[Arran]

 I would sooner go the repro dial route, I've tried printing off dial scales, and while they are better then nothing when there is no alternative, but in this case they used a metalic paint on the dial that you just can't reproduce easily, same with the white lettering. It is not every dial that suffers from the flaking paint, and it is not related to storage or handling, it's just that one production run happened to use a bad batch of dials. For example my set has most of it's original finish, other then it had some damage on the top, and the dial was flaking, but I have seen other examples with flaking lacquer from damp storage where the paint on the dial was perfect. One interesting thing to note is that some of these apparently used Tenite pushbuttons whilst my set and the 42-327 the original poster has used Bakelite pushbuttons.
Regards
Arran