Picked up a Jinhao X450. Really a great pen!

[Formulansx]

What a cool pen! I mean really! This is an awesome pen and it was only 10 bucks! I tried to buy one of these on eBay back in September but the seller, from China, never sent the pens. That was an order for two pens. One green and one red. I realized the guy never sent the pens a couple months later so that was a $10 loss. Won't make that mistake again. For those of you that watched Top Gear on the BBC, this pen is my Dacia Sandero. Both super cheap to buy from China but I have an irrational fascination with it just as James May had with the Sandero. I got this one from Goulet this time. It's in perfect condition and runs like a top. No mods needed. I ordered a Goulet two tone nib as well assuming the stock nib would be sub-par. I would say this particular Jinhao nib is a slight bit better than the Schmidt nib on my retro 51 tornado. It puts down a nice line with zero pressure. I have not looked at it under magnification yet but I'm guessing there's nothing catastrophically wrong with it. It has a nice feedback to it. A little stronger than modern Omas nibs but not scratchy at all. It's hard to describe but it definitely has a nice personality to it. I like a feedbacky nib. I'm not sure if Goulet screens these for quality but it's nice buying from a US seller considering my eBay transaction. I wanted this pen not because of the low price but the deep red color with gold splotches on the body. There's some distant black splotches under the gold also. It looked spectacular in pictures and I have not seen another pen like it. It looks just as good in person if not better! I would guess painting the body of this pen was at least a 4 step process. The finish is super smooth and the gold plated hardware is spot on for the design. The section is a sort of rubberized finish over metal. This process always bothers me since I've found it to peel after a while in other applications. I didn't see any reviews noting this on the Jinhao so it may not be an issue here. Worst case, just toss the section and get a second pen a couple years from now. The pen also has an nice weight to it. A little lighter than my Monteverde pens at 42g. I'm really happy with the pen! Really, I'm ecstatic. It's all I've been talking about all night!