TMNT Playfield - Different type of restore

Hi All,

Haven't posted in a while, have been doing restores but not posting as much, but thought I would post this one.

 

This will be my 1st full playfield restore done with a laminate sticker / decal!

 

I ironically misplaced / deleted most of my photos of how the playfield was when I first received it, and some of the work but managed to find enough to show the progress.

 

The below photos was from when I took photos of the complete playfield, stitched together and started to re-digitise the whole thing.

SHould give you an idea of why this playfield was too gone to airbrush / touch up etc, especially later on when trying to remove the full playfield mylar.

 

 

 

 

Over many nights, and many hours I slowly re-did the whole playfield (close to a month or more), initially done at 300dpi, but due to a stuff up I had to then go to 280dpi, but in reality, a 1:1 print this would have little bearing on the print output.

 

The below photos was to see if the inserts / holes lined up. Which most of them did not, which meant more hours to fix.

In hindsight I should have got the inserts / holes lined up first, then re-digitised the playfield.

 

When I had finished, it was time to print out on my home printer (in draft mode) and lay the prints on the playfield, to get an idea on how everything is lining up.

 

 

 

At this stage I was pretty happy.

@MamePatrol [aka Noodle Shirt] was hired to do the printing.

He would print full playfield decal to ensure everything lined up.

 

While this was being posted to me, it then came the removal of the mylar, from when I first got the playfield, it was obvious when I did try removing a section to test, that it would not go well, the art work had delaminated from the wood.

Below is the results in removing the mylar

 

 

So then sanding it all back to bare wood.

 

 

The draft decal arrived and I cut out all the inserts / holes and test fitted.

 

Fitment wasn't too bad, but there were inserts / holes that still needed more adjustment.

More hours spent on the digital artwork.

 

Playfield was also primed and painted white, and two pac clear coated to give a nice surface for the decal to adhere to, and also to seal the playfield.

 

@MamePatrol sent me full scale samples (Based on my revised artwork), he did 3 samples on clear to give me an idea of how it would look with the different types of prints and different substrates.

I ended up going with white decal (not clear), and also got the insert decals printed on clear.

 

Below is a sample piece on clear

 

 

Fast forward to receiving the full print on white laminate artwork.

Preparing the playfield, cutting out all the wholes and inserts.

Apply the decal, applying the inserts.

Removing any air bubbles, and let sit in heat for a good two days.

Then clearing, the results below

 

Fast forward four days, playfield sanded down.

Touch-ups done, and black lines.

Then more clearing:

 

 

 

 

I'll probably need to sand and clear maybe two more times to get a nice even surface....

 

more to come late this week.

Amazing as always!

 

Probably looks better than when it was new!

Amazing as always!

 

Probably looks better than when it was new!

 

Exactly what he said.......

You make me jealous of your skills

Thats Amazing work!

I'm speechless. Just amazing.

That looks fantastic.

How does this type of repair compare to your normal playfield restore ? ,easier,harder, cheaper, much more work?

Awesome stuff Scott, thanks for sharing.

 

This just goes to show anything is restorable with the right skills and commitment.

Wow that looks fantastic

 

Keep the post coming mate on the Playfields enjoy your work

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Aussie Arcade

10 out of 10! I even really liked the cleared ‘white’ wood

 

Sent from my iPad using Aussie Arcade

Cheers, yeah I do too and will be leaving like that!.

 

That looks fantastic.

How does this type of repair compare to your normal playfield restore ? ,easier,harder, cheaper, much more work?

 

Hey ray, good question, and hard to answer.

This job was part barter (needed a fair bit of electrical work done).

And still waiting for final costs for the printing from Noodle Shirt.

 

Time wise it was a lot longer to do the digital re-do of the playfield than my other harder jobs, this was probably mostly due to not having any decent references to build of when digitising the artwork, I had to go all by hand in PhotoShop, using he playfield at hand, but also photos on the web.

The lining up of holes etc, also took a lot longer than expected.

 

But once that is done, so far it’s been pretty good..

 

The difficult thing is how / what to charge. It would not be cost effective to do this for a one of, unless my reference images don’t need re-doping, which I do have some 300dpi full scale playfields I have (apart from scaling and aligning the holes / inserts) (luckily, I don’t charge by the hour).

