Block sanded it down last night, hopefully it will be warm enough tomorrow to entertain hitting it again one last time.

20231227_182353 (resized).jpg

Picture for Chris to check out CPU for Bond Pro.

20231226_155107 (resized).jpg

Few more coats to go...

20231229_161519_1.gif

Outstanding.

20231229_171553 (resized).jpg

Frankly I hope I don't pick up anything this involved again for sometime.

Spraymax2k.

I'm going to try the Diamond clear on Silverball which is moving up rapidly in the queue now that I can do frisket and airbrush. Frankly if something goes very wrong with Silverball I'll not lose any sleep, purchased it to use for parts and decided to fix and give it a go. I'll have to rebuild the center area primarily which if I can get a good picture or scan I can make frisket masks for each paint layer.

Edit: My immediate goal at the moment is the following..

1) Get Flash Gordon playfield completed and operating in cabinet #1 (only one with FG strobe unit and tall opening in back)

2) Assemble Fathom playfield and get installed in cabinet #2, which still needs to be painted/decals and some additional wiring done to support strobe line #5 which I think Fathom requires.

3) Assemble and paint cabinet #3 (half Speakeasy half proto Bally head) this will house Seawitch. I already have a spare Weebly CPU, spare lamp driver board and the rotted Trek just provided a SDB that needs minor repairs. I'll use the original Stern "small transformer" and rectifier board I started out with and use the SB-300 sound board from one of the other two cabinets for now since they will be housing Bally titles. The only thing I have to purchase I think is another set of UNO LED displays or I could just old school kick it with plasma displays for the moment.

All three will be side by side at Pintastic for your playing pleasure April 11-14th 2024.

Pinside_forum_6652085_2670967 (resized).jpg

Been looking for one of these to represent my good friends "down under"

20231230_192456 (resized).jpg

Have the playfield inside on a drying rack with a oil filled heating radiator under it, measured surface temp is 75F degrees and it's curing very nicely. There is even some very slight dieback around the inserts, you can just see a ghost of an indication they are there. I'm going to give it another day and start on the wiring.

There is more dieback than I'd like so am going to wets and and buff. I'm going to start out with 1000->1500->2000 and then start buffing out with 3 stages of compounds.

Not been idle the last few days, basically more "table setting." Jerked around the interior of the house so my sun room is now a game room, bedroom is in the back, CSX in the garage for the winter, winter storm prep, dealing with a fussy main breaker, testing and running generators and snowblower, insulation, etc. plus work of course.

Aside from the furniture this entailed moving 9 pins about, the last few days have been hectic. Black Hole has finally moved from the main garage to the small workshop. The first Bally/Stern cab is in the house so now as I'm wiring Flash Gordon I can so in t-shirt attire and simply amble in and out as I please rather than having to get dressed to head out to the shop.

20240102_171850 (resized).jpg20240103_124716 (resized).jpg20240106_044130 (resized).jpg

Blocksanded with 2000 grit ONLY to knock off the high spots and then went over it with some random Turtle Wax "buffing compound" while waiting for the good stuff to arrive.

Wow so far.
20240107_114735 (resized).jpg
20240107_121937 (resized).jpg

Party time, let's get cracking.

20240108_160921 (resized).jpg

20240108_160926 (resized).jpg

Good progress tonight! Installed the three screw plates for the pop bumpers and all the harness loops at various locations. Now working on the GI/Insert/Coil power harness to the playfield. The blue hot has been run for the inserts and 75% of the GI wiring is done. Should see a GI lamp test tomorrow and then I start the controlled lamp wiring.

GI lighting is complete and insert lighting has been individually tested.

20240109_092801 (resized).jpg

Making progress...

20240109_183455_1.gif

Detoured from wiring to do final buff and some assembly to keep the enthusiasm flowing.

Updates will be light, no internet at home I'm on the work wifi today. Fixed Friday they say.

20240110_102049.jpg

20240110_122131.jpg

Slow morning, some mechs, switches and trough assembly today.

20240111_122033 (resized).jpg

Multi Bally =)

Maybe, be a good place to pickup that Fathom backglass from you.

Internet has been restored.

9 and 12 pin aux connectors mapped out, 9 pin done and about half way through 12 pin.

Picking up steam gents!

Finished the main harness trunk to the playfield edge, pinned the 12 pin connector, installed all the switches aside from the poppers, installed the drop target assemblies and mapped out the various coil wires from the SDB. Had to file some clear out of two of the roll overs till I was satisfied with the operation.

The popper switches I have to mash together from stuff using some original Bally EM hardware with new SS contacts. I had to clearance the stand up switch bracket at the upper popper, very tight against the reset coil for the drop target bank. Still have to toss in the flipper mechs but want to toss them in the polisher to spiff them up first.

20240114_174754 (resized).jpg

20240114_174802 (resized).jpg

If I push, I think I can have wiring done tomorrow. Got 3 switch columns done tonight and installed some posts for evening wrap up.

20240115_202438 (resized).jpg

20240115_202820 (resized).jpg

All the switch columns are done, moving onto rows.

Almost got the switch matrix done. Almost.

20240116_163025 (resized).jpg

Tested switch matrix this morning, only 2 errors which is impressive. 1 rebound, 1 inlane.

Will investigate after work.

Lamp and switch matrix 100%

20240117_175436_1.gif

Making good progress and I have tomorrow off. It won't be done tomorrow but close; have to wire up the solenoids, install the flippers and wire, make wire guides and install, install apron brackets and plugs, posts, elastics, plastics, ect.

