How to paint sight with tritium insert?

[matto]

I bought some Dawson Precision Tritium night sights for my CZ P-01, and I'm not too excited about them. The front has a thin white ring that is OK but really doesn't stand out unless the lighting is perfect. I've got some testors neon paint, but I can't figure out how to do so without covering the tritium.

Option 1: try to cover the tritium with a tiny, perfectly round piece of tape. I'm not sure how well this will work because it's really tiny. And will it just peel off the surrounding paint when I try to remove it?

Option 2: paint over the tritium, then try to scratch the paint off later just where the tritium is. Will that work, or will I damage the tritium before I get all the paint off?

Option 3: ?????


68594

[Default.mp3]

Carefully?

When I was painting my front sights (Heinie Straight 8s), I used a toothpick (and nail polish).

[vcdgrips]

From the mothership archives so to speak:

https://pistol-training.com/articles/the-johno-diy-high-visibility-front-sight

[matto]

Carefully?

When I was painting my front sights (Heinie Straight 8s), I used a toothpick (and nail polish).

Ha. Did you successfully avoid the tritium? Looking at a picture of those, it looks like they tritium is set in a bit more than on these.

I'm now wondering about Option 3: put a tiny round dab of white out (or plasti-dip?) on the tritium, then paint, then scratch off the white out with a tooth pic.

[matto]

From the mothership archives so to speak:

https://pistol-training.com/articles/the-johno-diy-high-visibility-front-sight

Oh wow, thanks.

The pics don't load for me though. Are they working for you?

[Default.mp3]

Ha. Did you successfully avoid the tritium? Looking at a picture of those, it looks like they tritium is set in a bit more than on these.

I'm now wondering about Option 3: put a tiny round dab of white out (or plasti-dip?) on the tritium, then paint, then scratch off the white out with a tooth pic.I was able to do it without getting any paint on the tritium vial without much effort in terms of needing to be careful about the vial (though the overall process was a bit tedious).

[Elwin]

I’ve had decent luck painting around fiber optic rods (idea credit to GJM) and would be tempted to try that with a Dawson night sight, leaving the white ring untouched and painting all the black around it. If I recall correctly the Dawson’s have both the ring and the vial under a clear protective layer so just painting the ring would be hard if not impossible.

I’ve had good results using this paint, both for indented circles and for fiber optic and plain black sights. It’s held up well so far. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007IAUUFK?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

[vcdgrips]

I was able to click on the images in the upper left and they would open. I was using the Google browser.

[beenalongtime]

When Mr. Langdon was testing his sight choices on the Compact Carry, he had some take off's, that the paint had chipped. I asked him if I could have one of the take off's, and he sent two to me. This allowed me the opportunity to do several things, including learning to touch one up (one was missing the crystal on the vial). I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some Tester's paint, and saw they had some microbrushes, that were cheap. They are effectively a very tiny tip (like a toothpick) with a miniature cotton ball on it. That worked very well for me. I tried on one without the crystal, and one with the crystal. I used the microbrush to remove paint from the crystal as well, as I wanted to know how it would work, if I painted with just a toothpick.

[TCB]

I did this on my 870 with a tritium front. Painted over the tube a bit and waited for the paint to dry a bit, took a toothpick and was able to easily rub the paint off of the areas that had been covered over the tritium tube. The paint didn’t stick to the glass/plastic the tube is made of very well making it pretty easy to get off.

[fatdog]

waited for the paint to dry a bit, took a toothpick and was able to easily rub the paint off of the areas that had been covered over the tritium tube. .

Same here except I use a straight pin and trace the circle around the part covering the vial and its liner until the center just lifts out and flakes off....I gave up on the intracacies of trying to "paint around" when I realized it was this easy to just remove the piece from the face of the vial.

[vcdgrips]

Initially, I would have said to use some very Orange finger nail polish from wal mart/CVS etc and apply carefully with the very edge of the included brush.

However I think saw this above

"Same here except I use a straight pin and trace the circle around the part covering the vial and its liner until the center just lifts out and flakes off....I gave up on the intricacies of trying to "paint around" when I realized it was this easy to just remove the piece from the face of the vial."

So I know think that ----you could paint the whole thing, top to bottom, left to right and let it start to dry for a few minutes and then carefully "dig" it out of the vial area with a toothpick, pin, tack, micro screwdriver etc. and be just fine. You might get bonus points for a quick degrease of the front sight with a mild solvent i.e. a dab of hand sanitizer or even a Zeiss (R) disposable optical cleaning towelette before "painting" with the polish.

[TCB]

68603
Birchwood-Casey hi-Vis paint pen and a toothpick...no prep work and very little skill. 😂

[shootist26]

I bought some Dawson Precision Tritium night sights for my CZ P-01, and I'm not too excited about them. The front has a thin white ring that is OK but really doesn't stand out unless the lighting is perfect. I've got some testors neon paint, but I can't figure out how to do so without covering the tritium.

Option 1: try to cover the tritium with a tiny, perfectly round piece of tape. I'm not sure how well this will work because it's really tiny. And will it just peel off the surrounding paint when I try to remove it?

Option 2: paint over the tritium, then try to scratch the paint off later just where the tritium is. Will that work, or will I damage the tritium before I get all the paint off?

Option 3: ?????


68594

Do you have a hobby store near you? One that specializes in plastic scale models and such?

There is this thing called liquid mask that modelers use to mask off parts for painting when tape won't work. You brush it on to the area you want to mask, let it dry, and them paint around the masked area. The liquid mask will try into a latex like layer and you can peel it right off with some tweezers.

