KISS playfield refurb

[g-man]

I have the bad habit of never taking "before" pics whenever I do a playfield refurb. I take lots of "after" pics, but not so good with the "before." I recently finished a KISS playfield and I didn't think it would turn out very well since it was so pooched. But of all the stupid luck, it actually turned out pretty good.

Although I didn't take any "before" pics, I do have another KISS pf that is in similar condition to the one that I refurbed. It will serve as a means of comparison anyway.

Here is a pic of the 'playfield' before the refurb :


The actual pf had very similar wear in the middle. However, it did have a little more paint near the 80 000 and 40 000 bonus area. Here is the pf after touching up and cc :


Here is a picture of the serpant after I touched it up. Pretty much the entire left half of the serpant was gone.


Overall, I was very pleased with the results. :mrgreen:

 

[Paul]

You do some really nice work, the playfield look's great.

 

[mwong168]

Looks good and thanks for sharing

 

[Vengeance]

I'm always amazed by the artistic talents of others since I have no artistic talent at all.

Your work is amazing Glenn, I'm jealous I'll never be able to do anything half as good as your touch ups.

 

[DRANO]

That's a lot of hard work and dedication. I know... I've tried it.
Can I ask what you do to bring the bare wood sections up to the same level as the paint before you start?

I've used CA glue in the past, but getting it level can sometime cause additional damage unless you shoot a layer of clear first... and then the CA may not bond as well.

Nice job!

 

[g-man]

Thanks Adam. I'm definitely no artist, but I am willing to put a lot of time into it and that is definitely the biggest asset to have when doing these refurbs...even more than talent I would say. Plus, I enjoy doing it which is another important element...you gotta enjoy doing it.

I could learn more on how to photoshop stuff and make my own overlays ( I'll have to do this anyway if I want to keep doing re-themes ) but there is something about using paint that just seems authentic. I certainly wouldn't attempt to touch up a really expensive or modern game, but classic Ballys are the perfect candidates for this type of guerilla-style refurb. :mrgreen:

 

[g-man]

Can I ask what you do to bring the bare wood sections up to the same level as the paint before you start?

I have used CA glue as well but only when there were some huge dents in the playfield. I know some members swear by some commercial grade wood filler ( the name escapes me right now, but I have heard either Sparky or Hal-9000 talk about it on MAACA ). 19 times out of 20, I don't worry about bringing the level up. After putting a coat or two of white down and then several layers of colour on top of that, I have found that area is almost level with the rest of the pf anyway. And if it is not exactly level, I know the 5 or 6 coats of clear will take care of the rest for me.

It seems ridiculous, but I only recently started putting an initial coat of white onto the areas before the colour. This is expecially important for light colours such as yellow. With the base coat of white, I find that the yellow pigments are filling in the area much better. I often use cheaper paints just to get a good colour match, and thus sacrifice colour saturation. Putting down a base coat helps to offset this.

I've heard about your collection....I wouldn't think you'd have to touch up anything !

 

[DRANO]

Can I ask what you do to bring the bare wood sections up to the same level as the paint before you start?

I have used CA glue as well but only when there were some huge dents in the playfield. I know some members swear by some commercial grade wood filler ( the name escapes me right now, but I have heard either Sparky or Hal-9000 talk about it on MAACA ). 19 times out of 20, I don't worry about bringing the level up. After putting a coat or two of white down and then several layers of colour on top of that, I have found that area is almost level with the rest of the pf anyway. And if it is not exactly level, I know the 5 or 6 coats of clear will take care of the rest for me.

It seems ridiculous, but I only recently started putting an initial coat of white onto the areas before the colour. This is expecially important for light colours such as yellow. With the base coat of white, I find that the yellow pigments are filling in the area much better. I often use cheaper paints just to get a good colour match, and thus sacrifice colour saturation. Putting down a base coat helps to offset this.

I've heard about your collection....I wouldn't think you'd have to touch up anything !

Thanks,
I have a couple of new machines but almost all of my pins were beaters at one point. All have either been restored, or are in the process of being restored. I prefer to buy project pins and make them beautiful. I do whole game restorations and playfields as well. It's what I enjoy and it lets my love of the hobby extend past just playing and into my passions for design, art and working with my hands. My current projects are a Zaccaria Farfalla and a Cactus Canyon.

The wood filler you're probably talking about is Kwik-Wood. It's great for large repairs, but for fine work like raising bare wood to paint level, I like the CA glue approach. It's also good for levelling lightly cupped inserts that have text on them and you don't want to sand them flat and lose the image.
Another option is Minwax High Performance Wood Filler. It mixes like bondo and can be applied thin and sands well. It's also an epoxy based wood filler.

The base coat of white is a huge help in some cases. When I'm doing touch-ups it is very rarely on totally bare wood, so I can often skip this step.
Also, A lot of my work is airbrushed, so making the worksurface level is more critical with such thin applications. A sunken area will show up under clearcoat.
If you're doing a lot of brush work (as in KISS) I can see how it would be easier to control the amount of paint applied, thereby adjusting the thickness. It's great work either way!

Thanks for posting!
Adriano

 

[g-man]

Another option is Minwax High Performance Wood Filler. It mixes like bondo and can be applied thin and sands well. It's also an epoxy based wood filler.

Yes, the Minwax sounds familiar. I believe the praises of that particular filler were being sung by a few people. If you are into airbrushing, then you are light years ahead of me to be sure. Maybe one day, if I find the need for more delicate and professional results, I will need to make the leap. At that time, I will probably pick your brain for some ideas on what to buy, etc.

Thanks for your thanks.

 

[Murrsky]

Great work on that refub G-Man!