This job was more of an experiment to see if it could be done, and how it turns out.

I think if I would do this or give the option of this instead of airbrush etc, cost wise it would be up there. But I if I got a 2nd or 3rd person with the same playfield wanting same to restore, I would then give some $$ back to the first person. The hard work is already done, and wouldn’t be fair to charge more for the 1st person, and others benefit from this.

So I didn’t really answer, I’m skilled in photoshop, so although easier enough, time wise was very long, but on playfields I already have scans / photos of, would be a lot easier to work of.

I guess it comes down to what the customer wants and myself trying to be fair in costs for all involved.

I

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

You make me jealous of your skills

Thats Amazing work!

 

Cheers mate, there's so many people on here with varying skills it's great to see.

I'm jealous of the guys with the tech skills in reparing game boards, those building their own pinballs, other restorers. Great to see.!

Great answer Scott, looks like if you did a few it would become cost efficient. To do a one off seems to be more difficult.

It's interesting that now you have the "file" it might be easier to do this particular playfield, and also interesting to see the comparative perception in the "quality" of the restore.

Your playfield restores are always great quality in my eyes, just wondering if this is the way of the future as once the artwork is done the whole job might be easier.

Great answer Scott, looks like if you did a few it would become cost efficient. To do a one off seems to be more difficult.

It's interesting that now you have the "file" it might be easier to do this particular playfield, and also interesting to see the comparative perception in the "quality" of the restore.

Your playfield restores are always great quality in my eyes, just wondering if this is the way of the future as once the artwork is done the whole job might be easier.

 

Definitely,

If anyone wanted a TMNT done, they now have a choice of full decal or airbrushing.

The hardest part is the balance between sharing on this great community or not.

I spent many many hours re-digitising the artwork and not something I would share, I have full trust in @MamePatrol not sharing the digital work, and he's been great to deal with.

 

I think airbrushing / touch-ups is probably better for minor to mid-size work still, and also the purists who prefer to go this way as well.

I think the two complement each other and give options.

 

Another thing it allows is (well relatively) ease to change colour; add or remove things etc!...

One word mate.

WOW

 

It is people like you that help keep the pinball alive.

Great job

 

 

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@Savage I am gob smacked and lost for words. I follow your utube channel and your restores never cease to amaze me. However this is just taking it to a whole new level. It appears your talent and skills have no bounds.........simply it is just astonishing what you create and do.

 

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Wow, fantastic work! As someone who has spent many hours in photoshop editing files I can totally appreciate the extreme amount of time this would have taken. Most people would not understand how hard this would have been to get the sizing and alignment correct, let alone cleanup/colouring etc... Hats off to you sir. :)

--Update--

 

All finished.

I found a before photo which I had stitched, which I've spliced up to show a bit more of the before, before showing the final finish.

 

 

--BEFORE--

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You all get the idea...

 

---NOW the FINISHED PHOTOS, after a lot more clearing and sanding---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---AND A Movie of it---

 

 

Thanks again to @MamePatrol aka Noodle Shirt for the excellent print

That.

Is.

Magnificent.

:023:

Awesome work

BEAUTIFUL ARTWORK AND SKILLS TO DO IT.

Unbelievable!!!! Stunning.

So to restore digitally you take all the photos and then stitch them together as one large image in photoshop?

 

I'm not a particular fan of pinball machines myself but that looks absolutely stunning and being TMNT (or TMHT as it was called in the UK when I was a kid) it certainly it pulls on the nostalgia strings!

So to restore digitally you take all the photos and then stitch them together as one large image in photoshop?

 

I'm not a particular fan of pinball machines myself but that looks absolutely stunning and being TMNT (or TMHT as it was called in the UK when I was a kid) it certainly it pulls on the nostalgia strings!

Basically yes.

But then to have to deal with skew/ lens correction / placement / warping etc.

Re-digitising the artwork took a loooooong time, and then aligning it all also was just as long.

 

cheers.

 

 

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Basically yes.

But then to have to deal with skew/ lens correction / placement / warping etc.

Re-digitising the artwork took a loooooong time, and then aligning it all also was just as long.

I can imagine that being a nightmare, do you use a jig or anything over the top of the table or is it all by hand?

I can imagine that being a nightmare, do you use a jig or anything over the top of the table or is it all by hand?

 

All by hand