Archive for January, 2010

Painting the black lines

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

I used the mask to airbrush the black lines around the electric chair hole today. Unfortunately something went wrong, meaing I got streaks around the lines. Either the surface wasn’t perfectly flat, meaning the mask hadn’t adhered to the surface properly, so that colour seeped underneath or I took the mask off before the paint was completely dry – or even a combination of both – meaning I had to manually touch up the whole area again:

Completed electric chair hole

Incidentally, the discoloured yellow area underneath the hole is the original damage to the playfield underneath the mylar. As I had chosen not to remove the mylar, this area will have to stay as it is.

I also used the opportunity to finish the black line on the entrance to the swamp from the shooter lane:

Completed swamp entrance from shooter lane

Making a mask for the black lines around the electric chair

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Following on from my experience of making a mask for The Power insert, I decided to try my hand at making a more complex one for the black lines around the electric chair hole.

Once again, I started with the photo grid, but this time I had to cut out a frame, as I was using the grid on my actual playfield, where several components are still mounted (and therefore getting in the way!):

Frame around electric chair hole (plus glass to keep frame flat)

I took this photo, loaded into Photoshop and then corrected the size and perspective:

Electric chair hole corrected for size and perspective

I then manually traced the black outline:

Mask outline for the black around the electic chair

I then remembered, however, that I have left the mylar on the playfield and I really didn’t want to go painting the mylar, so I took this into account and created a new mask:

Mask around electric chair, taking the mylar ito account

This was then the mask I used on the playfield. It was difficult applying it to the playfield, however, as the weight of the mask above the hole actually pulled it into the hole thereby pulling the sides of the mask inwards. As such, I had to really try to pull it taught at the sides and make sure it stuck.

Removing the silk screening from an apron

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

I had asked on my two favourite forums (flippermarkt.de and RGP) if anyone knew of a way to remove the silk screening from an apron, as I intend to remove the main graphic from the apron I had damaged in order to then replace it with an airbrush and waterslide decal solution.

I got numerous inputs back, one of which was to use Isopropyl Alcohol. So I tried. And with a little effort, I actually managed to remove the graphic without damaging the underlying black gloss paint:

Part way through graphic removal from apron