Summer 2018 arrived a few weeks ago which means its time to do another restoration. If you are interested in other restorations I have completed here are two documented on pinside.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/getaway-hsii-restoration-and-customization

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bally-frontier-restoration-and-custom-artwork

A little back story about this project. Flash Gordon has been a favorite of mine for quite some time. I have been coveting iepinball FG forever. Every time I played it I asked him if it was for sale. Each and every time he said it would never leave his collection. During the first week of April I received an unexpected email from iepinball asking if I would be interested in purchasing his FG project. I responded immediately with a yes!

Thanks to iepinball this project was made possible. I purchased a working game, new cpr gold playfield, plastics, and apron from him.

Here a few pics to get us started on this thread. These were taken before any work had been done.
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I decided this time to disassemble the cabinet first and send the parts out to be chromed separately from the playfield parts.

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Sounds like a great idea to me.

The cabinet is in need of a few repairs before I get started with a fresh paint job.

The first thing I noticed was the head had been crushed and put back together with dry wall screws.
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More pics.
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Before I started the repair I brought the cabinet back to bare wood. I used a chemical stripper and then sanded.

I glued and pin nailed the cabinet back together.

I decided to fill the void in the head with popsicle sticks. Pretty sexy! I glued and clamped them in the head.
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My favorite filler is evercoat. It sands amazingly well. Unfortunately it is not the cheapest product.

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Thank you kind sir!

The bottom of the cabinet needed some repair as well. Bally used cheaper particle board on the back of this cabinet. Thankfully it didn’t chip all the way through. I got out the table saw and fashioned a support piece that I glued, pinned, and filled. I also glued some of the splits in the ply wall sides.

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Next it was time to sand and fill the cabinet.
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Time to setup the home spray booth and shoot some primer.
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Spraying primer always reveals the imperfections that need to be filled. Time to block sand, fill, and primer again.

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Time to shoot some color! I use Creatix Wicked Airbrush Colors.
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I had to put the pinball machine aside for the day as it was time to help my buddy paint his ‘72 Nova in the garage. Nothing like the pressure of spraying a car that has been under construction for 6 years. This car is the fourth car we have painted in the garage. 3 coats of color and 3 coats of clear.
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I chose the colors I liked more than whether or not they reflected the original color best. Jet black, scarlet red, and metallic gold.

So the work continues. I decided this time to start with the original art work. Here are some pics of the stencils applied.

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After the stencils were applied and masked off, it was time to spray some black. E1548B6A-AC05-42CC-B88D-223A0BB51967 (resized).jpeg1485383C-0009-46EA-988E-F29360589D05 (resized).jpegBA11C251-6F8E-44D5-A638-6E615BFA6B84 (resized).jpeg

Pulling off the stencils makes me nervous as delamination has happened before. However this time everything went well.

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The next set of stencils are now installed and masked off. I decided to spray metallic gold over white. The idea is for the metallic gold to be as bright as possible.

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I then sprayed the cabinet with 2 coats of clear. I want to lock the colors down and then color sand flat. This will provide a better surface for the touch ups as well as custom art and prevent any delamination from occurring.
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Interesting. In my limited experience it seems to come down to hue preference. I believe white, black, and silver are all used. White keeps it more toward the brighter side (yellow) where black is warmer (brown). Then again if you apply excessive coats of paint it doesn’t really matter. I am a hobbiest so take it with a grain of salt.

Yep. However, I do like aspects of the original artwork. The goal is to enhance it.

Started color sanding this weekend in order to start the custom work this week.
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Thanks! The cabinet is at Kiwi Terry’s so I hope to post some progress pics by next weekend.

I did have to do a repair to the cabinet. I dented it somehow and here is a few pics of the fix. It required sanding and filling. Sprayed some primer and left it for now. Some of the new art will fix it and what is left I will do after the art.

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Sorry about my pictures being out of order. I can’t seem to figure out how to fix it.

I color sanded and polished the playfield this weekend. I used a 3M pneumatic sander with 1500, 3000, and 5000. Then polished with a foam pad. The playfield is a CPR Gold. Although the playfield looks great and would work fine a little bit of work will go a long way in improving game play and aesthetics. The upper playfield had planking and some clear build up around the inserts. The lower playfield had less planking but the inserts were pretty bad. The clear buildup around the inserts was enough to change the trajectory of the ball.

This was my first time using this sand and I was absolutely blown away by the speed and quality of the results. It took about 30 minutes total to sand and polish. Doing it by hand use to take me half a day. Here are some pics.

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Some final pics of the playfield.
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Now it’s time to strip the top of the old playfield and desolder the wire harness.
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I checked in on Terry today and to my excitement he had started on the art. Here are a few progress pictures.
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I will pass on your compliments to Terry. There will be more pics coming later today.

Terry most often makes a stencil out of a reference picture. I documented a little of that process today with a time lapse. He is cutting out the dark areas. These become the reference points. I will document the other side better for you to see how the art develops.

Terry is featured in a workbook for airbrush artists. Very helpful book.
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Here are some new pictures.
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Was the last time Bruce Jenner on the side of a Wheaties box?

We started in on the other side. I liked the more menacing expression on Ming so we combined the 2 pics.

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After each picture is cut into a stencil they are positioned on the cabinet. The background is painted in a medium gray so that both black and white standout. Black is sprayed over the stencils giving a basic outline and dimension to the photo. The stencils are then removed and everything from here on out is freehand. White is now used to bring out the highlights. Color will be added after all the highlights are complete.

