I'm one of presumably a growing band of pen fanciers who has just taken delivery of a new Pelikan Citroenpers straight from that nice guy in the Netherlands at a price which is half that of a UK M200, let alone something as fancy as this. F nib too, which was a nice surprise!

But now the hard bit - what ink to fill it with? The pen is a lovely but unique colour, not lemon or buttercup but a subtle creamy pale custard. Maybe canary yellow would be the old fashioned name for it. Generally, I don't match pens to inks and prefer to just go for good colour combinations, but this one has me stumped. Even R&K Helianthus is wrong, - the yellow is too orangey, and anything paler would be unusable.

So I've given in and just filled it with Aurora black, which although it suits the pen well (and teams with that black cap-top) seems like giving in. What are the rest of you Citroenpers-ons (or other yellow pen users come to that) doing?

John

You might consider Rohrer & Klinger Helianthus - it is a nice combo. A picture below of the very pen so inked.


Kurt

I hope to "take delivery" (as you quaintly put it) any time now. Did you consider a brown ink, or something into the purples? Diamine Burnt Sienna, or R & K Sepia, Herbin Poussière de Lune or Lie de Tea. I wish I had any of those! I could try mixing something close, but I'm afraid to put a mix into such a fine pen. I'll be following this topic with interest, drooling over everyone's pretty inks.

The first ink I tried in my Citroenpers was R & K Helianthus, but I didn't get as good/bright of a result as Kurt is showing, so I keep feeding mine Herbin Ambre de Birmaine (Amber).

Best, Ann

Use black. It goes with anything!

I use a secure black mix of Noodlers Eternal black, Mont Blanc black and Pelikan black. The pen stands out amongst my mostly conservative colours so remids me of its special purpose.

Diamine Amber is nice and bright, too.

With a color like the lemon yellow of the Citroenpers, you might consider an ink that contrasts rather than matches. I often put Noodler's Lexington Gray into my Citroenpers (I think of it as my liquid pencil). Blue or purple or green ink would work nicely, too. And, of course, black.

Still not much further forward with this burning question, but I have realised that the thing that is putting me off is the black cap end and maybe the gold furniture as well. That's a lot of in-pen excitement going on before you add another colour. Thanks for the picture Kurt - but as I mentioned, for me Helianthus is too rich a yellow. Possibly Herbin's Buttercup Yellow would be OK, but more than likely unusable. I've been caught out by Herbin's pale colours before (yes, Bleu Azur, I'm looking at you).

Andru & Viseguy - I too generally prefer contrasting colours in a pen, and my best effort so far (inspired by a tube of Simichrome Polish) has been R&K Alt-Bordeaux, which is a really thick strong colour and a fantastic ink to boot. I've had this combo for the last week, and it's pretty good - but when the pen is empty I think I'll go back to black. Having an envelope pen (if that's the special purpose) is a really good idea, Andy. Unfortunately, I don't think any of my blacks (Quink/Visconti/Aurora/Pelikan/Sailor) is waterproof and five is probably enough for a bit, so I'll just rotate the last three.

Just realised that I don't think I have a single friend who could properly take in the concept of 'rotating your blacks' with a straight face. Sensitivity is sometimes a heavy cross, isn't it?

Any breakthroughs, and I'll let you know.

John

I used PR Buttercup with a tiny bit of PR Chocolat added. I just received a bottle of R&K Alt Goldgruen, and I think that's a nice option as well.
Buttercup on it's own (or helianthus I think) was too light for my purposes (I write on white paper exclusively).

Regards,

Jarno.