B&W is an homage to twilight zone.

One of the smarties on pinside! If it is good stick with it. If it is poor, you have to make it good.

Thanks! It has been quite the adventure. The project suffered a few delays along the way which pushed against my need for completion but the end of the tunnel is near.

The backbox needs some blue touchups and clear as a few edges got nicked during sanding and buffing. If it wasn't for having to prep a new course for the semester, I would have had the time. Hopefully this weekend I can power through it and get some photos of a complete cabinet on here.

Plastics are being made this week! The correct plastic was ordered last week but the incorrect item was sent. New plastic arrived and art is finished so all system are a go.

Stay tuned.

Did the final fitting of the backbox light board over the weekend. Used blue tape to hold the displays and went back and forth adjusting them until they were square in the backglass. Once I was satisfied, I lifted up a portion of the tape and put a screw in the exposed hole. This process kept the display from moving positions.
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Got the game put back together and now have to hunt down all the wiring issues.

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Let's be honest, the world needs alien way more than I need frontier cards!

What could be better than working on a pinball machine all holiday weekend? Well...until bad luck strikes like 43 volts running through your MPU board! So the knocker for frontier is in the cabinet but since I used a strikes and spares it is in the head. I decided to use a 2 Pin Molex connector to make disconnecting the harness much easier. I have been busy repinning all of the connectors to elimate some issues that I was having getting the game to function properly. During a mid test to see how my work was going the female Molex connector make contact with cap 36 on the MPU board and she went up in smoke! And here I thought I was being safe by having it shielded. It was a perfect shot. Probably 1 and a million that would happen 2x.

Good news is Dave at Alltek answers his phone on a holiday and will be sending me out a new one this week. I would say that is amazing customer service.

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On the brighter side..

If you have to do any repinning this is my new favorite tool!! It rachets enabling you to hold the connector in the tool while you grab other things. You can even set it down and pick it back up and the connector is ready to go. It makes perfect crimps every time. This tool is awesome and a major time and frustration saver!!

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The plastics are coming along beautifully! Here is a test print of colors. Colors look more like their samples with 1 pass of color. What was discovered though was 3 passes of color hold up better under back lighting but changes the appearance of the color. Browns almost look black and yellow turns almost orange.
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A test print was made on acrylic before using polycarbonate. The choice between colors looking great under normal lighting conditions (game off) and back lighting (game on) was to go with colors looking correct under back lighting. So if they seem off in the pic they are!
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Polycarbonate is the preferred stock for most posters on this forum because they are cutting with a scroll saw. However it doesn't hold up under laser cutting. It is fibrous and burns. Another lesson learned.
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So we ordered some PET-G to use instead of acrylic (breaks to easy) and poly carbonate (it burns, it burns). Plastics should be complete by the end of the week. Might be perfect timing for when the game will be up and running.

Finished installing the shrouds and backglass. I have a repair to do with the scratch on the left. Should be a no brainier. Which means it will probably turn into a nightmare. Anyways looking pretty good.
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I didn't like how the displays sat as much as I was hoping so I spent a little more time today further tweaking to get it just right. Might as well since I am dead in the water waiting for an MPU. LOL!

Here is a pic of the prototype plastics and one original to compare. Slings are new. The wolf plastic order is new (1st pic) and then original (2nd pic). The colors will be adjusted one more time before final production.

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Here is a mockup of the game. I needed some inspiration so I played pretend! Anyone notice the cards are still missing?

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Yep! It put a damper on the morning for sure. A couple curse words and a pledge to never work on another machine again. Then I came to my senses and got back to working on it.

Touche!

Thanks for all the compliments! Hopefully I will get my new MPU in the mail today or tomorrow. Looking forward to getting it into the game room and putting some dimples into the playfield and a executing a couple slap saves! It wouldn't be a pinball machine otherwise.

On another note. In case you missed it, looks like PPS has decided to go ahead with plastic production. Here is the link to that thread and how to signup.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ann-interest-in-elektra-andor-frontier-plastic-sets/page/2

http://www.planetarypinball.com/product/frontier-plastic-set/

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I do but I am sure they will be fine without me. I do have to say it is way more difficult to get it to "look right" then many might think. Looking forward to comparing them. If they do it properly, they should come out with an overall better product. However, I suspect there will be tradeoffs. Only time will tell us.

For the price your paying, I will redo the clear and take the dimples out.

The new plastics arrived and looking awesome. Thanks!

I drilled out the holes and installed them. Pics below.
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Here are some playfield pics.

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Pretty sure it is suppose to be red.

Thanks!

The sound card and new harness were successfully completed. Those crickets are loud!

A few things are left to complete the project. I have to find the wiring issue that is dropping some of the display segments. The backglass has a few scratches that need to be fixed. Lastly, the interior of the cabinet took a few scratches from lifting the playfield.