I'm going to install the apron without the "riser pieces" as it is not required when used with the taller DE cabinet. The only change to the playfield will be the addition of the 2 brackets to hold of the front of the apron down (removable) and 2 "plugs" where the apron meets the side rails (also will be removable)

Pleased with the harness, the plugs and spacing are identical to factory FB. So if I get a wild hair to sell, would drop right in a FG cabinet... not that I have any plans after all this effort!

I have some other mischief planned, a change to the cabinet wiring going forward to speed things up when swapping titles which can be applied to all.

Gary

Electrically it's done... in theory. I'll plug it in and test later.

Can you spot the one major error? Not egregious enough to change or affect operations but I had a good laugh once I spotted it.

Ignore the harness, while it follows the factory for the most part I did take liberties in a few areas.

20240118_134828 (resized).jpg

Nope. They are there and correct, I just have not installed the flipper bats on the lower playfield yet.

oddly enough yes, I checked twice. Different brand.

Pull back a bit guys, look larger.

I was looking at it for days, lol. The fact it's not noticeable right away makes me feel better.

=)

Winner winner chicken dinner.

It's there.. on the back side. The particular assembly it was mounted there, from a Mr & Mrs Pacman I think and it never occurred to me it was mounted on the wrong side for FG. I could swap it but the harness is done and it's causing no harm.

Tested harness, solenoids passed.
20240118_110531 (resized).jpg

Had a chuckle looking this morning.

Harness wire : Mr & Mrs Pacman
Saucer : Mr & Mrs Pacman
3 & 4 drop target : Mr & Mrs Pacman
Pops : 6 million dollar man.
Inline drop target : Made from scratch using an 4 bank regular drop target as a base.
Single drop : from 8 ball game modified so it had memory.
Slings and flippers : Mr and Mrs Pacman.

Various switches and roll over wires from various games collected over the years. The playfield itself was left over from a restoration from 3 years ago that I got a wild hair about making a second FG since I had so many parts that had been replaced during the resto.

Playfield, plastics, posts, apron, side rails, legs, strobe unit, backglass, etc.

Here is where I started that particular journey and it got folded into the "Seawitch from Scratch" project.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flash-gordon-part-ii-
0df504ed67fca7b60a506484df012445ae8c1aac (resized).jpgPinside_forum_6261331_0 (resized).jpg

Thank you Mike, been a long journey on this one and the end is finally in sight. Hope to have the playfield fully populated on Sunday and then look into getting loading in the cabinet. I think I have to make an adapter cable but maybe not and I have to wire up the strobe.

Once I do that, I have a small 3D print project I need to start drafting out.. But should be flipping on Sunday.

Getting closer... A lot of minor stuff this afternoon. A switch I did not like replaced, two lamp sockets jumpered, some LED's swapped out, flipper bats, apron brackets and apron installed along with shooter gauge, posts and elastics installed.

Need to make and install wire guides, final height setting of drop targets, playfield hangers, a few caps on certain switches and flipper coils along with foam switch backing and the new popper caps once the playfield is installed. I also have to wire the strobe in the cabinet.

20240121_194720 (resized).jpg

Wire guides, diodes, drop target adjustments and foam completed.
20240123_122618 (resized).jpg

Ho ho ho!

Now I have TWO Flash Gordons.

All I have left to do is install the lamps for the logo chaser and burn EPROMs for the S&T. These are the original from the FG I restored and have a bit error which causes "death ray 15 seconds" to not be uttered.

Gameplay is a riot! Home made inline drop target bank works perfect.

20240123_181422 (resized).jpg

Good Morning! Minor punch list below..

1) Shift displays over slightly to line up. (Done)
2) See if I can adjust outhole kicker to have less energy. (Done)
3) Swap/adjust dual saucer mech, kick out to lower playfield is weak time to time. (Done)
4) Install chaser lights. (Done)
5) Burn new eproms for S&T, jumper board. (Done)
6) Masking for a plastic in rear. (Done)
7) Cosmetic plug for cabinet over playfield. (Done)

Reassemble restored Flash Gordon, good cleaning and checkout, list for sale.

Fathom is already on the build table, I got stuff to do.

If you have a vinyl cutter and minor Photoshop skills making a blackout mask is a snap. Plastic was my first adventure using waterside decals to make playfield plastic.

20240124_075719 (resized).jpg

20240124_080730 (resized).jpg

20240124_081753 (resized).jpg

20240124_082059 (resized).jpg

It is, if I can find a factory one for a decent price I'll replace it but it will do for now. The colors just don't pop as much as I'd like.

Outhole fixed.

Apron details: Because I was using a "tall cabinet" I did not have to sink the playfield down to clear the back of the cabinet. This allowed me to dispense with use of the apron riser steel, spacers for shooter lane and playfield stop for ball while in the shooter lane.

Apron, shooter gauge and trough mechs are all Flash Gordon. To mount the apron you will need the 2 small front "tab brackets" from a single level playfield along with the shorter rear apron brackets and playfield hangers. I have the FG apron riser, brackets and shooter stop tucked in a box if the playfield is ever sold or transfered into a classic Bally cabinet.

One "artifact" of having an apron riser from the factor is the wooden playfield support rails are just a touch short. You could either make new rails or in my case I opted for a post in the playfield to keep the ball in the shooter lane. On either side there is no chance of a ball making it through from the playfield, only a small gap there.

20240124_085716 (resized).jpg20240124_085842 (resized).jpg