Something like humbrol maskol:
https://youtu.be/tqRwTz52DAE

Also, get some superfine brushes for painting on amazon. Trying to paint with a toothpick sucks. These brushes have an even finer point.

[BrazeauRacing]

This is what I've been doing to all the tritium front sights of my guns (with or without RDS):
https://chuckbrazeau.blogspot.com/2017/12/diy-high-visibility-front-sight.html

It's very easy to apply (takes me about 5 minutes), it's cheap, and I don't have to replace them very often at all. Your mileage may vary...

68997

[matto]

This is what I've been doing to all the tritium front sights of my guns (with or without RDS):
https://chuckbrazeau.blogspot.com/2017/12/diy-high-visibility-front-sight.html


Yes! Thanks for this post. After doing some tests on other surfaces with paint I decided that a stick-on is probably the way to go.

The only dilemma is which tape to use. What green tape is that in your pic? That looks really nice!

[BrazeauRacing]

Yes! Thanks for this post. After doing some tests on other surfaces with paint I decided that a stick-on is probably the way to go.

The only dilemma is which tape to use. What green tape is that in your pic? That looks really nice!

I just picked up some 1/4" pin stripe tape off eBay. The adhesive properties of the tape isn't that great, but once it's covered with the clear fingernail polish, it doesn't move. I've only had to replace the tape once on two different guns, but it's very easy to re-apply it.

By the way... if the face of front sight is serrated, just dab a little clear fingernail polish on the front sight and let it dry to fill the serrations before applying the pinstripe tape ring.

[Suvorov]

MicroMask

http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=MI-7&Category_Code=FINPROD

Can be purchased off of Bezos’s Capitalistic Communistic Shopping Commune (AKA Amazon).

Cover the dot with the mask (a toothpick will put a round drop that should cover the tritium insert), trim with a hobby knife, then paint the front sight. After the paint is mostly dry, use the hobby knife to remove the micro mask.

[matto]

MicroMask

http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=MI-7&Category_Code=FINPROD

Can be purchased off of Bezos’s Capitalistic Communistic Shopping Commune (AKA Amazon).

Cover the dot with the mask (a toothpick will put a round drop that should cover the tritium insert), trim with a hobby knife, then paint the front sight. After the paint is mostly dry, use the hobby knife to remove the micro mask.

Thanks!

Have you tried it? I'd be a little worried about it chipping up all the paint touching it?

[Suvorov]

Thanks!

Have you tried it? I'd be a little worried about it chipping up all the paint touching it?

Actually in the process of doing it but have used this technique on similar applications many times. If you can wait a week I will post the results.

[Suvorov]

Thanks!

Have you tried it? I'd be a little worried about it chipping up all the paint touching it?

Finally got the new bottle of micromask and the time to paint the front sight. I used a paint pen for the Orange and I’m not totally happy with it not getting as uniform of coverage but here are the results.

69354

[matto]

That's not bad at all. I don't see much chipping or peeling there.

That orange color doesn't exactly pop though. Maybe needs another coat? Or a brighter orange.

[beenalongtime]

I've often heard and looked at finger nail polish, but what I found that matched better and stood out, was Testor's orange model paint.

[JAD]

I’ve had the best luck with orange over a white coat. Call it the MAGA scheme.

[Bushytale]

Salon Perfect "traffic cone" from Walmart is very bright.

[TOTS]

+1 on the testors bright orange. I’m on about five years and no need to reapply. I hand painted with the finest tipped brush Michael’s sold.

[TAZ]

Thanks!

Have you tried it? I'd be a little worried about it chipping up all the paint touching it?

Haven't used it on sights, but use it regularly on scale models. This is a 1:48 scale Spitfire canopy. If you run a razor along the edges before you peel it off it can be used to make some clean lines. The stuff at the bottom of the bullet proof plate is the mask ready to come off.

69832

[matto]

I find I really like a circle, rather than covering the whole sight. I find it makes it easier to get rapid alignment, then use the edges of the sight it self to fine tune.

So I bought this tape
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CCDKL2

And these punches
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PMM3H64

Stuck it on, and put a layer of clear nail polish over it and around the edges. The fact that the circle is just a tiny bit larger than the sight, and that it's slightly offset to the left, drives me nuts (OCD much?) but overall I actually kind of like it. It looks better in real life than in the pics. When you're not zoomed in you don't see the imperfections, and it's really easy to see and acquire the sights.

The tritium shows through in the dark. It is unfortunately slightly dimmer now that it has to go through the nail polish, and the hole is a little on the small side. But it's still pretty good.

6992869929

[TOTS]

69930

Realized I never added a pic to the above post.

[matto]

Oh damn, that's nice. Any more zoomed in photos?

You did that all by hand? Did you need to do 20 coats? I experimented with some Testors orange and it seemed extremely thin.

[TOTS]

Oh damn, that's nice. Any more zoomed in photos?

You did that all by hand? Did you need to do 20 coats? I experimented with some Testors orange and it seemed extremely thin.

No, one coat of white from a fine tip paint pen (testors would also work) and then a coat of orange. The Dan Wesson has the tritium inset so it was easy to paint but the 229 has the clear coating flush with the sight blade so it looked ’blobby’. But it worked well. I eventually replaced it with fiber optic.

69942

Man that was harder than expected to photograph!! This picture is about three years after I originally painted it; no reason to recoat.