(Topic ID: 114800)

EM Backglass Paint Touch-up

By REMPins

9 years ago


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Band Wagon - BG rear-536.jpg
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There are 58 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 2.
#1 9 years ago

I know how to touch-up the paint on a solid non translucent area of a backglass but how do you touch-up the area where the light shines through, as you can see the title "OLYMPIC HOCKEY", which by the way is suppose to be red, and a few other areas have a quite a bit of paint loss that really looks bad, there's only a bit of paint left on the puck.

By the way in the next day or so I will be sealing the BG with Krylons Triple Thick Clear Glaze.

MOD Dummy Installed.JPGMOD Dummy Installed.JPG
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#2 9 years ago

I would triple thick and use colored cellophane behind the glass to defuse the light where the paint is flaked. I believe I got that idea from Clay H. You could touch up with a paint but it would be really easy to make it worse and it looks pretty good now. Clay says the enemy of good is better,

#3 9 years ago

I also always switch to leds in the head and under the inserts, most people hate them for the general illumination, but i use them there also to reduce heat and power consumption. You should switch to #47 bulbs if you stay with incandescents to reduce heat. I find the old paint, plastics, wood are just not up to prolonged use and heat as they were when they were new. Even if you turn your machine on only to play it the temperature change from the hot bulbs is also damaging. I personally prefer leds because I can leave my EMs on 24/7 without the heat causing any damage. They are best enjoyed when on.

#4 9 years ago

Here's the link to touch up the cellophane is at the bottom but you would benefit reading it all.
http://www.pinrepair.com/restore/index1.htm#touch

#5 9 years ago

OK... I'm not recommending this but I have had some success with airbrushing transparent areas. The only one I have done with success was a Flash...Specifically the red in the back glass logo. Since the word Flash was outlined in black, I carefully removed all the red from the back glass. I then repaired any of the black edging around it. I then masked off the surrounding area and airbrushed with Createx transparent red. I then added some regular red behind that and then finished with a coat of transparent white. Came out great.

#6 9 years ago

Hi REMPin, is this how your back glass SHOULD look with the reds intact? and no flaking paint.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could repair real life back glasses as easily as this with Photoshop?
and yes... this IS your back glass REMPins... in case you're wondering.
Looks quite different now doesn't it?
Cheers, Mal

Olympic Hockey (1972 Williams) - BG final.pngOlympic Hockey (1972 Williams) - BG final.png

#7 9 years ago

Nice job, wish I new Photoshop better.

#8 9 years ago

Thanks. Its not completely finished as you can see, but its good enough to show you how it should look.
I wish I knew Photoshop better too, and I've been using it since about '96. There's always some new trick to learn with Photoshop, its great. In case you're wondering, yes I spent many hours on your glass. I enjoy painting back glasses, good fun and therapeutic in a way.

#9 9 years ago

I'm using an old version.... PS6, I recently did the score card since the one on the IPDB was wrong, it's not perfect but better then what I had, I cleaned it all up using the airbrush tool, I'm sure there's an easier way.

The IPDB now have my image on their site.
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=olympic+hockey&sortby=name&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick

OH-CardScan.JPGOH-CardScan.JPG OH-CardScanRealSize.jpgOH-CardScanRealSize.jpg
#10 9 years ago

You did a pretty good job on that. I use PS7 myself, never bothered to upgrade it as it does what I need.
Cleaning up fonts is a pain. I usually try and work out what font it is and re-type it to size, but they are generally hand painted so you have no choice but to clean them up as best you can.

#11 9 years ago

This. I used it to touch up a Laser Cue backglass.

http://www.amazon.com/Plaid-Delta-PermEnamel-Paint-Transparent/dp/B000XZTNGY/ref=sr_1_17

Before:
IMG_0935.jpgIMG_0935.jpg
IMG_4602.jpgIMG_4602.jpg

I used it only for the yellow (because I had the rest done already). It is very translucent so I painted over it with the white which gave it the perfect opacity and gives it a look similar to the factory layer.
IMG_4670.jpgIMG_4670.jpg

After. I used acrylics for the red, blue and orange, which is very visible up close. A lamp sits right behind the damaged area which makes the touch up even more obvious. As you can see, the yellow is not blotchy at all.
IMG_3302.JPGIMG_3302.JPG
IMG_3372.JPGIMG_3372.JPG

