ZX81 Letters

[Moggy]

Nice job there Matt.

[AN7805]

Thanks

it's not 100% perfect but ok.

Matt

[Harry]

How about using a hard rubber roller to roll the paint on

[Danjovic]

There's a method to paint high relief surfaces using a coin wrapped in a cloth.

[Lardo Boffin]

I use a very fine brush and model paint (can’t remember which one) and it looks pretty good. Admittedly I have had plenty of practice now!
Give the existing surface a really good clean and get a large blob of paint (well large relative to the brush) and put it in the centre part of the letter you are trying to paint. Then just tease it towards the edges with the brush and the volume of paint will help it spread naturally and evenly. It looks pretty good once dry.
Never try to do too much in one go (otherwise the surface can have ripples) - it often takes two or three goes before it is is finished.
I have a cocktail stick on hand to remove over paint which happens from time to time - its strong enough to remove the paint without scratching the plastic.

[patters]

I used the Edding paint marker and it's still not the smooth finish you might expect. You can see slight texture variations caused by each dab. It's minor, but you can see it. After a few applications it's also easy for the paint to creep down the acute angles of the Z and the X for instance.
It was worth doing for one of my ZX81s which had mostly rubbed off lettering, but it's reinforced my decision not to repaint the long gone white "ZX Spectrum" lettering on my 48K.