chestnut brown and transparent black while trying to maintain the visibility of the gilt text.




I think my favourite of the three is the third. And i think I may clean off rhe second one and do another attempt and just use the black on it to see how it turns out. It looks too paint splattery too me

What do you guys think ? Getting close ? Definitely an improvement on overall appearance from my earlier examples in the thread.

Input welcome

the third one retains the text best... I think the best is to go for a slight darkening to provide contrast and break the even color, and that in this case less will be more... like tickling your lover with a feather rather than a whole chicken

 

[freebalkany]

Not a rep, but I restored a Nivada recently with a pretty crazy tropical patina.

 

[SamiJ]

Thanks for sharing. I thought the end result came out quite nice. I like the effect of those dials, they have a unique and rugged appearance. Is there anything else you're going to differently for your future attempts?

 

[SamiJ]

Not a rep, but I restored a Nivada recently with a pretty crazy tropical patina.

I'm liking the dial.

 

[369mafia]

Thanks for sharing. I thought the end result came out quite nice. I like the effect of those dials, they have a unique and rugged appearance. Is there anything else you're going to differently for your future attempts?

I think I have worked out most of the bugs in the process so now its just expand on the technique and allow the creativity to take over to see how far it will go.

I am tempted to then spray a gloss or semi gloss finish onto the dial to see of the clear coat will give the details depth .

 

[1016_idiot_savant]

I think I have worked out most of the bugs in the process so now its just expand on the technique and allow the creativity to take over to see how far it will go.

I am tempted to then spray a gloss or semi gloss finish onto the dial to see of the clear coat will give the details depth .

+1 for a gloss coat… these tropic dials where originally gilt, gloss dials.

 

[369mafia]

 

[1016_idiot_savant]

Incredible - this one is about perfect!

 

[369mafia]

Incredible - this one is about perfect!

Thanks Guy. It does look pretty good on the wrist Now that I have things dialed in I am thinking of adding some gold paint to the mix and give it i subtle base coat around the center to give it a metallic appearance , after all the plates were gilt so it will be interesting if I can give it a bit of a color shift appearance like a true gilt tropical would. I think then adding a coat of gloss finish will really give the finish some depth like that Nivada dial above.

stay tuned!

 

[369mafia]

Very pleased with how this one turned out.

 

[1675lover]

Very pleased with how this one turned out.

Yup it looks great.
Some stuff i feel can be improved on - lugs reshaping, changing it to the thinner crown

 

[Karbon74]

Yup it looks great.
Some stuff i feel can be improved on - lugs reshaping, changing it to the thinner crown

personal taste, I prefer the thicker crown. It feels more "Exploring" dunno if you see what I mean

 

[1016_idiot_savant]

Very pleased with how this one turned out.

That is perfect! Let us know when you open shop to take orders

 

[1016_idiot_savant]

Very pleased with how this one turned out.

That is perfect! Did you apply a gloss coat? Let us know when you open shop to take dial orders

 

[Karbon74]

I am also in the queue for a dial

 

[369mafia]

Yup it looks great.
Some stuff i feel can be improved on - lugs reshaping, changing it to the thinner crown

That is the narrow raffles crown on there.

I have shaped the lugs , but I dont quite go as far as you guys do I like my cases to look aged but not heavily work and over polished . may not be quite apparent by the top view / angle but I did put in work on them.

 

[369mafia]

That is perfect! Did you apply a gloss coat? Let us know when you open shop to take dial orders

No gloss coat , have yet to try it I am a bit concerned that the solvents in the clear may mess with the air brush paint. I will do a practice dial and see how that works out first before I commit to a complete dial . I am going to try a gloss water based polyurethane finish ( think I have some at my studio) I think that may be the best option , I also need to see if I can shot it with my air brush or not. The style of tropical dials that I am able to produce are the weathered look from moisture / uv . Still using this gen to base my work off of.



I think I have gotten alot closer to this style than previous attempts. I dont think I will be able to achieve those minty tropical gloss dials simply because I am applying the finish over the text. IF was able to get the dial plates first, then do my tropical work and then have them pad printed I would be able to achieve that ,

I am putting an order in with Raffles this week So I will order a few more dials and do them up and then probably sell them off that way , or you can contact me directly and we can discuss ordering one . Shoot me a DM and lets talk! I may also order standard dial and see how adding the tropical effect will work on those ??

perhaps something like this..



or I might be able to achieve something like this with the new 6610 dials that raffles has released.