We had a custom order for color contrasted templates today, and felt it was a great time to address our simple method of doing color infills on engraved acrylic items.

This technique will work on all of our standard acrylic items, but it should be mentioned that different rules apply to the mirrored acrylic. We will talk about that at the end.

To begin with, when the laser engraves the acrylic, it effectively blasts away at the material, leaving a comparatively rough surface in its wake.  This rough surface looks very pale by comparison. All of our stock photographs in our web store show this unfinished surface. It looks white, or slightly off white to a grayish version of the acrylic color. Often times this is enough contrast, and people have been happy with that finish alone.

But many players would like to add some color, perhaps to match their paint scheme, or maybe just to provide a good contrast.  In the case of white and opaque yellow, it is actually a necessity, otherwise the engravings are too pale to even be legible.

The method we use to provide this color contrast through paint infill is a fairly simple, and while by no means the only way to achieve it, it is quick and easy, and gets consistent results.

1. Paints: We use simple acrylic craft paint for this task, the sort you can purchase in big box stores like Walmart, or craft stores. We prefer Ceramcoat to other brands. The reason for this, is Ceramcoat brand seems to be a bit thicker. The others like Apple Barrel and Folk Art are a bit hit and miss. Some seem slightly watery, and the paint does not stick to the rough engraving very well. In our experience, slightly thicker paint is best, and Ceramcoat has performed well.
2. Technique: This is where things get a bit messy, at least when we do it. Lay out some news paper and have a bit of water on hand. You will also need some disposable rags or paper towels. Shake your paint well, ensuring it is well mixed. We then drizzle a bead of paint down the length of the item, and with a finger, rub it into the engraving. Then, while the paint is still wet, wipe away the excess, and it should leave a nice bit of color behind. The paint will actually dry pretty quickly, so it is important to wipe away the excess quickly, but water cleans it up pretty easily.
3. Cleanup: After the templates have dried, you will invariably notice that there is some paint outside the engraving, perhaps along the edge, or a smear you missed wiping it off. This should clean up easily, wiping away with a soft cloth or paper towel. Outside of the engraved area, paint does not stick to acrylic very well at all, and should rub away easily.

Now a few notes about color choices. Obviously, a good contrast is best. If you put a shade of orange paint on red acrylic, it might well be the look your are after, but it also might not provide much contrast.

As we said, some paints are not as good as others for this task, and simply don’t measure up to the job. If you try a paint, and it doesn’t work well, don’t panic. They can be recolored with a different paint if the first worked poorly.

Finally, with regard to color choice, it is almost always easier to cover a light colored acrylic with a dark colored paint. Black paint on white acrylic, for example, is easily done in one coat. The opposite works well too, but the white paint on black acrylic can benefit from a second coat.

When you deem a second coat necessary, simply repeat the process until you get the solid color your are after.

A note about enamels. Enamels are not a paint choice we have experimented with. They will likely adhere very well, but require thinner to clean up, as we suspect they would also adhere to the smooth acrylic. They were also just too smelly and toxic to our tastes. We have seen things done well with paint pens as well, but those are usually enamel too, so we have avoided them. You are welcome to experiment, and if you have a technique to share, we would love to hear about it, but none of what we discuss here has much the same application with enamel paints, so you will be on your own.

And at last we come to the mirrored acrylic. Our mirrored acrylic templates have had a lot of popularity lately, but they function a bit differently with regards to paint fill. To engrave the mirrored acrylic, you are actually engraving the back of the sheet through a grey film permanently attached. You cannot engrave a mirrored surface with a laser without cause dangerous (to the machine and potentially people) reflected laser energy, so only the back in engravable.

The reverse engravings still take colored paint well, but then the color has to come through the acrylic to be be visible on the surface. With the mirrored material, this means the darker the acrylic, the less effective the paint fill is in providing contrast. It is almost unnoticeable entirely on the darker colors like green, blue and purple.

That said, with the mirrored acrylic this technique shines impressively on the metallic mirrored material like gold, bronze, and silver. The color of the acrylic with this materials is generated via painted surface on the back, beneath the grey film. The acrylic itself is almost transparent, and as such, it allows a lot of color to shine through.

This was not meant to be a comprehensive guide, but a simple tutorial on how to provide a paint contrast on your tokens cheaply and simply. We would love to hear about other techniques, so please share them if you like.