Like a lot of people here I bought the white tortoise m400 recently from Pam and though I have some nib problems with it I love its appearance!
What i quite like now is another pen that would look together with it. Someone on the board said that it makes a striking combination together with a m215 which is a nice idea but I'm leaning towards a dark striated 400 instead.
Would a vintage black and tortoise 400 look good with the white or are the vintage pens another size?
Are the modern M400s in green, red and blue as beatifully multi-coloured as the tortoise? I tried to look at pictures, but even close up they look more evenly coloured with less depth than the tortose (both white and black) models.
Have you got any suggestions? And if you do, have you got ink suggestions too?
I love the idea of having two beautiful pens the same size complimenting each other. Rather like dolls, I'm a young girl at heart!

Another tortoise would look great with it! I'm thinking of going in the other direction... I bought a tortoise-and-brown set (they were last produced in 2003, in a fountain pen and ballpoint set; the dark plastic parts are a very dark brown that looks black) and I'm considering getting a tortoise-and-white for contrast.

I think the green, red and blue don't have quite as much color variation as the tortoise. Pelikan has used the dark brown plastic with the tortoise for all the 400 models over time (400, 400N, 400NN, M400).

The brown-and-tortoise sets are going for about $375 these days:
http://www.angelfire.com/mac/penguin0/ (and click on Limited Edition Tortoise Pelikans)
http://www.penseller.com/pages/peltortoise.htm

I too bought a White Tortoise from Pam last week and found that the nib is lacking good flow. Luckily for me, I've got an order into my local pen store for a OM nib for that pen. Hopefully swapping out the nib will make the pen more usable. I also got an 800 from Pam at the same time and its absolutely perfect.. I now know why so many people love the Pelikan pens.

I wonder why the White Tortoises have been having problems.

Here is a Tortoise/emerald M450, great colours:

Cheers

Now that combination (while somewhat spendy) would be exceptionally pretty together. The M450 looks great!

Thanks for the replies. The m450 sure is pretty, but pricey, as the tortoise sets. I think I'll go for a vintage tortoise 400 if i do buy it. Are all the 1950-s nibs flexible?
I was also considering then m405, becuase of the silver trim that would provide a nice ying yang contrast to the m400.
However the blue stripes look rather dull and mono-coloured in pictures? Has anyone seen one?
Looking forward to more input!

I've seen one in person - several, actually. They're beautiful pens, but they're more "business class" as opposed to the tortoise, which I would consider "first class." The M405 is a snappy pen, to be absolutely sure. Its big brother, the 805, is the spendy one I'm looking for right now. However, the honey tortoise is just so much "warmer."

In retrospect, I like the idea of the vintage tortoise from the 50's. I'm sure you'll have no problem finding a nice one. If you're looking, I'll bet that Rick Propas has something to scratch your itch.

No affiliation...yada yada.

I have the Honey and a Classic Tortoise.
I'll try and photograph them together later if you like.

Personally, I like the M400 Honey next to the white.

I have several 400 and 400 NN vintages. The older nibs of the 400 are flexible. And they are wonderful writers with a wet inkflow.
The latest 400s do have the same nibs (with the same nib design) than the 400 NN and the M 400. They are good writers, too, but not as flexible as the old 400 nibs. Most of those nibs are wonderful, but there are also scratchy ones out there.

It is hard to find a tortoise 400. 400 NN may be easier. Good luck.