What the hell had just happened? Stainless steel doesn’t do this. No color at all except for some dark grey where I scorched it. Assuming I was just a turn or two away from some bluing, I put it back in the flame and … Now, if you are trying this at home, and your SKXMod bezel has just turned that color, stop, because you have reached the peak. I wasn’t sure why it was getting that mottling on the right side, but I was digging that too. After a few minutes in and out of the flame, it had turned a beautiful deep gold with strong areas of red. I got a pair of needle-nosed pliers to hold it, fired up the burner on the gas range, and held the faceplate just over the tip of the flame. I wanted to get to it right to that middle stage, blasting certain parts longer to get some uneven bluing. I’ve used this technique to match stainless steel buckles to bronze cases. My plan was to heat-treat that one and mount it in a bronze Kranio Design case. I put the black one for Darth Royale, and I’m still planning a project for the sunburst with text, but I had very definite ideas for the sterile sunburst, involving a pair of pliers and a blowtorch. The beveled frames were all neatly executed, as was the faux instrument mounting around the top left clock. I was pleased to see the text printing was clean, straight, and to my eyes, identical to the factory lettering. As I have come to expect from SKXMod, the parts are well-made and fit perfectly. I ordered one sterile black, one text sunburst, and one sterile sunburst. They have also recently added a $30 custom option that allows you to order your color of choice by Pantone code, which sounds wild, but I haven’t tried it yet. All can be had with text (sans Casio logo) or sterile. They offer black and white resin faceplates for $20, and matte white, sunburst silver, or black metal faceplates for $25. Their quality is great, their prices are fair, and they are incredibly responsive to my sometimes stupid questions. It started when I ordered three metal faceplates from, my one-stop shop for AE1200 aftermarket parts. On this project, I broke a couple of metaphorical bolts, but the Casio AE1200 patina project worked out in the end. A mechanic once told me that every 20-minute job is just a broken bolt away from becoming a 4-hour ordeal. Grab a cup of coffee and settle in, because, as usual, I managed to make what should have been a quick and easy swap into something far more complicated. Hey, remember back in Part 5 when I introduced the SKXMod Casio AE1200 replacement faceplate? And then again in Part 7 when I showed you the completed Darth Royale project and promised I’d tell you more about these faceplates later? Well, this is the faceplate article.
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