not understanding how to make the little chums. Except in the typical fashion. Do you rub the wet toily tissue between your hands?
I'm really desirous to understand how it was done in industry. Most cases are powder coated these days (is that correct)? I have no issue achieving a smooth painted surface. Or getting (very think) paint to adhere and settle into an already textured surface w/o obscuring it. I have a small artist's air brush and compressor here (Badger). Maybe I should just start experimenting.
Incidentally for those that want to get into airbrushing, but don't want to drop a couple hundred dollars, you can buy a cheapo airbrush for no more then 20$ and buy an adapter for an old tire valve. It's a bit of a pain to have to refill the tire, although I think it should last a good while, but a 12vdc tire compressor is probably less then the airbrush. They are noisy though. There are articles going back to the 70's that explain how to turn a pump sprayer into a source of compressed air also. All pretty reasonable alternatives to a 150$+ air compressor. They are handy to have though.
I started painting an old Xbox some years back, and though one way to achieve the gritty surface of parts of it's case was to spray it w/1 or more coats, then while the paint was still tacky "dust" it w/fine sand. Then add 1 or more coats over the sand. I never got that far though. I still have the container full of colored sand I acquired. I tossed the orange Xbox though a good while back. I have 2 "new" ones though.
...and the next order of business is learning how to duplicate paint colors accurately. I have here an NCR PC6 case that I could strip and repaint, or at least tough up all the nicks. And heaven knows my IBM 5170 is long long overdue (the top is currently rusting up outdoors, which doesn't scare me, as electrolysis will make short work of the rust).