#12 9 years ago
Quoted from Hyperball91:

Hi REMPin, is this how your back glass SHOULD look with the reds intact? and no flaking paint.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could repair real life back glasses as easily as this with Photoshop?
and yes... this IS your back glass REMPins... in case you're wondering.
Looks quite different now doesn't it?
Cheers, Mal

Olympic Hockey (1972 Williams) -... 659 KB

I found this other post which you help another member with their Spanish Eye's BG https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/spanish-eyes-backglass-scan

I took the PIC you cleaned up of my BG and opened it up with PS6, in order for me to get a print made like they did I need the image to have solid colors, crisp lines and a higher resolution, I don't even know how to increase the resolution, I messed with it a couple hours last night but my skills are limited and I didn't like the results, I couldn't even get the lines straight, since it appears you like doing this maybe you can help me out, I appreciate your help. Thanks

There's a follow up post to that also: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/replacement-translites-for-old-em-backglass#post-2178832

#13 9 years ago

I see Oh Boy is your avatar. Speaking of which I could use a glass for one or the art.

#14 9 years ago

Yes, I helped NextoPin with his Spanish Eyes backglass. In his case I had a nice backglass re-draw which I just ran through Vector Magic and bumped up the resolution to 10,000 pixels so he could get it printed. Didn't work too well he said. Oh well, I tried.

Bumping up the resolution on a raster image just makes it all blurry. In your case I don't have a good re-draw of your backglass, just the one I was working on which isn't quite finished yet. I can try vectorising it for you and see how it looks, but don't hold your breath as the original is a bit too small. (as you found out)
You'll need a mask for it too. Can you get me a good hi-res photo of the rear of your glass for me please?

Cheers, Mal

#15 9 years ago

I just finished sealing this afternoon, after it dries I'll take a few photos and post the best one.
Thanks for your help.

#16 9 years ago

Nice. I'm out of town at the moment. On a laptop in a hotel room currently. I'll work on your glass when I get home.

#17 9 years ago

Nice work you are doing Hyperball91

#18 9 years ago

Thanks wayner. Never thought I'd get into 'painting' when I was younger. Funny how your life changes as time goes by...

#19 9 years ago
Quoted from Hyperball91:

Thanks wayner. Never thought I'd get into 'painting' when I was younger. Funny how your life changes as time goes by...

Yep and not just because of aches & pains!! I think the thing that really strikes me & what I like about this hobby/pastime is the breadth of skills potentially involved. It can be as broad as you want it taking in many many technical disciplines. As a result my garage is being overrun with more & more equipment. But I admire you guys that either have or have acquired art skills. It needs great & detailed patience and that is not one of my strong suits.

#20 9 years ago

aches and pains, yeah tell me about it. sigh
Yes there are many talented people in this hobby, and willing to share their knowledge. It's great. I can imagine your garage, stuff everywhere. I used to be the same when I was in Perth. I never thought I had any art skills, I just love Photoshop. Funny, back in the early 70's I enjoyed being a "tattoo artist" for a while drawing cobras and whatnot on kids with textas (sharpies over here). I tried a Wacom tablet with Photoshop last year but it wasn't as good as I thought it might be so I sent it back.

#21 9 years ago

Got a couple PICs of the back and one of the front, they're OK but gonna try again tomorrow.

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#22 9 years ago

They're okay. I can work with that, but I'll PM you for the original photos as they get resized smaller on Pinside.

#23 9 years ago

Hey REMPin, this is how your back glass rear/mask is looking now.
Looks pretty good so far I think. It isn't finished of course as you can see.
I want to re-do the 'Goals' text as it isn't quite right.
I'm working on the 'Game Over' text right now. Then on to the numbers.
When you get this printed, the black parts are clear glass.
Thanks for all the photos you sent for me to work from.
Cheers, Mal

BG rear.pngBG rear.png

#24 9 years ago

Mal -

Are you taking requests for work? That is an awesome job. I just picked up a machine with no glass at all and I know nothing about photoshop.

-scott

#25 9 years ago
Quoted from Hyperball91:

Hey REMPin, this is how your back glass rear/mask is looking now.
Looks pretty good so far I think. It isn't finished of course as you can see.
I want to re-do the 'Goals' text as it isn't quite right.
I'm working on the 'Game Over' text right now. Then on to the numbers.
When you get this printed, the black parts are clear glass.
Thanks for all the photos you sent for me to work from.
Cheers, Mal

That looks awesome, nice job!

