Bobby Orr's Power Play
Bally, 1978
Gilligan's Island
Bally, 1991
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Sega, 1996You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider Boslaw.
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Any thoughts or suggestions on the best way to clean this playfield up before I attempt my first repaint? This machine isn't worthy of a high end restore, but I would like to make it look as presentable as possible. Plan is to repaint and then put a playfield protector on (no clear coat). There is no repro playfield or hard top avail for this machine (Target Alpha).
The blues and greens are all not original colors. They were (poorly) added by previous owners.
Thanks for the link to Vid's cleaning and waxing guide, I'll check that out, although this will require more of a crappy paint removal than a cleaning 
I tried denatured alcohol & magic eraser last night (I didn't have regular isopropyl) and it made a mess of the new paint - kind of spread it all over. Forunately, it did leave whatever original paint was left underneath.
Quoted from CaptainNeo:I thought CPR made these playfields. At this point, you should just go Repro.
I would love to go repro and I did check with CPR. They have no plans to make Target Alpha repro playfields. I checked with everyone who has a gottlieb license - same story - so repainting by hand seems to be my only option. Buying a Silhouette Cameo seems like a great idea, but by the time I added up the costs of the machine, vinyl, learning curve, it started getting really expensive for one machine. I'm hoping that the big shapes on this playfield will allow me to mask off with frisket and airbrush by hand. I can use waterslide decals for the lettering. Once I repaint, I'll just slap a protector over the whole thing and call it a day. I've got a decent picture of a pristine playfield to aid with colors and frisket matching. Just need to get up the nerve to get started. I really don't think I can make this much worse than it already is.
Looking for advice on best course of action to repair the gouges/missing wood in this bare wood section of my playfield. I'm guessing the only option is to fill with wood putty and paint with wood tone but happy to hear other suggestions. My after pic is after I touched up with wood tone paint. I've still got a bit of a wood look but I'm afraid putty and more paint will ruin the look.
IMG_7490 2 (resized).jpegIMG_7493 2 (resized).jpegIMG_7501 (resized).jpegI scanned the entire playfield, and now I'm going to try stenciling/frisket/airbrush. This is my first restoration, first time using an airbrush, etc., but this seems like a good playfield to learn on. I can't screw it up much worse than it already is. My repaint of the shooter lane has given me confidence. This will only ever be a player's game but I think I'll be happy enough with the end results.
IMG_7499 (resized).jpegIMG_7503 (resized).jpegI scanned my playfield one section at a time, squaring up the scanner to the plywood edges with a long framing square. I was pretty meticulous about it but my scans still don't 100% line up and oddly, when all joined together they are a little short of the total length of the playfield. Still, after messing around in photoshop and illustrator I was able to get nearly perfect masks with my cameo. The cameo is a bit of a pain to use and the instructions are terrible, but when it works it's pretty amazing.
yes, it's mostly practice but I think it's going to come out pretty good. The cameo will help a ton with masking. Airbrushing is easy and I was able to put together a decent playfield scan for the masks (tested a few cuts with frisket but the cameo chews it up a bit). It won't win awards but I'm only doing it for my own use anyway.
I think it would look very weird if you cleaned up that "mistake." It's part of the charm of the old artwork. The only way I would ever change that is if I were doing a complete repaint of a trashed playfield. At that point, it would be hard to recreate those mistakes.
Buthamburg makes a very good repro BoP playfield. There are lots of old BoP playfields on the market that are in better shape than what you have. I enjoy restoration work but you could probably get one those NOS for $50-$100 from someone who upgraded to a repro and save yourself a ton of time and $.
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Essex, MA