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Awe thanks!

Long time no see! It’s time to hangout and grab some lunch.

Thanks and thanks to pinside we can take the ride together! Hopefully more fun to come.

I will check with Terry and see.

Look what showed up in the mail today! Thanks Merf.

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Continuing to make progress on a number of fronts. The cabinet parts sent out to be chromed will be ready this week. Playfield parts will be sent out to get chromed. I am placing an order this week for replacement parts. Wood rails are sanded and ready to be painted. Terry has continued making progress as well. Here are a few more pics.
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I purchased a new Iwata airbrush for large areas that are to big for a gravity feed airbrush and to small for HVLP. All you need is a small air compressor, hose, and a few bottles. The first project was to use it on the playfield rails. A couple of observations about using this airbrush. Overall, it is great. It does have a few draw backs that you can overcome. You can't set it down very easily as it is awkward with the bottle attached. In addition you can't lay it on its side because the bottle requires an air hole and so paint will leak out. In terms of performance, it does have a tendency to splatter. I noticed it when having set it down and picked it back up. I simply just sprayed a scrap piece of cardboard to clear any excess paint and then returned to painting with no further splatters.
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Great suggestion!

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Terry and I got back to it today after taking the last week off. If by chance you were wondering why I used some of the original artwork, today the reason is revealed. I will let the pictures speak for themselves and then give a short description for those unfamiliar with the process. The first set of pictures shows the addition of the background.
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These next set of pictures shows the upgrade to the original art.
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Tomorrow we start on the other side as well as add some silver leaf to the princess. Once the gold leaf is applied to all three sides, I will clear coat the cabinet to lock in the gold and color sand flat. Then Terry will go back over the gold and airbrush in the details for the crown etc. Then another 2 coats of clear will finish the cabinet. It feels a little of 2 steps forward and three steps back but that is the nature of airbrushing.

Thanks!

Hopefully by the end of the day today we will have both sides finished. Right now we are working on the silver leaf.

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Thank you sir! I will pass your praises on to Terry.

Good question. Terry preferred this time to do a little more than just a rough outline of the crown and jewelry to work out the spacing and concept. So the artwork is buried under the gold and silver leaf. Artwork will be applied over the gold leaf. Because masking on top of gold leaf is really tricky and can cause delamination, I will put 2 coats of clear on next to lock everything down. Then he will come back and do shading and detail work on top of the gold/silver leaf (actually on the clear coat) much like what you saw. Any mistakes or corrections to the artwork can be sanded off without impacting the leaf. Although time and expense are the cost of intermediate clear coats, I believe in the end you arrive at a finished product quicker because of the potential damage (chips, scratches, delamination, etc) that can occur with so many layers of material. Those accidents can often mean redoing an entire section of art to make it look right.

These next few updates might cause concern that this project has lost its way. The cabinet artwork is all in "place" but far from finished. These pictures are of the front cabinet. They are not complete but needed to get the gold done on them.
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The gold leaf is finished on the cabinet. These are the first pictures of the back box that I have shown. The art is original with gold and silver leaf added. These pictures are of the cabinet being prepped for clearing.

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The next few pictures show the cabinet with a few coats of clear. As a reminder, these coats are simply to lock the art and gold leaf down. I got a little over zealous with the clear and got a sag on the flash side. It will sand out no problem but always frustrating to make mistakes. I will wait a few days and sand them flat. Then back to Terry's house for more art over this next weekend.
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Clear is a life saver. Terry and I have put some time in this weekend and are very happy we did an intermediate coat.

So I sanded the clear flat with 1000 using the 3m pneumatic sander. Terry then airbrushed black over the gold to create shadows and details.

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You might be wondering why so much black. The short answer is anything you spray on gold leaf will end up looking flat. So you overspray the gold and then use an eraser to sand off the black revealing the gold leaf. This will creat a “reflection” point. A little hard to capture via a photo. The last picture is from an angle picking up the sun. You can see how reflective the jewels become.

In addition Ming’s detail in his robe was brought back by spraying red over the gold and then erasing it back.

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I would say that is a reasonable request.

The next step is striping the graphics. This will clean up the edges of the gold leaf and create a cleaner look. Black on the red background and red on the black background. Here is a progress pic. Lots more to do. E8BA806D-591A-45B8-8D40-9B97FDD33C18 (resized).jpeg

Large lines are done in black and red. Now for the circle and small lines.
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Thanks!

Striping is done on the first side.
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It might be a little intrusive but worth it! Thanks!

Touchups to the artwork is complete on the flash side. Forgot to take a picture after the striping was complete. 03CE4666-7E77-400E-A779-BA38B1933C2D (resized).jpeg

Thanks!

I can’t imagine ever doing one because Mike did the best version I have ever seen. Check it out if you haven’t already.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pmd-–-fathom-restoration-let-the-spending-begin

Worked on the coin door today. It is all back together. Door has been chromed, screws have been polished or painted, parts have been washed in ultrasonic bath, and interior parts painted.
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We are getting close to the finish line! Couple touchups to the front of the cabinet and cleanup the top cabinet and I think we can call it.
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Good catch! A little overspray grayed it up a bit. It will get fixed. Thanks.

Final prep for clearing. Touchup of the red and black colors. 5C7E677D-62D4-4AC0-9565-DBB551D80B07 (resized).jpeg
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Ready for clear.
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First coat of clear is done.
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Second coat finished.
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