More Playfield tips
Dave Pauk Posted this Playfield restoration tips to RGP Good info
I’ve recently embarked upon reviving the playfield on my SO76. When I
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.
He was then asked if cleaning of the playfield, which he replied.
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
