Painting numbers on dice

[Oryan77]

I have some Gamescience dice that have numbers engraved in them, but they are not painted.

Is there an easy way to paint into the grooves without it taking forever and without it looking bad? I'm thinking there must be a way to just rub some kind of paint on the face of the die and then wipe the paint off but not wiping out the color from inside the groove. Is there a method like this? If so, what do I use as paint?

 

[Nytmare]

Is there an easy way to paint into the grooves without it taking forever and without it looking bad?

Oh man, does this take me back...

Once upon a time, just after the period in history where you got a laminated sheet of numbers in the back of your D&D book that you had to cut up and pull out of Dixie cups to generate random numbers, you could mail order a set of polyhedral dice (please allow 8 to 10 weeks for delivery) whose numbers you had to fill in with a crayon (crayon not included).

Crayon the heck out of those numbers, and wipe the excess off with a paper towel.

 

[IronWolf]

For Game Science dice I usually either use the crayon method or an Ultra Fine Tip Sharpie to fill in the numbers.

 

[Cor_Malek]

I have some Gamescience dice that have numbers engraved in them, but they are not painted.

Is there an easy way to paint into the grooves without it taking forever and without it looking bad? I'm thinking there must be a way to just rub some kind of paint on the face of the die and then wipe the paint off but not wiping out the color from inside the groove. Is there a method like this? If so, what do I use as paint?

Take a candle, any will do. Rub it all over the dice, especially around the numbers - so it makes a very thin layer of wax. Because it's stiff - it won't go inside to the engraving. Now paint the numbers however you want, anything that goes outside of the number will not stick.
Alternatively, you can paint the dice, and leave numbers in original colour. Just use small candle - ie the type you put on birthday cake.

Another method, much simpler, just as effective - though messier. Dump whole dice into paint, take it out, wipe it with a piece of cloth wrapped tightly around your finger. It has to be tight, so that it doesn't go inside the engraving.
Voila!