3D printer filament color match for beige TI-99?

[visrealm]

Hi all,

 

Just after people's experience getting a close (enough) match for TI-99 beige. It's a tough color to describe. Searching for beige seems to show creamy or even orange-like colors, however the TI is a bit more on the grey side.

 

Obviously, these days they're all aged to varying degrees. That doesn't help either.

 

Perhaps we could have people post various filaments they've tried next to their beige TI-99?

 

I have a black TI as well - that's much less of an issue 😁

 

Cheers

Troy

[Gary from OPA]

Searching this site:

 

https://filamentcolors.xyz/library/sort/color/

 

And looking thru the woods, sands, beiges, browns. My eye so far saids this one close match to my beige console and it's not sun faded either or aged.

 

But everyone sees colors slightly different, everyone has some degree of color blindness.

 

So I am personally leaning towards a lite brown.

[visrealm]

1 hour ago, Gary from OPA said:

And looking thru the woods, sands, beiges, browns. My eye so far saids this one close match to my beige console and it's not sun faded either or aged.

 

But everyone sees colors slightly different, everyone has some degree of color blindness.

 

So I am personally leaning towards a lite brown.

Yeah, agree. And in person they often appear quite different to on screen. There's not a lot we can do about that. What I was thinking was for people of post side-by side comparisons of filaments they've tried next to their beige TI. I'll have a couple of options to share in a few days, but I suspect they'll be way off.

[JasonACT]

I'm interested in what comes from this thread too, none of my filament comes close to a beige TI...  And don't forget, the bottom of the case is a darker colour, it would be good if that could be matched also.

[JasonACT]

I think dusty brown might be worth a try, but the printed part doesn't match the square's colour?

 

 

I haven't found anything like the darker bottom case half.

Edited November 11 by JasonACT

[Gary from OPA]

Good old days with paints you could walk into a big paint supplier with a sample and they would color match it for you.

 

We need something like that for 3d printer suppliers, where you could like mail to them an original plastic part, a piece of the beige console cut out and they would match it to the right filament.

 

There been in the past similar discussions on other retro computers sites when it comes to the "beige" problem:

 

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=86789

 

Edited November 11 by Gary from OPA

[Artoj]

1 hour ago, Gary from OPA said:

Good old days with paints you could walk into a big paint supplier with a sample and they would color match it for you.

Yes, I was the guy who matched those colours, I worked in a printing company and I would mix and match the colour for the posters they hung and glued onto the railway bill boards. The printing company never had an Artist do this before, they relied on guess work and outside help to mix the correct colours. I got them to tear a hole in the wall and have sunlight help the process, I had simplified their colour mixing procedure to the point that I made myself redundant. Yes it is difficult to find the right shade of warm grey as plastic ages and it becomes beige and even brownish in time, I am considering a spray paint might be easier to match as the printing plastics are either too cool(towards blue) or too warm(towards orange). I used to swatch samples and leave them in the sun to check colour fasting, as we have all learned about retro 80's computers they will yellow/brown with more sunlight. ABS grey is a cool grey but doesn't turn yellow, it is not as nice a colour as the shade they chose for the TI which is very aesthetic and was definitely chosen by an Artist. Good luck finding the right colour, if anyone is successful let me know, I will write to them and let them know to call it the "994A" shade.Regards Arto.   

[JasonACT]

I did actually try to match colour output on 2 of my computer monitors (one is a 40" 4K TV on my main PC, the other is a 28" 4K Samsung - which I'm going to ignore, as it's quite old and gave different results I think are just wrong [a green tinge I don't think it should have...  See why below]).

 

The TV shows both the light and dark plastic having Red and Green levels equal, and a Blue level as about 2/3rds.

 

I.E. R=121,G=121,B=81 for dark, R=164,G=164,B=113 for light.

 

When I move any single number around, it's obviously no longer the TI colours.  The brightness is quite subjective though, these screens are back-lit, the console plastic isn't and relies on room lighting (where I've got 3 white LED lights spread out in 3 different corners).

Edited November 11 by JasonACT

[visrealm]

Some initial results for two different filaments from me.

 

Fair warning:  I'm going to post comparisons for filaments even if they're bad. It's nice to see what they look like versus online.

 

InkStation (AU) - PLA+ 3D Filament 1.75mm Vanilla - 1KG

 

 

This is the first filament I tried and I started this post after receiving it. Way too bright / yellow / orange. But I thought I should post it in case anyone was tempted to buy it.

 

InkStation (AU) - Matte PLA 3D Filament 1.75mm Clay - 1KG

 

This stuff looks really good. I still need to tweak my settings some to improve it. Note: it's standard PLA (not PLA+ or Hyper or ... ), so I'm printing much slower than the 300 - 500 mm/S I usually do.

 

It's clearly a little dark for the top-side, but the tone looks good. It doesn't stand out like... <something that stands out> compared to the Vanilla.

 

Against the bottom side, it's really close. Couldn't ask for closer. So, if you're playing at home. Look at the bottom side of your TI, that's pretty much what we're dealing with here.

 

Very happy with this. Can we do better against the top-side?

 

 

And a couple for direct comparison between them:

 

Obviously, avoid the Vanilla. Clay is the top contender so far

Edited November 18 by visrealm

[InfiniteTape]

That Clay is way closer than I think we could have hoped for. Nice find!

[Gary from OPA]

I wonder whatever happened to these products, he used to sell them in Poland only.

