Hi Richard,

Blackgates Engineering made me some nice photo etched name plates for a 3 1/2" gauge loco in brass

or you can make your own with Letraset on the brass plate with a painted margin around as a border and paint the back , dipped in Ferric Chloride solution for 20 minutes a couple of times, rinse and use paint stripper, this works quite well for some reason beyond me the chloride won't eat the paint !! but does like eating away the brass, fill in the etched area with paint and polish the face on a surface plate or a piece of glass with 1200 wet & dry paper.

It does work a treat.

Regards Ray

When making printed circuits, the "etch resist" is basically paint. The etching solution is formulated to attack metal, usually copper, but it likes brass as well, but paint isn't metal, so is let alone by the etch solution. The result being a lower surface where the paint (resist) wasn't.

Whatever Letraset is made of might have the required properties.

As long as the surface is lowered by more than the thickness of a coat of paint, painting and abrading the surface should, in theory, leave brass letters on a coloured background.

I have usually cheated by making a vinyl sticker using a colour laser printer, but then, I keep my standards in check.