I just caught one of own touchscreen typos - I meant to say his name was NOT Mr. Resistor, but I typed mit.

Now I have to call him Mr. Resistor to protect my source.

He confirmed they did indeed use a striping machine that applied paint with some kind of brush as the component body was rotated. He said they also painted stripes helically on wire that was rotated to achieve the spiral path on the insulation and it then followed a path about 12 feet long vertically to give it time to dry.

I wonder if there is a carbon composition resistor mil-spec still out there on the internet that says anything more than requirements for color accuracy and durability.