You might have to try various methods to get the effect you want.

And thickness or thinness of the paint.

I'd try a paint brush and shake it at the surface, or flicking the brush part of a tooth brush.

LTG : )

Clays TOP 1 DVD shows you pretty much how to do it and is worth a few bucks to buy.

It will show you many other tricks to restoring your EM as well.

http://www.pinrepair.com/top/top1.htm

Also all proceeds go to the PHOF - The Pinball Hall Of Fame / Salvation Army.

Ken

Get a can of flat black paint, a cheap 1$ inch and a half wide brush type paint brush (not foam) and a block of wood. An old 2x4x12 ripped in half for a 2x2x12 works great.

Be sure you're in a place like outdoors where splattering paint won't matter and wear old clothes and eye protection.

Dip the first 1/4" or so of the brush tips into paint and wipe some of the excess from the brush onto the rim of the can so its not drippy.

Smack the wood of the brush just above the bristles against the wood block above the cabinet you're painting. I highly suggest making your first tests on some old newspaper to get used to where the bulk of the droplets are going so you can aim better, and find what level of paint is required in the brush to get the density and coverage you desire.

I ruined a decent pair of pants the first time I did this and ended up tossing them in the trash before the wife'ee had a chance to see them.

I did this project as described above. Spots on a cabinet hides many, many sins. This head was full of dings so I put a lot of spots of all sizes:

Spots.jpg

This is the best tool you can use hands down for the splatter but for webbing you need an air compressor.

loew_cornell_speckling_brush_paint_spl.jpg

sorry here is a link to purchase
http://factorydirectcraft.com/catalog/products/1302_2105_1061-5101-loew_cornell_speckling_brush_paint_splatter_tool.html

Bryan Kelly did a great video on restoring a coin door. He covers this quite well. I believe his video is on YouTube.

This way is really cheap, stupid easy and works so great it feels like cheating.

- dip in one of those cheapo 2" bristle paint brushes into thin paint
- bend back the bristles with a pencil and let the paint fly
- practice on something (cardboard etc.) until you get desired results
- you can go back and add dots with the head of a pin or small nail.

If you use an air gun, you can turn the material flow up, while reducing the air flow - makes nice looking spatter, very even.

If you do a lot of spatter work, the pros take a HF HVLP air gun and drill some extra holes in the nozzle.

Of course you can buy a $150 spatter gun, but it's only a gun with extra holes in the nozzle...

All great stuff mentioned. I used a crap paintbrush and some heavily watered down black acrylic paint. Mix it in a cup until its watery, but not just a cup of black water, you want some thickness to it. Dip the brush, shake it off a bit, and use your thumb to flick the bristles towards the cab and you are good. Here is a pic of a cabinet/head I did with that technique. Also, using the acrylic paint, if you mess up, you can just use a wet cloth and wipe it away no problem and start over.

Also, make sure not to overkill with the webbing. Some games have more than others, just look at some reference pictures online. But literally, very little looks the most original on most games. Notice in the pictures below how you can just barely see the dots/webbing from far away, anymore would be overkill, at least for this particular game! Again, look at reference pictures or at the actual game if there is original paint left on it because, again, every game is a little different!

Hope this helps!

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Chris Axle shot it. A very good how to video.

LTG : )

+1

I used an old nylon paint brush for the splatter and in those places like you have on my pin Star Race or as in Black Hole where it is a space theme and some dots represent stars; I used a script liner brush with thin paint to make those long star light like line projections off the center dot. Works pretty well.

I used a tooth-brush in the past by running my finger along the bristles and simply pointing it at the area... cheap, easy and controlable...

I used a tooth-brush in the past by running my finger along the bristles and simply pointing it at the area... cheap, easy and controlable...

Yep, old tooth brush for me too. Used it on a few arcade game restorations like Pacman and GORF:

DSC00986.jpg DSC00934.jpg PC260260.jpg SSL11863.jpg

Bryan Kelly in the video posts here, pm him and ask.

LTG : )

This is a very old thread, but I believe this little tit bit of information will add to it nicely for those of you who are trying their hand at splattering. After many research, this is the technique I ended up using:

http://www.airbrushtutor.com/the-splatter-effect/

I am considering printing one of these tools:

http://www.makeup-fx.com/airbrushsplatter.html

Here are my tests.
Big square is 2'" x 2".
Small square is 1" by 1".
White dots on green base is my original cabinet.
Red on White is my trial.
Used Highly diluted Latex paint on paper.
Paper was vertical when I sprayed it.

splat_(resized).jpg

Rattle can with pins stuck in the nozzle.

IMG_0504_(resized).JPG

Nice splatter but probably should have skipped the last pass. Live and Learn.

HVLP. Low pressure, high volume. Worked like a charm for me, and you're done in seconds.

Tip when doing splatter: IF you get a dot or two that is bigger than you wanted, and it will happen, don't be tempted to wipe or dab it to remove. Wait until it is completely dry and then use a sharp knife to scrape off the dry blob. If a tiny bit does not scape off, it will not be noticeable with all the other small bits. If you try to dab it while wet, it will smear and you are screwed.

