Painted Engravings for the Masses

The past day or two, there was an interesting thread in the Classic & Vintage forum on bikeforums.com about how to paint engravings, like one sees on all those tony Masis and Colnagos hanging out on Classic Rendezvous.

The basic technique is to paint it without a lot of care about the edges, then after about 5 minutes, rub down the high spots with a popsicle stick dipped in mineral spirits.

So I tried it, worked like a champ first time. The front derailleur, btw, is a NOS Suntour Compe V, I've fallen in love with high normal in the front.

And yes, there is a connection between the yellow on this derailleur set and the yellow brake cable housing I purchased today....