Alright, ladies and gents... I pulled the trigger. I took my Compaq 11800 and did a paint and dye job. I'm not completely done (local store didn't have one of the colors I was hoping to have), but it's very close.
Originally, this was a standard beige keyboard... fairly light, actually.
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The keys took the dye REALLY well. My method: First, I cleaned the keys (which are all PBT) in a pot, covering them in 91% isopropyl alcohol, stirring with the chopsticks. I rinsed them with tap water and shook the excess water off before I started the rest. I wanted to make sure I got all the oils off before dying them. After that, start a pot (about 2 cups) of water on the stove, throw 1.5 cups water into the microwave for 3.5 min (bubbling), drop the dye into the microwaved water, mix with chopsticks to disolve, pour into hot (not boiling, but steaming) water in the pot, immediately dump keys in. I set the timer on the microwave for 15 minutes, checking the color ever 15 seconds or so. The green took the color in 2.25 minutes! It got to the exact color I wanted... any more time and it would have been too dark. The brown took about 2.5 minutes to reach the desired chocolatey color. I used the chopsticks to check the color and to stir CONSTANTLY. Since I already knew they were where I wanted them (I was taking one out and dropping it in cold water every 15 seconds, after all), I just dumped the dye and all into a collander and rinsed them with cold tap water, stirring with the chopsticks, then with my hands to make sure to get all the dye off and stop the staining process. I like they way they turned out.
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So I painted the space bar (it's ABS) and the case (also ABS) with DupliColor Fabric and Vinyl paint, which I got from an earlier post (thanks!). It soaks right into the plastic, so the overspray isn't a problem at all. I used Desert Sand for the case and Flat Black for the space, tenkey 0, tenkey enter and tenkey plus as well as the mouse buttons.
EDIT: I added these pictures and removed the others. I was finally able to get a decently close color match. The frame proved difficult, but that white sheet of paper helped me nail it down. The browns are very chocolatey, which may or may not come across here. /Edit.
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The only thing I want to do now is the Esc, Insert (I type Dvorak, so CTRL-Insert/ Shift-Insert are my preferred copy-paste combo) and Pause/Break (I wanted a third key and it's spaced out enough to fit my need) keys in some vibrant shade... I was thinking either red (kinda standard, right?) or orange. I may even forgo the bright orange and go for a more burnt umber-type color. I'll mock it up in Gimp and see. So what do you think? I like the way it turned out. (for the record, no, I'm not a redneck and no, I wasn't going for a camo theme... the khaki and chocolate (and obviously black) bits will go well with yellow or orange keys in the body... I might even get by with some blues in there... I mostly wanted a sort of khaki-pants-this-goes-with-everything look.)
I'm happy with it, for sure.