 

https://hackaday.com/2020/09/01/retrocomputing-spray-paints-amiga-beige-commodore-and-atari-grey/

 

[+arcadeshopper]

I use https://www.printedsolid.com/products/jessie-pla-1-75mm-x-1kg-beige-500?variant=39502756380757

[visrealm]

2 hours ago, arcadeshopper said:

I use https://www.printedsolid.com/products/jessie-pla-1-75mm-x-1kg-beige-500?variant=39502756380757

Are you able to post a picture of a print against a TI? That would be great.

[+FarmerPotato]

15 hours ago, visrealm said:

 

InkStation (AU) - Matte PLA 3D Filament 1.75mm Clay - 1KG

 

 

I really like this combination.  It's got enough contrast to avoid the constant, uncanny "almost but not quite" reminder.  

 

 

[visrealm]

1 hour ago, FarmerPotato said:

 

I really like this combination.  It's got enough contrast to avoid the constant, uncanny "almost but not quite" reminder.  

 

 

Yeah. Me too. I'd be happy to run with it.

[+arcadeshopper]

2 hours ago, visrealm said:

Are you able to post a picture of a print against a TI? That would be great.

[JasonACT]

@arcadeshopper It looks like 2 different shades (for the tipi vs speech)?  Or is that just the lighting?

[+arcadeshopper]

14 minutes ago, JasonACT said:

@arcadeshopper It looks like 2 different shades (for the tipi vs speech)?  Or is that just the lighting?

I didn't print the speech, it was a gift from the designer .. please only consider the 32k/tipi case

[visrealm]

I just printed one of @JasonACT's PicoPEB cases in "clay"...

 

Looks great! 

 

 

Here's a quick comparison of my Vanilla, Jason's beige and my clay

 

 

[Duewester]

Frankennine is two tone beige/cream/tan/khaki and by my camera pics I had with me and the lighting I found what I THOUGHT was pretty good match for the top and the only tan cart I have. Turns out, well not so much a match.

And a pain in the back to print with (won't stick to any surface but a huge raft). I have more failed junk in the drawer than good pieces.

As you can see above, it's more green than brown and too light to boot.

Even so, I'm trying to print a FinalGROM99 cart to go with Frankinnine. I have pretty nice one already that I did in white (to go with my polished Aluminum/White 99) but I wanted something to go with Frankennine better.

[visrealm]

8 hours ago, Duewester said:

And a pain in the back to print with (won't stick to any surface but a huge raft). I have more failed junk in the drawer than good pieces.

Bugger. Coincidentally, I already have a roll of this on the way.

 

For those in Australia, I ordered it last Monday (11th) from AMZ. It was shipped from Perth, it's currently in Brisbane and I'm in the Adelaide hills. It's definitely taking the scenic route

 

I also have the same issues printing with the Clay filament. So much trouble getting it to stick. I think it might be because it's matte PLA. But... not sure. It's definitely the hardest material I've worked with, but I've only had a 3D printer around 9 months or so.

[JasonACT]

1 hour ago, visrealm said:

I also have the same issues printing with the Clay filament. So much trouble getting it to stick. I think it might be because it's matte PLA. But... not sure. It's definitely the hardest material I've worked with, but I've only had a 3D printer around 9 months or so.

Have you tried blue painter's tape with a 4-5 layers of this (given a bit of time [a few minutes] to dry for each layer):

Oh, and a quick wipe down with some of this between prints:

Edited November 20 by JasonACT

[visrealm]

I haven't tried anything other than cleaning my build plate. I do use Isopropyl (pump spray) for that sometimes.  

 

So far, I haven't needed to. But I might need to look into it. Thanks.

Edited November 20 by visrealm

[Duewester]

11 hours ago, visrealm said:

Bugger. Coincidentally, I already have a roll of this on the way.

 

For those in Australia, I ordered it last Monday (11th) from AMZ. It was shipped from Perth, it's currently in Brisbane and I'm in the Adelaide hills. It's definitely taking the scenic route

 

I also have the same issues printing with the Clay filament. So much trouble getting it to stick. I think it might be because it's matte PLA. But... not sure. It's definitely the hardest material I've worked with, but I've only had a 3D printer around 9 months or so.

That's funny. I live in South Carolina USA. In what is called the Upstate. I've watched Amazon Orders from Georgia go to North Carolina then Tennessee, followed by a visit to the low country of SC then back to NC before returning to SC and then finally to me.

OBTW, here's my last attempt at a cart case for my Finalgrom99.

Lighting can really play a part in how things look on film. In real life with "Sunlight" those two carts don't look at all alike. The pic is with Industrial WHITE LED lighting in the background with incandescent lights behind a white glass shade overhead.

 

and totally off topic (but related because of the 3d printed cases)

My odd family.

The TIPI combo on the white 99 won't work when attached direct to the 99 even when powered up. As a matter of fact the 99 won't even boot. BUT when powered separate and attached after the Speech Synth, works perfectly.

[visrealm]

7 hours ago, Duewester said:

Lighting can really play a part in how things look on film. In real life with "Sunlight" those two carts don't look at all alike. The pic is with Industrial WHITE LED lighting in the background with incandescent lights behind a white glass shade overhead.

That does look pretty close.

 

I've built a couple of FinalGROMs. The last one I built into a genuine cartridge shell (Probably Addition and Subtraction 2 or something). Came out really well. I want to build another in beige, but I don't have and beige cartridges I'd be willing to sacrifice.