New data plate- how to age it? (patina)

Bought a new nomenclature data plate(M606) for my militarized B project from Poland, a quality solid brass repop. Going to stamp all the info soon and will need to age or add the proper amount of patina.

Y'all got any secrets?
Larry have you added the proper amount of patina to any plates on your fleet of military vehicles. Not sure if I should just let it age naturally or ?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/270863781062?item=...RS:1123&vxp=mtr

Unprotected brass will turn brown in short order without deliberately aging it.
I'm sure you have honest intentions, but I have an uneasy feeling seeing a repo data tag used to counterfeit a vehicle.

Jeff, all of my MV's, past and *present, have fortunately had the original plates still intact, thus I never had to deal with aging them. And of course on the number of both military and civilian jeeps that I've restored over the years, I attached new reproduction plates and the owners were satisfied with them as they were.

The brass repro plates for the '44 Willys MB (and the matching military trailer) I restored four years ago also came from the fellow in Poland and were quite nice, however, the owner liked them as they were received, so I didn't bother to try and age them. If I recall however, I'm thinking the plates had been clear coated, and if that was the case with your plates, said coating would most likely have to be removed first in order for the brass to turn. I'm just not quite sure how one would remove the clear coat without also removing the blackened letters and numbers. If the plates are not clear coated, then like Dan says, the brass should turn fairly quick; (even sooner if you left them face up out in the weather for a few days).


*MV wise, I'm fortunately down now to the '52 M38 (& trailer) and the '51 M37 Dodge, but a gentleman in Colorado is thinking about relieving me of the Dodge in hopefully a short time. I also have a 416 1/4 ton trailer, but I'm planning to restore that one this coming spring (in much warmer weather) as a semi-civilian trailer, complete with tailgate, to go with the 3B.

I'm discovering that the older I get, the less my hands and fingers want to twist wrenches anymore (particularly in cold weather), plus when I get down on my knees to work at that level, it's tougher'n nails getting back up (way too many years climbing fire ladders I suppose), not to mention that keeping batteries charged in all these vehicles seems to be a real challenge (and those buddies have gone out of site now), so it's time to start thinning out the collection and that includes the vintage tractors as well.

I'm building my jeep to honor local Vietnam war veterans. Unfortunately I wasn't able to locate an original so I'll be happy with a clone and have no intention of selling a "counterfeit" so if that offends you or makes you sad, I offer no apologies.

Perhaps I should have worded my post differently, I apologize sincerely.
But I do hope that you stamp the data plate in a manner that future generations will not be fooled.
I have been following your posts with the pictures of your 3B and I think that you are doing a great job.

I am just going to put it on as it is and let it weather with age, as with all lettering and such on my project several characters are tweeked to keep from copying original numbers.

jeepdan- your jeep has been an inspiration to all of us on the 3B bulletin board.