I had asked this a few years back. And if painted go with paint and the same with vinyl decals.

But also whatever you like, that is what is important.

Hey BEE how about you do mine with stencils and yours with decals. Which ever you like better you can keep.

As you know I went with decals. If that's the way you go just be sure to line them up very very good. And quadruple check before final install. I also like the dry method better. I have a corner lifting on the side I did wet method with. But the other side I did dry is perfect.

Where are stencils available? I was under the impression that no one made them. I used decals from retro refurbs.

Wow. Either I missed those, or they weren't available until recently. I'm happy with my decals, but would have painted if I could have.
I believe the original was silk screened(I could be wrong), so neither will be perfect, but paint is much closer.

Paint is much closer to factory and absolutely beautiful when it's done properly....that being said I have done both the way I look at it is if I am doing a full restore I would stencil and clear, If I just want to make an average game look better that decals are by far my preference.... after doing a full stencil and clear job, the decal jobs almost didn't even seem like work...

I bought the F-14 stencils from the pinball pimp. I started prepping the backbox, but then it got cold. kruzman probably won't be done with my playfield anytime soon (you can't rush perfection), so I will post my stencil results when I can get the cabinet ready.

I'm going to just rattle can it. The red and yellow are pretty close to primary colors. I'm debating on whether or not to just go crazy and use pearlescent or glitter paints.

image (resized).jpg

Make your own artwork an have a one of a kind F-14.

pasted_image (resized).png

FE88F108-E6D0-4158-93A9-E5B56F562D91 (resized).jpeg

That's awesome Cletus!

I might have to order a large print to mount on the wall next to my #f-14 tomcat.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/danger-zone-top-gun-maverick-pilot-helmet-pop-culture-1980s-movie-80s-zerobriant-designs.html

I should put one on the ceiling in the bedroom!

I just got the art work done on the f14 pf, it came out perfect. I was doing it with tape, and re doing it. I did it free hand and it came out perfect. I have brushes I made that started oit as the smallest liners, and I cut 75% of the hairs off and shape them, and they work perfect. finally time to clear it. I have been doing nothing but art work for about 10 days, and I still have another 10. I wait till there is a bunch lined up because it is so hard for me to change hats from art work to clearcoat. they are very different mind sets.
I hope I am not hi jacking the post, just giving it a bump.

I cant believe they forgot those stripes on the f14 pf. oops

Awesome! Thanks for the update Ron.
I'm in no rush to start my playfield swap. I have to rebuild and paint my dumpster of a cabinet first.

Haha, "Kruzmaning" seemed like the only way to really do this thing and have no regrets.
I'm certain that this F-14 will never leave my collection. It's my first playfield swap and I'm having fun turning a near dumpster find into a custom show piece that's better in every way than factory. F-14 is the by far most fun and frustrating title I have played to date. I grew up in mall basement arcades and this title takes me back to when my only worry was running out of quarters. I plan to grow old with it and tell my grandkids how I, to quote the old man in Jurassic Park, "Spared no expense" on something that made me smile everyday.

Yep, Cletus I agree! Always takes me back to the bowling ally's as a kid. F-14, Space Station, High speed were the three that I remember most!

what a line up at one place f14, space station, and high speed. 2 out of 3 ritchie games. IMHO those are 3 awesome games. I have owned all of them several times and would own any again. space station is so cool. its one of those games that you have to play and get good at to make it do what it can. it has some special features, and lighting. the cabs are always smoked on the ones I have bought. I think I have owned 3 of them and never paid more than 650 for them, of course this was the good ol days (pre 2012)

F14 is a great show off game to non pinheads. The 3 lights on top and all of the balls getting kicked around and the bal launch that goes right to the flippers. That is a game to get a friend hooked on pinball.

I have half the clear down on this f14 and I am excited to do it, but we have been having daily high temps of 12 deg F. That is only for a couple hours and then it dives below zero again, and I just dont like putting down clear. I can only keep my shop at barely 68 and that is just not warm enough plus the air lines get really cold, ect. so sorry about the hold up. This may be a good time to ask this question. are all of the f14 repro pf's missing the art (red stripes on the outside of the cockpit between the 2 slingshots? I painted this one, to look great, but I am glad the owner saw it because I wouldnt have noticed it, and once 8 coats of clear are down, its too late.

anyway it will be great to see how this projects looks, I am confident it will be amazing. I have restored 2 f14's and had several nos assemblies I am holding for this project.

