Playfield Restoration Tips
Dave Pauk
first got the game 2 years ago, I did some spot touch-ups to worn areas
with acrylics and Varathane and it looked okay, but now the playfield
is at a point where it needs a full clearcoat. Plus, I was
never really satisfied with the color matches on the touch-ups I did.
FWIW, I'll be using Varathane for my full clearcoat.
Note: Thanks to using acrylic paint and Varathane intially, I was able
to easily remove my previous spot touch-ups with Goof-Off without
harming the original playfield artwork.
Like many, I use the information on the Marvin site as my guide for
stuff like this, so I'd like to share my experience as a supplement to
the excellent info Clay has already provided.
Tip 1. As per the Marvin site, I was using craft acrylics that can be
bought at Walmart or Home Depot. I'm very good with paint matching but
what I found is that I could easily match the "shade" but not the
intensity of the factory artwork. It turns out this is due to the paint
I was using.
The colors on SO76 are very intense blue, red, and yellow. No matter
what I tried with the craft paints, it always ended up looking dull (
not because of the flat finish, but rather the intensity of the color).
At the suggestion of others, I went out and bought artists acrylics (
the brand I used was Liquitex) and with some slight color adjustments
the touch-ups came out perfect! Apparently, these paints have a higher
pigment load. Well, there's no comparison to the craft acrylics, these
paints are excellent for matching the original screened colors on a
playfield. Yeah, a few more dollars but totally worth it.
Tip 2: To do my paint matching, I used a small piece of wood. I found
this helps with getting the correct match because the paint looks
different on various surfaces. I was using a piece of white cardboard
and clear plastic initially, but found that when the paint was applied
to the worn areas on the playfield, it wasn't the same shade as on the
cardboard. So, since the touch-ups are going over wood, it makes sense
to use a wood piece for testing the paint match.
Tip 3: As we all know, acrylics dry darker. Having said that, I think
it's also important to apply your clearcoat to the paint match on your
test piece (if you're using Varathane) because this also changes how
the color looks. The last thing anyone wants is to touch up an entire
playfield, and then realizing the touch-ups look "off" after
clearcoating the whole playfield.
Tip 4: The center kickout hole on my game was chewed up around the
edges, giving a jagged look to the bevel. I found that a great way to
smooth this out is to use a couple of layers of Krazy Glue as filler,
sand it out, and then repaint the edge of the hole. To reproduce the
look of wood, I used a light tan color as my base, then drybrushed a
lighter shade of tan on top, and then finally drybrushed a median shade
of tan. The end result looks just like wood. This drybrush technique
can also be used to "freshen up" other small areas of wood
grain if it has darkened quite a bit over time. This effect still lets
the woodgrain show through, but gives it a lighter appearance.
Tip 5: This may be up for debate, but rather than sand the playfield
first and then do touch-ups, I'm doing touch-ups first with the
acrylics and brushing over them with a thin coat of Varathane before I
sand. This ensures two things...that I have no worries about whether
I've achieved the correct paint match before spraying the whole
playfield, and also protects the touch-ups when I do lightly sand the
playfield before spraying. I should mention that I'm leaving the black
outlines until after sanding since I don't have to worry about matching
this color.
Tip 6: If you have a digital camera, take a few pictures of your
touch-ups to make sure they're matched correctly before doing the full
clearcoat. Cameras pick up nuances in the colors that you may or may
not see in regular light. There's been a couple of times where I swear
the match is dead-on, then taken a picture only to find out it's a
little too light or too dark. The
camera does not lie. If it's not right, dab a small artists brush with
Goof-off, remove and re-do.
Plus, you'll know for sure that your touch-ups won't stick out like a
sore thumb when you share photos of your game with your pin buddies ;-)
Anyway, just some suggestions that may help others as they do this sort
of thing. If anyone's interested, I'll post some pics in the near
future.
seymour...@excite.com
putting that first clearcoat down? I'd be afraid that if you don't
provide "bite" for the clear, anything you apply after that could peel
off since the first coat isn't locked into the original finish.
(You're right that was the one open for debate topic!)