Mac

Another tip. Silver spatter can be done using a silver fine point sharpie for an area that gets repainted. Practice and you can make small and large dots but remember it’s a permanent marker.

this cap gives nice splatter

cap (resized).JPG

is this a specialty item? do you have a link to purchase it from?

dick blick
https://www.dickblick.com/items/01439-3010/

Need to spray from 3 ft etc

thanks. I'm assuming that you still need to finesse the amount of pressure that you are applying to the tip to achieve the splatter effect

Do these fit any standard spray can?

I've tried this, but I don't think the human mind can adequately randomize the pattern. It always looks fake.

I tried something recently which worked pretty well, and it's simple.
Take a short piece of multi-strand wire
(like line cord), then strip about 2 1/2 inches of insulation off. Unwind the strands, and jumble up the loose ends.
Dip the stripped conductor into the color of your choice and first blot it on some cardboard to remove excess paint, and to see the resulting effect before applying to the subject part.
Someone told me this method once, and I almost forgot about it until just recently when I had to do a quick restoration of a wedgehead face.
The effect I got was somewhat of a spatter, but a smidgen of webbing effect as well. I intend to experiment with this method, varying the wire shape, paint thickness and application method. I'm going to try blasting compressed air behind the wire, and see what that gets me. My first attempt was satisfactory to me for what I wanted to achieve. Of course this method is very easy to control, as you can dab the wire as few or many times as you need to achieve your desired effect. It might be a little slow though if you need to do an entire cabinet. If you try this, report back with your results.

20180728_144930 (resized).jpg

You can buy web spray, see link https://www.montana-cans.com/en/spray-cans/spray-paint/black-50ml-600ml/montana-black-spider-150ml

Yes, but it goes on pretty heavy, even from a distance.

Just got some great results by taking the nozzle off.
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I use Clay's Weiler brush method and plain old Americana lamp black right out of the bottle. It's pretty simple. The closer you are to the cabinet you'll get webbing. The further away you'll get spatter. That's it. The lightness or darkness of the webbing/spatter depends on how heavy you get the paint on the bristles.

I think anyone on here who has seen my work can tell you that it works, and it's easy. No mixing of solvents or thinning or anything. I can do a head in 10 minutes and a cab in probably 20-25.

I pulled this nozzle out and made 2 passes totaling 3 seconds for one side of the cabinet... is that good?

2.5secs is apparently the record!

works for me!

Spatter is easier than webbing I think. There are several methods for doing both. I finally found a Weiler brush (well, my wife did),
but would love to see a video of how exactly to get good webbing results with it. I saw the Tim Arnold video. His brush has obviously been heavily used. Mine is brand new, so I'm sure my approach needs to be a bit different than his.

I haven't started the repaint process yet. But I already have to say; this is one helpful thread for sure.

I just worked up the moxie to get around to learning how to do webbing with a siphon gun and lacquer. You can do it in under 5 minutes it is so easy once you have your mixture and settings dialed in. Webbing is VERY easy to get right if you are inclined and it takes no time at all to do.
4d46bdd9742344ce2a360e748972f6ee2e1eb536 (resized).jpg

Looks great!

The problem with both webbing and spatter is that people tend to go way too heavy with both. Either the webbing is too thick, or there's way too much of it, sometimes both. It can be seen on many of the pictures that are posted in this forum.

The factory webbing never dominated the artwork. Better to be sparing with it than overly heavy.

This is my webbing and spatter, all done with the same Weiler brush. 20161029_173520 (resized).jpg20180113_205803 (resized).jpg20190327_145259 (resized).jpg

Looks great. I don't have any spray equipment or an airbrush, but I did finally get a Weiler brush. Can you give us a general idea how to use it for both webbing and spatter?

I have used 4 methods for splatter ( dots, not "webbing)

For touch-up :
Tooth brush ( too much effort for me to do an entire cabinet )

For entire cabinet:
Rattle can:Drill the spray hole in the nozzle a touch larger. Prevents the hole from fully atomizing paint.
Rattle can: Use the partial push down method. Again prevents the paint from being fully atomized.
With some practice the entire cabinet can be done in 15 minutes.

Method 4:
In trying to duplicate the multicolor paint schemes on a 1950s game (dots on dots)
I bought a HF popcorn drywall air gun. Used the smallest nozzle and loaded raw latex paint.
I was able to layer on top of a base coat rolled onto the cabinet with fabulous results.

NOTES:
All of the above require practice on something other than the game to find proper angles, distances and air pressures.
I used cardboard to figure all these out. In the case of the HF popcorn gun. I made a tape parameter around the game so I knew exactly how close to get.

This is going to be messy. Cover everything and avoid spraying near the wife's Maserati. Wear eye protection and old clothes. Tarp the floor and anything of value.

As pointed out above, it is easy to go overboard. Take some before picks. There is not as much on there as you think. (Speaking from personal experience)

I had success doing splatter/stipple with my airbrush using this technique: https://www.anest-iwata.com.au/tutorials/illustration/a-gritty-angle-on-stipple
It's a very controlled application.