Quoted from sethbenjamin:

I have 2 SFs, and one is missing it’s apron.
I’ve been thinking of scanning the one I have at high resolution and trying my hand at making some waterslide decals.
(I found a beat Gorgar apron on eBay and sandblasted & repainted it.)
Hoping that, by scanning the original at a high resolution, I can avoid having to do a bunch of reconstructive digital work, since there’s a lot of detail there. A black and yellow clear decal over the red painted apron should work pretty well.
I haven’t turned my attention to it yet, but if I end up with some files that work I will be happy to share.

Quoted from Jeramyl:

Great thread. I just stumbled on this and am going to rush to strip down and send my playfield to Tim.
And update on the plastics? I have all the plastics without cracking or damage but they do appear faded.
Will there be an order as a group for a plastics set or once they create a set, they will just simply be available for reproduction and order moving forward?
Many thanks.

Quoted from Jeramyl:

Watching these CPR plastics comments and hoping this works out.
Have my playfield over with Tim now, along with many of you.
Would be nice to have new plastics to pair up with the playfield. I have a clean, complete set but they have the normal yellowing after 40+ years.
That was my first complete playfield tear down… a lot of work!!

Quoted from sethbenjamin:

Seems like nothing short of a miracle that these playfields are being restored like this *at all*, so I’m not inclined to be overly concerned about precise color matching using 2023 pigments to try to reproduce whatever they were using 40 years ago, *and* ascertain the actual color through decades of dirt, yellowing, what have you.

Quoted from FantasticPinball:

The gradient mesh on this thing is ridiculous. Trying to model the wings of the ships to get the dots to make it look 3D and make all the parts appear to be moving. Insane project but it is Fantastic.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Quoted from FantasticPinball:

I missed the window for the Vegas rescreen project, so I started my own.

Quoted from vec-tor:

Sadly, that post design was made by a company that went bankrupt.
William's electronics contracted out many of their plastic parts from the 1970's through 1982
from this company. The post is a hybrid of two separate post designs.
Top part is faucet cut design and bottom is starburst design. After the close,
Formost plastics would end up being the primary supplier to the pinball industry.

Quoted from Jeramyl:

OK. First off… Congratulations! The lighting looks fantastic.
Now… Are you serious about this April thing? I can’t imagine that newly manufactured games sit around for six months to harden, but we do seem to have a very nice and thick coat of clear on these.

Quoted from sethbenjamin:

You had an intact plastic set?
Nice to see this machine looking this good!!

Quoted from BobLangelius:

That looks great! well done.

Quoted from Tommy-dog:

Do NOT wax it yet. The clear coat is still out-gassing. Wax will prevent this from happening and the clear coat will not fully cure. If you already waxed it, remove the wax asap. You can use naphtha or any other type of pre-cleano (silicone/wax removal autobody stuff).

Quoted from CaptainNeo:

you could have longer games on 3 ball, if you change the GI's to white. Can't tell it's a new playfield because the colored LED's block it out.

Quoted from CaptainNeo:

you could have longer games on 3 ball, if you change the GI's to white. Can't tell it's a new playfield because the colored LED's block it out.

Quoted from BobLangelius:

I'm just looking at the apron and wondering if we couldn't get some dry transfer rub downs made up....
When i say "we" i mean us Solar Fire People.
That border all the way around the apron makes it tough.

Quoted from sethbenjamin:

I love how any person feels they have a need to snipe at somebody else’s personal, aesthetic (and entirely reversible) choices about their personal machine.
Personally, I hate color LEDs in a backbox. But I’m not gonna groan at somebody who uses them. If I buy their game from them, those bulbs are coming OUT right quick. But while they own it, if that’s their thing, cool.
Do it up with your colored GI lamps. Might not be to my taste, but TBH those stills look pretty groovy. You do you, bruh. Carry on.

Quoted from CaptainNeo:

now lets see it in the dark.

Quoted from sethbenjamin:

I have been intending to get on this for awhile…I’ve got one SF with an apron, one without. I can scan the original and make decals. I’ve gotten good results using vinyl decal paper with my Epson photo printer.
The SF apron has a pretty elaborate design (it’s remarkable just how much art they packed into these machines, really.) And yeah, the narrow parts around the border make this one particularly fussy to reproduce, which is why I’m thinking adhesive decal paper is the way to go. The stuff I found is still really thin, but takes color nicely. Last apron I worked on I sprayed a few layers of Rustoleum clear over the decals, which worked very well. I’m not sure if there would be an issue doing this with auto paints and clear coat, but enamel paint and clear looks quite decent, main drawback is just the layering of paint and annoyingly long cure time.
See pics. I’ve only done this one apron, and it’s comparatively simple, but at least gives a bit of “proof of concept.” I’ve made other more colorful decals and they have really good saturation. [quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Quoted from CaptainNeo:

the white is definitely more visible, even with the glare because the white pic has the playfield glass in, and the colored one doesn't. Still way to to dark to follow a ball around. Good visibility is the key factor into playing pinball. both are your playfields look pretty mint overall. How did you find 2 Solar fires with near mint playfields?