So I see a lot of folks on here talk about a "player's" machine. Unfortunately a lot of the time they throw that word around to mean something that belongs at the bottom of a cliff. Not me. To me, a player's machine is something that works 100%, plays very well, doesn't smell like that dead thing under the porch, and would really make a nice machine for somebody who isn't a collector but who just likes to play pinball.

That is how I feel about my Black Knight machine. It plays great and has brand new flipper assemblies. I'm fixing it up to sell it, and I think it will make somebody a really great player's game. I've decided to take some pics to show my technique.

First let's see the before pics. You can see that we've got paint loss by the left ramp. And we've got factory mylar on the pops. My opinion on the mylar is that this machine would not survive pulling mylar. The paint loss would just be too much, I fear. Better to make it look as good as possible and find it a home where somebody will love it.

We've also got a fair amount of paint loss around the inserts. Now that is something I think I can do something about, and I think I can make a pretty dramatic improvement. This isn't a high dollar machine, and I don't stand to make much if any money, so no reason to take on anything drastic, but see how I fix what I feel is the biggest issue with this game.

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Okay, so my first step is to take some measurements of the circles. There are multiple sizes. Here is a staged pic showing my method.

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Next I get out my Silhouette Cameo and start cutting the circles. Takes a couple practice cuts to get them perfect, but they do come out great.

Getting the arrow shapes takes a bit more work, but in this case I worked from the pic shown with the ruler. I was able to dial in the size and make a nice mask for painting.

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I'm using testor's oil based enamel here, and the result is a huge improvement.

You can see I also made an attempt at covering some of the paint loss by the ramp. I think it looks better, but I'm still experimenting on this area.

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Oh, I forgot to mention, one reason I see this as strictly a player is because the backglass is so bad. This is a real problem when you've got a machine in this condition. Very few folks are going to want to spring for a new $350 Mayfair glass for this particular Black Knight.

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Thanks Cody, I did see your EBD. It's good work. We are in a similar boat in that pulling the mylar isn't an option, so you're pretty limited in what you can do. I may end up doing as you did and clearing after masking the mylar.

For the record, on a machine where the paint could hold up to a good magic eraser scrubbing and the mylar could withstand removal, I do it completely differently, but this is about getting a player ready for someone to enjoy, nothing more.

Dan

Old thread, but finally calling it done. Hopefully will sell it next week. It was always a player but the insert leveling, black keylines, and clear made a real difference and I think made it better.

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