I've just examined a selection of DEC plastic panels (11/34, 11/94 etc) The splatter effect seems a very good color match to the panel it's on. It seems to be part of the surface. Why paint beige panel beige? You need to be very close to see the texture. It could have been a release agent sprayed into the mould or a pattern on the surface of the mould tool. Its mimicking the rough surface of the die cast aluminum bezels on PDP8's to a certain extent. Rod Smallwood -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Roger Holmes Sent: 30 September 2009 08:17 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: DEC paint: textures My ICT 1301 (built 1962) has a sort of sand finish, a bit like very fine wood chip wallpaper. On the underside of one of the top covers they missed some of the top coat and I can see the texture was in a primer, which barely covers the metal. In the next couple of years I am going to have to respray some areas where the covers have been scratched, another where I've spot welded some changes and one where the roof leaked and the covers have rusted through. Good job I'm also a classic car restorer, but I've never come across sand texture paint on a car, not even on my Land Rover recovery truck. If anyone happens to know anything about sand finish, I'd love to know.