tanstaafl: these buttons only get touched, and by a non-abrasive fingertip

You've obviously never seem my fingertips!

I would consider the paint route, but always enjoy exploring the more complicated, more expensive route first! Seriously, with paint one question I have is whether the luminesence would be as uniform -- would it look as nice. Another thought I had -- and this may just be another baseless flight of Jim -- was that, if you completely impregnated an otherwise translucent/transparent plastic with these tiny glow bits, it might absorb more light during the day, and shine brighter at night (than a necessarily thin coat of the paint product).

Oooooh, I just want to GLOW!