[JohnReid]

Next,paint the panel silver.Now the fun part.Because my panel design is flat with raised rings for the instrument faces,I took some very thin acrylic burnt sienna paint,the consistency of skim milk ,loaded it into a hyperdermic needle and flooded the spaces between the instruments with paint.Then I took a hairdryer and evaporated the pools of paint until dry.Then I took my finger and using it like fine sandpaper rubbed the panel to take any paint off the silver instrument rings.This was repeated as many times as necessary until the panel took on a irregular shaded wood look.Some of the paint will dry a darker shade close to the sivler rings which tends to make them stand out even nicer.Do not continue painting until everything is the same depth of color (you want to retain this irregular look) Later you can touch up some areas with pastels.The secret is thin paint ,built up in layers.Be sure each layer is thourghly dry before attemting another layer, otherwise your finger rubbing will only succeed in taking all the paint off.