^ Now that’s more like it! ^ If the S8 is revisited all of these things are what I have in mind. Certainly ditching the crenelated bezel, better knurling, square cut threads, all the fine details. Of course this is all just talk for now but it’s good talk. 
Well since there’s some interest in the FDE color, I’ll go ahead and share a photo of my Cerakoted FDE light for discussion purposes. I personally think its a bit darker color than what I think the goal here is, but maybe not.
Honestly though I’m going to buy Simon’s “Desert Tan S2+” no matter how it comes out!
Yeah, that’s a much darker shade than what I’m familiar with. It’s nice, but not what I’m looking for as a match for my rifle.
I found this chart of Cerakote colors that can give us a nice listing of colors we can reference (click for full size):
Your light looks close to the H-250 A.I. Dark Earth while my AR looks closer to the H-199 Desert Sand.
My ideal color would likely be either the H-199 Sand, H-257 Texas Tan, or the H-235 Coyote Tan.
Yeah that H-250 is a much “richer” brown than my light is in real life. I’m pretty sure mine is actual H-265 Flat Dark Earth, which isn’t on your chart. Regardless, I agree its darker than this project calls for.
Okay… Here’s another chart, may be a bit better:
I’m leaning toward the Desert Sand as the ideal color.
I concur.
A lot of those colors are very close to each-other.
Don’t forget, not everyone has a color calibrated monitor.
I did not know that the S8 does not have square threads. That is a dealbreaker.
Tan and Black is great. Not dark tan, or dark earth, please.
Black steel switch is genius.
Yes, I’d say it’s too late to switch switches unless for some reason they can’t properly blacken the steel. If Simon were to tell me the black metal switch can’t be done then I would ask him to switch to the rubber boot version of the S2+ with a black boot. Personally I love the metal switch and I’m really looking forward to seeing it against that desert tan color. The carry size thing is definitely user specific preference. While I always have an 18650 or three within fairly easy access. One or two in my jacket and half a dozen in my laptop backpack. As far as what is with me at all times my personal EDC preference is a 10440 light. I work in an office most of the time and am usually in khakis. I have my standard pocket fillers. Left front is my phone and only my phone. Right front is a AAA/10440 format light, a flash drive and a folding knife with a deep carry clip. Any time I’ve carried anything bigger than that it’s just a bit too much not to mention bouncing against my knife half the time. When I do carry my M2 it’s in a holster. As far as what Simon finds weird it has been very interesting and amusing to find all the personal preference things as well as cultural things that factor in. For example, he refused to make a green flashlight for a long time because of the symbolism of the color in Chinese culture.
I have a Roche F8 in “gold” or tan whatever they called it at the time (looks tan to me). I think it looks great with the black button. The lettering is white, but very thin and doesn’t stand out at all. If the S2+ had the same look I would be more than pleased.
Ok I just looked at it. Maybe it’s a little too “gold” looking, but I do like the finish.
IIRC my main functional hangup with the S6 is that it lacks thumb scallops in the tailcap.
That particular design would be “inspired” quite a while before Simon acquired the Roche/Dipper/XinTD designs. Honestly while everything else I said was above the board, I really meant that comment as a slight against the S8. To me it doesn’t look like it was inspired by the F12 as much as it looks like it was inspired by an F12 imitation. 
If the Convoy S8 was ‘refreshed’ many of my complaints would probably go away, but oversized fins and small knurling would still be a deal breaker for me. I agree that the oversized hex-fins on the S8 seem like they’d provide decent anti-roll, that’s a good thing. My take is that anti-roll in a tube-light is probably best provided by a full-length hexagonal exterior with limited or no radial cuts (both points should make it easier to insert and remove from the pocket).
I’ll take a look at my red S2+ and compare the chamfers on that tailcap with those on the green one. The red one is approximately 1 year old while the green one was just received. Neither has ever been carried. IIRC the chamfers on the red one’s tailcap may have been better than those I saw on the green one’s tailcap. Maybe a tool wasn’t quite right in the CNC when the green one was made. I’ll let you & Simon know what I find out.
AFAIK black lettering would be done either using ink (not durable) or cermark/thermark (expensive laser marking material). Thermark’s LMM6018.LF seems to be the manufacturer-recommended solution, but even that will be much less durable than the laser engraved lettering.
This is a good point. The white lettering looks fine on the gold/tan Roche F12 I have. It’s very low key.
As soon as the first sample comes back Simon is going to take a bunch of pictures and send them to me.
As far as what he is basing the color on we can all blame keltex78 if we don’t like the way it comes out.
I’d been working on Simon for a while showing him what we were looking for. It wasn’t until I showed him that AR that he truly got onboard with the idea. These two pictures are the ones I kept referring to. If it comes out like either one or in between I’m a happy camper.
If it has the same colors and matte finish of the keltex I’ll probably be in for two at least. Perfect color choice! I didn’t read the whole thread but is there mention of an 18350 tube for a shorty mode?
I don’t feel the s2+ throws enough. I want to build my first light. As an edc. I am leaning towards m1 with guppydrv firmware. But have never handled one. I carry back left pocket.
Is it worth waiting for the tan hosts in m1 to come out? Or should I just order it in black now and be done.
I have one of those lights as well. Here’s a photo for others who aren’t familiar. It may be a bit too “gold” but not much, and the matte finish on it is really good.
@wight
Honestly I had never closely inspected or researched the S8 until today. Once you brought up all those points I took a better look and dug up some old reviews. Once I did I found we’re pretty much on the same page. I do think some of the design has promise but it needs reworking which would include losing the crenelated bezel, changing the knurling and the latest generation Convoy threads.
As far as the Roche color that was the first thing Simon came back with when I proposed this to him. “I already have this color” he said and showed me a picture of one of the Roche lights. Emarkd also showed me his F8 in that same color. While I will say I think it looks really good on that F8 it’s not the color we were looking for and I told Simon as much. I told him to aim for a matte finish like the M1 and M2 in the tan color like those guns and NO metallic. I do remember now that the white lettering on the tan/gold color was pretty subtle. If it does end up with a white Convoy logo I’m still cool with that. I’m just geeked that it’s actually happening.
Edit Ha! Nice emarkd. You posted the picture I was thinking of as I was typing. 
Who would want something like that?
I’ve actually gone one step bolder. I’ve asked him to consider adding a couple dollars to the standard S2+ price and offering this as a complete package with the short tube and the black clip included with each and to try to have both the complete light package and host package available from day one. No promises there but it sure sounds good to me. At the very least I can say that we’ll definitely have 18350 tubes available. I’m also trying to make AR coated glass the stock lens on this one.
I think I need a tan one now too. :–5
Of course you do. We all do.
And JDub, if Simon doubts the interest in this project you can show him this thread — 100 comments in less than 48 hours. I’d say there’s some interest.