What do you think of this playfield?

You could mask off and spray those areas only but what you will find is an unevenness in the finish, which will draw attention to your touchups. If you get the color match correct, you will be amazed at how much new clearcoat over the whole playfield helps to blend everything back together.

My thinking is if you are already going through the time and effort to get the playfield touched up and looking great, why not spend the extra hour stripping the playfield bare. It is really the only way to properly clean it and clearcoat or wax the game anyway...



Steelhorse said:
What if you have maybe 4 areas around the inserts that are worn to bare wood, can you just spray thoughs areas after touch-up? I dont see why stripping the whole playfield for a bit of touch up. Please explain
Click to expand...
 
craigmack said:
You could remove it entirely, its your game. Just be aware that you'll take a huge hit when you go to try and resell the game if you are selling to one of the more anal pinball collectors.
Click to expand...

I understand that, but at the same time it would look at lot better than having half a sun. I would love to just redo the middle, but I don't think I can accurately paint that. I'm not really painting/drawing artistic.
 
For the black playfield paint, and (I assume) basically the same color on the cab, where would be the best place to look? Testors paints? l looked at a rack of Folkart and Apple Barrel acrylic bottles, and there wasn't anything that looked great.

Are the paints on these machines flat, and then glossed up with a finish, or are they already gloss paints?
 
The playfields originally get silk-screened with ink and then clearcoated. For touchups you can use Enamel which has gloss like the testors or an acrylic like the folkart you saw.

The main difference is that with the acrylic you can totally mess up while painting and still remove the paint with a damp rag. If you mess up with the Enamel, you have to use materials that will remove even more paint from your playfield to correct your mistakes.

You may end up with uneven glossiness on the playfield as you will have brand new black paint next to 30 year old worn and clearcoated black ink.

This is why I always go the new clearcoat route so that all of the gloss is the same.

At the very least I would use a foam brush to apply the paint to minimize the appearance of brush strokes. Go slow and work from the inside of the area out.
 
After reading through this thread, Craigmack has some great advice. "Kudos!" The summary that he posted earlier is fantastic. It's a huge undertaking. But that's the passion of pinball. When I wrote "You play the game, not the art", that's my personal take. When your playing the game, you don't even know what the art looks like. I know my limitations. I'm am far from being an artist. There were supposedly 7000+ Blackout machines made. Finding a playfield might not be as difficult as it seems. Not to discourage you but, just realize that your pin is going to be down for quite some time. Once it becomes work, it's no fun. My opinion, for what it's worth, go for it. Clear the playfield, touch up the paint, clear coat it. Do the best you can. You really can't make it worse. All that matters is that your happy with the game. Besides, while you have everything off the table and you happen to stumble upon a playfield that's in better condition than yours, your ahead of the game. You have to take everything off anyway.
I noticed this on Mr. Pinball classifieds.

-- Williams Blackout pinball machine I took it in parts I have almost evrything you may need, everything but the boards.

-- Contact:
-- Daniel
-- voice: 205 419 0563
-- 520 Bain Drive SE
-- Huntsville, Alabama 35803

-- Posted: 6 April 2010

Hope it helps.
 
Last edited:
Who's the moron that says "you play the game not the art". The art is the heart of the game. duhhh!!
 
fastzorro said:
Who's the moron that says "you play the game not the art". The art is the heart of the game. duhhh!!
Click to expand...

While I won't be so harsh, I kind of would like to take a middle-ground between this. I can stand some "weathering" or "vintage character," but I don't want to have a machine with a bunch of bare wood or major cab/playfield problems.

Also, consider that at my young age I'm looking for my machines to be in good shape for the many years to come.
 
vipe155 said:
I don't think I can accurately paint that. I'm not really painting/drawing artistic.
Click to expand...

I don't want to be the guy pissing on the parade but matching the black over a large area is going to be all but impossible so you'll likely end up with what looks like a black blob where the sun used to be. Touching up black around inserts and small areas is about the easiest touch-up you'll find but black over a large area is really difficult to match and it will be even more obvious that someone tried to re-paint it. I'm telling you this based on restoring dozens of playfields.

Sometimes being the voice of reason makes you a debby-downer but I would hate to see you spend a bunch of time only to make it look worse and effectively devalue the game. If you don't feel like you can do a good job of the touch-up you should consider selling and buy something that has a nicer playfield.

If you want to gain experience and you're excited about restoring pinball machines then by all means dive in with some paint. I don't want to discourage you. Just be aware that what you're proposing probably isn't going to be any easier to make look decent than trying to re-create what was originally there. Repainting the whole sun probably wouldn't be that bad if you took your time.
 
Update

Ok... what do you think of this? (try not to be too harsh :/)

blkout1.jpg

blkout2.jpg


I started out by painting the whole area black, then drawing the new sun with a combination of brush painting and pens. I'm no artist, nor can I reproduce the quality finish and subtle lines and blending the original would have had.

There is still more work to be done on it.
 
Dude that is great looking! SO much better than just painting it black and calling it a day!! 98% of the people out there won't know that it has been touched up especially if you clearcoat it. The clearcoating will give it all a nice even texture and help blend in the touchup!

I'm impressed, good job!
 
Looks Great to me also, alot better than going all black.

Nice work.
 
I appreciate everyone's good reviews. I'll get the black around the 20 insert in the center, and post a final version picture showing all my other additions.

When I painted it all black, it really didn't look bad, but then I got a crazy idea to just go for it.
 
vipe155 said:
When I painted it all black, it really didn't look bad, but then I got a crazy idea to just go for it.
Click to expand...

It worked out a lot better than all black. Have you put any thought into drawing that one ray that comes down next to the 5 and 3X?
 
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