Ok well I am just checking in on this thread, and bumping it up. I never get a chance to get on pinside, so today I am checking on the stuff I have been watching.

BTW, the bowling alley my parents had tuesday league, had matta hari, playboy, and strikes and spares. The old man would break a roll in half, for my sister and I, and say "I dont want to see you until its time to go" they only did it for one winter. In that time I honed my skills and realized I am defiantly not gay.

I love getting updates, Ron. I’m in absolutely no rush to get the F-14 playfield.

In case anybody was wondering about the missing artwork that kruzman is talking about, Peters orange screen was missing some orange lines on the cockpit in the center of the playfield.

6E992688-C0D1-418A-BA55-AD098EDD705B (resized).jpeg

did you get a chance to talk to him to see if he is going to correct it in future runs.
we are suppose to be 32 on sunday, and upper 20" mon and tuesday, so I am getting everything prepped for spray!

here is a pic of the repaint

f14repaint (resized).jpg

Looks amazing! Sweet, sweet playfield porn.
I apologize SUPERBEE for hijacking this thread. We’ll try to get it back on topic.
Here’s a picture of my pre-restore cabinet.

Edit: Peter knows of the flaw.

1F707A66-5FDC-4442-9BA9-F1672B5A15E0 (resized).jpeg

Put this on the cab.

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That is an amazing JET!. I have seen people do really cool custom cab decals. since f14 is not rare, it is one of those games you could do a custom cab and as long as it is quality, its kosher. imho

I am so out of it, but there is a guy who is mike paceks son or son in law who makes custom cab decals. I think those custom decals on the f14 would be sweet. even though I am really in to restoring cars and pins back to original specs, I am not real fond of the original art on this title. to each their own. price would also make a diffrence to me, as well as quality of the print. anyway cheers, kruz

If I could get this printed correctly, it would be done already. I just don't know enough about the printing process and types to even start this project.

I know a guy. I will try to get some details.

That would be great, thanks. Is there a way of reversing the image so that looks the same on both sides?

Most certainly

So my print guy (my father-in-law) is in the business of designing and printing labels for grocery items (coffee cans, pickle jars, beer bottles, etc.). He recommends looking into one of those places that produce wraps for cars. Those places have the large format printers that would make the job easy and use most likely use a high-quality vinyl that is printed with UV ink that is durable and resists fade.
The trick would be to find non-copyrighted images of high enough quality to print onto a 4'x 2' sheet. He recommended an image that is at least 300 DPI. That would equal an image on the long side that has 14,400 pixels. Anything smaller and you would see the square pixels.

I hacked together a papercraft version of the bottom cabinet with your images to get an idea of how they could look.

F-14_1_new (resized).jpg

Would the best way to tell if a image is of the right quality be to mark off a 1/4 inch, magnify it and count the dots?

You can right-click on an image file and select properties, then select the details tab. The image size will be shown in pixels.
Also, in windows explorer find your saved image and change the folder view to details. Right-click on the details header and check "Dimensions".
You can use Google image search - https://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi - to help find different sizes of images you have by dragging your picture into the search bar. You can then filter the search to just show HD files.
You might want read about the difference between PPI (Pixels Per Inch) and DPI (Dots Per Inch).

https://99designs.com/blog/tips/ppi-vs-dpi-whats-the-difference/

It's a little confusing, but basically printing something at 300 ink dots-per-inch doesn't mean that a 100 pixel-per-inch picture will be clear at all sizes. You'll be printing big clear square pixels. Anyway, the higher pixel count the better it will print. Find the highest pixel resolution picture you can and print a piece of it to the scale you want and see if that's acceptable to you.

Also, the picture you fell in love with is copyrighted to Check 6.

http://check-6.com/gallery/carriers/F-14-Tomcat-Flying-over-the-USS-Kitty-Hawk-by-Katsu-Tokunaga.php

They will have a full resolution version for purchase most likely and may allow you to print it with permission.

This is another of theirs that is pretty amazing:

f14_dbaranek (resized).jpg

I was under the impression that if I wasn't printing for sale that I would be OK to use copyright materials. Am I mistaking, it wouldn't be the first time for sure just ask my wife.

Check out the price for a personal print:

Capture (resized).JPG

I don't know about the legality of it all, but if the artist ever saw it displayed somewhere... who knows.

OH MY. I have good taste don't I.

That price is just for the rights to print it.
I guess, photographers want to make a living, too.