Nikon Lens Aperture and DoF Lines Color Matching

Hey Everyone!

I am restoring some older Nikon lenses, and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for which colors to repaint the aperture number and depth of field lines with? I am referring to the blue, yellow, red, orange, and green in the lettering below. I'm looking for brands, or specific color names, as I want to match them as close as possible.

If anyone has insight it's greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Howie1922 said:

Hey Everyone!

I am restoring some older Nikon lenses, and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for which colors to repaint the aperture number and depth of field lines with? I am referring to the blue, yellow, red, orange, and green in the lettering below. I'm looking for brands, or specific color names, as I want to match them as close as possible.
View attachment 407510
If anyone has insight it's greatly appreciated! Thanks!

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Isometimes use Stylex acrylic markers to rejuvenate the colors if needed.

Tamiya X-2 White, X-8 Lemon Yellow, X-14 Sky Blue, X-28 Park Green, and X-7 Red to which you can add a dab of the white to get the pink colour. All are in 10ml bottles and if you need thinner it's X-20a but get it in the 10ml size bottle as you won't need much.

You don't need a fine brush, dab the paint on the number, wipe the excess off with your finger (not a cloth because that will drag the paint out of the engraving). You should be left with the filled number and a thin smear around it, get the smear off with a dry-ish cotton bud dipped in the thinner.

250swb said:

Tamiya X-2 White, X-8 Lemon Yellow, X-14 Sky Blue, X-28 Park Green, and X-7 Red to which you can add a dab of the white to get the pink colour. All are in 10ml bottles and if you need thinner it's X-20a but get it in the 10ml size bottle as you won't need much.

You don't need a fine brush, dab the paint on the number, wipe the excess off with your finger (not a cloth because that will drag the paint out of the engraving). You should be left with the filled number and a thin smear around it, get the smear off with a dry-ish cotton bud dipped in the thinner.

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This sounds promising. Does this work fine without using thinner?

Are you able to get most of the excess color off the surrounding black body paint using this method? In the past when I’ve tried to repaint white letters, the surrounding black metal gets some white on it. I’ve struggled to get it off in the past.

Howie1922 said:

This sounds promising. Does this work fine without using thinner?

Are you able to get most of the excess color off the surrounding black body paint using this method? In the past when I’ve tried to repaint white letters, the surrounding black metal gets some white on it. I’ve struggled to get it off in the past.

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You don't need to thin Tamiya paint out of the bottle, but the thinner is to tidy up and clean your brush. They are water based acrylic paints (waterproof when dry) so you could use water to clean up but the dedicated thinners has a better flow and doesn't bead on the surface like plain water. They are available from many hobby stores selling on eBay or maybe you have a model shop nearby. If you run your fingertip over the freshly filled engraving there won't be much to clean up, but as I say, a cotton bud with some thinners on it will remove the smear before it can dry. Even if the paint dries you can still get the excess off with T-Cut on a soft cloth (don't use much, don't soak the cloth).

I have done something similar using a Q tip to apply the paint and then a clean piece of absorbent paper tissue (not hairy) to wipe the excess away either towards you or away from you never sideways. You could try wrapping a piece of the same paper around the end of a Q tip so making a smaller point of contact, especially if you have large fingers like me!

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'll try to upload my results after I do the painting. Thanks!

Just wanted to follow up with pictures of the repainted lettering. They aren’t perfect, but I think they turned out good!