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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

I hope I don't get in trouble for making that papercraft cabinet. Don't Print it!!! LOL

Copyright law is confusing and scary.
I wonder if hauling a pin off to a pinball show with copyrighted images on the cabinet would get to sued?

@grumpy, Here's a four-foot sized image at 80ppi. I never told you to use it.
I don't know if they make right-handed aircraft carriers, but whatever.

Huge F-14.jpg
Huge F-14_flip.jpg

@grumpy, print this on a letter (8.5x11) sheet of paper. That'll be pretty close to what the final result could look like.

lettersize (resized).jpg

It is pretty sweet looking, but tell me how you take a picture of a fighter jet flying up at you and somehow catch the aircraft carrier clearly in the background.

Try this place to see if they can print them. They might even offer to install.
https://g.co/kgs/pTsJiR