#26 9 years ago

Thanks Rich, Alex and Chris for the thumbs up.
Hi Scott, I got your pm. No, I'm not taking requests, I just do it for fun and the love of pinball. REMPins was lucky that I felt in the mood to do a restore on his glass when he posted it.

If I see a nice image I like, such as that very flaky Top Card photo that was posted by dtown 6 months ago (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gottlieb-top-card-restore-bg-yes-or-no) and it needs a lot of tlc, I might make it my mission to restore it. (I did on that one and it turned out great I thought).

So you bought a '65 Band Wagon with no back glass at all? Thank you for saving it. I thought you'd have to get in line behind REMPins, but luckily for you I already have that image in my library and its fairly hi-res so I'm running it through vector magic right now for you to see how it turns out. I don't have a photo of the rear of the glass, so if you want a mask for it, (I'm sure you do) you'll have to find a good hi-res photo from somebody of the rear and send it over and I'll see what I can do for you.
Cheers, Mal

#27 9 years ago

I am not sure if this is hi-res or not...my guess is no as it is just from IPDB...

Thanks for taking a look at the project. The PF is really cleaning up nicely...I will post some pics soon.

OK - nevermind...the photo on IPDB is of a German BG...I may have an idea for masking that would suit this project, however...

I will keep searching and see what I can find!

Thanks again -

-scott

#28 9 years ago

I just gave my friend a stack of backglasses hoping that in a few years his daughters will become touchup pros.
image.jpegimage.jpeg

#29 9 years ago

wow, that's really cool. I'm impressed. Well done girls. They're working on a real backglass, I work on them virtually.

#30 9 years ago

Well here's what I wound up doing, I could not stand looking at the faded red that turned brown... yuck, so I literally scratched it all off and created a red mask to go over it. I did some other touch ups but it will be nice to have a new BG.

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#31 9 years ago

This is a great thread...keep the photos and updates coming....please.

#32 9 years ago

Would love to see how the red letters turn out. My experience is the blues are tough to match. Has anyone tried an airbrush as opposed to a brush, maybe smoother? As to the girls above I hope their dad pays them well.

#33 9 years ago

Going by that first photo, your reds look really good REMPins, well done. Now you just need to do the same for the 2 yellow 'Score' pieces.
I've almost finished your mask, just one bit left to paint that I somehow missed earlier. I'll post it later to keep 82Trooper happy, lol.

And I agree, those 2 girls should get nice new bikes or something for fixing their dads back glass.

#34 9 years ago
Quoted from lostlumberjacks:

Has anyone tried an airbrush as opposed to a brush, maybe smoother?

The only back glass I have tried is a Flash. Did with an airbrush and in turned out great...

Flash Back Glass.jpgFlash Back Glass.jpg
#35 9 years ago

Great job Freeplay! That turned out very well.
I seem to remember reading your thread about your Flash?
Maybe I should get out of Photoshop and into airbrushing? hmmm


.

Okay REMpins, here's the latest revision of the rear/mask of your glass. I declare it finished.
I painted in the small section I had missed. You know the spot I mean.
The numbers came out well. I hand painted the vertical ones. The 'Goals' text is nicer now.
I touched up the 'Williams' text a tiny bit and I shrunk the Williams logo circle a bit too as I thought I made it too large previously. The Tilt text was a piece of cake of course, lol.
This is a PNG of the artwork, but I'll email you the TIF of it. Reverse image as well.
Hope you like how it turned out.
Cheers, Mal

OH BG finished-250.pngOH BG finished-250.png

#36 9 years ago
Quoted from Hyperball91:

Maybe I should get out of Photoshop and into airbrushing?

I am certainly no artist, but an airbrush is a great little spray gun! I even shoot Varathane with it.

#37 9 years ago

well, I have a great compressor already, so you've got me thinking about an airbrush now...

#38 9 years ago
Quoted from Hyperball91:

well, I have a great compressor already, so you've got me thinking about an airbrush now...

You don't need anything fancy... Check out Harbor Freight. Best acrylic paints to use are Createx. I used a transparent red, then a regular opaque red and then backed it with white.

#39 9 years ago

Thanks for the info, I'll look into it.

