Removing Pips from Dice - Gold replacement

[Kurgan]

So I was never satisfied with the generic white "Pips" (the fancy term for the little divots on the dice that indicate the numbers on each face) on the movement D6's included with the remake set.

I looked to try to find some larger size plastic dice with rounded corners (to correspond with the white plastic german dice I use with HeroQuest generally instead of my aged wooden originals). But apparently these are very hard to find! It's much easier to find red dice that have white (or even black) pips.

Soaking the plastic dice in a (disposable) plastic cup with a couple ounces of "Super Clean" degreaser (purple bottle, wear rubber gloves and eye protection) overnight (aprox 10 hours) did wonders in removing all the paints from the pips.

I then tried two different gold paint pens I had to try to color the now empty divots and I will be posting the results soon when I can get some good photos. The plastic of the dice is not damaged. I tested it on these dice first before trying it on the Remake dice.

The first pen was too dull gold. The second is better but not really chrome (which I would have preferred). I'm not going to real real gold here of course. I had some other dice that I used a molotow chrome pen to color the pips silver chrome that turned out really nice.

[Kurgan]

Seems if I get a good flow on the pen and kind of goop the paint in there and swirl it around I get a good effect. If it doesn't dry I may have to apply a very thin layer of varnish to the pips themselves (awhile back I invested in a bottle of Liquitex High Gloss Varnish, the only stuff that doesn't dull the molotow chrome into basic silver, might use a tiny dab of that if needed).

[cornixt]

Most amateur dice makers use regular acrylic paints for their pips. Just blob it in there and wipe off the excess with your thumb. If you notice that you've failed to remove all of it after it has dried, rub it on a flat piece of kitchen towel dampened with alcohol.

[Kurgan]

Good tip! The gold pen I'm using (Decocolor gold premium) dries fast so it requires a little scrubbing to remove the excess on the surface but I ended up doing something similar.

[QorDaq]

Cool project.

Back in November (2021) I ordered this set of red 16mm Chessex dice. https://www.amazon.com/Chessex-Dice-d6-Sets-Scarlet/dp/B000RZQMKA/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2NGMH0HXNAJS0&keywords=red+and+gold+d6&qid=1649708570&sprefix=red+d6+gold%2Caps%2C183&sr=8-5

They are great looking dice and the gold pips read well.

In anticipation of the Frozen Horror and (potentially) other future themed dice packaged with further expansions, I ordered these https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y3BW39J?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details.

They are a little busier but all of them read well, saving for the Marbled white dice which lose the gold color a little on the lighter sides.

I'm fairly happy with both sets and intend to give players "Deluxified" dice color options going forward.

As to adding color to dice with white pips, I have had success with using gold paint pens over the white without stripping the pips at all. It's been a long time though, and I do not recall the brand of pen I used.

In any event, great topic.

[Kurgan]

Before I got the more expensive pen I had some bic and sharpie gold paint pens and those unfortunately don't seem to stick very well to plastic, appearing "tacky" even after a long time or easily rubbing off. Yes the pips are recessed so not as lucky to rub off but still, it's annoying.

I actually considered getting those Chessex red dice you shared which do look cool but I was trying to find something that just had a flat red color instead of the "marbled" design (plus I didn't need so many as appear in those packs). So I ended up getting a set of four off of amazon I believe it was with white pips and you know the rest of the story.

It's a simple preference thing (to make them look more like the original dice and a little less generic) but I'll be posting pics once I do the same with the Remake movement dice. Even with the pointed corners these are almost exactly the same size and shade of red as the other dice I just finished.

Now if you wanted to reverse the aesthetic, you could use bog standard generic white d6's with black pips (much more common than these other types) and then get those spielwarensaloon german "Zargon" dice (red dice with gold skull, shield, etc. symbols) though those of course are painted/stamped on rather than inscribed on the plastic, though they do have the nice rounded corners and are a good size.

If it wasn't for the subtle "white ring" effect of the white underneath the metallic color, I wouldn't do this. But my remake dice don't even look very good, with the white paint in the pips having visible cracks... I can make them look better.