Hi folks I am super new to this hobby. Since I recently completed my first project I would like to post it here and get your eyes on it. Like many of you, I too found the Japanese maki-e fountain pens amazingly beautiful yet very out of my reach price-wise. I had some experience assembling car model kits, so I thought since I already have the spray paint and sandpaper and all that stuff, why not treat a fountain pen just another car model and do some experiments on it? And here's the outcome! Quite honestly, I am pretty happy with the result, although the wood finish I was using doesn't seem super scratch-resistant. Another major issue is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of cheap clip-less fountain pens out there for me to work off. If you folks have any suggestions, please let me know! I bought this one off eBay: Cheers!