Looks sweet Arcade!

Man, I have no idea, someone should ask vid instead, he'd probably have some science about clear over decals. These decals are 3 mil thick (mil = thousandth of an inch) if it makes any difference, I dunno. I know I've cleared over a waterslide decal this large before.

My guess from reading vid's thread is that it would work, since the lower playfield is already cleared, and you can generally sandwich something like this safely between two layers of clear.

People have asked me for a lower playfield specific design, but I don't have an AC/DC Prem, and I'd really want my own lower playfield to test designs on in person to feel comfortable releasing anything.

Oh hmm. I hate to take your game out of commission, but that's a good offer. Tell you what, let me give the whole idea some thought, and if I think I have something worth messing with that I really need physical access for we can talk more. I wouldn't want to take your game down unless I felt like it was worth it, and I wasn't gonna just let your lower playfield sit around for months while I tried to find time or something. Thanks Karl!

Edit: And I really need to try and get more work done on this Star Trek translite too, should hit that first, I kinda teased it to people already when I should have just kept my mouth shut.

Not a complaint I've gotten much of, except for Neo trying to convince me to make her topless.

Thanks, I've had a couple offers for that. I'm honestly not sure if I'll try and do a specific design for the lower playfield, I'm not promising anything, but I would hate for anyone to clear the old design down there and then I did decide to, that would be frustrating. So I think I'll wait to really experiment until I decided what's what.

I should probably just cave already and pick up an AC/DC Prem myself, that would certainly provide some motivation. But my pin funds would have to recover from Tron and I don't see much point in buying NIB now with so many HUO machines around, so would probably wait for a local deal too. Just have to see I guess.

I'll keep an eye out for SoCal deals. I'd like to get a Metallica Prem too, see if my last two slots in my garage end up music pins ...

So the Helen project is closed now. I have a couple translites left, and some apron decals, and that's it. No more big face decals to experiment with, sorry.

But ... I have picked up an ACDC Premium recently. So I may mess with an actual dedicated facelift idea for the lower playfield at some point.

I've got some new flipper bats for my mini playfield, so I'll strip it all and scan it for future reference as long as I'm shopping it out.

I think if I were to ever try this "officially" in some way I'd go with a laminated decal. For the playfield one my main concern was staying as thin as possible, so there wasn't a lip to mess with the ball. The lower playfield doesn't have that concern.

image.jpg

Won't be able to spend a lot of time on it right now, Alien needs to take priority, but I needed to shop out the lower playfield anyways, so I got motivated last night to strip it completely and scan it. I'll test fit some templates before I put it back together and reinstall it, see where things go from there.

It's not really a secret that Stern asked me to stop, I just didn't see the need to stir up drama when I asked to have my thread closed. I'm not mad at them or anything, so it goes. There's no bad blood between me and Stern.

It's purely about the ACDC branding. Technically I wasn't using their logo, and you can't copyright a typeface (well, you can copyright the software font, but not the actual face itself), but let's be honest, it was a dodge, and I wasn't going to fight it.

I'll probably retire Helen, at least the design I used before. It was a piece of stock art that I customized, I never really planned to let that project go as far as it did. The decal was never meant for the lower playfield, and while I think it's really cool that someone did it, I'll probably ponder something different that works with the inserts and layout etc.

Anyways, I'm just messing around right now. I really don't need another project, but the idea intrigues me, so I'll play with it as I can. Here's a shot at test fitting a first paper template:

image.jpg

I honestly don't have any real plans at the moment. Generally speaking I do these mods because I enjoy exploring ideas, it's a creative outlet for me. So whatever I do I'll try and make it different and interesting compared to what I had before. I don't want to just repeat something. Right now I'm thinking about materials and methods, more than the actual graphics. I'll work on that part later, once I have an idea for what would be cool to try out in terms of techniques. Definitely want to push beyond just a simple decal.

We'll see! I have a Metallica mod that's been sitting unfinished for a while now too. But I think that it will match up with ACDC in terms of finding the right printer for what I'd like to try.

Well Helen is pretty much dead, I think I have literally one last translite still in stock. And that's it, won't be printing more. So the retirement is pretty much here already.

The only question is whether or not I would bring her back for some new art. We'll see I guess. It made sense before to replace an ugly old man with a hot chick, I'm not really sure putting her in Hell is really something that fits, just as far as the layout goes. But like I said, I haven't even explored the art, just decided to work up a template so I could tinker with ideas.

Thanks man. It's all for the fun of it, both for me, and for other people to enjoy. That's really the whole point.

Made some modifications to the design after some more test fitting of parts. I'm thinking about not even making it a decal, but an overlay. I have a couple secret reasons for it that I'm not ready to reveal yet, but there are some other obvious benefits.

1) It would be easy to line up and install. The arc of the loop will hold it down nice and flat, plus some other spots at the bottom. That's one thing I modified, gave it more anchor points. Get it just how you want, no sticky decals, no air bubbles, and then tighten down the playfield parts over it to keep it anchored in place.

2) I could reverse print it on mylar, and then the printed surface would be totally protected from the ball. You can wax the mylar before you put the playfield back together, and it will play crazy fast.

Yeah, playfield protector style. Is that what they use? I haven't done any real research yet. But exactly what I was thinking, something thin but rigid.