Dave Pauk
Yeah, I did the Magic Eraser (with alcohol) and Naptha wipedown on the
whole playfield prior to doing the touch-ups. Keep in mind, I'm only
suggesting you cover the touch-up area with clearcoat initially to
ensure color match, not the entire playfield. Once you're satisfied
with the result of your color matches, then lightly sand the
touch-upped areas, Naptha the entire playfield again, tack cloth, and
then spray the full playfield clearcoat.
Dave Pauk
Dave
http://usergallery.myhomegameroom.com/gallery/dmp65
billg
playfield touch ups. I'll look into the Liquitex line of acylics next
time I've got something to work on. Pics are always welcomed.
billg
Ceegary
bite between the playfield and the clear and is needed before the first coat
is sprayed on.
GRY
"Dave Pauk" <dave...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1143815875....@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Dave Pauk
state of my playfield restoration, including the results of some of the
tips I mentioned in my earlier post. Click on the webpage below my sig
and it's in the Spirit of 76 folder.
Take care,
Dave
http://usergallery.myhomegameroom.com/gallery/dmp65
chi...@charter.net
something like that!
I haven't played a SO76 in quite some time. That would sure be fun.
--
Chris Hibler
Steve C
regarding Tip 2 and Tip 3:
I use a piece of glass to mix paints on while laying it over the
playfield/backglass area to be matched. I tried wood once but it drank
up the water in the paint and threw things off so stuck to the glass
always mixing a little lighter since as you mentioned, acrylics get
darker as they dry.
when I think the color is close enough, I smear some with a brush on
another piece of "sample" glass and use a blow-dryer to force it dry
quickly. then I lay the glass on the playfield and see how it came
out. if too dark, just lighten up the mixture, wipe off the "sample"
glass with a wet sponge, dry it off with a paper towell, and then
brush some more of the new paint mix on and blow-dry it again and
compare. when happy with the color, I'm done mixing the color.
for backglasses, I mix paint on a piece of glass similar to what I
described for the playfield, but instead of using a "sample" piece of
glass (nothing more than a 3X4 piece of scrap glass) I brush the paint
directly on the FRONT of the backglass where the paint will be applied
on the rear and blow-dry it to see if it needs to be lightened or
darkened. just sponge off colors that won't work and dry off the
backglass with a paper towell and reapply the new color mix. when
happy with the color mix, I flip the backglass over and apply the
color to the back of the backglass where needed.
to keep colors within lines, I use a black sharpie on the FRONT of the
backglass to indicate where the colors need to be applied within the
lines I've drawn with a sharpie and even dab the color within the
lines on the FRONT of the backglass to show which colors go where.
when the backglass is flipped over so that the backside is facing up,
you can see right through the glass to see where the lines are drawn
on the other side as well as the color to be applied. I try to put
colors down that don't touch each other in the artwork so that
bleeding from one color to another won't occur, then I use a
hair-dryer to blow the paint dry. then I can fill in the colors
between two other areas that have already been applied and even if
they overlap a little, it won't show up. when done, I use windex to
remove the sharpie lines and then triple thick the backside of the
backglass where I just painted. If the area needs to be opaque, I use
silver paint over the colors and then triple thick that too. Note that
the entire backglass was triple thicked before doing any backglass
touchups.
stevebo
On 31 Mar 2006 06:37:55 -0800, "Dave Pauk" <dave...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
Dave Pauk
> Very nice job Dave. a really clean looking game now.
Thanks!
> regarding Tip 2 and Tip 3:
>
> I use a piece of glass to mix paints on while laying it over the
> playfield/backglass area to be matched. I tried wood once but it drank
> up the water in the paint and threw things off so stuck to the glass
> always mixing a little lighter since as you mentioned, acrylics get
> darker as they dry.
That's exactly the reason why I like to use wood for paint matching
worn areas on the playfield. The bare wood spots will drink up the
water in the paint as well, so I found it makes sense to use the same
surface material for matching so I can see what happens to the paint
color when I apply it. YMMV :-)
Great info on restoring a backglass, Steve!
Yves
undercoating) to prepare the wood. It will flatten/fill up the hole or
groove, prepare for all kinds of paint that you may be using and will
provide a white neutral background.
Yves
redranger69
can?
Thanks, Steve