I've always thought LOTR would be a great candidate for something like this.

Count me in for new LOTR playfield art as well. I know they say Franchi wants nothing to do with the theme, but I think he would take the game to a new level.

Have an overlay made, sand the old art, apply the overlay and then clear the field.

I'm not an expert on printing. I'm just thinking if you actually want to do this that having someone create screens to replace the art on an x-files, which isn't a super common game, would cost a fortune. I think you could get someone to print an overlay UV printed on mylar though for less than a few hundred bucks if you provided the art.

Guess I misunderstood. I thought you meant you wanted to update the art on your personal game. I would assume it's doable with enough people.

How about one of those hardtops? Those look great and appear to hold up really well

I would look into possibly a tattoo artist doing the work then clear coat it. There are some great artists out there that are not known and would possibly be cost effective.

Well then the labor should be free.

CPR tried something like this a while back. They were going to put together a custom art package using the Dolly pin as a base. You would get new backglass/plastics/playfield as part of the package, the theme selected was Lost Vegas. I don’t think it ever had enough interest in terms of numbers to make it cost feasible, so it never got off the ground for production. That was back when they were still doing screen printing though, with the new processes, the economics may have changed. Either way, I think the way to start would to pick your game, then gauge interest in terms of numbers. There are a few folks that have done one offs. See the Led Zepplin conversion thread for an idea of what that entails.

If your serious about commissioning an artist I maybe interested. But keep in mind its a ton of work.
You can check out my Instagram for the style I draw in.

https://www.instagram.com/jacksongeeart/

Start with some part of the whole process, like a playfield only, to get an idea of the amount of work. I'd suggest Rob Zombie. That playfield is TERRIBLE and a new look for the playfield might actually improve the falling resale value on those machines.

So the Lost Vegas was to be an entire package that was sold in quantity for anyone who had Dolly that they wanted to retheme and the Led Zep “one off” is the entire package as well, just doing one machine though. The guy doing the Led Zep did commission an artist to do most of it so that could give you a ballpark for the cost. Search the forum for the specific thread where he talks about it.

I believe CPR was charging around $1300 for the retheme package a few years ago?

Anything is possible with money.

That said, this is a ton of work. If you want actual screen printing especially. I kinda suspect from what you've said that you won't be wild about the quality of digital printing. It's not bad, but it isn't going to look anything like screened work if you have the eye for that stuff.

Depends on the art too. You can optimize for the strengths and weaknesses of each style of printing from the get go. Tonal ranges vs flat colors for instance.

Doing a translite is entirely easier. Speaking from experience with both.