#40 9 years ago
Quoted from lostlumberjacks:

As to the girls above I hope their dad pays them well.

yeah right, you're just breeding pinball helper monkeys out there in the sticks. cat fancy. lmao

Quoted from Hyperball91:

And I agree, those 2 girls should get nice new bikes or something for fixing their dads back glass.

They were all free wall hangers for his gameroom and those kids are already spoiled rotten.

#41 9 years ago

Girls like cats, what's the problem. Todd Moore gave them to me. Lmfao

#42 9 years ago
Quoted from Hyperball91:

Going by that first photo, your reds look really good REMPins, well done. Now you just need to do the same for the 2 yellow 'Score' pieces.
I've almost finished your mask, just one bit left to paint that I somehow missed earlier. I'll post it later to keep 82Trooper happy, lol.

The first photo is the end result, somehow Pinside put it first. I'm working on the yellow/green area but it's harder to do as the mask has 5-layers so each one has to be equally cut and seemed together.

Nice job on the rear-mask, looks awesome, can't wait to see the front.
Thanks

#43 9 years ago

Thanks. I'm still working on the front. Give me a day or 3.

1 week later
#44 9 years ago

Wow! This thread is awesome! I too have an Olympic Hockey machine that I'm trying to restore and my backglass is all flaked and peeling. I've been trying to hunt down a replacement backglass but haven't had much luck.. Did you ever end up finishing the front? I'd love to help out in anyway so that we can reproduce this onto some glass! I was thinking about pulling mine out and taking some measurements from the different score boxes and whatnot.

#45 9 years ago

What a coincidence. Yes I finished the front, sort of, but the original is a bit small to work from, so enlarging it makes it very pixelly. I wish I knew how to do vector re-draws. I'm sorry I don't, but I really need to learn. It's bugging me now, lol. Here's how the front turned out in the end. I changed 2 of the ring colours, I think they're correct now, I changed the Ball in Play font, its correct now, ditto for the Goals text, cleaned up the ice rink and straightened the lines, plus lots of other little bits and pieces.
Cheers, Mal

Olympic Hockey - BG.pngOlympic Hockey - BG.png

#46 9 years ago

As an alternative, the "frost gloss technique" is an easy way to get good color simultaneously on the front under direct light as well as from the back via the translucent areas.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/touching-up-translucent-areas-on-a-peeling-backglass-success

This is an effective and relatively easy method for repairing peeled/flaked backglasses which are still salvageable. All you need is a little practice mixing colors and the result can be triple-thicked to seal in the changes.

#47 9 years ago

The result will have some texture but it actually looks quite nice in person with no visible brush strokes. I taught a class on how to do this at the Dallas Makerspace in November. Everyone was impressed with how easily the results can be obtained. A little patience will bring most unusable backglasses back into service.

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#48 9 years ago

Nice work NicoVolta, that looks pretty good.

#49 9 years ago

With a bit of a push from Chris I thought I should post the backglass rear mask I made for drscottsmith who has a '65 Bally 'Band Wagon' pin with no backglass at all.

I don't mean to hijack your thread REMPins, but I thought other Pinsiders might like to see this artwork.

This came out well I thought. The vertical numbers look a bit big, but they are about the same size as the original glass, just a different font. Yes, those guys sitting in the band were very fiddly to do!

Band Wagon - BG rear-536.jpgBand Wagon - BG rear-536.jpg

And of course, here's the front of the glass that matches the rear mask. I can't take any credit for this one as I didn't do the re-draw on it.
I hope they both print out well and are good enough to make a translite for Scotts pin. Be sure to post some photos of your pin when you get it done Scott, so we can all see how it turned out.
Cheers, Mal


Band Wagon - BG front.jpgBand Wagon - BG front.jpg

#50 9 years ago

Okay, so Chris and IronMonkey wanted to see the work I did on dtown's Top Card back glass, so here it is.
First off, this is dtown's original backglass photo; I just fixed the perspective in Photoshop.

Top Card - BG perspective fixed.pngTop Card - BG perspective fixed.png

And this 2nd pic is how it turned out after a lot of work in Photoshop.
Yes dtown, if you're reading this post, that IS your back glass. Doesn't look like it any more does it?
I cloned in the 2 missing sections from another backglass. It's not finished perfectly of course, but I thought it came out pretty good. I also did the rear mask which I should post as well.
Cheers, Mal

Top Card - BG 7.pngTop Card - BG 7.png

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